MEMORIAL
O  TE' U- /
SEMI-CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY
OF THE
AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY,
CELEBRATED A T WASHINGTON,
JANUARY 15, 1867.
WITH DOCUMENTS CONCERNING LIBERIA.
WASHINGTON:
COLONIZATION SOCIETY BUILDING.
MDCCCLXVII.
OF THE
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PUBLISHED BY ORDER OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS.
BOSTON:
CORNHILL PRESS. GEO. C. RAND & AVERY.
ye1 
PREFACE.
THE Board of Directors of the American Colonization Society, at their meeting holden at Washington, Jan. 17, 1866,
appointed William V. Pettit, Esq., of Philadelphia, the Hon.
D. S. Gregory, of New Jersey, the Rev. John Orcutt, D.D.,
one of the Secretaries of the Society, and William Tracy,
Esq., of New York, " to act in co-operation with the Executive Committee, in making arrangements for the semi-centennlial anniversary of the Society."  In consultation with them,
the Executive Committee made the arrangements according
to which the exercises of the Fiftieth Annual Meeting of the
Society, Jan. 15, 1867, were conducted.
At their meeting the next day, Jan. 16, 1867, the Board of
Directors adopted resolutions, tendering their thanks to the
several speakers who had addressed the Society the previous
evening, and requesting copies of their addresses for publication; tendering thanks to the authors of the communications received from Liberia; directing that the proceedings
of that evening be published in a volume, in suitable style,
as a memorial of the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Society;
and requesting the Rev. Joseph Tracy, D.D., to take charge
of and superintend the publication.
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PREFACE.
For the satisfaction of those who would understand Liberian
mind and character, the editor has subjoined, in an appendix,
the Declaration of Independence and Constitution of the Republic of Liberia, the Address of the Convention that formed
the Constitution, the first Inaugural Address of its first President, and the last Annual Message of President Warner.  The
reader will readily perceive, in these documents, the results
of much careful and successful study, but no servile imitation,
of American State Papers of similar character. No candid
man, after reading them, can doubt the capacity of colored
men, with suitable training and experience, for the management of public affairs. The reader will notice with interest
the difference in style, as the different occasions required,
between President Warner's Address at the Annual Meeting
and his Annual Message, That Address is printed from the
author's elegant manuscript, with no correction except two or
three evident slips of the pen. The others are reprints from
Liberian printed copies.
There is also appended a list, complete so far as is known,
of the names of all persons who have been authorized to act as
chief magistrates in any of the colonies which now constitute
the Republic of Liberia. Their dates have been given, so far
as they could be ascertained.  In the earlier stages of the enterprise, changes and vacancies from death, disease, and other 
causes, were frequent; communications were infrequent, and
information, coming from agents worn down by sickness and
labor, often imperfect and indefinite. ilence, appointments
were sometimes made hypothetically, and the time of one
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PREFACE.
agent is partially or wholly included within that of another.
Agents of the Government of the United States for the care
of recaptured Africans had no authority, from that appointment, to act as agents of the Society, or magistrates of the
Colony. Yet, by a mutual understanding, the agents of the
Government and the Society appear to have performed each
other's duties when necessary, and often the same person was
appointed to both offices. The names of the Government's
agents are therefore included in the list, but are distinguished
by a different type. For similar reasons, the names of most
of the physicians appointed and sent out in the earlier years
of the Colony have been included.
And, finally, there is appended a table of emigrants settled
in Liberia by the Society, with the year, month, and name of
the vessel in which they sailed, and the State from which
they emigrated. Were it desirable, this table might be enlarged, by giving the name, age, occupation, previous condition as bond or free, education, and religious profession, if
any, of every emigrant; but the particulars given seem to be
enough.
It will be observed that this table does not include Africans recaptured from slave-traders and sent to Liberia at the
expense of the United States, though many of them were
delivered into the care of the Society in American ports, and
conveyed to Liberia in the Society's vessels.
In a work like this, a complete account, historical and statistical, of the Society and its Colony, could not be given. It is
hoped, however, that the selection and treatment of topics is
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PREFACE.
such, that the careful and friendly reader will be able to understand and appreciate the general character of the enterprise in which the Society is engaged.
Thanks are due, and are cordially tendered, to the Hon. J.
IH. B. Latrobe, President of the Society, and to the Hion. G.
Washington Warren, of the Board of Directors, for valuable
suggestions and advice, and to William Coppinger, Esq.,
Corresponding and Recording Secretary, for facts ascertained
by careful and laborious researches among ancient records
and correspondence.
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CONTENTS.
PAGE.
~ 11
~    15
. 21
37
~ 61
. 105
MINUTES OF THE FIFTIETH ANNUAL MEETING 
ADDRESS OF PRESIDENT LATROBE......
SELECTIONS FROM THE ANNUAL REPORT 
ADDRESS OF PRESIDENT WARNER..
DR. TRACY'S HISTORICAL DISCOURSE....
ADDRESS OF BISHOP CLARK.....
APPENDIX.
DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE...
CONSTITUTION OF LIBERIA.......
INAUGURAL ADDRESS OF PRESIDENT ROBERTS.
ANNUAL MESSAGE OF PRESIDENT WARNER.
. 129
. 133
. 149
. 162
{ 
viii
PAGE.
..  177
.  182
. 191
.  192
CHIEF MAGISTRATES OF LIBERIA... 
TABLE OF EMIGRANTS.....
COST OF COLONIZATION.....
ORIGINAL MEMBERS OF THE SOCIETY..
CONTENTS.
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MEMORIAL
OF TIIE
SEMI- CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY
OF THE
AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY.
I
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MEMORIAL.
THE Fiftieth Annual Meeting of the American Colonization Society was holden in Trinity Church, Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, January 15, 1867.
The Hon. J. H. B. Latrobe, of Maryland, President,
called the meeting to order at thirty minutes past seven o'clock, P.M. At his request, the Rev. R. R. Gurley,
Honorary Secretary, invoked the divine blessing.
The President, after a brief address, called for the
Annual Report.
The Corresponding Secretary, William Coppinger,
Esq., read portions of the Annual Report. He then
presented an address, prepared for the occasion by His
Excellency, Daniel B. Warner, President of the Republic of Liberia, and "Reflections on the Return of the
Anniversary of the American Colonization Society," by
Henry W. Johnson, Attorney and Counsellor at Law in
that republic. These could not be read for want of
time.
The Rev. Joseph Tracy, D.D., of Massachusetts, pre 
AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY.
sented and read portions of a Historical Discourse
on the Rise and Progress of the Society.
The Rt. Rev. Thomas M. Clark, D.D., of Rhode Island,
delivered the Semi-centennial Address.
The Rev. John Maclean, D.D., of New Jersey, then
pronounced the benediction, and the Society adjourned.
The addresses at the Annual Meeting are given in
their order on the subsequent pages.
12 
ADDRESS
OF
HON. JOHN H. B. LATROBE. 
I 
ADDRESS OF HION. JOHN HI. B. LATROBE,
PRESIDENT OF THE AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY.
Members of the American Colonization Society,
Ladies and Gentlemen:
IN calling the meeting to order, the Chair has not forgotten that the Fiftieth Anniversary of the American
Colonization Society has been reached.
The Fiftieth Anniversary! Half a century of existence!  And yet it seems but a few years since the
speaker, then a mere schoolboy, attracted by the lights
of a church in Georgetown, peered at nightfall upon a
meeting which Francis S. Key was addressing, and
where, in all probability, Mercer and Clay and Randolph and Harper and Caldwell and Worthington
were present. Dim candles, it is recollected, in tin
sconces, lighted up the assembly. To the schoolboy's
intelligence, the only interest of the scene was in the
familiar voice and the gathered crowd. Of the subject
of discussion, nothing was understood, save, as reported at home, that Mr. Key, a well-known friend, was
talking about Africa. Circumstances fix this incident 
16      AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY.
in 1816, half a century ago. How idly would the
schoolboy not have regarded any promise then made
to him, that he would live to preside at the semi-centennial anniversary of the Society whose feeble beginnings he had just witnessed without comprehending
them! And now, how profoundly grateful should not
the recipient of so high an honor be, not only to those
whose choice gave him the seat which he occupies tonight, but most especially to HIM by whose mercy,
while others younger and better have fallen, he has
been spared to witness the seed, planted in 1816, germinate, and send forth a tree, which, through winters of
discouragement and summers of prosperity, has grown
until it has attracted the attention of the nations, and
has a nation sheltered beneath its branches!
Fifty years! And such years!  Of what other fifty
years has history told the same wondrous tale?  They
commenced while the thunder of European wars and of
our second contest with Great Britain still echoed
in our ears.  Wearied with the march of battle, the
world was resting and gaining strength for a yet
grander march, -the march of progress. How astonishing the facts of these fifty years! How extraordinary
their developments!
In 1816, there were but three steamboats on the
Hudson, and but three west of the Alleghanies.  In
1867, where are they not?  In 1816, the postage of a
letter from Washington to Baltimore was ten cents; to
Philadelphia, twelve; to New York, eighteen; and to 
ADDRESS OF HON. JOHN H. B. LATROBE.
New Orleans, twenty-five. Now the postage to San
Francisco is but three cents; and the telegraph has
made communication with these places as instantaneous
as the thoughts to be communicated.
In 1816, if the winds favored, a letter from America
reached Europe in three weeks; if adverse, in six.
Now, the Secretary of State sends to our minister in
Paris what the Emperor of the French receives within
the hour that saw it written in Washington. In 1816,
it was the labor of days to travel front the capital to
New York. Impatient at the nine hours now occupied,
the public desire a still more rapid transit. Railroads
cover the land as with a net, and are already penetrating the wilderness at the rate of a mile of construction daily, on their route to the Pacific. In 1816, we
were staggering:nder a war-debt of but a few millions.  Now we ar   paying off a war-debt of more than
two thousand millions, at the rate of two hundred millions annually.
If to these comparisons were to be added the improvements in science and the arts, hours would be required for the enumeration.
Progress in science, progress in art, progress in all
the appliances of human comfort, have signalized the
half century whose close we this night commemorate.
But, of all that has been referred to, nothing has
been more grand in conception, more wonderful in execution, or of more promising results, than African colonization. Grand in conception, because it solves the
17 
AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY.
problem presented by the presence in the same land of
two races, both free, that cannot amalgamate by intermarriage. Wonderful in execution, because with the
humblest means, without the patronage of Government,
and with few better materials than ignorant free negroes and emancipated slaves, it has built up a republic
holding an honorable rank in the family of nations,
with churches and schools, with free institutions modelled after our own, and already attracting to it the descendants of those who, brought naked and helpless
from Africa, acquired here the religion and civilization
with which their children are returning, clothed as with
bright raiment, to their ancestral home, More promising of results, because its agencies are at work, not
for the welfare of one people only, but for two quarters of the globe itself, benefiting America, blessing Affrica; obviating in the one an otherwise inevitable
strife, securing in the other the fulfilment of prophecy;
illuminating the latter, without diminishing the lustre of
the former; blessed of the Almighty in its progress,
and finding, in an almost miraculous success, encouragement in the belief that his hand will support it to the
end.
18 
PORTIONS
OF THE
FIFTIETH ANNUAL REPORT.
.,  
PORTIONS OF THE FIFTIETH ANNUAL REPORT,
READ AT THE ANNUAL MEETING.
THE American Colonization Society commemorates
the Semni-Centennial Anniversary of its formation.
Profound thanks are offered to God for marked progress in its noble work, and for the wider field of activity opened, and that its labors during the year just
closed have been more extended and beneficial than for
many years past.
Since the last meeting, seven more of the Vice-Presidents of the Society have been removed. The first who
was called away was JAMES BOORMAN, Esq., of New York,
a liberal giver to prom6te the benevolent enterprises
of the times, and a model of Christian integrity and
judgmeit.   Following him, in rapid succession, were
Lieut.-Ge. WINFIELD SCOTT, whose  goodness of heart
and humanity shone not less brightly than his military
genius and love of country; Dr. THOMAS  HODGKIN, of
London, who spent his life in the service of his fellowcreatures of all races, and was universally esteemed for
his consistency of character and the utter unselfishness 
AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY.
of his devotion to this and every good cause; WILLIAM
W. SEATON, Esq., long an active and highly-prized member of the Executive Committee of this Society, and its
public advocate and defender, who has left behind him a
bright example of disinterested benevolence; Gen. JOHN
H. COCKE, of Virginia, for many years spared as the
senior Vice-President of the Society, and who had fervently labored for his servants by furnishing the facilities for their spiritual improvement, and the settlement
of some, and the preparation of others to enjoy their
freedom in Liberia; DANIEL CHANDLER, Esq., of Alabama,
justly held in high esteem for his piety and philanthropic character;  and Commodore ROBERT F. STOCKTON, of New Jersey, eminent for civic acquirements and
naval renown, and for intrepidity in meeting and successfullly surmounting the bitter opposition of the natives, and in securing the territory upon which has
arisen Monrovia, the capital city of the Liberian Republic.
It is fitting here to notice the great loss sustained by
the Society in the decease of JOHN P. CROZER, Esq., of
Pennsylvania, a man of rare generous sympathies and
abounding liberality, long identified with the religious
and charitable institutions of the country.  Bound to
our cause by the heroic dedication and sacrifice of a
younger brother, - Dr. Samuel A. Crozer, who was the
first agent and physician appointed by the Society, and
who sailed with the first company of emigrants despatched to Western Africa, - he was always much
22 
FIFTIETH ANNUAL REPORT.
interested in our labors and progress, and frequently
attended and participated in the deliberations of the
Board of Directors, where he was distinguished by a
sound judgment, catholic disposition, uniform courtesy,
and genuine kindness. By his will, he made provision
for the promotion of the purposes of our organization
to the extent of five thousand dollars.
Death has also removed from the ranks of the patrons and efficient friends of the Society, FRANCIS HIALL,
Esq., of New York; WILLIAM CRANE, Esq., of Baltimore;
and Hon. ABRAHAM HANSON, the first Commissioner and
Consul-General of the United States to Liberia, whose
address at our last annual meeting was full of interest
and encouragement.
In the departure of these constant and able advocates of the cause of African colonization, the members
and friends of the Society are admonished of the uncertainty of all human supports, and of the necessity of
arousing themselves to higher efforts in the light of the
ever-shining glory of these excellent and lamented
men.
To accommodate the numerous applicants for passage
and settlement in Liberia, and in view of the great
economy and pressing necessity of having a vessel of
our own, adapted to our wants, it was determined to
purchase, in September last, the ship "Golconda," 1016
tons, or 303 tons larger than the packet "Mary Caro 
AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY.
line Stevens," whose place she takes in the service of the
Society between this country and Liberia.
The purchase was not effected until after a thorough
examination of the markets for vessels on charter or for
sale. She was secured at a very reasonable price for
cash. To Dr. James Hall is the Society indebted for the
selection, purchase, and fitting out of this ship.
The "Golconda" was purchased and provisioned at
Boston, and sailed thence, on Saturday, Oct. 20, for
Charleston, S.C., as the nearest and most convenient
port for the embarkation of the expected emigrants.
On the afternoon of Wednesday, Nov. 21, being the
first day of high water on the bar after her arrival at
Charleston, she was towed safely out to sea and set sail
for Liberia.
She started with exactly six hundred emigrants on
board, of whom 194 were from Macon, Ga.; 167 from
Newberry, S.C.; 144 from Knoxville, Tenn.; 52 from
Charleston, S.C.; and 43 from Columbia, S.C. Of these,
206 are to settle at Sinou, 181 at Carysburg, 155 at
Cape Mount, and 58 at Cape Palmas.
A large proportion of the emigrants are professors of
religion; of whom it is known that 70 are Methodists,
56 are Baptists, 13 are Presbyterians, and 2 are Episcopalians.   Among  them  is a regularly  organized
church,- "THE MACON BAPTIST CHURCH OF SINOU COUNTY,
L[BERIA," - consisting of pastor, two deacons, and twenty-six members.
A high degree of intelligence is shown, in that 77 can
24 
FIFTIETH ANNUAL REPORT.
read, 20 can both read and write, and 2 have had the
advantages of a collegiate education.
The trades or occupations are represented by 78
farmers, 33 laborers, 15 carpenters, 13 shoemakers, 9
bricklayers, 9 blacksmiths, 4 wheelwrights, 3 coopers, 3
tailors, 2 millers, 2 cooks, 1 iron-moulder, 1 silversmith,
1 ginmaker, I waterman, 1 gunsmith, 1 engineer, 1
goldsmith, 1 dentist, and 1 photographer.
The "Golconda" had five cabin passengers, among
whom are the venerable Rev. John Seys, for the past
thirty years identified with the interests of Liberia and
of the cause of African colonization, now returning as
Minister-Resident and ConsTul-General of the United
States to that Republic; and Rev. H. W. Erskine, son
of one of the most estimable colored ministers who ever
went to the African coast, who was educated in Liberia,
entered the ministry, and is now Attorney-General of
that rising State. This was his first visit to the land of
his birth, made in part to take with him an aged sister
and her husband, with their children, grandchildren, and
great-grandchildren lately made free, and now joyfully
accompanying him.
Since the departure of the "Golconda" from Boston,
applications have been received with the names of 78
persons at Winnesboro', S.C.; 25  at  Lagrange, Ga.;
78 at Columbus, Ga.; 178 at Newberry, S.C.; and
291 at Mullins Depot, S.C.: in all, 642 for passage to
Liberia. Companies are known to be forming, each
promising to be at least 150 strong, at Macon, Ga.; at
4
25 
AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY.
Florence, S.C.; at Apalachicola, Fla.; and at Newbern,
N.C.; while smaller parties have applied from other
places, among which may be named Edenton, N.C., and
Albemarle County, Va., all hoping to set sail the coming spring for "Fatherland."
Inquiries for information about Liberia, and how to
get there, continue to reach the office of the Society,
showing that multitudes are using the means, which
they never had before, of learning the actual condition
and real promise of a country which appeals to them
with its ancestral claims, and offers them such advantages as they can hope to obtain nowhere else on the
face of the earth.
It is to be distinctly understood that each and all of
the movements which resulted in the unusually large
emigration by the " Golconda," and those just referred to,
were, and are, purely local and spontaneous. The people sought the Society in each and every instance.
Ought not these people also to be helped? Shall
we close our hands against those who prefer a home in
Liberia, and seek of us the needful aid? If they desire
and choose to go to Africa, is it not our duty to aid
and encourage them to do so?  Can we, in any better
way, repay them for their services, or make amends for
the past, than by restoring them to their long-lost heritage in their fatherland? And shall we fail to supply
Africa with intelligent Christian industry in the persons
of her own offspring?
26 
FIFTIETH ANNUAL REPORT.
" As teachers, missionaries, and colonies, they will go self-moved;
and the waves of the Atlantic, that heard the wail and the groans
from the hold of the slave-ship, will yet resound with the song,
the psalm, and the prayer, from the lips of colored people returning to found empire and Christian civilization in Africa. How
vast, then, are the results of the problem of the colored people in
America! They involve all sections and populations here, and extend their influence over two continents. Such a problem may
well claim the sympathy and thought of the nation."
In his last annual message, President Warner thus
dwells upon the advantages which Liberia is offering to
the people of color: -
"On the subject of immigration, we cannot but feel a deep interest. Our need of population is immediate and urgent. Our immense resources cannot be developed; the fruits of the earth,
spontaneously produced, cannot be gathered; the fat of the land
cannot be made available,- simply for the want of minds and hands
to engage in the necessary operations. Surely, with the vast latent capabilities of this country, we have the ability to become a
power by no means to be despised in the agricultural and commercial world.
"We have again and again invited our firiends in the United
States to come over and help us to fill up the vast solitudes, which
for centuries have remained uninhabited; while they, in exile in
the Western Hemisphere, are jostled and elbowed and trampled
upon by an oppressive race. But my hopes are as strong as ever,
and my confidence remains unshaken in the destiny of Liberia.
She is yet to be the asylum for the oppressed American negro, and
a beacon for the guidance of the benighted tribes of this continent.
I may not be able to predict the methods by which Africa's exiled
sons are to be restored to her bosom; but I feel certain such an
occurrence will in some way or other take place."
27 
AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY.
Rev. Edward W. Blyden, lately Secretary of State of
Liberia, and now Fulton Professor of Languages in Liberia College, on a recent occasion said:
"Any one who has travelled at all in Western Africa, especially
in the interior of Liberia, and has seen how extensive and beautiful a country, marvellously fertile, lies uninhabited, with its attractive and perennial verdure overspreading the hills and valleys, cannot but come to the conclusion that this beauteous domain is in reserve for a people who are to come and cultivate it;
and we can see no people so well prepared and adapted for this
work as the negroes of the United States.
"Africa will, without doubt, be the final home and field of operation for thousands if not millions of them. And the powerful
agency that will thus be brought into that land, - of feimily influences, and the diversified appliances of civilized life in the various
mechanical, agricultural, commercial, and civil operations, will rapidly renovate the spirit and character of the Afiican communities;
and whole tribes, brought under the pervading influence of Christian principles, will be incorporated  among us.  And then AngloAmerican Christianity, liberty, and law, under the protection of
the Liberian flag, will have nothing to impede their indefinite
spread over that immense continent."
Liberia is gradually growing in the elements of national stability.  The natural riches of that region are enormous, and are such as, sooner or later, will support a
commerce to which  that at present existing on the
coast is merely fractional. The Liberians own and run
a fleet of "coasters,"  collecting  palim-oil, cam-wood,
ivory, gold-dust, and other commodities.  A  schooner
28 
FIFTIETH ANNUAL REPORT.
of eighty tons was built, costing $11,000, and loaded
last fall at New York, from money and the proceeds of
African produce sent for that purpose by an enterprising merchant of Grand Bassa County. A firm at Molnrovia are having a vessel built in one of the ship-yards
of New York, to cost $15,000, which it is expected will
be ready to sail about the middle of February next.
Bishop Payne, for the past thirty years connected
with the Episcopal Mission on the West Coast of Africa, and now temporarily in this country, thus describes
what he witnessed at Monrovia on his recent homeward
voyage: -
"We enter Monrovia Roads, and find two vessels at anchor.
One, a brigantine of 137 tons, English built, is owned by Dr. S. F.
McGill and brothers.  She is commanded by Captain Kelly, Liberian, and a navigator. The other is a regular English brig, just
out, consig(ned to the firm just named, with a full cargo, and to be
loaded entirely by them. Boats are passing rapidly to and from
the shore, loaded with palm-oil and sugar. Her "lay days," or
days for loading, are forty, but she will be frieighted in thirty days.
Dr. McGill ships on board of her thirty thousand gallons palm-oil
and twenty-five thousand pounds of sugar, from the St. Paul's
River.
"Just as we come to anchor, several boats come alongside the
bark'Thomas Pope,' loaded with sugar.  It is freight firom Mr.
Jesse Sharp, one of the prosperous sugar-planters on the St. Paul's.
Mr. Sharp judiciously purchased a small steam sugar-mill for
$2,500, and paid for it the first year. For fourteen days we are
receiving cargo, all from Monrovia.  We ship thlirty-six thousand
gallons palm-oil, sixty-two tlhousand pounds of sugar, near fourteen thousand pounds of coffee, seven hundred pounds of ivory,
besides sunidry smaller amounts of fi'eight."
29 
AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY.
The same devoted laborer for the redemption of Africa affords the following cheering account of what he
saw of the thrift, comfort, and progress along the St.
Paul's River, during a trip made Friday, April 20,
1866:
"Emerging from Stockton Creek, we feel we  are in a civilized
country. On the right, in Lower Caldwell, is the neat establishment of Mr. Powers. Here, too, is a modest frame building, with
quite as modest  a congregation, called  St.  Peter's  Episcopal
Church. Proceeding up the river, we saw two Baptist and Methodist churches, each of brick, on either side of the river. Just opposite to Mr. Powers's, on the Virginia side of the river, is the neat,
home-like residence of Rev. John W. Roberts, Bishop of the Liberia Methodist Church.  The settlement of Virginia here extends back three or four miles from the river. Above Mr. Roberts's, we soon see the fine brick houses of Mr. William Blackledge and Rev. A. F. Russell. Presently we come to ClayAshland, where, besides Grace (Episcopal) Church, are three others
Here are many fine brick houses, the township of Clay-Ashland
extending back four or five miles; and now we never lose sight
again of cultivated fields and comfortable brick houses. Best
amongst these are those of the Messrs. Cooper, DeCoursey, Anderson, Howland, and Washington, sugar-planters.  By  the time
we reach the Gaudilla farm, we have passed four steam-mills, all
hard at work.  There are many wooden  mills, besides those propelled by steam. An intelligent friend has given us the following,
as an approximate estimate of the sugar crop on the St. Paul's, in
1866: Sharp, 120,000 lbs.; Cooper, 30,000 lbs.; Anderson,
35,000 lbs.; Howland, 40,000 lbs.; Roe, 30,000 lbs.; sundry smaller farmers, 150,000; total, 575,000 lbs.  The coffee crop also is
considerable, though we are not able to state how much."
30 
FIFTIETH ANNUAL REPORT.
Several of the leading powers of the world have recently given evidence of their regard for Liberia. By
order of the Emperor of Russia, a first-class Russian
frigate made a complimentary visit in January to Monrovia. Sweden and Norway also sent a national vessel
on a similar errand, -the first arrivals of the armed
representatives of these two northern European nations
in the waters of the African Republic. The celebrated
ship "Kearsarge" lately called on her way home from
the Mediterranean, - the first American cruiser ordered
there since the beginning of the war. The highest
diplomatic representative accredited to Liberia is from
the United States,- the title being lately changed to
that of Minister-Resident  and Consul-General.   Holland, and Sweden and Norway, have created consulate
officers to reside at Monrovia; and it is expected that a
treaty of amity and commerce will soon be concluded
between Russia and Liberia.
As we close this annual record, we turn our eyes to
survey the way in which the Lord hath led us this fifty
years.
The American Colonization Society was founded in
Washington, D.C., Dec. 21, 1816, by eminent individuals from the several States, memorably  prominent
among whom was the Rev. Robert Finley, D.D. A
Constitution was adopted at an adjourned meeting held
in the Hall of the House of Representatives on the
"following Saturday," Dec. 28, and officers elected Jan.
1, 1817. Not one, it is believed, of those who took part
31 
AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY.
in these proceedings, or of the officers chosen at the
first meeting, is living to witness its Semi-Centennial
Anniversary!
The Society has had five Presidents, viz.:  Jan. 1, 1817, Hon. Bushrod Washington.
Jan. 18, 1830, Hon. Charles Carroll, of Carrollton.
Jan. 20, 1833, Ex-President James Madison.
Dec. 15, 1836 Hon. Henry Clay.
Jan. 19, 1853, Hon. J. H. B. Latrobe.
Tile whole amount of its receipts during the fifty
years has been $2,141,507.77; and the State Colonization Societies received, while acting in an independent
capacity, as nearly as we can arrive at it, $417,399.33;
making a grand total of $2,558,907.10.
The Society has given passage to 11,909 persons of
color, sent in 147 vessels or voyages; and, what is a remarkable providence, not one of the vessels with emigrants on board has been permitted to bew recked or
lost! Of these people, 4,541 were born free, 344 purchased their freedom, 5,957 were emancipated for the
purpose of going to Liberia, the status of 68 is unknown, 346 were sent, in 1865, from Barbadoes, W.I.,
and 753 of the class popularly known as "freedmen"
have left this country since the termination of the war.
Besides these, 1,227 have been settled at "Maryland in
Liberia," by the Maryland State Colonization Society.
The total emigration, therefore, under colonization auspices and expense, has been 13,136.
The Government of the United States has made the
32 
FIFTIETH ANNUAL REPORT.
settlements founded by the Society the asylum of 5,722
recaptured Africans, mostly taken on the high seas by
its men-of-war.
The Society has strictly confined its labors to the
"colonizing, with their own consent, the free people of
color residing in our country, in Africa."
Rev. Samuel J. Mills and Rev. Ebenezer Burgess
went on board the " Electra," at Philadelphia, for London, Nov. 16, 1817. They set sail in the "Mary," from
London, Feb. 3, 1818, and arrived at Sierra Leone
March 22, following.   They selected Sherbro Island,
about 120 miles from that celebrated British colony,
and left thence for the United States May 22, having
passed just two months on the west coast of Africa.
Mr. Mills died on the homeward voyage. His worthy
colleague still lives in a good old age.
The ship  "Elizabeth," the "Mayflower" of Liberia,
sailed from New York Feb. 6, 1820, with 86 emigrants, and arrived at Sierra Leone March 9. These
pioneers were landed at Campelar, Sherbro Island,
March 20, 1820. This place was soon abandoned, and
the survivors removed to Fourah Bay.
A treaty was signed at and for Mesurado Dec.
15, 1821, the colonists removed, and the American flag
raised there, April 25, 1822.
The several settlements, with one exception, were
formed into a Commonwealth, the Legislature of which
began its first session Aug. 30, 1839.
The people, in Convention assembled, July 26, 1847;
5
33 
AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY.
constituted and declared themselves a "free, sovereign,
and independent State, by the name and title of the
Republic of Liberia."
The flag of the new Republic was raised Aug. 24,
1847, with demonstrations of joy and gratitude.
The territory owned by the Liberian Government extends some six hundred miles along the West-African
coast, and reaches back indefinitely toward the interior,
-the native title to which has been fairly purchased.
It has brought within its elevating influence at least
200,000 of the native inhabitants, who are gradually acquiring the arts, comforts, and conveniences of civilized
life. It has a regularly organized government, modelled after our own, with all the departments in successful operation. Schools, seminaries, a college, and
some fifty churches, belonging to seven different denominations, are in a hopeful condition. Towns and cities
are being built where once the slave-trade flourished
with all its untold cruelty, bloodshed, and carnage. Agriculture is extending, and commerce is increasing.
Liberia has exercised, for nigh twenty years, all the
powers and attributes of an independent Government,
and has been recognized as such by the leading powers
of the world.
34 
AD DRESS
O F
HIS EXCELLENCY D. B. WARNER,
PRESIDENT OF LIBERIA.  
ADDRESS OF PRESIDENT WARNER.
Mr. President, and Gentlemen of the American Colonization
Society:
DOUBTLESS the occasion on which you have come
together to-day is one of thrilling interest to every
philanthropist present.   It dates the semi-centennial
existence of an institution, which, fifty years ago, entered
upon the prosecution of an enterprise which has already
achieved much, and is destined to revolutionize for good
an entire continent. A period of fifty years in the age
of a nation just beginning its career is short, when
compared with the object it has in view and the length
of time such an organization is expected to exist; but
when viewed in connection with a private association,
such as your Society is, it occupies in the catalogue of
dates a high and prominent place.
Among the circumstances which led to the founding 
of your Society, there may be enumerated the frightful
proportions to which slavery had grown in the United
States of America; the deep moral and physical degradation and immense suffering of its victims; the widespreading demoralizing effects it was producing upon 
AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY.
the morality, civilization, and Christianity of the country;
and the awful sense of the great guilt and immeasurable
responsibilities the country was incurring by allowing
an institution so reproachful to continue in it and to
receive aid and comfort under its flag. The former of
these circumstances had produced in some of the States
very distressing alarm, causing them to give the question
of slavery a serious consideration; and the sufferings of
the slave had appealed with powerful effect to the justice, humanity, and benevolence of all the States.
Respecting the first and chief object of the Society at
its founding, there have been made various statements;
some of which, if true, attribute to it a selfishness which
finds a parallel only in that which clinches the hands
and petrifies the heart of the most detested and abandoned miser. But such a selfishness as that could not,
I think, have continued so long, and been productive of
such great and good results as we see flowing from
the operations of the scheme of African colonization.
But whether it was self-interest, or any thing akin thereto,
which prompted the founding of the institution, and has
ever since been the mainspring of all its operations, the
signs of the times seem to favor the opinion of many,
that an enterprise was set on foot, which, in process of
time, will become a standing wonder of the world; and,
in eternity, millions will remember it as the door through
which they entered the church militant, and thence the
church triumphant.
Perhaps the pages of modern history contain a record
38 
ADDRESS OF PRESIDENT WARNER.
of no beginnings so small, instruments so weak, and
wielded by a power so feeble, that have, in the same
time, accomplished more than the Society has through
its African colonization scheme. This remark should be
regarded as neither boastful and extravagant on the part
of Liberia, nor enthusiastic and exaggerative in favor of
the Society. It is rather an expression given to convictions which are daily being strengthened and confirmed
by the progressive movements, both of the Society and
of Liberia, and in which the world itself will concur,
when the objects and operations, achievements and pros
pects of both shall have been thoroughly understood
by it.
The Society was no sooner formed, than its object and
operations became an offence to the hardened slaveholder. By him they were said to be in antagonism to
his interest, and the interest of those he held in bondage.
He, therefore, hurled against them all the formidable
weapons he could command; calling, at the same time,
for the curse of Heaven to fall upon them, and blast them
forever.
There seems, however, to have been, in the earlier
stages of slavery in the United States, some little just
and humane consideration for the slave and  man of
color; but, when this feeling assumed the form of protection and stern justice, the creed of the pro-slavery
man was made to run thus: " Go, therefore, now, and
work, for there shall no straw be given you, yet ye shall
deliver the tale of bricks."
39 
AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY.
As friends to the Society and African colonization
multiplied, the opposition of the pro-slavery men grew
stronger, seconded even by some of those for whose
especial benefit the association was founded. It was
fierce and malicious and formidable enough to discourage
and even check a movement much more popular than
African colonization.
That there may be brought under view something
more of the greatness of the task which the Society
imposed upon itself, - or will it be as correct to say, that
was imposed upon the Society?- when it assumed to
found a colony of the American blacks on the West
Coast of Africa,- this dreaded land, -we must take into
the account the very limited geographical knowledge it
possessed of the country about to be occupied, of the
character of the people inhabiting it, the distance of
three thousand miles emigrants would have to be transported who were to be the colonists, and the protection
which would have to be afforded these from the violence
and depredations of the natives in the country. Here,
too, in active operation, was a powerful branch of that
great laboratory  the slave-trade- that was furnishing
the Western World with its victims of cruelty, suffering,
and death.  It was being carried on by civilized and
Christian governments, who made their navies sentinels
to watch and repel the approaches of any one that
would have the temerity to come to molest them in
their infamous work of blood. Long had the horrid
40 
ADDRESS OF PRESIDENT VWARNER.
flag of this nefarious traffic waved over the land, supported and worshipped by its kings and its princes.
Against this array of might and power, a handful of
men, comprising the American Colonization Society,an association of very limited means, and equally so in
point of skill in the management of African affairs, - set
out to contend, relying for success upon the pureness of
their intention, the justice of their cause, and the hope
of receiving aid from Him  by whom "kings reign and
princes decree  righteousness;"  and who  had  said,
"Ethiopia shall stretch forth her hand unto God." How
they began and succeeded, we will narrate presently.
For more than three centuries previous to the founding of your Society, the African slave-trade had been
crossing the Atlantic Ocean to the Western Hemisphere.
Annually, it had torn away from their native homes and
beloved country, thousands and thousands of the children of Africa, burying thousands of them in the sea, as
they expired in the middle passage, and transporting the
remainder of them, sick, feeble, and distressed, to foreign
countries; there subjecting them to a servitude and to
brutalities to which a speedy and violent death is preferable. For years this wicked and unjust traffic had
been passing from East to West, attended with sufferings,
cruelties, and barbarities, which torture the mind to
reflect upon. The Western World had been made black
with the shrivelled forms of its victims, and their
oppressors drunk with their blood.
But, from the beginning of the foul monster's career,
6
41 
AMEPICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY.
there was an eye, which never sleeps, looking on upon
his work. It took cognizance of all his deeds; of each
of his victims that fell in the middle passage, and now
lies on the bed of ocean; of all that breathed out
their souls on the bloody plantation, whose bones have
no resting place but in the open air, exposed to the foot
of the impious and the ravages of the night beasts.
True, the American people, as a nation, retired from
the trade, declaring it piracy, and those of themselves engaged in it worthy of death; but this declaration was, in
effect, like the decrees of King Ahasuerus, and its hypocrisy has received a terrible reward. But the time
inthe purpose of this All-seeing One  having come,
when a counter current should set in,- when there
should be, at least, a beginning of a returning to their
father-land of the suffering African captives, a star
appeared to guide them to the spot:
"It was their guide, their light, their all;
It bade their dark forebodings cease;
And through the storm, and danger's thrall,
It led them to the port of peace."
Purposely inspired, as I very believe they were, by
Omnipotence, with his will to that end, a few philanthropic individual s banded themselves together, and, in
the  year 1816, founded  the American Colonization
Society. This is the star which appeared to shed light
on the surrounding darkness of American slavery, and
42 
ADDRESS OF PRESIDENT WARNER.
to point out to the bondmen the way from the " House
of Bondage" to the " Land of Promise."  This was the
more earnest beginning by those devoted philanthropists, to do that will of Heaven with which they had
been so impressively inspired.
Still pressing towards their object, the Society, in
1818, employed, commissioned, and sent to the coast of
Africa, two commissioners. The honored forerunners of
the heaven-blessed scheme, and bearers of credentials
sealed with an impress deeper and broader than that
which mortals use, were Messrs. Samuel J. Mills and
Ebenezer Burgess, -names honored in Liberia by all
who hear them.  Theirs was the duty to "spy out the
land," and to select and purchase a suitable site for the
location of a colony. This was to be an asylum, -a
peaceful retreat from slavery and oppression- for as
many of the African exiles in America as could and
would avail themselves of the provisions made by the
Society for reaching it. It was to be the foundation of
a Christian negro nationality, and a beacon to the countless thousands and millions of Africa's sons who are
sitting in darkness and in the region and shadow of
death.
Promptly did those agents fulfil their mission, the
many obstacles which lay in their way notwithstanding.
In treating with the owners of the land selected, they
were brought in contact with all that duplicity and
treachery for which the natives connected with the
slave-trade are so signally famous.  This rendered their
43 
AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY.
negotiations both irksome and perplexing. But all
these difficulties were heroically encountered and overcome; and then the commissioners turned their faces
homeward.
On the return of Mr. Burgess to America (Mr. Mills,
his co-adjutor, having resigned his gentle spirit to Him
who gave it, while on his way to those who had sent
him), and the communication to the Society of his report, the Society determined at once to give their novel
enterprise a thorough and practical trial, so soon as
circumstances would allow it to do so.  After the lapse
of two years, matters being favorable, the undertaking
was resumed; when in February, 1820, the ship v Elizabeth" was chartered, and sent to the Sherbro Island with
a company of eighty-eight emigrants, under the care
and superintendence of the Society's new agent, Dr.
S. A. Crozer. This was the forming germ of a subsequent growth; and who at that time, judging from its
formation and tenderness could determine the size of
the tree it would produce? Who could estimate the
number of other happy events depending upon its success? Or who, even now, at its advanced age and
growth of only forty-six years, will undertake to figure
up the good which has already accrued from it to civilization and Christianity? And what circle less than that
which bounds eternity will be sufficiently great to
enclose the influence it is now exerting upon the world?
Hlad the opportunity afforded the Society at that time
44 
ADDRESS OF PRESIDENT WARNER.
for planting a settlement in Africa been lost, a second
one would probably have never occurred.
The location selected for the colony being, as it subsequently and sadly proved to be, one of extreme
unhealthiness, the emigrants were early stricken down
by its pestilential fevers. Great suffering followed; and
death did his work so fast and terribly, that it was
found necessary to abandon the island, and remove the
surviving colonists to the colony of Sierra-Leone. Here
they remained until they were re-enforced by a company
by the brig "Nautilus;" and here both companies
located until a second and permanent place was found
for them in 1821, at Cape Mesurado. At this place the
care-worn wanderers utterly demolished the tent, substituting it with the more substantial and firmly-fixed
lodge, composed of brick, wood, and the durable granite.
Here a remnant of that pioneer band and their offspring
are resting, having stood the shock of war, endured
intense suffering, and undergone and lived through most
of the trials and vicissitudes peculiar to newly-founded
countries. And here are thousands of others who have
come after them, enjoying, in the fullest sense of the
word, " liberty and equality."  Here no " public sentiment frowns them down," so long as they obey their
country's laws.
It was to be out of the "house of bondage," that
those way-faring and self-sacrificing men, stooping under
the weight of weary years of slavery, launched upon
the tumultuous ocean, crossed it, and became the sub
45 
AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY.
jects of suffering and privation which put to the test all
of human and divine virtues they possessed.  And  the
fortitude and heroism displayed by those founders of
Liberia, during their day of trial, were indeed worthy
the cause calling them into action; and the names of
the veterans themselves, with that of the illustrious
Ashmun, and those of your numerous other self-sacrificing agents, and that of the Gordons who fell in the
cause of African colonization, - died here that Liberia
might live,- will descend in radiance of glory, gathering brightness as years roll on, to generations yet
unborn.
All this was done to reclaim from slavery, superstition,
and idolatry, and to prepare and garnish the home of
the millions of Africa's descendants in America, and to
bring within the range of morality, civilization, and
Christianity, the untold millions of her sons and daughters dwelling in darkness on her soil, and in gross darkness which can be felt.
What a fabric of "civil and religious liberty" was
begun at the laying of the corner-stone of the Colony
of Liberia! What a monument of God's favor and
loving-kindness to the sons of Ham was then being
created! What an achievement was being effected in
favor of the gospel of peace! And what tongue will
refuse to speak His glories forth, who put it into the
hearts of those who undertook the work, and, until
their death, devoted themselves to its execution, to go
46 
ADDRESS OF PRESIDENT WARNER.
forth and build up the waste places in Afiica which sin
had made!
Thus far I have attempted very little in detail. I
have already passed over, unnoticed, hundreds of incidents which occurred between the arrival at Sherbro of
the ship "Elizabeth" with the first emigrants, and the formal occupation by the colonists of Cape Mesurado; and
there are hundreds of others strewed between that
period and the time I am occupying in addressing you.
Some of those incidents were truly afflicting and distressing; and a recollection of them, even at this distant
period of time, produces in the mind very sad and painful reflections. Others were cheering and gratifying,
and in their more happy effects are still looming up
before us in the most flattering prospects of success,
both to the Society and to the Republic of Liberia.
In my last inaugural address, I have already noticed
what I think should be regarded by us all as very remrnarkable in the enterprise of your Society, viz.: the
exemption from those more sad and distressing casualties or disasters, so common  to the maritime world, of
all its vessels but one, I think, transporting emigrants
to Liberia.* Are not such remarkable instances of the
preservation of ships very rare? And have we another
such instance given, as in the case of the Society, in
which a company has sent its vessels across the ocean
for forty-six years, consecutively, and has lost but one
of them? Were I certain that the case of the Society
* In that single instance of wreck, no emigrant was lost.- [ED.]
47 
AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY.
furnished the only instance of the kind, I would seize
upon it with the greater tenacity, as an incontrovertible
proof of God's special favor towards the returning
bondmen of America, and of his pre-determined purpose that they should once more visit, and permanently
settle in, their country,- long lost and disgraced though
it may have been,- driving out the Canaanite, and
breaking down and trampling under foot the power of
the slaver.
Granting that some vessel and her company of emigrants shall be lost,- sunk in the depths of the sea,
will that be sufficient to break down the opinion, that the
Supreme Being has willed and fore-ordained that there
shall be an exodus of the colored population of America
to their own land? No more so, I think, than the falling in the wilderness of all the Jews, except two, over
twenty-one years of age, that left Egypt for Canaan,
before they reached that place, was sufficient to prove
that it had not been pre-ordained that they should leave
Egypt, and go into Canaan. If any of the descendants
of Africa in America start hither, despising the country
their sacredly reserved inheritance - to which they
are coming, should it be thought strange if they do not
reach it?
The late war in America,- that terrible c uprising of
a great people,"- if it could be viewed in all its phases
and connections, would probably furnish an exact key
to the question, "Shall the people go to their own
place?" The very watch-word of that war was, "Let
48 
ADDRESS OF PRESIDENT WARNER.
my people go, that they may serve me in the wilderness." The burden of President Lincoln's administration
was, Loose the shackles, and let the oppressed go free!
And President Johnson, extending the order, says to
the people, "Go to Liberia."
All the propositions, from 1777 to the present time,
made by various Governments, the Government of the
United States of America not excepted, for the settlement of the people elsewhere than their own country,
have failed, - failed, may we not say, like the building
of Babel, because they were in direct opposition to that
plan for settling them, designed by Him who is the Great
Designer of the universe itself.  He saith, " Surely, as I
have thought, so shall it come to pass; and as I have
purposed, so shall it stand." *
It would seem, then, that it is no wilderness in Mississippi, in any of the north-western Territories, nor in
Central America, to which the people should remove or
be removed, but to the wilderness of Western and of
Central Africa.   These, doubtless, are the localities
ordained of old to be the future dwelling-places of the
returning captives of Africa, and the deep solitudes
requiring the melody of their songs, that the solitary
places may be glad; and the people themselves should be
constantly pleading, "Send me away, that I may go
unto mine own place."
On being invited to come to Liberia, the colored
* Isaiah xiv. 24
7
49 
AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY.
people of America should not regard the invitation in
the light of a request made of them to surrender their
own country, and come to one belonging to others.
The contrary is the true state of the case. Africa, and
not America, is their country. It was made theirs when
" God drave asunder, and assigned their lot
To, all the nations."
It has been for centuries, and is still being, kept in
sacred reserve for them, and none shall inherit their
portion until they come. And they ought to come; and
come they will, when it shall be said to them,- and it
will be said to them in a manner they shall not be able
to resist, -"  Get thee out from this land, and return to
the land of thy kindred."
Here is ample room to receive them, bread enough to
feed them, wealth to enrich them, and a way open
before them to the object of their highest aspirations.
"Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard
his spots?" So neither can finite minds change or frustrate the mind and purposes of the Infinite.  "For the
Lord of hosts hath purposed, and who shall disannul it?
His hand is stretched out, and who shall turn it back?"
But, you -ask me, What is that purpose? The sum
total of the answer is with Him whose " thoughts are not
as our thoughts;" but the opinion entertained by many
respecting it is, that, in the course of time, the two races
- the black and white races - must separate; and the
50 
ADDRESS OF PRESIDENT WARNER.
deep blue Atlantic Ocean will be the dividing - the
Mason and Dixon -line between them. Besides this,
there seems yet to be solved but one other question
remaining; viz., Can the blacks be absorbed by the
whites? That is, can there or will there be, through
the means of a spontaneous amalgamation, a gradual
passing away of the former into mulattoes, and these
again into the dominant race, so that, in a few centuries,
the whole of the present negro population of America
will have been changed into the white element? This
is not probable; neither should it be thought desirable.
It will be but increasing the difficulty (perhaps I am
too dogmatical in my opinion on this, and some of the
foregoing subjects), the settling of the people by themselves in any part of America, where they and the
whites can have easy and frequent intercourse with each
other. This opinion is based on the probability, that,
under such circumstances, one or the other people will
invade the rights of his neighbor. This will gender into
an unpleasant altercation between them; and, if the
cause of offence proceed from the side of the blacks, will
there not always be found among the whites those who
will shoot down a score of blacks for an injury done, nay,
even for an insult offered, to one of the whites? If such
an occurrence were to take place near or at the allotted
home of the four millions of blacks, would it not be
resented? And; if resented, the consequences would
probably be such as I need not, if I could, describe.
If it was not resented, I can think of but two things to
PI 
AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY.
which such an enlightened and successful restraint upon
depraved human nature would be attributable. First,
that the blacks in separating from the whites, solemnly
vowed never to quarrel with them (the whites), except
in a legal way, under any circumstance whatever; and,
secondly, that they felt themselves numerically too weak
to contend successfully with their white neighbors in a
quarrel in which deadly weapons would be used. If the
latter conclusion should be the barrier to their protecting and defending themselves when they should do so,
then the blacks would not be living in the enjoyment of
that social and political ease and equality for which they
are, but vainly, contending in America.
But to return. If I could be less commendatory in
my remarks while I address you, I would prefer it; but
I cannot well be so, and give utterance to what I feel to
be genuine convictions relative to your Society and the
Republic of Liberia. The life-long interests of millions
of the African race in the Western Hemisphere are involved in the question.  Shall those millions remain
where they are, and let Africa go down, and sink yet
lower; or should they return to their fatherland, and
redeem  it from the stigma and reproach which have
rested upon it for ages, dishonoring its name, and throwing a darker shade over its ancient glory? The salvation of an entire continent of many millions of inhabitants is at stake; and it is but just, that every laudable
means should be called into requisition to secure it;
and that those means should be regarded with a proper
52 
ADDRESS OF PRESIDENT WARINER.
appreciation, and their operations promoted; and every
thing ought to be said and done that will have, upon
the whole subject, a wholesome and profitable bearing.
But for the inauguration of your Society, and the
subsequent founding of Liberia, and the emigrating to
it from American slavery of a few of the civilized descendants of Africa, what a fund of native, but rare and
brilliant, talent would have lain hidden in the minds of
thousands who are now employing it in diffusing useful
and saving knowledge among thousands of thousands,
who, but for receiving it through this channel, would
have gone without it from the cradle to the grave!
History, in all probability, never would have had impressed on its pages, as men of great common sense,
unflagging fortitude, and dauntless courage, the names
of Elijah Johnson, Lot Cary, Daniel Hawkins, Allen
James, Richmond Sampson, Thomas Spencer, John
Lawrence, and the names of numbers of others who
emigrated to Liberia in the darkness of the night of
African slavery, fought here, and died in the work of
laying the foundation of a negro Christian empire, and
erecting the standard of freedom and of the cross of
the Saviour. They toiled hard and long at this, praying, at the same time, that the sun of righteousness
would shine on this benighted land, and chase hence,
forever, the thick darkness in which it has been enveloped for thousands of years.
The oratorial powers of the lamented Hilary Teage,
the diplomatic abilities of Joseph J. Roberts, the states
53 
54       AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY.
manship of the late President Benson, the legal abilities
of Chief-Justice John Day, and the ecclesiastic endowments of James S. Payne, and the admirable acquirements and abilities of many others in Liberia, would
have been so many gifts vainly bestowed, but for a
place for their display, and opportunities for their improvement; and these places and opportunities were
not to be found in a land of slavery and proscription.
The banks of the St. Paul's, St. John's, Sinoe, and Farmington River, and of the River Cavalla, now teeming
with civilized life and industry, presenting to view comfortable Christian homes, inviting school-houses and
imposing church edifices, but for the founding of Liberia
would have remained until this day studded with slave
barracoons, the theatres of indescribable sufferings, wickedness, and shocking deaths. And what is to be said of
the site on which is erected Liberia College? And
have we, in truth, lived to see a college in Liberia? Its
site is now no more a place of concealment for the subtile and sinewy boar, and the stealthy leopard. Its
former forest echoes no longer the horrifying yell of
the perfidious and murderous Dey, invading Monrovia;
it is no longer made vocal with the doleful noise of the
night-bird.  An edifice, dedicated to the arts and sciences, stands there; and its halls are thronged with
Liberia's youthful aspirants, preparing themselves to
assert the rights of Africa, and to redeem her from her
present thraldoin.
And what can I say more! From every stand-point 
ADDRESS OF PRESIDENT WARNER.
I have yet been able to occupy, I can see nothing in
the founding of the American Colonization Society, and
its subsequent operations, but a lofty philanthropy engaged in the prosecution of a purpose which can be
appreciated justly only by the mind that can grasp
eternity. And yet we have the mortification to hear
the Society pronounced a cheat; its agents, knaves;
emigration, a gross injustice; the Republic of Liberia, a
sham and a grave-yard; and the whole enterprise a deception! But all these pitiful indulgences and unjust
criminations fail most shamefully to disprove the fact,
that this day the sun, in the brightness of his glory,
shines most majestically upon a palpable contradiction
of all of them, in the real form of the highly respected
and extensively recognized Republic of Liberia. Let
its traducers come and see it. While they, on their
side of the wall, are pouring water on the flame to extinguish it, on the opposite side there is a Hand, secretly, and as constantly, keeping it alive by feeding it
with grateful oil.
With all her faults and failings, her poverty and
weakness, Liberia is endeavoring to prove herself
grateful to those who founded her, and have watched
over her, cared for and fostered her for forty-six years,
and so render herself worthy of the relations she sustains to Africa, and to the civilized nations with whom
she has treaties.
Your offspring, Mr. President, and gentlemen of the
society, is yet existing, and, withal, is growing,- grow
55
I 
AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY.
ing in that which is of " good report." Her growth may
be tardy; so may it be of long continuance. But, if our
colored brethren would come over and help us, we
should get on faster, and our prosperity would be much
more abundant. They have been so frequently invited
to come, and the advantages they would have in this
country have been so clearly and repeatedly set before
them, that I deem it unnecessary to say any thing further to encourage them to come than I have already
said. If they will persist in building Babels in the land
of Shinar, and pyramids in Egypt, which will eventually
be to them only so many eye-sores whenever they look
qt them from this side of the waters, we have only to
say to them, build on.
Since your founding, you have been called to lament
the death of many of your once active and efficient
members, whose presence in your meetings was so animating and cheering. In the far-off land of Africa, repose the dust of some of them. But there are yet remaining among you faces that have been familiar with
each other, perhaps for fifty years. Doubtless there is
among you your venerable and superannuated corresponding secretary, whom you sent to Liberia in 1824,
to rconnoitre the colony, and to inspect the Agency of
the great Ashmun, your then Colonial Agent, whose intrinsic worth, as a person for the times, the Society did
not at that time know. There are also yet in Liberia,
among the living, a few of the Crozer band, and a remnant of the Ashmun contemporaries. But Liberia, as
56 
ADDRESS OF PRESIDENT WARNER.
well as the Society, has had her bereavements. Her
great men passed away just at the time, in human calculations, when their services were most wanted. They
are gone from their labor and toil, and their works follow them.
Notwithstanding many evil reports have gone abroad
against our "land  of promise," deterring many  in
America, and perhaps elsewhere, from coming to help
us possess it - and there are yet being uttered predictions that we must " eventually fail and come to naught,"
-yet both you and we have abundant reasons to rejoice, and to believe that He who has begun the work
of Africa's redemption will carry it on to a glorious
completion. That great Architect of the universe has
given us already too many assurances of his good will
towards us -and he is able to make that good will
abundantly effectual - to allow us to doubt one moment his faithfulness in all things pertaining to his
creatures, or to believe he will abandon us while we
are yet trusting in him. The sure and immutable word
is, "Righteousness exalteth a nation; but sin is a reproach to any people." By securing the first, the second may be avoided.
In conclusion, Mr. President and gentlemen, I have
only to remark, that, thus far, through the vicissitudes
of fifty years, amidst the sneers and scoffs of those
who would scoff and sneer at your undertaking, against
the spiteful and virulent opposition of anti-colonizationists, with a determination of purpose, having a sanctified
8
57 
AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY.
reference to the glory of God, you have steadily held
on your way, using your best endeavors for the redemption of Africa, and the salvation of her millions of
souls. Were I permitted to speak a word in behalf of
myself, in your presence, I would say, I shall never be
able to command language to express my gratitude
to God for guiding my infant feet to the Colony of
Liberia. My time in Liberia is almost coeval with the
existence of the place, and I have yet to feel the slightest regret at my being here.
And now, to Him who hath sustained you, and given
you of his free Spirit to guide you in all your acts and
deliberations, be ascribed might, majesty, and dominion,
now and forever,
58 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
i 
HISTORICAL  DISCOURSE.
Mr. President:
A PUBLIC notice has promised "An Historical Discourse
on the Rise and Progress of the Society" which now
celebrates its fiftieth anniversary.   The treatment of
the first.topic -the Rise -may, perhaps, be aided by
an illustration. It shall be drawn from the practice of
the ancients, mentioned by Seneca, of building altars and
offering worship at the sources of rivers. Remains of
such temples, evidently Grecian, are still seen at the two
sources of the Jordan;  and substructions, older than
Grecian, at that of the Chrysorrhoas, esteemed by the
people of Damascus  "better than all  the waters of
Israel." In both these instances, however, the water
from these sources soon unites with less pretentious
streams, coming from a much greater distance. But
what if there be no vast flood bursting forth at any one
point?  What if we find only here the bubbling fountain, at which the wild bird scarce slakes her thirst;
there, the drops trickling from the face of a cliff; yonder, the superfluous moisture  escaping from a bed of
moss; and moisture from a thousand other places, in 
AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY.
varied forms, all collected by the slopes and channels
which the Great Creator has provided for that pur pose, into one vast Father of Waters, fertilizing the
plains and bearing the commerce of half a continent?
Plainly, you can erect your altar in no one place. You
can worship only the Beneficent Wisdom which is every where, and which has so made the world that kindred
good influences naturally flow together, and combine
into broad streams of blessing to mankind.
So of the origin of our Society, and of our work. The
sentiment out of which it grew, more or less definitely
formed into specific plans, was everywhere, tending to
realize itself in beneficent action for the colored race.
This sentiment gushed forth at many points; so that
many persons have been named as the originators of
our enterprise. And there is some ground for each of
these claims, and, doubtless, for many others that might
have been advanced. They were originators, as truly as
if there had been no others. Their relative merits cannot be settled by chronology, for the thought was often
as fresh and original in the later projector as in any that
had preceded him.                                   t
The earliest movement known to have any historical
connection with our Society was the visit of the Rev.
Samuel Hopkins of Newport, R.I. to his neighbor, the
Rev. Ezra Stiles, April 7, 1773.   The diary of Dr.
Stiles has preserved the record.   Dr. Hopkins  proposed to educate two pious negro youths for the ministry,
and send them to Africa as missionaries; hoping, evident
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HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
ly, to send more in time. He needed assistance to meet
the expense.   The more practical mind of Dr. Stiles
suggested that the enterprise would not succeed in that
form; that thirty or forty suitable persons must be sent
out, and the whole conducted by a society formed for
the purpose. This idea of a purely missionary settlement grew, in a few years, into a definite plan for a
colony, with its agricultural, mechanical, and commercial
interests. Aug. 31, 1773, Drs. Stiles and Hopkins issued
a circular, inviting contributions to their enterprise.
Feb. 7, 1774, a society of ladies in Newport had just
made their first contribution; and aid had been received
from several parts of Massachusetts and Connecticut.
Nov. 21, two of the young men sailed for New York, on
their way to Princeton, N.J. to be educated under
Dr. Witherspoon, president of the college. Three days
later, bills were drawn on London for amounts collected in aid of their enterprise in England and in
Scotland. April 10, 1776, another circular was issued.
They then thought their colony would be on the Gold
Coast, near Annamaboe, where one of their young men
had infiuential  relatives, who were anxious for his return, as had been learned by letters from Africa, confirming his own account.
The war of Independence suspended these labors;
but the plan and the purpose survived it. In 1784, and
again in 1787, Dr. Hopkins endeavored to induce merchants to send out a vessel with a few emigrants, to
procure lands and make a beginning, and with goods,
63 
AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY.
the profits on which would, of course, diminish the
expense. In March, 1789, he had consultations with
Dr. William Thornton, "a young man from the West
Indies," who proposed to take out a company of free
blacks, and found a colony in Africa. A number volunteered to go with him, but the enterprise failed for
want of funds. Dr. Thornton was afterwards a member
of the first Board of Managers of the American Colonization Society.
A month later, Granville Sharpe and others sent the
first colonists from London to Sierra Leone. This design
was already known to Hopkins. Perhaps, too, Sharpe
had heard of the plans of Hopkins, as they had been well
known in England for some years; but they had no
direct intercourse with each other till Hopkins wrote to
Sharpe, Jan. 15, 1789, inquiring whether, and on what
terms, and with what prospects, blacks from America
could join the colony.  There were then "Christian
Blacks" desirous to emigrate, enough to form a church;
and one of them was fit to be its pastor.
Unsuccessful in this, he continued his labors. In 1791,
he wished the Connecticut Emancipation Society to be
incorporated, with power to act as an education and
colonization society.  In 1793, he preached a sermnon
before a kindred society at Providence, which was published with an appendix, in which he advocated almost
the exact course of action afterward adopted by this
Society, and urged its execution by the United-States
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HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
Government, the several State Governments, and by
voluntary societies.
Hopkins died Dec. 20, 1803; but the influence of
these labors still lived. They must have been well
known to Capt. Paul Cuffee of New Bedford, and the
thirty emigrants whom he took to Sierra Leone in his
own vessel, early in 1815; and in 1826, two of his
"hopeful young men," Newport Gardner, aged seventyfive, and John Nubia,* aged seventy, hoping to move
their brethren by their example, sailed from Boston in
the brig "Vine," the eighth vessel sent out by this
Society.
The next movement having any historical result was
in Virginia. Dec. 31, 1800, the Legislature, in secret
session, -
"Resolved, That the Governor be requested to correspond with
the President of the United States, on the subject of purchasing
lands without the limits of this State, whither persons obnoxious
to the laws or dangerous to the peace of society may be removed."
The Governor, Monroe, in communicating this Resolution to the President, stated that it was passed in consequence of a conspiracy of slaves in and around Richmond, for which the conspirators, under existing laws,
might be doomed to death. It was deemed more humane, and it was hoped not less expedient, to transport
* Known in Hopkins's correspondence as Salmur Nubia, and familiarly in
Newport as Jack Mason.
9
65 
AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY.
such offenders beyond the limits of the State. President
Jefferson favored the idea, discussed the objections to
several locations, said that"  Africa would offer a last and
undoubted resort," and promised his assistance.   The
Legislature, Jan. 16, 1802, directed a continuance of
the correspondence, "for the purpose of obtaining a
place without the limits of" the United States, " to which
free negroes or mulattoes, and such negroes or mulattoes
as may be emancipated, may be sent or choose to remove as a place of asylum;" requesting the President
"to prefer Africa, or any of the Spanish or Portuguese
settlements in South America."  This resolution differs
from the former, in that it does not contemplate a
penal colony, and does contemplate increased facilities
for emancipation, in a mode which the State did not
esteem dangerous. The President corresponded with the
British Government concerning Sierra Leone, and with
the Portuguese concerning their possessions in South
America, but without success.  In 1805, Jan. 22, a resolution was passed, instructing the senators and requesting the representatves from that State to endeavor to
procure a suitable territory in Louisiana.   No action
followed, and the matter slept ten years. Yet the proposition of Ann Mifflin, and the correspondence of John
Lynd with Thomas Jefferson in 1811, showed that the
idea was still alive and at work.
Another of these numerous origins must be noticed.
In the spring of 1808, a few undergraduates of Williams
College, Mass., formed themselves into a society, whose
66 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
object was, " to effect, in the persons of its members, a
mission or missions to the heathen." In about two
years, this society was transferred to the Theological
Seminary at Andover, of which most of them had become
members.  Here they procured the formation of a " Society of Inquiry respecting Missions;" and there was
thenceforth the chief seat of their labors. With becoming
modesty, they regarded themselves as little else than
mere school-boys, competent, indeed, to make inquiries,
collect information, and discover wants that ought to be
supplied, but needing the guidance of older and wiser
men to mature judicious plans and execute them successfully.  The proposal of four of them to go on a mission to the heathen in foreign lands, led directly to the
formation of the American Board of Commissioners for
Foreign Missions. Suggestions from these young men,
or some of them, also led to the formation of the
American Bible Society, and, though in some cases less
directly, several other kindred institutions, for which the
state of feeling in the religious world was prepared.
Samuel J. Mills has been commonly regarded as the
leader of these inquirers. With a companion, he made a
journey of inquiry through large parts of the new settlements in the United States, especially the south-western
part. He came back with the knowledge of many wants
to be supplied, and fully convinced, that, to use his own
words, " We must save the negroes, or the negroes will
ruin us;" and that there was so much at the South of right
feeling towards the negroes, that something might be
67 
AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY.
done towards saving them. The matter was abundantly discussed. A colony was proposed, somewhere in the
vast wilderness between the Ohio and the great lakes.
But one of them at length objected to that location.
"Whether any of us live to see it or not," said he, "the
time will come when white men will want all that region,
and will have it, and our colony will be overwhelmed
by them."  So they concluded that the colony must be
in Africa.
Mills went to New Jersey, to study theology with Dr.
Griffin at Newark, and still more, as Dr. Griffin soon
thought, to engage him and other leading men in that
region in considering whether certain good objects could
be accomplished, and how. While there, he originated
the school for the education of pious blacks at Parsippany, some thirty miles from Princeton. It was placed
under the care and patronage of the Synod of New
Jersey; and thus the Presbyterian clergy of that State
were brought into active connection with Mills, and his
idea of saving the negro. His project of a colony north
of the Ohio, or somewhere else, was well known to Dr.
Alexander of Princeton, and doubtless to others.
Among the most eminent of that clergy was the Rev.
Dr. Robert Finley.  No record has been found of any direct intercourse between himn and Mills; and there is no
reason to suspect that Mills furnished him with a plan
of a society, to be formed at Washington, for colonizing
free blacks in Africa. That plan seems to have developed
itself in his own mind, while contemplating that class of
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HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
facts to which Mills was so busily calling attention; and
it is certain that he had it under consideration as early
as February, 1815. From about that time, he was industrious in recommending it to his friends; but they,
while admitting that its object was good, generally distrusted its success. After probably nearly two years of
such labor, he called a public meeting at Princeton, to
consider the subject; but few besides the Faculties of the
College and the Theological Seminary attended, and
only Dr. Alexander appears to have aided him in commending it. Still he persevered; and when Congress assembled, early in December, 1816, repaired to Washington, to attempt the formation of his proposed society.
On his arrival, he went at once to his brother-in-law,
Elias B. Caldwell.  That these brothers had previously
corresponded on the subject, is a probable conjecture, but
not a known fact. Yet the idea of colonization was not
then new to Mr. Caldwell. It had already been suggested from another source.
Late in February, 1816, the Virginia secret resolutions
and correspondence of 1801-05 first became known to
Charles Fenton Mercer, a member of the Legislature of
that State.  Not being under the obligation of secrecy, he
at once made them known extensively in the State, and
pledged himself to renew them at the next session of the
Legislature. Being at Washington, - it must have been
in March or April, -he made known the facts and his
intentions to two friends. One was his old schoolmate
at Princeton, Elias B. Caldwell, who approved his object,
69 
AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY.
and promised to use his influence with his Presbyterian
friends in New Jersey in favor of it. The other was
Francis S. Key, who would attempt a similar movement
in Maryland. Gen. Mercer redeemed his pledge. His
proposed resolution passed the House of Delegates, Dec.
14, by a vote of 132 to 14, and the Senate, Dec. 23,
with one dissenting vote. This was done without any
knowledge of the plans and movements of Dr. Finley for
forming a society, and indeed without any expectation
that a society would be formed. His idea was, that
colonization would be carried by the State Governments, under the sanction and protection of the National
Government. Still, this expression of Virginia's mind
rendered important and perhaps indispensable aid to
the formation and success of the Society; for the action
of the House of Delegates was known in Washington
before Gen. Mercer's resolution had passed the Senate,
and before any public meeting was holden to form a
society.
To arrange that meeting, and secure attendance upon
it, cost Dr. Finley no slight labor. The goodness of the
object was generally admitted; but, at the preliminary
consultations, those invited and expected were generally
absent.  Charles Marsh, member of Congress from Vermont, noticed this disposition of almost everybody to
leave this good work to others; and, as this was the
only project that he had ever heard of, promising great
good to the black race, he determined that it should not
be allowed to die in that way. He decided that those
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HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
who knew the plan to be a good one should attend the
meetings. Of course, as all who ever knew his inexhaustible adroitness and persistency will easily understand, "a  very respectable  mumber" of them  attended the first public meeting, Dec. 21, 1816. Henry
Clay, in the necessary absence of Judge Washington,
was called to the chair. Elias B. Caldwell, the brotherin-law of Dr. Finley and the schoolmate and friend of
Gen. Mercer, perfectly informed of the plans and movements of both, made the leading argument in favor of
forming a society. He stated that public attention had
been called to the subject in New Jersey, New York,
Indiana, Tennessee, Virginia, and perhaps other places.
He was supported by remarks from John Randolph of
Virginia, and Robert Wright of Maryland. A committee
was appointed to prepare a constitution, and the meeting adjourned for one week.
At the adjourned meeting, Dec. 28, the committee
reported a constitution, which was adopted.   Fifty
gentlemen affixed their names to it as members.  The
twenty-third name on the list is Samuel J. Mills. What
brought him there at that time, and what he was about
while there, we can only infer froni other parts of his
history.
Jan. 1, 1817, the day fixed by the Constitution, the
Society met for the election of officers. Hon. Bushrod
Washington, of Virginia, was chosen President, with
twelve Vice-Presidents, from nine States, including
Georgia, Kentucky and Massachusetts, and one from
71 
AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY.
the District of Columbia.  Dr. William Thornton, whose
visit to Dr. I-hopkins in 1787 has already been mentioned, was a member of the Board of Managers.
Thus the Society was formed and organized, not by
the labors of any one projector, or by the influence of
a movement in any one part of the country, but by the
union of the tendencies which, remote from each other
and independent of each other, had been working
towards that result for more than forty years. That
the Virginia movement, or the New-Jersey movement,
or the New-England movements, would have accomplished any thing without the union of all, some may
perhaps believe, but facts have not proved. Its true
origin was, in the desire of good men everywhere to
do the best thing then practicable for the black race, in
this country and in Africa; that desire prompting all
these movements, and sustaining them when providentially united in one.
Gen. Mercer was not present at the formation of the
Society. His plan was, colonization by the National and
State Governments; and, late in life, he expressed a
doubt whether more good would not have been done
by such action, if no Society had been formed; as the
movement would then have had the united support of
the South, which was lost by bringing Northern men
into the movement, and thus throwing important Southern interests " open to the public discussions and acts of
a Society spread through the United States, and to the
interference of other counsellors and agents than their
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HIISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
own Government." At the time, however, he made no
such objection.  His confidential friends took a leading
part in the formation of the Society, and he himself became one of its most active and efficient supporters.
In a few weeks, he procured the formation of several
auxiliaries in Virginia,. He procured, by personal solicitation, large donations to its funds.  He wrote several
of its earlier Reports.  He  rendered various services,
without which it is not easy to see how the Society
could ever have become active.
The first step towards planting a colony in Africa
was, to find and procure a location where it might be
planted and prosper. For this purpose, Africa must be
visited, and preliminary arrangements made. Samuel J.
Mills offered himself for that service, was accepted, and
authorized to select his companion. He selected his
friend, Ebenezer Burgess, now Rev. Dr. Burgess, of
Dedham, Mass., the man who, years before, had opposed
the plan for colonizing north the Ohio, because white
men would want that country, and argued that the
colony must be in Africa. Their letter of instructions
was dated Nov. 5, 1817.  Money to repay the expense
of the expedition was borrowed, and the loan repaid
from funds raised by Gen. Mercer and Rev. William
Meade, afterwards Bishop Meade of Virginia.
They sailed Nov. 16; Mills reiuarking to one of his
associates in these movements, as he was about to embark,   This is the most important enterprise in which
I have ever been engaged."  Arriving, in England in
10
73 
AMiERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY.
December, they were courteously received by His Royal
Highness the Duke of Gloucester, Patron and President, and by the other officers of the Afirican Institution.
Mr. Wilberforce introduced  them  to Lord Bathurst,
Secretary of State for the Colonies, who  gave  them
letters to the Governor and other officers at Sierra
Leone, directing them to aid the explorers in their explorations.  Having touched at the Gambia, they arrived
at Sierra Leone, March 22, 1818.  The Governor and
other officers received them with great personal kindness, and very literally obeyed the instructions of the
Home Government, as to ftirnishing facilities for inquiry,
but did not conceal their unwillingness that an Amnerican Colony should be established in their vicinity. The
principal merchants felt the same unwillingness.
They were more cordially received by the members
of the "Friendly Society," instituted among the  colonists at the suggestion of Paul Cuffee in 1811.  Its
President, John Kizell, who had been a slave in the
West Indies and the United States, entered heartily into
their plans, accompanied. them on some of their explorations, and introduced them to native chiefs over whom
he possessed much influence. They examined the coast
as far as Sherbro, obtained promises, that, on the arrival
of colonists, suitable land should be furnished for their
settlement, and being un able, for warnt of time and funds,
to visit the Bassa Country, Cape Palinas, Accra, and the
Bight of' Benin, as they desired, returned to Sierra
74 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
Leone, and, May 22, embarked for England on their
homeward voyage.
When they left home, Mills was suffering from a pulmonary disease. The climate of En,gland aggravated
it. That of Africa suspended its operation, as it often
does. A few days after leaving Sierra Leone it returned, aided by  a severe  cold;  and on the  16th
of June, lhe gently expired, and at sunset his body was
conmmitted to the ocean. Nearly thirty years ago, I
wrote, "It was fitting that the remains of such a man,
whose character no monument could suitably represent,
should rest where none could be attemnpted."  Now, it
has been mIade my duty to say, that, if the Society will
cause a monument to his memory to be erected in Liberia, the funds are ready to defray the expense. Liberia
has recorded her debt to both explorers, by uniting their
names in the name of Millsburgh, which, as the record
states, was devised for that purpose.
Their report established the fact, that territory might
be procured and a colony planted.  But how was the
Society to plant a colony. with less than three thousand
dollars in its treasury, and its receipts less than one
hundred dollars a month?'" A great political necessity"
furnished the means.
The Act of Congress of March 2, 1807, had prohibited the importation of slaves after the end of that
year, and provided for punishing the importer; but the
slave so imported became subject, like all other persons,
to the laws of the State in which he was found. In
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AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY.
several of the States, laws were enacted and legal proceedings devised, under which it was still found profitable to imnport slaves, and incur the penalty, if it could
not be evaded, as it often was. The first attempt to
interfere with this policy of the slave-traders was made
by the legislature of Georgia. That legislature enacted,
Dec. 19, 1817, that the Governor should take all such
imported slaves out of the hands of private speculators
into his own custody, and sell them at auction for the
benefit of the State treasury; provided, however, that
if the Colonization Society would undertake to transport them to Africa, and would pay all expenses incurred by the State, the Governor was requested to aid
the Society as he might deem expedient. This was the
first official movement, if not the first suggestion, for
the return of recaptured slaves to Africa.
~The Act of Congress of April 20, 1818, increased the
penalties of importation, but still left the slaves imported subject to the laws of the several States, and the
work still went on.
While Gen. Mercer was preparing the Second Annual
Report, to be presented in January, 1819, his attention
was drawn to these laws, and the practice under them.
The Report discussed the subject, and about forty pages
of its appendix were filled with documents showing the
facts. In Congress, Gen. Mercer procured the drafting
of a bill to remedy the evil, which passed both Houses,
and was approved by the President, Monroe, March 3,
1819. By this Act, all slaves illegally imported, or taken
76 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
at sea, were to be kept in the custody of the UnitedStates Government till removed beyond the limits of the
United States; and the President was to appoint an
agent or agents on the coast of Africa to receive them,
and the sum of one hundred thousand dollars was
appropriated to meet the expense.
About six weeks after this Act was passed, the Hon.
W. H. Crawford of Georgia, Secretary of the Treasury,
found, in a Georgia newspaper, an advertisement of
illegally imported slaves, to be sold at auction under the
State law of 1817. He immediately informed the Society; and the Rev. William Meade was sent to Georgia
as its agent, to receive them in behalf of the Society.
Litigation with Spanish claimants prevented immediate
success; but, some years afterwards, they were delivered
to the Society, and sent to Africa. There was then
about fifty thousand dollars in the State treasury, as
the proceeds of such sales. This the Society hoped to
obtain; but there was no law authorizing the Governor
to pay it over, and it was not done.
President Monroe, as appears by his Message of Dec.
17, 1819, understood the law of March 3 to mean, that
a suitable residence must be provided, on the coast of
Africa, for the agents and those intrusted to their care.
For this purpose he determined to send a ship to the
coast, with two agents, and the necessary men and
means to procure a place and make it habitable.
Evidently, this work of the Government and the enterprise of the Society might best be prosecuted by
77 
AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY.
their united action in establishing one settlement, where
the agents of both should reside, and to which emigrants
and recaptured slaves should be sent. The Government
appointed the Rev. Samuel Bacon, already in the service
of the Society, as its agent, with whomn Mr. John P.
Bankson was afterwards associated.   The Society appointed Dr. Samuel A. Crozer its sole agent.  The Government chartered the ship "Elizabeth," of three hundred tons, and " agreed to receive onil board such free
blacks, recommended by the Society, as might be required
for the purposes of the agency." Dr. Crozer took out
goods and stores for the purchase of land and the use of
the emigrants. The emigrants were all considered as
attached to this joint agency of the Government, and
were to be entirely subjected to its control till regularly
discharged. They were to erect cottages for at least
three hundred recaptured Africans, and cultivate land
for their own subsistence.   For the expenses of the
expedition, the Government placed more than thirty
thousand dollars in the hands of Mr. Bacon, and sent a
ship of war to co-operate.  Thus provided, the "Elizabeth" sailed from New York, Feb. 6,1820 with eightyeight emigrants from Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania,
and New York.
And in this co-operation, to which the Government
found itself forced by its own necessities, the Society
first found the power to go forward and accomplish its
work. And if the ancients were right in considering
the immense fountain which bursts forth by the side of
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HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
a streamlet and transforms it into a river, the true
source of the river, to be honored by altars and worship,
with equal propriety may your monuments distinguish
this point in the stream of your history.
President Monroe appears to have been a constant
friend of colonization ever since 1801, when, as Governor
of Virginia, he corresponded with Jefferson on the subject. He gave an attentive ear to the Annual Reports
of the Society, showing the condition of the slave-trade,
and tile need of action for its suppression. His known
sentiments encouraged Gen. Mercer to prepare and procure the enactment of the law of 1819.  His interpretation and execution of that law furnished the means by
which the work was begun. And the then youthful and
ardent friend, whose presence forbids fit eulogy now,
was right, when he first suggested that the metropolis
of the nascent State should, by its name, commemorate
his mnerits.
The first emigrants were to erect houses for three
hundred recaptured slaves. The whole number of such,
for whom the Government has found it necessary to
provide through the Society, has been five thousand
seven hundred and twenty-two. The resident agency
of the United States for recaptured Africans continued,
though occasionally vacant, till the declaration of Liberian independence. All this could not have been done,
and well done, without a colony large and strong enough
to live by its own vitality; and, therefore, the substantial success of our enterprise was a national necessity.
79 
AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY.
Such, as we have seen, were the forces which caused
this Society to be formed; such the process of its formation; such the national need of its aid, which procured for it the means of successful activity. Having
seen these, let us pass rapidly over events, the exciting
and tragic interest of which have caused them to be
abundantly recorded elsewhere, —the arrival of the
"Elizabeth" at Sierra Leone; the cordial reception of
the emigrants by Kizell, at Camnpelar, his own place on
Sherbro Island; the discouraging attempts to purchase
land for a permanent settlement, defeated, -not by the
treachery of Kizell, for he was no traitor, -but by
secret influences from those at Sierra Leone, who wished
the colony all success, but at a much greater distance
from themselves; the hardships, sickness, and deaths
heroically endured; the removal from Cainpelar to
Fourah Bay; the purchase of Cape Mesurado by Capt.
Stockton and Dr. Ayres, at the risk of their lives; the
arrival of the colonists, and their lodgment on an island,
Jan. 7, 1822; the occupation of the Cape, April 25; the
return of the agents, and the proposal that the emigrants also should return, and the enterprise be abandoned;  the heroic reply of Elijah Johnson,  "No:  I
have been two years searching for a home in Africa,
and I have found it; and I shall stay here;" the heroic
determinatiom of the others to remain with him; his appointmnent as sole agent; the troubles and dangers from
the first, and then, and afterwards, from a host of native
kings, who regretted the sale of the Cape, and determined
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HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
to expel or exterminate the colony, lest it should interfere with the slave-trade; the offer of a force of marines
from a British man-of-war, if Johnson would only cede
a few feet of ground on which to erect a British flag;
his prompt reply, " We want no flag-staff put up here,
that will cost more to get it down again than it will to
whip the natives;" the arrival of Ashmun,  and his
assumption of the agency, Aug. 9, 1822; his energetic
labors, both diplomatic and military, for the protection
of the colony; the assault on the settlement on the
morning of Nov. 11, by about eight hundred natives,
and their repulse by the thirty-five colonists, capable
of bearing arms; the second assault, by perhaps twice
their former number, Dec. 2, and their final defeat.
Passing by all these, let us examine a crisis in the affairs
of the colony, involving and elucidating a principle, and
itself needing elucidation.
There had been complaints against the colonists of
turbulence and insubordination. They, in turn, accused
the Agents of oppression and other offences. The trouble
grew into what was called "mutiny" and "sedition."
Numbers utterly refused obedience to the Agent, and
proceeded to take forcibly their supply of food from the
public store. How can we account for the fact, that such
men as Lot Cary, and others, were betrayed into such
conduct? True, there had been complaints about the
distribution of lands, and other acts of the several Agents,
and representations had been sent to the Society; but
these are insufficient to explain it.
11
81 
AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY.
The explanation must be found in the fact, that the
colony had really no civil government. What occupied
the place of a civil government was a pure despotism
of an agent, resting on no legal basis, and possessing
no physical force with which to compel obedience. Of
course, the colonists, though they appear to have been
far from comprehending the difficulty, felt that something was wanting, something out of order, something
wrong; and were "insubordinate."
That such an assertion may be received, it needs to
be proved. Consider, then, that the "Elizabeth" and
her company were sent out by the United States, and not
by the Society. Ship, money, and mnen were under the
direction of the government's agents, with instructions
to build houses for three hundred recaptured slaves.
Their instructions said,  "You are not to exercise any
power or authority founded on the principles of colonization, but to confine yourselves to that of performing
the benevolent intentions of the Act of Congress of
March 3, 1819." And the President, in his message of
Dec. 20, 1819, said that they would receive "an express injunction to exercise no power founded on the
principle of colonization, or other power than that of
performing the benevolent offices above recited, by the
permission and sanction of the existing government
under which they may establish themselves." There is
not only no authority given to the agents to establish a
government, but an express assumption that the place
selected would be under a government existing inde
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HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
pendently of them, "by the permission and sanction"
of which they would act. Evidently the colonists had
no civil government derived fromn this source.
Does the deed of cession by which the territory
was holden throw any light on the subject? That
deed
"Witnesseth, That whereas certain persons, citizens of the
United States of America, are desirous to establish themselves on
the western coast of Africa, and have invested Capt. Robert F.
Stockton and Eli Ayres with full powers to treat with and purchase
from us, the said kings, princes and headmen, certain lands
[which are described], we do hereby, in consideration of [certain
specified articles of merchandise], forever cede and relinquish the
above-described  lands  to  Capt. Robert  F. Stockton  and  Eli
Ayres, To Have and To  Hold the said premises for the use of
these said citizens of America."
We must carefully observe that Capt. Stockton and
Dr. Ayres do not appear in this transaction as agents of
the United States, or of the Colonization Society, but
as agents of " certain persons " who were " desirous of
establishing themselves on the western coast of Africa,"
that is, of the colonists. The colonists, the deed says,
had-invested them with full powers to treat with kings
for the cession of territory. Certainly, land bought by
their authorized agents for their use, and ceded for their
use "forever," was their land. It never became the
property of the United States, or of the Society. The
next paragraph confirms this view:
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AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY.
"The contracting parties pledge themselves to live in peace and
friendship forever; and do further contract not to make war, or
otherwise molest or disturb each other."
The "contracting parties" who thus mutually pledge
themselves are evidently the kings, princes and headmen, on the one part, and the colonists on the other.
With the right of soil, the right of jurisdiction passed
from the kings to the other contracting party,-the
colonists. They were the supreme lords of the soil, and
had a natural right to organize and establish a government for it. But they had not exercised that right.
There was no existing civil government resting on that
basis.
The Society had acted on this subject seasonably. Its
Board of Managers, June 26, 1820, while the emigrants
were still at Campelar, adopted a "Constitution for the
Government of the African Settlement at —."  Of
course, it could not go into operation as a civil government "at," or at all, while they were living
within the jurisdiction of some other government
already established. Its first article, as amended Dec.
20, was,
"All persons born within the limits of the territory held by the
American Colonization  Society in, or remaining there to
reside, shall be free, and entitled to all such rights and privileges
as are enjoyed by the citizens of the United States."
By its own terms, it applied only to territory held by
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HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
the Society; and Cape Mesurado, as has been shown,
was not held by the Society, but by Capt. Stockton and
Dr. Ayres, as agents of the emigrants; that is, by the
emigrants themselves. What authority had a constitution, formed  by  an unincorporated  association  of
private individuals in another country, three thousand
miles off, over a territory which was not their property,
but the property of its inhabitants, who, tacting as a
sovereign people, had procured it by a treaty of cession
and peace with sovereign princes? The seventh article however, provides that "every settler coming to the
age of twenty-one years, and those now of age, shall
take an oath or affirmation to support the constitution."
Mr. Ashmun, in his address to the colonists, March 22,
1824, reminded them that they had taken that oath. By
that oath, the individuals who took it certainly placed
themselves under a moral obligation to obey the constitution thus made for them by others, though they had
never adopted it, as a body, by any public act. Let us
look, then, at its provisions.
The first article, as we have seen, provides that all
the colonists should be entitled to " all such rights and
privileges as are enjoyed by the citizens of the United
States." The word " citizens," having been substituted
by amendment for "free people," must be taken to
secure all the rights and privileges by which citizens are
distinguished from "people" merely "free."  The oath
bound them to support this article as much as any
other.
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AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY.
"AnT. 2.- The  Colonization Society shall, from time to time,
make all such rules as they may think fit for the government of
the settlement, until they shall withdraw their agents, and leave
the settlers to govern themselves."
This expressly takes from these "citizens" the "right
and privilege" of making any law or "rule" for their
own government, and subjects them to whatever rules
the Society shall "see fit" to make for them; and, taken
in connection with the tenth article, restrains them from
the " right and privilege " of altering or amending their
own constitution, and confers that right on the Managers of the Society. The eighth article confers unlimited legislative power on the Society's resident Agents,
subject only to repeal by the Board of Managers.
The third article invests the Agents with all judicial
power, except such as they should delegate to Justices
of the Peace of their own appointment, if they should
choose to appoint any.
The fourth article gives the Agents the appointment
of all officers not appointed by the Board of Managers,
and of judging for themselves what officers are needed.
The "settlers" being thus deprived of all voice in
their own government, either in the making of laws or
the choice of officers to administer them, it is not easy
to see what rights and privileges enjoyed by citizens
of the United States, in distinction from people merely
free, were left to them.
It does not appear from any published record, that
the colonists understood those legal difficulties; but it
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HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
is evident from their conduct that they did not feel that
reverence for laws thus made for them, which American
citizens" usually feel for laws in the making of which
they have borne their part.  There was "insubordination." Ashmnun, faithful to the Society and to his own
convictions, did his best to repress it, but in vain. Complaints were sent to the Society against his administration; and the evil increased, till, in utter discouragement,
he put the government into the hands of Elijah Johnson, and embarked for the Cape Verde Islands. He had
already informed the Board of Managers, that, in his
opinion, "the evil was incurable by any means which
fall within their existing provisions."
In this emergency, the Government, on representations of the Society, sent out the armed schooner "Porpoise," with Ralph Randolph Gurley, a young man then
unknown to fame, duly commissioned and empowered
by the Government and the Society to ascertain the
condition of affairs, and "to make such temporary arrangements for the security of the public interests and
the government of the establishment, as, upon proper
consideration, circumstances might, in his judgment,
require." Touching at Porto Praya, he unexpectedly
met Mr. Ashmun, who  returned with him to Cape
Mesurado, where they arrived Aug. 13, 1824.
On their voyage of three weeks to the Cape, they
carefully discussed these troubles, their causes, and their
remedy. After their arrival, the colonists were heard
and consulted, misapprehensions were dispelled, and
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AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY.
specific grievances received satisfactory attention. But
the chief attention was given to establishing " an efficient government, founded in the approbation of the
people, and adaptable not only to their present but
fuAture necessities." The probable necessity of such a
work had occurred to Mr. Gurley on his voyage from
the Cape Verdes, if not before; and facts ascertained
after his arrival fully proved it.
In the end, a "Plan for the Civil Government of
Liberia" was adopted, according to which there was to
be a Vice-agent; appointed by the Agent from three
nominated by the people, unless he saw fit to disapprove
the choice and order a new election. He was to advise
and assist the Agent, and perform his duties ill case of
absence or disability. Two Councillors, to be associated
with the Vice-agent as a council on all public affairs, and
several important committees, were to be appointed in
like manner.  There was to be a judiciary, consisting of
the Agent and two Justices of the Peace appointed by
him; and he was to appoint the necessary executive
officers. The supremacy of the Society, in cases of last
resort, was retained and established.
The colonists, now increased to a hundred, were convened' beneath the thatched roof of the first rude
house for divine worship ever erected in the colony."
The Plan of Government was read and explained to
them, and received their unanimous approval, and solemn pledge "to maintain it as the constitution of their
choice." Receiving also the assent of the special Agent
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HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
of the Society and the United States, sent out with full
power on their part "to establish a government," no one
could deny that it was, from that hour, in force on a
legitimate basis; and, with amendments and changes
regularly made as occasions have required, it is in force
still.
True, the Society had still the ultimate decision of all
questions of government; but it henceforth held this
power, not by its own assumption, but by the vote of
the people, who, by their own act, made the Society a
department of their own government.
This change was not the work of Mr. Ashmun. He
distrusted the fitness of the colonists to take any part
in the government, and only consented to it as an experiment, because some change must be made. He was
even alarmed at its ready and unanimous acceptance by
the people, fearing that they did not understand it, or
reserved the expression of their dissent for a more
favorable opportunity.
Neither was it the work of the Board of Managers.
When reported to them, they resolved, Dec. 29, 1824,
that "such parts as could not well be dispensed with
might be tried as an experiment of the Agent," but
gave it no further sanction; and in their Annual Report
in January, without publishing it, plainly intimated
their dissent.
The whole responsibility, therefore, for this Plan of
Government, rested on him who proposed it and those
who adopted it. Events soon justified their action, even
12
89 
AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY.
in the judgment of those who at first condemned it.
At a meeting held May 18, 1825, it was
",Resolved, That the Board of Managers, considering the satisfactory information afforded by recent accounts from the colony
of the successful operation of the plan for the civil government
thereof, as established by their Agents in August last, and seeing
therein reasons to reconsider their instructions to the Agent of the
29th of December, 1824, now approve the principles in that form
of government, and give their sanction to the same."
And in their next Annual Report, January, 1826, they
say, -
"The new system of government organized in the colony immediately after the return of the present Agent, Mr. Ashmun, from
the Cape de Verdes, has resulted in the most beneficial effects.
It was deemed important to render, as far as practicable, all the
political arrangements of the colony, so many preparatory measures to its independence; and to this end is the government which
has been established believed to be particularly adapted. The
whole system went into operation with the full sanction of the
people. The spirit of restlessness and insubordination ceased from
the first day of its operation; indolence, despondency, and distrust
were succeeded by industry, enterprise, and confidence; and the
experience of more than a year has confirmed the hope, that it
will, at least for a considerable time, fulfil all the purposes of its
institution."
Mr. Ashmun's distrust, also, soon disappeared. His
despatches authorized and compelled the change of opinion in the Board of Managers. He soon disbanded, as
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HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
useless, the military guard of twelve men, which he at
first thought necessary for his own protection amidst
the dangers of the experiment. And, early in 1828, the
Board received from him a plan of government, the
same in principle, and to some extent in language; but
drawn out in much greater detail, and placing a much
greater amount of power directly in the hands of the
people; and at a meeting of the Managers, Oct. 22,
1828, it was adopted by them as the Constitution of Liberia.
The modesty of the principal actor, and his delicate
regard for the feelings of others, in his Life of Ashmun
and in the Annual Reports prepared by him, have made
the part he acted less prominent than its merits deserve.
He has even left it doubtful how far he saw the defects
and inconsistencies of the original constitution. But it
is enough for his glory, that he alone among white men
saw the safety of trusting a negro people with sonme
part in the management of their own concerns; and
that, by boldly acting on his belief, he placed his name
on the not long list of legislators whose wisdom organized States on principles that secured peace, permanency, coherence, and a healthy growth.
The second decade, and the first half of the third,from 1830 to 1845, -were distinguished by the independent action of State societies; of Maryland first,
purchasing and settling Cape Palmas; then of New
York; then of Pennsylvania; then of Pennsylvania
and New York united, and the planting of the settle
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AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY.
ments on the St. John's River by their united action;
the setting apart, by the parent Society, of lands for
the Kentucky, Mississippi, and Louisiana Societies, on
which, however, separate colonies were never organized;
the plan for uniting all these colonies, planted and projected, in one federal republic; all these things leading
naturally to changes in the constitution of the Parent
Society, making its supreme Board of Directors mainly
a Board of Delegates from the State Societies. A proper discussion of this period would require a laborious
examination of the published and unpublished documents of the Parent and the several State Societies,
and of the often conflicting recollections and opinions
of living witnesses. Its discussion is the less important, because those arrangements, however expedient
or even necessary they may have been or appeared to
be at the time, have passed away. Those colonies are
now only parts of a single republic, "one and indivisible;" and though most of the State Societies still retain
the power of separate action, they find little occasion
to use it. Let us, therefore, pass on to the next topic
involving a crisis,
January, 1845, the Legislature of Liberia was in session; for, by successive amendments of her constitution,
she now had a legislature, with power to make all necessary laws, subject, however, to the veto of the Society.
She had a governor, - Joseph J. Roberts, - first elected
lieutenant-governor by the people, and appointed governor by the Society after the death of Governor Bu
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HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
chanan, in 1841. Her government was authorized to
make treaties with the neighboring tribes; but these,
also, were subject to the veto of the Society. For several years, however, the Society had found no occasion
demanding the exercise of its veto power. By treaties
with the native powers, several valuable tracts of territory had been acquired, including some important points
for trade; and settlements had been made upon them,
and regular government established. Laws had been
enacted, regulating commerce, and imposing duties on
imported goods.
For several centuries, British subjects had been accustomed to trade on this coast for slaves and other
African commodities. Even after the act of Parliament
of 1807 prohibiting the slave-trade, they continued the
traffic as they could. Some of them dealt in slaves, at
least till June, 1813, when His Majesty's ship "Thais"
landed forty men at Cape Mesurado, and after a battle,
in which they lost one man killed, stormed the barracoons of Bostock and McQuinn, British subjects, and
captured their owners.   When direct participation in
the slave-trade had become too dangerous to be continued, they still carried on a lucrative commerce with
the natives, and with slave-traders of other nations, who
were glad to find on the coast a supply of such English
goods as were necessary for their business.   Very naturally, such men were unwilling that a regular government, with law, civilization, and Christianity, should take
possession of their old haunts of trade. They refused
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AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY.
to obey the laws. They landed goods without paying
duties; and when the goods were seized by the collector, and sold according to law, they applied to the
British Government for redress.
That Government seems to have been, at first, somewhat embarrassed. It opened a correspondence with
ours, to ascertain whether Liberia was a colony of the
United States. Our government replied, through Mr.
Everett at London and Mr. Upshur at Washington, that
Liberia was not a colony of the United States, but " an
independent political community," founded for benevolent purposes, in which all nations ought to desire its
success; and that, as such, it needed and had a right to
acquire territory and govern it, which right all nations
ought to respect.
Having ascertained this, the British Government at
once proceeded to sustain the claims of the British
traders, denying the right of the Liberians to acquire
territory by treaty, or to govern that lately acquired;
though, for more than twenty years, they had been
allowed, without objection, to acquire and govern Cape
Mesurado and other important places; and they were
made to understand that the British navy would enforce
this decision of the British Government.
These difficulties were now before the legislature.
What could be done? A treaty must be negotiated
with Great Britain. The Liberian Constitution made
no provision for negotiating treaties, except with the
neighboring tribes, and those subject to the veto of the
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HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
Society.   The Society was not a sovereign power, with
whom Great Britain could negotiate; nor had it, under
its own constitution or that of Liberia, any power concerning treaties, except that of veto. A crisis had come,
to which the structure of the Liberian Government was
not adapted. The legislature informed the Society of
the difficulties and dangers growing out of their alleged want of national sovereignty, and requested its
consideration and advice.
When the Directors of the Society met in January,
1846, these matters had been before their minds for
months, and they were prepared to act. The constitution of the Society was amended in several respects, and
especially by striking out whatever related to the governnent of the colonies. It was then
Resolved, That, in the opinion of this Board, the time has
arrived when it is expedient for the people of the Commonwealth of Liberia to take into their own hands the whole work of
self-government, including the management of all their foreign
relations; and that this Society should cease to exercise any part of
the same.
Resolved, That we recommend to them so to amend their
constitution, as is necessary for the accomplishment of this object.
Resolved, That we recommend to them to publish to the world
a declaration of their true character, as a sovereign and indepenldent State.
The resolutions took this shape for the sake of avoiding all appearance of conferring rights of sovereignty on
tile people of Liberia. Those rights were theirs already,
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AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY.
and had been ever since they were a people. They were
advised, not to make themselves into a new sovereign
State not before existing, but to publish a declaration of
their true character, as being one already. It was not
for the Society to give them a new constitution. It was
their right and their duty, as a sovereign people, to
make one for themselves. The Society did not relinquish to them its power in their government.  What it
had, they had conferred upon it by their constitution,
and they were advised to take it away.
On the reception of this advice in Liberia, the legislature, at a special session, instructed the governor to
submit the question to the people in their primary
assemblies.  The people voted, Oct. 27, 1846, in favor
of assuming the entire responsibility of their government.   The legislature, at its next session, ordered a
convention of delegates to form a new constitution.
The convention assembled, and, after twenty-one days
of deliberation, adopted, on the twenty-sixth day of
July, 1847, their new Constitution and Declaration of Independence. In September, the Constitution was ratified
by the almost unanimous vote of the people in their
primary assemblies. The Governor, Joseph J. Roberts,
was elected President.  On the third day of January,
1848, he delivered his inaugural address; and the new
government went into operation. In the course of that
year, the independence of the Republic was formally
acknowledged by the governments of Great Britain and
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HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
France. It has since been acknowledged by nearly
all the leading States of Europe and America.
Nor is the young Republic without influence in the
family of nations. In 1853, agents of the British Government were endeavoring to prosecute the coolie-trade
in the vicinity, and even within the legal jurisdiction,
of the Republic. The vigorous and decided measures of
President roberts checked it; and, after a few words in
Parliament, the attempt was abandoned. A few years
afterwards, agents of the French Government engaged
in a similar attempt so pertinaciously, that President
Benson was obliged to send his predecessor as amnbassador to Paris on the subject.   The result was the entire
abolition of that traffic on the whole coast of Africa, east
as well as west.
It was a remark of one of the wisest men who ever
acted as agent for a colonization society, that Divine
Providence intends Liberia as a proof to all nations, that
free institutions are adapted to the wants and capacities
of every race of men. To prove it, God has taken a
portion of the race that the wisdom of this world would
pronounce - indeed, had pronounced - the most incapable of successful self-government, and has placed the
duty and burden of self-government upon them; and they
have borne it, and they are bearing it, with complete
success. The whole history of Liberia corroborates this
remark, - from the first years of Ashmun, when affairs
went badly for want of self-government; from Gurley's
first visit, when the introduction of the principle,
13
97
11 
AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY.
and a little of the practice, gave peace and prosperity; down to the present time, when that little
young republic is not only recognized as one in the
family of nations, but commands a degree of respect,
and exerts an amount of influence, among the nations,
altogether out of proportion to her population or her
resources.
The principles and designs from which she originated, and the whole course of her history, and of God's
dealings with her, authorize us to offer with confidence
the prayer for her perpetuity, Esto perpetua.
A few words are demanded by a topic which could
not be introduced in its chronological place without disturbing the continuity of the narrative.
It will be remembered that when Di. Hopkins visited
Dr. Stiles, in 1773, it was to consult about educating
two young men as missionaries to Africa, and their plan
for a colony grew out of their conviction of the necessity of such a basis for missionary labors; and that, of
the young men educated through their exertions, two,
in 1826, when they were old, actually sailed to Liberia,
not expecting to live and labor, but to set an example
of Christian enterprise for the land of their fathers.
The missionary element, it is well known, was strong in
the nlinds of Mills and his associates at Andover, and
of Finley and his brethren in New Jersey. However
strong it may have been in the minds of individuals in
Virginia, it could not well show itself in their legislative
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HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
action, and does not, therefore, appear on the record.
But it was actively alive among the colored people in
that State. They, even as early as 1815, before our
Society was formed, organized an African Missionary
Society in Richmond, which contributed from a hundred to a hundred and fifty dollars annually.  This
might be, and probably was, expended in the support
of English missions at or near Sierra Leone. In 1818,
a similar society was formed in Petersburg, which, in
April, 1819, proposed to our Society that some of its
members should be sent out as colonists for missionary
purposes. The Richmond Society sent out its most able
and zealous member, the Rev. Lot Cary, who went out in
our second company, by the "Nautilus," arriving at Sierra
Leone in March, 1821, and was among the first who
took possession of Cape Mesurado. The Richmond Society is understood to have made remittances to him
for several years, and perhaps to the close of his life, in
1828. Besides his labors at and near his home, he commenced a mission, fifty miles distant, among the Vey
people at Cape Mount; employing John Revey, afterwards Secretary of the Maryland Colony at Cape Palmas, as a schoolmaster.  It was of short continuance;
but its influence on the mind of one of the pupils led to
the invention, years afterwards, of the syllabic alphabet
for the Vey language, the discovery of which by a German missionary, after it had been long in use, excited
much interest in the literary world.
This opening  for missions attracted  attention in
p
.
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AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY.
Europe. In October, 1825, the Rev. Dr. Blumhardt,
Principal of the Missionary College at Basle in Switzer   land, wrote to Mr. Ashmun, requesting information on
the subject. Mr. Ashmun replied favorably the next
April. Four young men were sent out as missionaries.
The climate did not allow this mission to be permanent.
Some died, and the health of others failed; but, before
its dispersion, it exerted a beneficial influence, especially
on the minds of some young Liberians, which is felt to
this day.
The first white missionary from the United States
appears to have been the Rev. Calvin Holton, a Baptist,
who sailed from Boston in the " Vine," in 1826.  "He
was not suffered to continue, by reason of death." He
was followed by a noble army of martyrs, Baptist, Meth   odist, Presbyterian, and Episcopalian; but their use   futlness has consisted mostly in the support and direction
given to pious Liberians who have labored under them
or with them, and who often well supplied their places
when vacant. As a result, nearly all the churches in
the Republic contain native communicants, who are con   verts from heathenism.
In February, March, and April, 1819, two missionary
explorers from Sierra Leone, with an interpreter, care   fully examined the whole coast from Sherbro to the St.
John's River. They suffered repeatedly from theft, de  tected and defeated two conspiracies to rob and murder
them, and returned, having found no place where a
mnission could be hopefully attempted. Our first emi  grants sailed in February, 1820.
....'.
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HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
Now, that whole line of coast, with as much more beyond it to the south and east, some five hundred and
twenty miles in all, is under the jurisdiction of a Chris
tian State, with Christian laws and institutions; with
its common schools, high schools, and college; with a
nominally Christian population of some fifteen to twenty thousand, and a native population of some hundreds
of thousands, among whom heathenism has lost much
of its power, and is fast losing the remainder; among
whom missionary stations are numerous, both on the
coast and in the interior; the line of apparent danger,
or even difficulty, silently and quietly receding before
them as they advance. And Liberian Christians are
planning and acting very intelligently for their advancement.
Attorney-General Erskine, of Liberia, emigrated from
East Tennessee with his father in his boyhood. He has
been, for many years, one of the most able and influential Presbyterian missionaries there. If our ship, the
"Golconda," has made a successful voyage, she has just
landed at Cape Mount a hundred and forty-four emigrants, selected by him in his native region, to strengthen the settlement at Cape Mount, so as make it a better
base for missionary operations among the Veys,
The Vey people are intimately connected with the
Mandingoes, the great trading-people of Western Africa,
who read, write, and keep accounts in the Arabic
language, and whose commercial intercourse extends
to the comparatively civilized nations of Central Africa,
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AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY.
where the Arabic is vernacular. To those nations,
European missionary societies have been in vain seeking access through Egypt and Abessinia for half a century. Liberia College has already begun to distribute
Arabic books, from the press of the American mission at
Beiruit in Syria, among the Mandingoes; and that
mission has furnished books for further distribution, containing a Circular Letter "from the learned men of
Mount Lebanon to the learned men of Moghreb," that
is, of the West, inviting correspondence, and offering a
supply of books through Liberia College, the geographical position of which, and its objects, are described.
As things move slowly in Africa) the desired result,
though confidently expected, must be distant. But the
planting of those hundred and forty-four missionary
colonists at Cape Mount is exactly the right thing,
at the right place, to hasten it; and it is only one of
many instances showing the care and thought of Liberian Christians for their brethren still in the darkness
of heathenism.
Thus the early missionary plans of Hopkins and
Stiles, of Mills and Burgess, and Finley and Caldwell,
and of Lot Cary and his society at Richmond, are more
than executed already; and of their ultimate hope, the
Christian civilization of Africa, the dawn distinctly appears.
102 
ADDRESS
OF THE
RT. REV. THOMAS M. CLARK, D.D.  
ADDRESS OF RT. REV. THIIOMAS M31. CLARK, D.D.
BISHOP OF PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH, RHODE ISLAND.
WE celebrate the present anniversary of the American Colonization Society under peculiar and interesting
auspices. Fifty years ago a few far-sighted Christian
men, actuated by a pure and earnest faith, and having
in view simply the elevation of the African and the rescue of Africa from barbarism, laid the foundation of an
enterprise which has ever since pursued its quiet and
unobtrusive way, gradually gaining favor and influence,
and commending itself more and more to the favor of the
judicious and the good. It has not failed to encounter
some opposition, and this has come from very different
quarters. On the one hand, it has been objected that
the policy of the Society tended to rivet the chains
of African slavery, and, on the other, that it must result
in disturbing and making insecure the relations of the
master and the slave. Both of these objections could
hardly be valid  and now that, in the providence of God,
the institution of slavery in this Republic no longer
exists, both have ceased to have any pertinence, as indeed neither ever had any foundation.
14 
AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY.
The cause of African colonization stands before the
nation to-day in a new and most important aspect. By
a process which, ten years ago, no one dreamed of or
thought possible, four millions of slaves have been suddenly emancipated. The freedom of the African has
been purchased at a terrible price; and the wrongs
which our fathers inflicted upon these people when they
tore them from their native homes, and brought them
here to labor and die on a foreign shore, we have been
made to expiate in tears and blood.  Neither has this
great end been accomplished without the endurance of
terrible suffering on the part of the slaves themselves.
Thousands upon thousands have perished by the highway, of cold and hunger; and, in this bleak January
night, tens of thousands are wanderers without a roof
to shelter them.
What is to be done for this great multitude of human
beings, thus suddenly cast upon their own resources?
How are the new relations in which they stand to society to be adjusted? What is to be their social condition
and their final destiny?  These are questions involving
one of the most delicate, difficult, and solemn problems
ever presented to the consideration of man. They demand the broadest, profoundest, and  most  impartial
judgment. It is unfortunate for the country, and unpropitious to the liberated slave, that they have become
so intimately identified with political controversy, and,
therefore, so much in danger of being handled mainly
with a view to political and party ends.  Tile call is all
106 
ADDRESS OF BISHOP CLARK.
the more imperative upon those who really have at
heart the welfare of the African, and honestly desire his
elevation, to rally in his behalf, and, if possible, save him
from being crushed between the Northern and the
Southern mill-stone.
The opinions of men as to the probable future of the
African in this country are various and discordant. The
remark most common upon the lips of those whom you
meet in ordinary intercourse is, that the race will, sooner
or later, fade away and become extinct. All history, we
are told, shows that it is impossible for two distinct races
to dwell together on terms of equality in the same land;
and the inferior must yield either to the process of absorption or extermination.
The statistics of our Northern cities are cited in confirmation of this theory. When the census of 1860 was
taken in Philadelphia, it was found that, during a period of
six months, there were among this people only one hundred and forty-eight births to three hundred and six
deaths; the deaths being more than double the births.
In Boston, from the years 1855 to 1862, there were
three hundred and four births and five hundred deaths.
This ratio, of course, is very much affected by the laws
of climate. The North is not the natural home of the
African, and he can hardly be expected to thrive there;
but the returns from the whole United States show that
while the rate of annual deaths among the whites is less
than two and three-quarters per cent, or about one in
every thirty-seven of the living, among the colored, it is
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AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY.
about three and a half per cent, or one in every twentyeight.
In rejoinder to this theory, it is argued, that inasmuch
as labor is the great want of our land, and there are departments of work which this race can supply to better
advantage than any other people, it will be for our interest to save them from  decay  and  extermination.
Unlike the original Indian, they are a laboring people,
and they will, therefore, always continue to live amongst
us, and increase and multiply, although it may be that
their social position in many respects will be, as it has
been, inferior and subordinate.
There are others who take much higher ground as to
the future of the Republic.  They affirm that we have
only to give him all his political rights, and place him
on precisely the same ground of political equality with
other American citizens, and he will soon become competent to use those rights wisely and intelligently. The
social bar which has thus far impeded his elevation will
in time give way before the fact that he is endowed
with all the privileges and immunities which belong to
every other member of the Republic, and all distinctions of caste will gradually cease to exist.
I do not feel qualified to cast the horoscope of the African; neither do I think that any man living, with the
material now on hand, is able to do it. The argument
upon which I base the claims of this Society does not
require that we should penetrate the secrets of the future. That the great body of this people are needed
108 
ADDRESS OF BISHOP CLARK.
here, and that at present no other class is competent to
take their place; that they are capable of education,
and have a claim upon us to give them this great boon
without stint or measure; that they possess such qualities as may, with proper training, make them useful
members of society; that every protection should be
thrown around them which the most impartial law can
provide; that full political rights should be conferred
upon them, just as soon and just as far as they become
capable of exercising those rights intelligently,- on
these points I do not think there is room for debate.
But, supposing all this to be done, and all the benefits to accrue which might reasonably be expected, still
in this land the African will always be an exotic. It is
not the region for which the Almighty endowed him.
He cannot thrive here as he will under his native skies.
He will have difficulties to overcome peculiar to his race
and condition. He will have to fight against obstructions
which are not shared by the white man. No legislation,
no change or improvement in public sentiment, can
avert this result; and these embarrassments he will' feel
all the more as he rises in rank and culture. They are
experienced at the North, where slavery has been long
abolished, and where no distinction of color is recognized by law, just as keenly and painfully as ever; and,
therefore, there will always be a class of men and women of African descent, and this of the higher order,
who will desire to extricate themselves from these unpropitious circumstances, and find a home for themselves
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AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY.
and for their children in that land where their race are
supreme, independent of protection or patronage, and
where they may become the architects of their own
destiny.
I have the same respect for God's image, whether it
stands before me blanched or bronzed. It is the man whlom
I regard; and intelligence and virtue make the man, not
the pigment under his skin. But, if African blood ran
in my veins, I would not live here, to be kicked about
like a foot-ball from pillar to post, while politicians play
their game; to be insulted by the very patronage of
those who assume to be my special advocates; to be
mTade a public spectacle of wonder if I happened to excel in any great thing, and to be charged with natural
and invincible infirmity if I could not break through
the iron walls which encompass me. I would go to the
land of my fathers, where I could feel that my soul is
my own; where I should be called to make no apology
for the impertinence of having been born; where I
could rule, instead of being ruled; where the highest
posts of honor and influence are open to me and my
children; where no white man is to say whether I shall
vote or not; and, if none would help me to go, I would
live on a crust and grind my bones with labor, till I had
earned enough to carry me there. And yet there are
those, calling themselves the exclusive friends of the
African, who are exerting all their efforts to hinder him
from doing this very thing. Here let me quote the
words of Edward Everett: "Suppose any one had gone
110 
ADDRESS OF BISHOP CLARK.
among that little company of persecuted Christians in
England, in the year 1608, who afterward became the
Pilgrim Church at Leyden; or suppose any one had
gone in 1630 to the more important company of Gov.
Winthrop, the great founder of Massachusetts; had tried
to excite their feelings against the projected emigration; had told them that England belonged to them
as much as it did to their oppressors; had led them to
stand upon their rights, and, if necessary, bleed and
die for them; had depicted the hardships and sufferings
of the passage; had painted in the darkest colors the
terrors of the wilderness into which they were about to
venture. Would that have been true friendship? Would
it have been kindness? Would it lhave been humanity? Or to come nearer homne: suppose, at the present day, one should go into Ireland, or France, or Switzerland, or Germany, or Norway, or any of the countries from which hundreds of thousands of men, in a depressed, destitute, and unhappy condition, are emigrating to the United States to find a refuge, a home, a
social position, and employment; suppose any one
should go to them, and try to stimulate a morbid patriotism, a bitter nationality, telling them the country
where they were born belonged as much to them as to
the more favored classes; inducing them to stay where
they were born; telling them that it was doubtful whether they would get employment in the new country;
talking of the expense, the diseases, the hardships of
the poor emigrants, and in this way endeavor to deter
ill 
AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY.
them from this great adventure, which is to end in procuring a home and a position in the world and an education for themselves and their children. Would this be
friendship? Would this be kindness? Would this be humanity? But these are the appeals which are made to
the free colored population of this country; and it is
by appeals like this that the Society and the colony
have become, as I am sorry to believe is the case, highly
unpopular among them."
There is a ground upon which the American Colonization Society rests its claims to sympathy and support,
that is lifted above the level of all the discordant views
at which I have briefly glanced, and which seems to be
impregnable. One of the great continents of the earth,
up to the present time, has remained, for the past, undeveloped. Until very recently, its vast interior was known
upon the map only as a blank, and was supposed to be
a sterile, uninhabited desert. The explorations of travellers have just revealed to us, in that unknown region,
navigable rivers, a prolific soil, and a swarming population. The multitudinous tribes of Africa are not, like
the inhabitants of the East, a worn-out, effete, debilitated people. The experiment of culture has not been
tested with them, and it remains to be seen of what they
are capable.
Is Africa never to be redeemed? Is that magnificent
land never to have a history? Is she never to take
rank with the empires and peoples? Is the darkness
that has brooded over her from the beginning, never to
112 
ADDRESS X BISHOP CLARK.
be lifted? Are her great resources never to be developed? Will her broad rivers never be traversed by the
steamship, and her fertile plains never resound to the
thunder of the locomotive? Is she never to have a literature?  Is the light of the gospel never to shine
there? God made that continent, and he did not make
it for nought.  This moral wilderness is destined hereafter to blossom with the noblest fruits of civilization
and the sweetest flowers of religion. Splendid cities
will rise there, her dark jungles will be disinfected by
the increase of pure and undefiled religion, and Ethiopia
stretch out her hands, not in deprecating supplication
before the spirit of infernal wrath and evil, but in grateful songs and thanksgivings to a kind and merciful God.
But now the practical question arises, How is Africa
to be redeemed? It is very evident that, left to hersel,
she will make no advance. This land is to-day in substantially the same condition that it has occupied for
ages. The tendencies are all stationary. Even the
Dutch who settled in the interior of Southern Africa
have so far relapsed into barbarism, that they are hardly
distinguishable from the Hottentots among whom they
live. Without the infusion of some powerful element,
strong enough to counteract the native torpor of the
land, Africa will probably be the same a thousand years
hence that she is to-day.
How is this controlling, counteracting element to be
introduced? Some will say, by opening the continent
t o th    e     commerce of the world.  But there is an impor               15
113 
AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY.
tant preliminary work to be done, before any extensive
trade with this people can be possible. There must be
exports, in order that there may be imports; and, when
a people raise only what is necessary for their own subsistence, there can be nothing to send away. Thus far,
traffic with this portion of the world has been confined
to a few articles; and it is a melancholy fact that the
first thing which ever stimulated the African to any sort
of enterprise was, the discovery that he could find a
market abroad for the captives whom he had taken in
war. The trade which has been opened with this people has been a curse, and not a blessing. Gunpowder
and rum in exchange for slaves are neither a means of
civilization nor of grace.
Throw open this continent to the influences of civilization by conquest. War is a rough and frightful process; but it has been one of the great civilizers of the
world. Send fleets and armies, and break the spell of
death by the thunder of artillery."
No foreign army will ever subjugate this land. There
is an invisible cordon of defence encircling it, against
which powder and steel would contend in vain. The pestilence that walketh in darkness is stronger than any
forces that can be gathered at noonday.
May we not, then, rely upon the labor of the Christian missionary, armed with the weapons of the gospel
of peace, to subdue and regenerate this continent by
the power of love, and so bring it into loying sympathy
with the civilized world?
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ADDRESS OF BISHOP CLARK.
What has been the result of his self-denying labors
in that benighted land?  c The Roman Catholic missionaries labored in Western Africa for two hundred
and fourteen years; but every vestige of their influtence
has been gone for many generations. The Moravians,
beginning in 1736, toiled for thirty-four years, making
five attempts, at a cost of eleven lives, and accomplished
nothing. An English attempt, at Bulama Island, in
1792, partly missionary in its character, was abandoned
in two years with the loss of a hundred lives.  A mission sent to the Foulahs from England, in 1795, returned
without commencing its labors. The London, Edinburgh,
and Glasgpw societies commenced their stations in 1797,
which were extinct in three years, and five or six missionaries dead.   Then  there are eighteen Protestant
missionary attempts, before the settlement of Liberia,
all of which failed." There is now an Episcopal mission
under the shadow of Liberia, that has done a good
work; but it has been at a woful sacrifice of valuable
lives.
The fact seems to be demonstrated, that, if Africa is
ever to be redeemed, it must be through the instrumentality of the African.
The problem of slavery has always been hard to solve.
What was the design of the Almighty in permitting
this institution to exist? It certainly was not to benefit the land where these Africans were brought. In any
respect our country would have been more' prosperous,
more peaceful, and more united, if not one of that race
had ever set his foot upon our territory.
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AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY.
But if Africa is to be lifted out of barbarism through
the agency of the African, and if he could not be reached
by the hand of civilization on his native soil; if there
were no natural tendencies towards a higher development in the race itself, and if they were inaccessible to
any direct influence from without; if neither commerce,
or conquests, or peacefull instruction could be brought
to bear upon them at home, - we may begin to see why
it was permitted that they should be taken from their
own country, and placed under such circumstances as
would bring them in contact with civilization and Christianity, even though this was to be done in a way which
shocks our sense of justice, and was far from favorable
to their own highest culture.
The only conceivable process by which the great continent of Africa can ever be civilized and Christianized
is, through the system of colonization, and transplanting to her shores all the institutions of civilization and
Christianity, under the auspices and supreme control,
not of the white man, but of the children of the soil.
Every well-conducted and prosperous colony will gradually become a power, before which the ancient structures of idolatry and superstition and barbarism must
sooner or later fall. The material for this work has
been provided in a rough and strange manner, which is,
however, not without striking precedents in history.
It was a nation of liberated slaves that colonized and
possessed the "promised land."
The opponents of colonization have sometimes asked,
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ADDRESS OF BISHOP CLARK.
with a sneer, if we consider the plantation negro a competent and fit representative of American culture, qualified to act as a Christian missionary, and to introduce
the arts of civilization, science, education, commerce,
manufactures, and agriculture into Africa. If it had been
the policy of this Society to send out cargo after cargo of
the lowest and most degraded class of Africans to be found
in the land, there might be some good foundation for
this contemptuous question; but it has not been so.
Not a few who have emigrated to Liberia have been
men of more than ordinary culture; and the great body
of colonists have been sufficiently well trained in mechanical and agricultural pursuits to qualify them for
the position of useful and productive members of
society. It is not the lowest order who are likely to
seek a refuge in Liberia. They have the same local attachments which the domestic animal has for its home.
They love the quiet nooks and the warm shelter and the
abundant food which they find there. They do not care
to tempt the perils of an ocean voyage, and to encounter the hardships of a new settlement. They do not care
for Africa because it was the home of their ancestors.
They do not care for Africa because they may assert
their manhood there, and lay the foundation of great
things for themselves and their children. They are troubled with no such lofty sentiments as these; and therefore they would rather grind cane in Louisiana, and
gather cotton in Carolina, than become the founders of
a great nation on the other side of the sea.
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AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY.
But, after all, the great question to be considered on
such an occasion as the present is this: What have
been the actual results of African colonization? Has
Liberia, upon the whole, proved to be a success, or failure?
Forty-six years ago, the first band of emigrants landed
and established themselves on Cape Mesurado. Nineteen and a half years ago, Liberia ceased to be a colony,
and became an independent republic.   Have  the labors, and the sacrifices, and the means which have been
expended upon this enterprise, resulted favorably or
not?
The work of colonizing one region of the earth from
another and a distant quarter has always been slow
and difficult, and liable to peculiar and serious embarrassments.
Seventeen years after the first colony was planted at
Jamestown, Va., it appears that about one hundred and
fifty thousand pounds sterling had been expended;
more than nine thousand persons had been sent from
Europe to people it; and yet the population was reduced
to eighteen hundred. Seventy-eight years after the
settlement of Connecticut, the population amounted to
only seventeen thousand. The Maine colony, after the
lapse of one hundred and twenty years, numbered ten
thousand. Of the original members of the Massachusetts Bay Company, quite a large number soon returned
to England, wearied and discouraged.
The Republic of Liberia numbers to-day among its
civilized inhabitants about thirty thousand persons;
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ADDRESS OF BISHOP CLARK.
about fifteen thousand of which are American Liberians;
that is, those who have emigrated from the United
States with their descendants. More than three hundred thousand aborigines reside within the territory of
Liberia, and are brought more or less directly under the
influence and control of her civilized institutions. There
are nearly fifty churches in the Republic, representing
five different denominations, with their Sunday schools
and Bible classes, and contributing something every
week for missionary purposes. The exports last year
amounted to about three hundred thousand dollars.
The undeveloped capacities for trade, no one can
estimate. With a most prolific soil, and a climate capable
of producing almost every variety of tropical fruit, the
resources of the land are beyond computation.  A seacoast line six hundred miles in length, and an interior
stretching indefinitely into the heart of the country
offer the most splendid facilities for foreign commerce.
For a thousand miles along the coast, and two hundred
miles inland, the influence of the governmlent has been
brought to bear upon domestic slavery among the natives, and upon the extirpation of the slave-trade, until
both have ceased to exist.
A well-ordered and well-governed community has
been established on the coast of Africa, with its courts
of justice intelligently presided over; with its legislative assemblies wisely constructed and equitably conducted; with its schools and college furnishing a sound
and thorough education, and with its Christian churches
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AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY.
teaching the people the practical duties which pertain
to the present life, and also revealing to them the way
of salvation through Jesus Christ.
Has the work of African colonization proved to be a
failure? Are these results nothing? All may not have
been accomplished that was anticipated by some of the
more sanguine friends of the enterprise. The Society
has been called to contend with difficulties which could
not have been foreseen in the beginning; it has encountered opposition in quarters where it least expected;
vigorous efforts have been made to prejudice the colored
people against us; but still there stands the Republic of
Liberia to-day, free, independent, and prosperous. All
nations recognize and salute her flag. She needs no governmental protection from any other land.  All that she
asks of us is this, - send us people, industrious, moral,
intelligent. If they have not the means themselves, aid
them to establish themselves on these shores.  We will
give them land, if for a few months you will only assist
them in their preparation to become self-supporting
citizens. And this is the simple work which the Amnerican Colonization Society proposes to do.
A strange thing occurred in the history of the world
on the last twenty-sixth of July. It was the nineteenth anniversary of the independence of Liberia; and
on the heights of Lebanon in Syria, at the house of the
United-States consul, the Rev. Mr. Blyden, Fulton Professor in Liberia College, was requested to deliver an
address appropriate to the day. I do not think that I
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ADDRESS OF BISHOP CLARK.
can do better than to give you a few words taken from
his speech: " Most wonderful," he says, "have been the
changes, which, within a few years, the moral and religious aspects of that portion of Africa have undergone.
Where, a few years ago, stood virgin forests or impenetrable jungles, we now behold churches erected to the
living God; we hear the sound of the church-going bell,
and regular Sabbath ministrations are enjoyed. If you
could see Liberia as she now is, with her six hundred
miles of coast snatched from the abominations of the
slave-trade, her thriving towns and villages, her spacious
streets and fine houses, her happy homes with their
varied delights, her churches with their Sabbath schools
and their solemn and delightful services; could you
contemplate all the diversified means of improvement
and enjoyment, and indications on every hand of ease
and happiness, and plodding industry of her population,
without those feverish and distracting pursuits and
rivalries which make large cities so unpleasant; could
you behold these things, and contrast the state of things
now with what it was forty years ago, when the eightyeight negro pilgrims first landed on these shores, where
the primeval forests stood around them with their awful, unbroken solitudes; could you listen, as they listened,
to the rush of the wind through those forests, to the
roar of wild beasts, and the savage music of treacherous
foes all around them; were you, I say, in a position to
make this contrast, you would exclaim,'What hath
God  wrought!'   You  would acknowledge  that the
16
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AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY.
spirit of Christianity and civilization has moved upon
the face of these turbid waters, and that beauty and
order have emerged out of materials rude and unprom ising; you would recognize on that coast a germ of
moral renovation, which shall at length burst into
glorious efflorescence all over the land: the wilderness
and the desert shall bloom and blossom as the rose."
What is to be the history of African Colonization
during the next fifty years? No one believes it possi ble that this new nationality is destined to die out; that
this people are doomed to show that they are incapable
of self-government, and incompetent to hold a place
among the kingdoms of the earth.  So far from this, I
believe that they are destined to draw around them  a
class of colored men, endowed with a constantly-increas ing intelligence, and a more and more advanced manli ness. With the broader and higher education which
this class are now receiving amongst us, it may be an ticipated that, from time to time, large numbers will say,
" Let us go back to our own land, and show the world
what Africans can do in Africa; let us do for that con tinent what the Anglo-Saxon has done for America; let
us plant the same institutions there which have made
these United States such a power in the earth- only,
instead of exterminating the aboriginal inhabitants, as
has been done here, let us try to civilize and Christian ize the millions that now grovel in barbarism there."
I was very much impressed with a thought that was
suggested in an address on the future of the African
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ADDRESS OF BISHOP CLARK.
race, which I heard some years since from the lips of
the Rev. Professor Crummell, of Liberia. It was substantially as follows: If the Hindoos or the Chinamen,
or the common order of people in any of the European
States, were to undertake the experiment of self-government, they would labor under a great disadvantage,
from the fact that they are familiar with no form of free
institutions which would serve as a model and guide in
framing and regulating a representative government;
whereas the settlers of Liberia, although many of them
were born and trained in slavery, could not help becoming, in a degree, familiar with our religious and political
habits and principles. They are, therefore, better qualified to establish and conduct a republic of their own,
than any other people in a corresponding position.
There is at this moment among the colored population of the United States, such a spontaneous tendency
towards emigration as has never been known before;
and, when they find that they are no longer an important faction in the political struggles of the country,
they will see still more clearly than they now do, that it
is for their own comfort and interest, as well as for the
good of Africa, to make that land their permanent
abode. They have, indeed, the same right to dwell here
that any of us have; they have a claim to the same
just and equitable treatment; and we are bound to see
that the freedom which has been suddenly given them
shall prove to be a blessing, and not a curse. But certain races seem to have been intended for certain re
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AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY.
gions; and as the palm-tree could never flourish in our
cold valleys, so the African can never develop his best
energies, and find his highest level, in any foreign land.
And this will always be to him, in some respects, an alien
country. He can never forget the wrongs that have been
done to him and his ancestors here; and there is nothing in his reminiscences of the past to make him proud
of his American citizenship. We may want to keep himl
here to do the drudgery that we shrink from ourselves;
we may be willing to give him  the right of  suffrage,
that we may use it for our own political advantage; but
he must either sink his own individuality, or retain it at
a cost, which, in the end, will make him suffer.
Why, then, not go to a republic that he can call his
own? There are great fortunes to be made in that land,
whenever the same industry and skill shall be brought
into action there which have made men rich here. There
are posts of honor and influence open to him in that
land, lofty enough to satisfy one's proudest ambition.
There is a magnificent work to be done for a magnificent continent, which he alone is competent to do. A
greater field for enterprise, a greater field for the spread
of the gospel of Christ and the establishment of a noble civilization, was never opened to man.
It may demand some sacrifice at first; there may be
ties which it is hard to sunder, trials to be endured which
it will demand a vigorous will to face; but no great
work is accomplished without suffering. White men,
bred in luxury  and  affluence  accomplished women,
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ADDRESS OF BISHOP CLARK.
moved by the love of Christ, have gone to that distant
land to carry the unsearchable treasures of a pure and
holy faith to a people perishing in darkness; and they
went forth to encounter perils which the black man has
comparatively little cause to fear.
It is not impossible that, in process of time, the work
of the Colonization Society may cease any longer to be
needed.   The citizens of Liberia, in their prosperity,
may themselves provide the means for the removal to
that land of all who wish to go there, and are unable to
pay the cost, as thousands from Great Britain and Europe are brought to our country every year by the voluntary offerings of those who have preceded them.
But, meanwhile, there is likely to be a great demand
upon the resources of this Society. If the multitudes
of that unhappy and ill-treated people, who are, at this
moment, floating about, dependent upon public charity
for their support, and over whose future such an impervious and gloomy cloud is suspended, could all be gathered up, and removed to a pleasant home, a section of
land be there secured to them, and the implements placed
in their hands, with which, by ordinary labor, they would
be able to earn for themselves a comfortable livelihood,
would not this be an act of real Christian charity?
We owe an enormous debt to the African: how can
we best discharge that debt? Our brothers' blood cries
to us from the ground. God hears that cry, and holds
us accountable. As we would avert further calamity
from our own land, as we would protect ourselves from
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AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY.
the slow but certain dispensations of justice, let us, as
far as we can, redeem and expiate the wrong we have
done the African. We have all eaten the fruit of his
unrecompensed labor. Let us now give him back some
portion of that which we have taken from him. Let
your wealth flow by thousands and tens of thousands
into the treasury of this National Society. It will be
well used, and bring forth abundant fruit.
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APPENDIX.
DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE.
WE, the representatives of the people of the Commonwealth of
Liberia, in Convention assembled, invested with authority for
forming a new government, relying upon the aid and protection
of the Great Arbiter of human events, do hereby, in the name and
on behalf of the people of this Commonwealth, publish and declare the said Commonwealth a FREE, SOVEREIGN, AND INDEPENDENT STATE, by the name and title of the REPUBLIC OF LIBERIA.
While announcing to the nations of the world the new position
which the people of this Republic have felt themselves called upon
to assume, courtesy to their opinion seems to demand a brief accompanying statement of the causes which induced them, first to
expatriate themselves fiom the land of their nativity and to form
settlements on this barbarous coast, and now to organize their
government by the assumption of a sovereign and independent
character. Therefore we respectfully ask their attention to the
following facts:
We  recognize in all men certain natural and inalienable rights;
among these are life, liberty, and the right to acquire, possess,
enjoy, and defend property. By the practice and consent of men
in all ages, some system or fiorm of government is proven to be
necessary to exercise, enjoy, and secure these rights; and every
people has a right to institute a government, and to choose and
adopt that system or form of it, which, in their opinion, will most
effectually accomplish these objects, and secure their happiness,
which does niot interfere with the just rights of others.  The
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AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY.
right, therefore, to institute government, and to all the powers
necessary to conduct it, is an inalienable right, and cannot be
resisted without the grossest injustice.
We, the people of the Republic of Liberia, were originally the
inhabitants of the United States of North America.
In some parts of that country, we were debarred by law, from
all the rights and privileges of men; in other parts, public sentiment, more powerful than law, frowned us down.
We were everywhere shut out from all civil office.
We were excluded from all participation in the government.
We were taxed without our consent.
We were compelled to contribute to the resources of a country
which gave us no protection.
We were made a separate and distinct class, and against us every avenue to improvement was effectually closed.  Strangers from
all lands, of a color different from ours, were preferred before us.
We uttered our complaints; but they were unattended to, or
only met by alleging the peculiar institutions of the country.
All hope of a favorable change in our country was thus wholly
extinguished in our bosoms, and we looked with anxiety abroad
for some asylum fromn the deep degradation.
The western coast of Africa was the place selected by American benevolence and philanthropy for our future home. Removed
beyond those influences which depressed us in our native land, it
was hoped we would be enabled to enjoy those rights and privileges, and exercise and improve those faculties, which the God of
nature has given us in common with the rest of mankind.
Under the auspices of the American Colonization Society, we
established ourselves here, on land acquired by purchase from the
lords of the soil.
In an original compact with this Society, we, for important reasons, delegated to it certain political powers; while this institution
stipulated, that whenever the people should become capable of conducting the government, or whenever the people should desire it,
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DI)ECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE.
this institution would resign the delegated power, peaceably withdraw its supervision, and leave the people to the government of
themselves.
Under the allspices and guidance of this institution, which has
nobly and in perfect faith redeemed its pledges to the people, we
have grown and prospered.
From time to time, our number has been increased by emigration from America, and by accession fromn native tribes; and from
time to time, as circumstances required it, we have extended our
borders by acquisition of land by honorable purchase from  the
natives of the country.
As our territory has extended, and our population increased, our
commerce has also increased.  The  flags of most of the civilized
nations of the earth float in our harbors, and their merchants are
opening an honorable and profitable trade. Until recently, these
visits have been of a uniformly harmonious character; but as they
have become more frequent, and to more numerous points of our
extending coast, questions have arisen, which, it is supposed, can be
adjusted only by agreement between sovereign powers.
For years past, the American Colonization Society has virtually withdrawn from all direct and active part in the administration of the government, except in the appointment of the governor, who is also a colonist, for the apparent purpose of testing the
ability of the people to conduct the affairs of government; and
no complaint of crude legislation, nor of mismanagement, nor of
mal-administration, has yet been heard.
In view of these facts, this institution, the American Colonization Society, with that good faith which has uniformly marked all
its dealings with us, did, by a set of resolutions in January, in the
year of our' Lord one thousand eight hundred and forty-six, dissolve all political connection with the people of this Republic,
return the power with which it was delegated, and left the people
to the governmelnt of themselves.
ThIe i)eol)le of the Republic of Liberia, then, are of right, and in
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AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY.
fact, a free, sovereign, and independent State, possessed of all the
rig,lts, powers, and functions of government.
In assuming the momentous responsibilities of the position they
have taken, the people of this Republic feel justified by the necessities of the case; and, with this conviction, they throw themselves
with confidence upon the candid consideration of the civilized
world.
Liberia is not the offspring of grasping ambition, nor the tool of
avaricious speculation.
No desire for territorial aggrandizement brought  us to these
shores; nor do we believe so sordid a motive entered into the high
considerations of those who aided us in providing this asylum.
Liberia is an asylum from the most grinding oppression.
In couning to the shores of Africa, we indulged the pleasing hope
that we would be permitted to exercise and improve those faculties' which impart to man his dignity, to nourish in our hearts
the flame of honorable ambition, to cherish and indulge those aspirations which a beneficent Creator had implanted in every human
heart, and to evince to all who despise, ridicule, and oppress our
race, that we possess with them a common nature, are with them
susceptible of equal refinement, and capable of equal advancemnent in all that adorns and dignifies man.
We were animated with the hope that here we should be at liberty to train up our children iii the way they should go, to in
spire them with the love of an honorable fame, to kindle within
them the flame of a lofty philanthropy, and to form strong within
them the principles of humranity, virtue, and religion.
Among the strongest motives to leave our native land, to
abandon forever the scenes of our childhood, and to sever the
most endeared connections, was the desire for a retreat, where, flee
fromn the agitations of fear and molestation, we could, in composure
and security, approach in worship the God of our fathers.
Thus far our highest hopes have been realized.
Liberia is already the happy home of thousands who were once
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CONSTITUTION OF LIBERIA.
the doomed victims of oppression; and if left unmolested to go on
with her natural and spontaneous growth, if her movements be
left fiee fiom the paralyzing intrigues of jealous ambition and unscrupulous avarice, she will throw open a wider and yet a wider
door for thousands who are now looking with an anxious eye for
some land of rest.
Our courts of justice are open equally to the stranger and the
citizen for the redress of grievances, for the remedy of injuries,
and for the punishment of crime.
Our numerous and well-attended schools attest our efforts and our
desire for the improvement of our children.
Our churches for the worship of our Creator, everywhere to be
seen, bear testimony to outr piety and to our acknowledgment of
his providence.
The native African, bowing down with us before the altar of
the living God, declare that from us, feeble as we are, the light
of Christianity has gone forth; while upon that curse of curses,
the slave-trade, a deadly blight has fallen as far as our influence
extends.
Therefore, in the name of humanity and virtue and religion,
in the name of the Great God, our common Creator and  our conmon Judge, we appeal to the nations of Christendom, and earnestly and respectfully ask of them that they will regard us with the
sympathy and fiiendly considerations to which the peculiarities of
our condition entitle us, and to extend to us that comity which
marks the friendly intercourse of civilized and independent coinmunities.
CONSTITUTION.
ARTICLE I.
-Declaration of Rights.
The end of the institution, maintenance, and administration of
government, is to secure the existence of the body politic, to protect it, and to furnish the individuals who compose it with the
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AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY.
power of enjoying in safety and tranquillity their natural rights,
and the blessings of life; and, whenever these great objects are not
obtained, the people have a right to alter the government, and to
take measures necessary for their safety, prosperity, and happiness.
Therefore we, the people of the Commonwealth of Liberia, in
Africa, acknowledging with devout gratitude the goodness of God
in granting to us the blessings of the Christian religion, and political, religious, and civil liberty, do, in order to secure these blessings for ourselves and our posterity, and to establish justice, insure
domestic peace, and promote the general welfare, hereby solemnly
associate and constitute ourselves a fi'ee, sovereign, and independent State, by the name of the Republic of Liberia; and do ordain
and establish this constitution for the government of the same.
SECTION 1.  All men are born equally free and independent,
and have certain natural inherent and inalienable rights,- among
which are the rights of enjoying and defending life and liberty, of
acquiring, possessing, and protecting property, and of pursuing and
obtaining safety and happiness.
SECT. 2. All power is inherent in the people: all free governments are instituted by their authority and for their benefit, and
they have a right to alter and reform the same when their safety
and happiness require it.
SECT. 3. All men have a natural and inalienable right to worship
God according to the dictates of their own consciences, without
obstruction or molestation from  others.  All persons demeaning
themselves peaceably, and not obstructing others in their religious
worship, are entitled to the protection of law in the free exercise
of their own religion; and no sect of Christians shall have exclusive privileges or preference over any other sect, but all shall be
alike tolerated; and no religious test whatever shall be required as a
qualification for civil office, or the exercise of any civil right.
SECT. 4.  There shall be no slavery within this Republic; nor
shall any citizen of this Rcpil)lic, or any lersorn resident therein,
deal in slaves, either within or without this Republic, diuectly or
indirectly.
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CONSTITUTION OF LIBERIA.
SECT. 5.  The people have a right at all times, in an orderly and
peaceable manner, to assemble and consult upon the common good,
to instruct their representatives, and to petition the government or
any public functionaries for the redress of grievances.
SECT. 6. Every person injured shall have remedy therefor by
due course of law. Justice shall be done without denial or delay;
and in all cases not arising under mnartial law or upon impeachment,
the parties shall have a right to a trial by jury, and to be heard in
person or by counsel, or both.
SECT. 7.  No person shall be held to answer for a capital or infamous crime, except in cases of impeachment, cases arising in the
army and navy, and petty offences, unless upon presentment by a
grand jury; and every person criminally charged shall have a right
to be seasonably furnished with a copy of the charge, to be confronted with the witnesses against him, to have compulsory process
for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have a speedy, public,
and impartial trial by a jury of the vicinity. He shall not be compelled to furnish or give evidence against himself; and no person
shall, for the same offence, be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb.
SECT. 8.  No person shall be deprived of life, liberty, property, or
privilege, but by the judgment of his peers, or the law of the
land.
SECT. 9. No place shall be searched nor person seized on a
criminal charge or suspicion, unless upon warrant lawfully issued,
upon probable cause supported by oath or solemn affirmation, spl)ecia,lly designating the place or person, and the object of the search.
SECT. 10. Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive
fines imposed, nor excessive punishments inflicted; nor shall the
legislature make any law  impairing the obligation of contracts,
notr any law rendering any  act punishable in any manner in
which it was not punishable when it was committed.
SECT. 11. All elections shall be by ballot; and every male citizen of twenty-one years of age, possessing real estate, shall have
the right of suffrage.
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AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY.
SEcT. 12. The people have a right to keep and to bear arms for
the common defence, And as, in time of peace, armies are dangerous to liberty, they ought not to be maintained without the
consent of the legislature; and the military power shall always be
held in exact subordination to the civil authority, and be governed
by it.
SECT. 13. Private property shall not be taken for public use
without just compensation.
SECT. 14. The powers of this government shall be divided into
three distinct departments, the legislative, executive, and judicial; and no person belonging to one of these departments shall
exercise any of the powers belonging to either of the others. This
section is not to be construed to include Justices of the Peace.
SECT. 15.  The liberty of the press is essential to the security of
freedom in a State: it ought not, therefore, to be restrained in this
Republic.
The press shall be free to every person who undertakes to examine the proceedings of the legislature or any branch of governmrent; and no law shall ever be made to restrain the rights thereof.
The free communication of thoughts and opinions is one of the
invaluable rights of man; and every citizen may fireely speak,
write, and print on any subject, being responsible for the abuse of
that liberty.
In prosecutions for the publication of papers investigating the
official conduct of officers, or men in a public capacity, or where
the matter published is proper for public information, the truth
thereof may be given in evidence. And in all indictments for libels, the jury shall have a right to determine the law and the facts
tinder the direction of the court, as in other cases.
SECT. 16. No subsidy, charge, impost, or duties ought to be
established, fixed, laid, or levied, under any pretext whatsoever,
without the consent of the people, or their rel)presenltatives in the
legislature.
SECT. 17. Suits may be brought against the Republic in such
manner and in such cases as the legislature may by law direct.
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CONSTITUTION OF LIBERIA.
SECT. 18. NO person can, in any case, be subjected to the law
martial, or to any penalties or pains by virtue of that law (except
those employed in the army or navy, and except the militia in actual service), but by the authority of the legislature.
SECT. 19.. - In order to prevent those who are vested with authority from becoming oppressors, the people have a right, at such
periods and in such manner as they shall establish by their frame
of government, to cause their public officers to return to private
life, and fill up vacant places by certain and regular elections and
appointments.
SECT. 20.  That all prisoners shall be bailable by sufficient sureties, unless for capital offences when the proof is evident or presumption great; and the privilege and the benefit of the writ of
habeas corpus shall be enjoyed in this Republic, in the most free,
easy, cheap, expeditious, and ample manner, and shall not be suspended by'the legislature, except upon the most urgent and pressing occasions, and for a limited time, not exceeding twelve months.
ARTICLE II.
Legislative Powers.
SECTION 1. The legislative power shall be vested in a Legislature of Liberia, and consist of two separate branches, -a House
of Representatives and a Senate, -to be styled the Legislature of
Liberia, each of which shall have a negative on the other; and
the enacting style of their acts and laws shall be, "It is enacted
by the Senate and House of Representatives of the Republic of
Liberia in Legislature assembled."
SECT. 2. The representatives shall be elected by and for the inhabitants of the several counties of Liberia, and shall be apportioned among the several counties of Liberia as follows: The
County of Montserado shall have four representatives, the County
of Grand Bassa shall have three, and the County of Sinoe shall
have one; and all counties hereafter which shall be admitted in the
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. 137 
AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY.
Republic shall have one representative, and for every ten thousand
inhabitants one representative shall be added. No person shall be
a representative who has not resided in the county two whole
years immediately previous to his election, and who shall not, when
elected, be an inhabitant of the county, and does not own real estate of not less value than one hundred and fifty dollars in the
county in which he resides, and who shall not- have attained the
age of twenty-three years. The representatives shall be elected
biennially, and shall serve two years from the time of their election.
SECT. 3. When a vacancy occurs in the representation of any
county by death, resignation, or otherwise, it shall be filled by a
new election.
SECT. 4. The House of Representatives shall elect their own
speaker and other officers. They shall also have the sole power of
impeachment.
SEcT. 5. The Senate shall consist of two members from Montserado County, two from Bassa County, two friom Sinoe County,
and two from each county which may be hereafter incorporated into
this Republic. No person shall be a senator who shall not have
resided three whole years immediately previous to his election in
the Republic of Liberia, and who shall not, when elected, be an
inhabitant of the county which he represents, and who does not
own real estate of not less value than two hundred dollars in the
county which he represents, and who shall not have attained the
age of twenty-five years. The senator for each county who shall
have the highest number of votes shall retain his seat for four
years; and the one who shall have the next highest number of votes,
two years; and all who are afterwards elected to fill their seats
shall remain in office four years.
SECT. 6.  The Senate shall try all impeachments, the senators
being first sworn or solemnly affirmed to try the same impartially,
and according to law; and no person shall be convicted but by the
concurrence of two-thirds of the senators present. Judgment in
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CONSTITUTION OF LIBERIA.
such cases shall not extend beyond removal from office, and dis qualification to hold an office in the Republic; but the party may
still be tried at law for the same offence.
When either the President or Vice-President is to be tried, the
Chief Justice shall preside.
SECT. 7. It shall be the duty of the Legislature, as soon as con veniently may be after the adoption of this constitution, and once
at least in every ten years afterwards, to cause a true census to be
taken of each town and county of the Republic of Liberia; and a
representative shall be allowed every town having a population of
ten thousand inhabitants; and, for every additional ten thousand in
the counties after the first census, one representative shall be added
to that county, until the number of representatives shall amount to
thirty. Afterwards, one representative shall be added for every
thirty thousand.
SECT. 8.  Each branch of the legislature shall be judge of the
election returns and qualifications of its own members. A majority of each shall be necessary to transact business; but a less number may adjourn from day to day, and compel the attendance of
absent members. Each house may adopt its own rules of proceeding, enforce order, and, with the concurrence of two-thirds, may
expel a member.
SECT. 9. Neither house shall adjourn for more than two days
without the consent of the other; and both houses shall sit in the
same town.
SECT. 10. Every bill or resolution which shall have passed both
branches of the Legislature, shall, before it becomes a law, be laid
before the President for his approval. If he approves, he shall
shall sign it; if not, hlie shall return it to the Legislature with his
objections: if the Legislature shall afterwards pass the bill or resolution by a vote of two-thirds in each branch, it shall become a law.
If the President shall neglect to return such bill or resolution to
the Legislature, with his objection, for five days after the same shall
have been so laid before him,- the Legislature remaining in session
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AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY.
during that time, such neglect shall be equivalent to his signature.
SECT. 11. The Senators and Representatives shall receive from
the Republic a compensation for their services, to be ascertained by
law; and shall be privileged from arrest except for treason, felony,
or breach of the peace, while attending at, going to, or returning
from, the session of the Legislature.
ARTICLE III.
Executive Power.
SECTION 1. The Supreme Executive power shall be vested in a
President, who shall be elected by the people, and shall hold his
office for the term of two years. He shall be commander-in-chief
of the army and navy. He shall, in the recess of the legislature,
have power to call out the militia, or any portion thereof, into
actual service in defence of the Republic. He shall have power
to make treaties, provided the Senate concur therein by a vote of
two-thirds of the senators present. He shall nominate, and, with
the advice and consent of the Senate, appoint and commission, all
ambassadors and other public ministers  and consuls, secretaries
of state, of war, of the navy, and of the treasury, attorneygeneral, all judges of courts, sheriffs, coroners, marshals, justices of
the peace, clerks of courts, registers, notaries public, and all other
officers of State, civil and military, whose appointment may not be
otherwise provided for by the constitution, or by standing laws.
And, in the recess of the Senate, he may fill any vacancy in those
offices, until the next session of the Senate. He shall receive all
ambassadors and other public ministers. He shall take care that
the laws be faithfully executed; he shall inform the Legislature,
from time to time, of the condition of the Republic, and recommend any public measures for their adoption which he may think
expedient. He may, after conviction, remit any public forfeitures
and penalties, and grant reprieves and pardons for public offences,
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C ONSTITUTION OF LIBERIA.
except in cases of impeachment. He may require information
and advice from any public officer, touching matters pertaining
to his office. He may, on extraordinary occasions, convene the
Legislature, and may adjourn the two houses whenever they cannot agree as to the time of adjournment.
SECT. 2. There shall be a Vice-President, who shall be elected in
the same manner and for the same term as that of the President,
and whose qualifications shall be the same. He shall be President of
the Senate, and give the casting vote when the house is equally
divided on any subject. And in case of the removal of the President fi-om office, or his death, resignation, or inability to discharge
the powers and duties of the said office, the same shall devolve
on the Vice-President; and the Legislature may by law provide for
the case of removal, death, resignation, or inability, both of the
President and Vice-President, declaring what officer shall then act
as President; and such officer shall act accordingly, until the disability be removed, or a President shall be elected.
SEcT. 3. The Secretary of State shall keep the records of the
State, and all the records and papers of the legislative body, and
all other public records and documents not belonging to any other
department, and shall lay the same, when required, before the
President or Legislature. He shall attend upon them when required, and perform such other duties as may be enjoined by law.
SECT. 4. The Secretary of the Treasury, or other persons who
may by law be charged with the custody of the public moneys,
shall, before he receive such moneys, give bonds to the State, with
sufficient sureties to the acceptance of the Legislature, for the
faithful discharge of his trust. He shall exhibit a true account of
such moneys when required by the President or Legislature; and
no moneys shall be drawn from the treasury but by warrant from
the President, in consequence of appropriation made by law.
SECT. 5. All ambassadors and other public ministers and consuls,
the Secretary of State, of War, of the Treasury, and of the Navy,
the  Attorney-general, and  Postmnaster-general, shall hold their
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AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY.
offices during the pleasure of the President. All justices of the
peace, sheriffs, marshals, clerks of courts, registers, and notaries
public, shall hold their office for the term of two years from the
date of their respective commissions, but may be removed from office within that time by the President, at his pleasure; and all
other officers whose term of office may not be otherwise limited by
law, shall hold their office during the pleasure of the President.
SECT. 6. Every civil officer may be removed from office, by impeachment, for official misconduct.  Every such officer may also be
removed by the President, upon the address of both branches of
the Legislature, stating the particular reasons for. his removal.
SECT. 7. No person shall be eligible to the office of President
who has not been a citizen of this Republic for at least five years,
and shall not have attained the age of thirty-five years; and who
shall not be possessed of unincumbered real estate, of not less
value than six hundred dollars.
SECT. 8. The President shall at stated times receive for his
services a compensation, which shall neither be increased nor diminished during the period for which he shall have been elected.
And, before he enters on the execution of his office, he shall take
the following oath or affirmation:  I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute
the office of the President of the Republic of Liberia, and will
to the best of my ability preserve, protect, and defend the constitution, and enforce the laws, of the Republic of Liberia.
ARTICLE IV.
Judicial -Department.
SECTION 1. The judicial power of this Republic shall be vested
in one Supreme Court, and such subordinate courts as the Legis
lature may from time to time establish.  The judges of the Supremne Court, and all other judges of courts, shall hold their office
during good behavior, but may be removed by the President on
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CONSTITUTION OF LIBERIA.
the address of two-thirds of both houses for that purpose, or by
impeachment and conviction thereon. The judges shall have salaries established by law, which may be increased, but not diminished, during their continuance in office. They shall not receive
any other perquisite or emoluments whatever, from parties or
others on account of any duty required of them.
SECT. 2. The Supreme Court shall have original jurisdiction in
all cases affecting ambassadors or other public ministers and con
suls, and those to which the Republic shall be a party. In all
other cases, the Supreme Court shall have appellate jurisdiction,
both as to law and fact, with such exceptions, and under such
regulations, as the legislature shall from time to time make.
ARTICLE V.
.Mscellaneous Provisions.
SECTION 1. All laws now in force in the Commonwealth of
Liberia, and not repugnant to this constitution, shall be in force
as the laws of the Republic of Liberia, until they shall be repealed by the Legislature.
SECT. 2. All judges, magistrates, and other officers now concerned
in the administration of justice in the Commonwealth of Liberia,
and all other existing civil and military officers therein, shall continue to hold and discharge their respective offices in the name
and by the authority of the Republic, until others shall be appointed and commissioned in their stead pursuant to this Constitution.
SECT. 3. All towns and municipal corporations within this Republic, constituted under the laws of the Commonwealth of Liberia, shall retain their existing organizations and privileges; and
the respective officers thereof shall remain in office, and act under
the authority of this Republic, in the same manner and with the
like powers as they now possess under the laws of said Commonwealth.
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AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY.
SECT. 4. The first election of President, Vice-President, Senators
and Representatives, shall be held on the first Tuesday in October
in the year of our Lord eighteen hundred and forty-seven, in the
same manner as elections of members of the council are chosen in
the Commonwealth of Liberia; and the votes shall be certified and
returned to the Colonial Secretary; and the result of the election
shall be ascertained, posted, and notified by him as it is now by law
provided in case of such members of council.
SECT. 5. All other elections of President, Vice-President, Senators and Representatives, shall be held in the respective towns on
the first Tuesday in May, in every two years, to be held and regulated in such manner as the Legislature may by law prescribe. The
returns of votes shall be made to the Secretary of State, who
shall open the same, and forthwith issue notice of the election to
the persons apparently so elected Senators and Representatives;
and all such returns shall be by him laid before the Legislature at
its next ensuing session, together with a list of the names of the
persons who appear by such returns to have been duly elected
Senators and Representatives; and the persons appearing by said
returns to be duly elected shall proceed to organize themselves accordingly as the Senate and House of Representatives. The votes
for President shall be sorted, counted, and declared by the House
of Representatives; and, if no person shall appear to have a majority of such votes, the Senators and Representatives present
shall in convention, by joint ballot, elect from among the persons
having the three highest numbers of votes a person to act as
President for the ensuing term.
SECT. 6. The Legislature shall assemble once at least in every
year, and such meeting shall be on the first Monday in January,
unless a different day shall be appointed by law.
SECT. 7. Every legislator and other officer appointed under this
constitution, shall, before he enters upon the duties of his office,
take and subscribe a solemn oath or affirmation to support the Constitution of this Republic, and faithfully and impartially discharge
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CONSTITUTION OF LIBERIA.
the duties of such office. The presiding officer of the Senate shall
administer such oath or affirmation to the President, in convention
of both houses; and the President shall administer the same to
the Vice-President, to the Senators and to the Representatives in
like manner. If the President is unable to attend, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court may administer the oath or affirmation
to him at any place, and also to the Vice-President, Senators and
Representatives  in convention.    Other  officers may take such
oath or affirmation before the President, Chief Justice, or any other
person who may be designated by law.
SECT. 8. All elections of public officers shall be made by a majority of the votes, except in cases otherwise regulated by the constitution or by law.
SECT. 9. Officers created by this constitution which the circumstances of the Republic do not require that they shall be filled,
shall not be filled until the Legislature shall deem it necessary.
SECT. 10. The property of which a woman may be possessed at
the time of her marriage, and also that of which she may afterwards become possessed, otherwise than by her husband, shall not
be held responsible for his debts, whether contracted before or after
marriage.
Nor shall the property thus intended to be secured to the woman
be alienated otherwise than by her free and voluntary consent;
and such alienation may be made by her either by sale, devise, or
otherwise.
SECT. 11. In all cases in which estates are insolvent, the widow
shall be entitled to one-third of the real estate during her natural
life, and to one-third of the personal estate, which she shall hold
in her own right, subject to alienation by her by devise or otherwise.
SECT. 12. No person shall be entitled to hold real estate in this
Republic unless he be a citizen of the same. Nevertheless, this
article shall not be construed to apply to colonization, missionary,
educational, or other benevolent institutions, so long as the property or estate is applied to its legitimate purposes.
145
19 
AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY.
SECT. 13. The great object of forming these colonies being to
provide a home for the dispersed and oppressed children of Africa,
and to regenerate and enlighten this benighted continent, none but
persons of color shall be admitted to citizenship in this Republic.
SECT. 14. The purchase of any land by any citizen or citizens
from the aborigines of this country, for his or their own use, or for
the benefit of others, as estate or estates in fee simple, shall be considered null and void to all intents and purposes.
SECT. 15. The improvement of the native tribes and their advancement in the arts of agriculture and husbandry being a cherished object of this government, it shall be the duty of the President
to appoint in each county some discreet person, whose duty it
shall be to make regular and periodical tours through the country, for the purpose of calling the attention of the natives to
these wholesome branches of industry, and of instructing them
in the same; and the legislature shall, as soon as can conveniently be done, make provision for these purposes by the appropriation of money.
SECT. 16. The existing regulations of the American Colonization
Society, in the Commonwealth, relative to emigrants, shall remain the same in the Republic, until regulated by compact between the Society and the Republic: nevertheless, the Legislature shall make no law prohibiting emigration; and it shall
be among the first duties of the legislature to take measures to
arrange the future relations between the American Colonization
Society and this Republic.
SECT. 17. This Constitution may be altered whenever two-thirds
of both branches of the legislature shall deem it necessary; ill
which case the alterations or amendments shall first be considered and approved by the legislature, by the concurrence of
two-thirds of the members of each branch, and afterwards by
them submitted to the people, and adopted by two-thirds of all
the electors at the next biennial meeting for the election of senators and representatives.
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CONSTITUTION OF LIBERIA.
Done in Convention at Monrovia, in the County of Montserado, by the unanimous consent of the people of the Commonwealth
of Liberia, this twenty-sixth day of July, in the year of our Lord
one thousand eight hundred and forty-seven, and of the Republic the first.
In witness whereof we have hereto set our names.
S. BENEDICT. President,
J. N. LEWIS,
H. TEAGE,
BEVERLY R. WILSON,  Montserado County.
ELIJAH JOHNSON,
J. B. GRIPON,
JOHN DAY,
A. W. GARDNER, 
AMOS HERRING,       t Grand Bassa County.
AMOS HERRING, 
EPHRAIM TILLER,    j
R. E. MURRAY, County of Sinoe.
J. W. PROUT, Secretary of Convention.
MONROVIA, July 29, 1847.
FELLOW-CITIZENS,- Having finished our labors, we  now have
the honor of submitting to your consideration, through the Governor, that Constitution which, in our opinion, will best suit the peculiar circumstances of the people of this infant Republic.  That
our labors will meet the full approbation of every individual citizen is scarcely to be expected.  We  trust, however, that a large
majority of our fellow-citizens will approve our doings, and adopt
the constitution herewith submitted.
In our deliberations, we endeavored to keep our minds steadily
fixed upon the great objects of civil government, and have done
what we conceived to be best for the general interest of this rising
Republic. We endeavored carefully to arrange every subject that
might possibly arise, calculated to disturb in the least the friendly
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AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY.
feeling which now so happily subsists between the different counties of this Republic. We felt deeply the importance and magnitude of the work submitted to our hands, and have done the very
best we could in order to afford general satisfaction.
In view of the peculiarity of our circumstances, the new position we have assumed is indeed a gigantic one; and the government now calls to its support every citizen who is at all concerned
for the safety and future prosperity of this our only home.
Knowing, however, that our cause is just, we feel encouraged,
and believe that under God, by a speedy perseverance, we shall
fully succeed.
In publishing to the world our Independence, we have thought
proper to accompany that document with a declaration of the
causes which induced us to leave the land of our nativity, and to
form settlements on this coast; and also an appeal to the sympathieg of all civilized nations, soliciting their aid and protection,
and especially that they would, notwithstanding our peculiar circumstances, speedily recognize our Independence.
And that the flag of this Republic at no distant day may be seen
floating upon every breeze, and in every land respected.
It is our earnest desire that the affairs of this government may
be so conducted as to merit the approbation of all Christendom,
and restore to Africa her long-lost glory; and that Liberia, under
the guidance of Heaven, may continue a happy asylum for our longoppressed race, and a blessing to the benighted and degraded
natives of this vast peninsula: to secure which is our ardent wish
and prayer.
With great respect, we have the honor of being
Your obedient and humble servants.
By the unanimous order of the convention,
SAMUEL BENEDICT,
President.
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ADDRESS OF PRESIDENT ROBERTS.
FLAG AND SEAL OF THE REPUBLIC OF LIBERIA.
THE following flag and seal were adopted by the Convention
as the insignia of the Republic of Liberia, and ordered to be employed to mark its nationality:.Flag. - Six red stripes with five white stripes, alternately displayed longitudinally. In the upper angle of the flag, next to
the spear, a square blue ground covering in depth five stripes. In
the centre of the blue, one white star.
Seal.- A dove on the wing, with an open scroll in its claws. A
view of the ocean, with a ship under sail.  The sun, just emerging
from the waters. A palm-tree, and at its base a plough and spade.
Beneath the emblems, the words REPUBLIC OF LIBERIA, and above
the emblems, the national motto, THE LOVE OF LIBERTY BROUGHT
US HERE.
The former seal of the Commonwealth is ordered to be used
until that for the Republic shall be engraved.
By order of the convention.
S. BENEDICT,
President.
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INAUGURAL ADDRESS
OF HIS EXCELLENCY J. J. ROBERTS, PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF
LIBERIA.
Delivered at the first meeting of the Legislature of the Republic, Jan. 3, 1848.
FELLOW-CITIZENS, -Before I proceed to add the solemnity of
an oath to the obligations imposed on me, it is with great pleasure
I avail myself of the occasion, now presented, to express the profound impressions made on me by the call of my fellow-citizens to
the station and the duties to which I am now about to pledge
myself.  So distinguished a mark of confidence, proceeding from
the deliberate suffrage of my fellow-citizens, would, under any cir
cumstances, have commanded my gratitude and devotion, as well
as filled me with an awful sense of the trust to be assumed. But
I feel particularly gratified at this evidence of the confidence of
my fellow-citizens, inasmuch as it strengthens the impression on
me, that my endeavors to discharge faithfully the duties which devolved on me as Chief Executive officer of the Commonwealth,
during the last six years of our political connection with the
American Colonization Society, have been favorably estimated. I
nevertheless meet the responsibilities of this day with feelings of
the deepest solicitude. I feel, fellow-citizens, that the present is a
momentous period in the history of Liberia; and I assure you,
under the various circumstances which give peculiar solemnity to
the crisis, I am sensible that both the honor and the responsibility
alloted to me are inexpressibly enhanced.
We have just entered upon a new and important career. To 
ADDRESS OF PRESIDENT ROBERTS.
give effect to all the measures and powers of the government,
we have found it necessary to remodel our Constitution and to
erect ourselves into an independent State, which, in its infancy,
is exposed to numberless hazards and perils, and which can never
attain to maturity or ripen into firmness, unless it is managed
with affectionate assiduity and guarded by great abilities. I
therefore deeply deplore my want of talents, and feel my mind
filled with anxiety and uneasiness to find myself so unequal to
the duties of the important station to which I am called. When
I reflect upon the weight and magnitude now belonging to the
station, and the many difficulties which, in the nature oI things,
must necessarily attend it, I feel more like retreating from the
responsible position, than attempting to go forward in the discharge
of the duties of my office.
Indeed, gentlemen of the Legislature, if I had less reliance upon
your co-operation and the indulgence and support of a reflecting
people, and felt less deeply a consciousness of the duty I owe my
country, and a conviction of the guidance of an all-wise Providence in the management of our political affairs, I should be compelled to shrink from the task. I, however, enter upon the duties
assigned me, relying upon your wisdom and virtue to supply my
defects, and under the full conviction that my fellow-citizens at
large, who, on the most trying occasions, have always manifested a
degree of patriotism, perseverance, and fidelity, that would reflect
credit upon the citizens of any country, will support the government established by their voluntary consent, and appointed by their
own free choice.
While I congratulate my fellow-citizens on the dawn of a new
and more perfect government, I would also remind them of the
increased responsibility they too have assumed.
Indeed, if there ever was a period in the annals of Liberia, for
popular jealousy to be awakened, and popular virtue to exert itself,
it is the present. Other eras, I know, have been marked by dangers and difficulties which "tried men's souls;" but, whatever was
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AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY.
their measure, disappointment and overthrow have generally been
their fate. That patriotism and virtue which distinguish men of
every age, clime, and color, who are determined to be free, never forsook that little band of patriots - the pioneers in this noble enterprise -- in the hour of important trial. At a time when they were
almost without arms, ammunition, discipline, or government,- a
mere handful of isolated Christian pilgrims in pursuit of civil
and religious liberty, surrounded by savage and warlike tribes bent
upon their ruin and total annihilation, - with "a staff and a sling"
only, as it were, they determined, in the name of the "Lord of
Hosts," to stand their ground, and defend themselves to the last
extremity against their powerful adversary. And need I remind
you, fellow-citizens, how signally Almighty God delivered them,
and how he has hitherto prospered and crowned all our efforts
with success?
These first adventurers, inspired by the love of liberty and
equal rights, supported by industry and protected by Heaven,
became inured to toil, to hardships, and to war. In spite, however, of every obstacle, they obtained a settlement, and happily,
under God, succeeded in laying here the foundation of a free
government. Their attention, of course, was then turned to the
security of those rights for which they had encountered so many
perils and inconveniencies.  For this purpose, a constitution, or
form of government, anomalous, it is true, was adopted.
Under the circumstances, expediency required that certain
powers of the government should be delegated to the American
Colonization Society, their patrons and benefactors, with the
understanding, that, whenever the colonies should feel themselves
capable of assuming the whole responsibility of the government,
that institution would resign the delegated power, and leave the
people to the government of themselves.
At that time it was scarcely supposed, I presume, that the colonies would advance so rapidly as to make it necessary, or even desirable, on the part of the colonists, to dissolve that connection
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ADDRESS OF PRESIDENT ROBERTS.
within the short space of twenty-five years. Such, however, is the
case. Necessity has demanded it.
Under the fostering care of the American Colonization Society,
these infant settlements soon began to, prosper and flourish; and
a profitable trade, in a few years, opened an intercourse between
them and the subjects and citizens of foreign countries. This intercourse eventually involved us in difficulties with British traders, and, of consequence, with the British Government, which
could not be settled, for the want of certain powers in the government here, not provided for in the Constitution. Nor, indeed,
would the British Government recognize in the people of Liberia
the rights of sovereignty -" such as imposing custom dues and
levying taxes upon British commerce "- so long as their political connection with the Colonization Society continued. Under
these circumstances, a change in our relations with the Society,
and the adbption of a new constitution, were deemed, by a large
majority of the citizens of the Commonwealth, absolutely necessary. Such also was the opinion of the Board of Directors of the
American Colonization Society, who recommended the measure as
the only means of relieving the government from these embarrassments, and the citizens from innumerable inconveniences.
In view of these facts, to have shrunk firom the responsibility,
notwithstanding weighty reasons adverse to the measure suggested themselves, would have betrayed a weakness and timidity
unbecoming freemen.
Therefore, on full consideration of all the circumstances, it appeared that the period had arrived when it became the duty of the
people of Liberia to assume a new position, -such a one that
foreign powers would consider them an independent nation.
As you are aware, fellow-citizens, the independence of Liberia
has been the subject of much speculation and some animadversion,
both at home and abroad.
1st. We are told that the pecuniary assistance the government
here has hitherto received from the Colonization Society will now
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AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY.
cease; and that in a few years we will find ourselves groaning
under enormous taxes, or the affairs of the government will be
exceedingly embarrassed, if not totally paralyzed.
I am persuaded, however, that this conclusion by no means follows. To what extent, if at all, the Society contemplates withdrawing the pecuniary aid hitherto granted to the Commonwealth,
from the new government, I am not advised; nor have I any data
upon which to form even an opinion in regard to it. We have
this assurance, however, from Rev. Mr. McLain, Secretary of the
Society, "that the interest of the Board of Directors, in all that
concerns the people of Liberia, will not be diminished, but rather
increased, by the alteration in the present relations subsisting
between them and the American Colonization Society; and that it
is the intention of the Society to prosecute its work as vigorously
as heretofore, and on the same high and liberal principles."
WVe are truly, fellow-citizens, under many obligations to the Colonization Society. Indeed, it is impossible for one people to have
stronger ties upon the gratitude of another than that Society has
upon the people of Liberia.
To the wisdom, philanthropy, and magnanimity of the members
of the Colonization Society, who, for more than a quarter of a century, have watched with the deepest solicitude the progress of
these colonies, and have devoted much of their time and substance
to support them, we owe, under God, the political, civil, and religious liberty and independence we this day enjoy; and I have no
doubt in my own mind, but that they will continue to aid us in
every way the circumstances of the Society will admit of.
The necessity of imposing additional taxes upon the people to
meet the additional expenses of the government consequent upon
the new order of things, is very evident; but I confess, fellowcitizens, I can see no just grounds of fear that they will be
enormous or oppressive.
It is true, that for the first few years, in the absence of any foreign assistance, we may find our finances somewhat limited, per
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ADDRESS OF PRESIDENT ROBERTS.
haps barely sufficient to defray the ordinary expenses of the government; but in a country like ours, abounding in a sufficiency of
natural resources, which are so easily developed, it is scarcely probable that the government at any time will be greatly embarrassed,
certainly not totally paralyzed.
2d. It has been urged that the numerical strength of the government is yet too small; and that we have not sufficient intelligence, experience, or wealth, to command respect abroad; and that,
in the event foreign powers should refuse to acknowledge our independence, the embarrassments of the government and its citizens will be increased, rather than diminished.
Now, according to the best computation I am at present able to
make, and which I believe is pretty nearly correct, the population
of Liberia Proper - including, of course, the aboriginal inhabitants
who have incorporated themselves with us, and subscribed to the
constitution and laws of the Republic -is now upwards of eighty
thousand; and we may reasonably suppose that the inhabitants
will increase almost in the ratio of compound interest. I have no
doubt that the natural population of the Republic, in the course of
twenty years, will be doubled; and we have great reason to believe that the number of immigrants arriving from America, and
perhaps other countries, will be very considerable. The free people of color in the Utnited States, wearied with beating the air to
advance themselves to equal immunities with the whites in that
country, and tired of the oppression which weighs them down
there, are seriously turning their attention to Liberia as the only
asylum they can flee to and be happy.
While we exceedingly lament the want of greater intelligence
and more experience to fit us for the proper or more perfect management of our public affairs, we flatter ourselves that the adverse
circumstances under which we so long labored in the land of our
birth, and the integrity of our motives, will plead our excuse for
our want of abilities; and that, in the candor and charity of an
impartial world, our well-meant, however feeble, efforts will find
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AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY.
an apology. I am also persuaded that no magnanimous nation
will seek to abridge our rights, or withhold from the Republic those
civilities and "that comity which marks the friendly intercourse between civilized and independent communities," in consequence of
our weakness and present poverty.
And, with respect to the independence of Liberia, I know it to
be a favorable object with many great and good men, both in Europe and the United States, and, I have great reason to believe,
with several European powers, who entertain commercial views.
3d. We are gravely accused, fellow-citizens, of acting prematurely, and without due reflection, in this whole matter, with
regard to the probable consequences of taking into our own hands
the whole work of self-government, including the management of
our foreign relations; and I have also heard it remarked, that fears
are entertained by some persons abroad, that the citizens of Libelia,'when thrown upon their own resources, will probably not sustain the government, and that anarchy and its attendant ruins will
be the result of their independence.
The impression, however, that the people have acted prematurely, and without regard to consequences, is evidently erroneous.
And, to judge of the future from the past, I have no hesitancy in
asserting that the fears entertained respecting the disposition of
the people here to insubordination are totally groundless. No
people, perhaps, have exhibited greater devotion for their government and institutions, and have submitted more readily to lawful
authority, than the citizens of Liberia; which, indeed, must be obvious to every one at all familiar with the past history of these colonies.  But to return.  It is well known that the object of independence has been agitating the public mind for more than five
years, and that every consideration for and against it, has been
warmly discussed.
I am sensible, however, it is no uncommon thing for men to be
warm in a cause, and yet not know why it is they are warm.  In
such cases, the passioni of 0ole is lihhted -up by tle pagsion bf
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ADDRESS OF PRESIDENT ROBERTS.
another, and the whole circle is in a flame; but the mind in the
mean time is like a dark chamber, without a single ray of light
to pervade it. In this case it will happen, that, when the hasty
passion shall have spent its force, all virtuous and patriotic resolutions which it kindled up will also die with it; as, in the great affairs of religion, a strong flash of ideas on the fancy may excite a
combustion of devotion; but, unless the reason is engaged to feed
and supply the burning, it will die away, and neither light nor heat
will be found remaining in it.
It was the commendation of a certain people of whom we read
in the Bible, that, when the gospel was first preached to them,
"they searched the Scriptures daily, whether these things were so."
Those who, without examination, had received it, without examination might also give it up: but this more "honorable" people
had maturely weighed the doctrine; and, embracing it, they gave
ground to believe, that as they were rational, so they would be
persevering Christians.
The political concerns of Liberia have been equally the objects
of attentive consideration. And it affords the most pleasing reflection, that the people of these colonies have not acted rashly or
unadvisedly with respect to their independence, but all the measures which have been adopted in regard to it are strongly marked
with great caution and matured deliberation, and will bear the
strictest scrutiny of reason and conscience.
The time has been, I admit, when men, without being chargeable with timidity, or with a disposition to undervalue the capacities of the African race, might have doubted the success of the
colonization enterprise and the feasibility of establishing an independent Christian State on this coast, composed of and conducted
wholly by colored men; but, fellow-citizens, that time has passed.
The American Colonization Society has redeemed its pledge, and I
believe in my soul, that the permanency of the government of the
Republic of Liberia is now fixed upon as firm a basis as human wisdom is capable of devising.  Nor is there any reason to apprehend
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AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY.
that the divine Disposer of human events, after having separated
us from the house of bondage, and led us safely through so many
dangers, towards the land of liberty and promise, will leave the
work of our political redemption and consequent happiness unfinished, and either permit us to perish in a wilderness of difficulties, or suffer us to be carried back in chains to that country of
prejudices, from whose oppression he has mercifully delivered us
with his outstretched arm.
And, fellow-citizens, it must afford the most heartfelt pleasure
and satisfaction to every friend of Liberia, and real lover of liberty
in general, to observe by what a fortunate train of circumstances
and incidents the people of these colonies have arrived at absolute
freedom and independence. When we look abroad and see by
what slow and painful steps, marked with blood and ills of every
kind, other States of the world have advanced to liberty and independence, we cannot but admire and praise that all-gracious Providence, who, by his unerring ways, has, with so few sufferings on
our part compared with other States, led us to this happy stage in
our progress toward those great and important objects.  And that
it is the will of Heaven that mankind should be free, is clearly evidenced by the wealth, vigor, virtue, and consequent happiness of
all free States. But the idea that Providence will establish such
governments as he shall deem most fit for his creatures, and will
give them wealth, influence, and happiness without their efforts, is
palpably absurd. In short, God's moral government of the earth
is always performed by the intervention of second causes. Therefore, fellow-citizens, while with pious gratitude we survey the fret
quent interpositions of Heaven in our behalf, we ought to remember, that as the disbelief of an overruling Providence is atheism,
so an absolute confidence of having our government relieved from
every embarrassment, and its citizens made respectable and happy
by the immediate hand of God, without our own exertions, is the
most culpable presumption. Nor have we any reason to expect
that he will miraculously make Liberia a paradise, and deliver us
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ADDRESS OF PRESIDENT ROBERTS.
in a moment of time from all the ills and inconveniences consequent upon the peculiar circumstances under which we are placed,
merely to convince us that he favors our cause and government.
Sufficient notifications of his will are always given, and those
who will not then believe, neither would they believe though
one should rise from the dead to inform them. Who can trace the
progress of these colonies, and mark the incidents of the wars in
which they have been engaged, without seeing evident tokens of
providential favor? Let us, therefore, inflexibly persevere in exerting our most strenuous efforts in an humble and rational dependence on the great Governor of all the world, and we have the
fairest prospects of surmounting all the difficulties which may be
thrown in our way. And that we may expect, and that we shall
have, difficulties, sore difficulties, yet to contend against in our progress to maturity, is certain. And as the political happiness or
wretchedness of ourselves and our children, and of generations yet
unborn, is in our hands, nay more, the redemption of Africa from
the deep degradation, superstition, and idolatry in which she has
so long been involved, it becomes us to lay our shoulders to the
wheel, and manfully resist every obstacle which may oppose our
progress in the great work which lies before us. The gospel, fellow-citizens, is yet to be preached to vast numbers inhabiting this
dark continent; and I have the highest reason to believe that it
was one of the great objects of the Almighty in establishing these
colonies, that they might be the meanis of introducing civilization
and religion among the barbarous nations of this country. And to
what work more noble could our powers be applied, than that of
bringing up from darkness, debasement, and misery, our fellow-men,
and shedding abroad over them the light of science and Christianity? The means of doing so, fellow-citizens, are in our reach,
and if we neglect, or do not make use of them, what excuse
shall we make to our Creator and final Judge?  This is a question
of the deepest concern to us all, and which, in my opinion, will
materially affect our happiness in the world to come. And surely,
*.e*e
.
* * * *
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AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY.
if it ever has been incumbent on' the people of Liberia to know
truth and to follow it, it is now.  Rouse, therefore, fellow-citizens,
and do your duty like men; and be persuaded that Divine Providence, as heretofore, will continue to bless all your virtuous efforts.
But if there be any among us dead to all sense of honor and
love of their country; if deaf to all the calls of liberty, virtue, and
religion; if forgetful of the benevolence and magnanimity of those
who have procured this asylum for them, and the future happiness
of their children; if neither the examples nor the success of other
nations, the dictates of reason: and of nature, or the great duties
they owe to their God, themselves, and their posterity, have any
effect upon them; if neither the injuries they received in the land
whence they came, the prize they are contending for, the future
blessings or curses of their children, the applause or reproach of
all mankind, the approbation or displeasure of the great Judge,
or'the happiness or misery consequent upon their conduct in this
and a future state, can move them,- then let them be assured that
they deserve to be slaves, and are entitled to nothing but anguish
and tribulation. Let them banish forever from their minds the
hope of obtaining that freedom, reputation, and happiness, which,
as men, they are entitled to. Let them forget every duty, human
and divine, remember not that they have children, and beware
how they call to mind the justice of the Supreme Being. Let them
return into slavery, and hug their chains, and be a reproach and
a by-word among all nations.
But I am persuaded, fellow-citizens, that we have none such
among us; that every citizen will do his duty, and exert himself
to the utmost of his abilities to sustain the honor of his country,
promote her interests, and the interests of his fellow-citizens, and
to hand down unimpaired to future generations the freedom and
independence we this day enjoy.
As to myself, fellow-citizens, I assure you I never have been indifferent to what concerns the interests of Liberia, my adopted country; and I am sensible of no passion which could seduce me know
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ADDRESS OF PRESIDENT ROBERTS.
ingly from the path of duty or of justice. The weakness of human
nature, and the limits of my own understanding, may, no doubt will,
produce errors of judgment.  I repeat, therefore, that I shall need
all the indulgence I have hitherto received at your hands. I shall
need, too, the favor of that Being in whose hands we are, who has
led us, as Israel of old, from our native land, and planted us in a
country abounding in all the necessaries and comforts of life; who
has covered our infancy with his Providence, and to whose goodness I ask you to join with me in supplications, that he will so enlighten the minds of your servants, guide their councils, and prosper their measures, that whatsoever they do shall result in your
good, and shall secure to you the peace, friendship, and approbation of all nations.
21
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ANNUAL MESSAGE OF PRESIDENT WARNER,
DECEMBER 1866.
Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and House of Representatives of the Republic
of Liberia:
THE expiration of another twelve months has brought around
the period when it becomes my duty to lay before you a statement
of the affairs of the Republic, and to recommend such measures
as appear to me calculated to enhance the welfare of the nation.
In discharging this duty, I have to invite you to unite with me in
rendering unfeigned thanks to our heavenly Father for the blessings
with which the past year has been crowned. The immunity we
have enjoyed from those epidemic diseases which have been the
scourge of other lands, the bountiful harvests that have blessed the
labors of the husbandman, the peace that has prevailed, to a great
extent, within our borders, are unmistakable marks of divine favor;
and for these mercies we should show ourselves grateful by pursuing such a course of conduct as will meet the approbation of the
Almighty.
FOREIGNr RELATIONS. - Our relations with foreign nations are
satisfactory, with the exception of the North-western boundary
dispute.  This question, which has been pending for the last five
years without having yet come to a solution, must be settled before
it can be determined which of the two governments - this or Her
Britannic Majesty's - is responsible for the numerous atrocities
which have been committed, as well as for those which are daily
being committed, by the natives in the territories in dispute. The
predatory wars waged by the natives in those parts of the country 
ANNUIJAL MESSAGE OF PRESIDENT WARNER.
against the peaceful natives living in close proximity to our settle ment at Grand Cape Mount, and to the great detriment of that
settlement; the vast amount of merchandise introduced from ad joining provinces without bringing a revenue to this Government;
the open rebellion of the natives, instigated by unprincipled traders
living within the territories claimed by this Government, - are
evwis which are likely to continue for a long time, and to affect
most injuriously the interests of the Republic, unless this question
of boundary be at once set at rest.
The finances of the Government have not been in such a conldi tion as to allow us to occupy those windward territories with
civilized settlements, or we might long since have availed ourselves
of the surest method of confirming the claim which we have rightfillly acquired by fair and honorable purchase.
On this subject, the Government has renewed the correspondence
which two years ago was broken off by the brief reply of the
British Government to the last requisition of the Liberian Government. And it is to be hoped that the magnanimity and keen sense
of justice of the British Government will allow the question to be
put at rest speedily and amicably.
I have appointed Monsieur L. Carrance Consul for this Republic, at Bordeaux, in France. I have also granted a commission to
Senor Senmartity Brogues as Liberian Consul at Barcelona and
Madrid, in Spain.  I felt particular gratification in making this
latter appointment; and, in a despatch from the Spanish Minister
for Foreign Affairs, we are assured that it was hailed by Her Catholic Majesty's Government as the forerunner of the establishment
of friendly and commercial relations between the two countries.
During the year, I have granted my exequatur to Samuel F.
McGill, Esq., Consul for Sweden and Norway; also to C. T. W.
F. Jantzen, Esq., Consul for Hamburg, at Monrovia.
It is with feelings of inexpressible sorrow that I have to announce
to you the death of Abraham Hanson, Esq., late United-States
Commissioner and Consul-General, which occurred in the month of
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July last, at the legation in Monrovia. The death of Mr. Hanson
cast a deep gloom over our community.  Never has a foreign functionary stood higher in the estimation of a people than Mr. Hanson
did in that of the Liberian, nor succeeded in establishing a better
understanding than that which subsisted between Mr. Hanson and
the Government to which he was accredited. As a gentleman of
Christian character, of kind and benevolent disposition, endearing
himself to all who knew him, and as a liberal-minded public functionary, Mr. Hanson justly merited every mark of respect shown
to him; and his memory claims a prominent place in the affections
of this people.
To fill the office made vacant by the death of Mr. Hanson, the
Government of the United States has appointed William A. Johnson, Esq., Vice-Consul General at Monrovia; and I have accorded
t9 him my exequatur.
The Government has been invited to participate in the International Exhibition to be held in Paris during the next year. It will
be to me a matter of profound regret if, from any consideration,
the Government should be compelled to decline the friendly offer.
Such exhibitions tend, to a great extent, to bring into notice the
products and commodities of different countries; and considering
the limited commerce of Liberia, notwithstanding her vast but
undeveloped resources, we should put forth a vigorous effort to
improve the opportunity now afforded the country of exhibiting to
the world its rich products.
In the latter part of 1864, we made application to the Government of the United States for the purchase of a gunboat. The
application was generously responded to, and the sale of a vessel
on very liberal terms was provided for.
A treaty of amity and commerce has recently been negotiated
between this Republic and the Empire of Austria, which I will
lay before the Senate for ratification.
THE  MAILS.-The  postal convention between  this government and that of Great Britain continues in operation. Recent
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ANNUAL MESSAGE OF PRESIDENT WARNER.
arrangements provide that the steamers bearing the monthly mails
shall touch at Alonrovia as well as Cape Palmas.  This gives us
increased facilities for communicating with foreign countries. But
in order to have regular intercourse between our settlements, and
to prevent those serious delays.which too often occur in the operations of the Government from want of mail carriage, it is necessary
that you provide some sure and economical means for conveying
the mails to and fiom the different settlements along the coast.
INTERNATIONAL HoSPITAL. -A proposition has been made to
this government, by a wealthy and influential gentleman in France,
to establish in this city, under the patronage of our Government,
an International Hospital.  He petitions for a grant of land suitable
for this benevolent object, and a small appropriation to assist in the
enterprise. I hope you will take this subject under favorable coinsideration. The seaport towns all over the civilized world could
a
not give a stronger expression of their appreciation of the severe
toil and abundant services of seamen, than by erecting buildings in
their respective localities for their accommodation when distressed
either from shipwreck, sickness, or other causes. Travellers, also,
to this coast, would experience an inexpressible feeling of relief
from a knowledge that such an asylum existed for their reception
when assailed or wasted by the diseases of the climate.
THE PUBLIC REVENUE. -It is necessary that vigorous measures be adopted and executed in order to enhance the public
revenue. It is true there is in the paper currency a marked improvemenit, which tends greatly to the advantage of the citizens
generally; but it cannot be of material benefit to the Government,
unless the receipts of the treasury constantly exceed, or at least
equal, the expenditures it may be necessary to make to carry on the
Government. While I admit that all unnecessary expenditures
should be abolished, I am not inclined to favor the opinion that
the expenses generally of the Government are a waste, because
they make no return in kind for the capital invested.  The citizens
need protection in the prosecution of their various interests; and
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AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY.
this the Government should not only have the ability to give, but
its ability should be so fully known and seen as to render it unnecessary, except in extraordinary cases, to put it to the test.
THE NATIVE TRIBES. - I have for a long time thought that the
native tribes residing within the near jurisdiction of the Republic
could be brought into closer relationship with us, by being required
to contribute to the support of the Government, and by being
allowed such a representation in our national council as will easily
commend itself to their comprehension. Such a measure inaugurated among these, will induce those tribes more remote to seek to
sustain similar relations to us. No desire to exterminate these
people and aggrandize their territory brought us here. They are
our brethren, deluded though they often appear; and our constitution expressly declares that their improvement is a cherished
object of this Government. The Government, then, being for
mutual advantage, is one that calls for mutual support. The
aborigines should assist in the great work we have to perform.
Like the civilized population, they should give something in
return for the protection and redress which our courts always,
and  our armies often, are required  to render them.   And  I
doubt not that many of them are now willing to assist;  and
when they shall have been convinced that the civilization of which
the Republic is the nucleus must spread far and wide over this
continent, enlightening and refining its inhabitants, and raising
them in the scale of being; that it is a work designed by the
Almighty himself, and cannot be stayed, -I am sure they will become willing coadjutors.
I therefore recommend that the discretionary powers given to
the Executive in the fifth section of an act regulating taxes and
licenses, passed by the Legislature in 1858, to require our aborigines to contribute to the support of the Government in such a manner as he shall deem best, be made a positive law, to be enforced in
common with other revenue laws. There are in these forests men
of royal blood, and of minds susceptible of the most exalted ideas
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ANNUAL MESSAGE OF PRESIDENT WARNER.
of systematic and well-balanced government; and, by a proper
appreciation of them, they could be made to sustain to us a much
nearer and dearer relation than that of being mere contributors to
our treasury.
PASSPORTS. - I have also to suggest that, for each passport
issued by the Secretary of State, a fee of two dollars be charged,
to go into the treasury; that said passport be issued only on the
presentation of the treasurer's receipt acknowledging the payment
of the fee; and that the receipts be passed quarterly from the
Department of State to the Secretary of the Treasury.
Our passport law needs other important amendments. At all
times and under all circumstances, the present law allows persons
of all characters to obtain passports, simply by giving ten days'
notice of their intention to leave the Republic, and paying a fee of
fifty cents for each passport. Taking advantage of these easy circumstances under which they can leave the Republic, many of a
wilfully thriftless class, whether long in the country or recent
comers to it, go to foreign countries only to find the obstacles to
be surmounted by indolent persons more numerous than they are
in Liberia. In a short time, they become reduced to extremities in
the communities they enter. Did they break off their allegiance
to the Government of this Republic, we should be saved all further
concern about them; but, to avoid the duties and responsibilities of
citizens of the new State to which they may have gone, they retain
their passports and their allegiance, and in this way, to say the least
of it, occasion this Government considerable anxiety, as it is often
called upon to relieve its destitute citizens.
PATENTS. - The patent law in force in the Republic should be
so amended, as to require every person filing a caveat in the patentoffice to pay a small fee for the privilege thus secured to him.
PAY OF MEMBERS. -I am fully aware that most men  in the
public service are already required to make some sacrifice. Still
they should always set examples of patriotism, in order that the
citizens generally may be induced to second their efforts the more
167
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AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY.
cheerfully.  In this connection, I have again to propose to you a
recommendation made during the session of'64, - that each
member of the legislature receive for his services a salary, not to
exceed the amount to which he would be entitled for a session of
a moderate length, at a reasonable pay per diem.
LICENSE-FEEs. -I have often considered, that, in the administration of the affairs of a nation, justice requires that burdens
imposed should be borne equally by the citizens, or in proportion
to each man's ability. In our system of licenses, this principle
does not operate.  There are only three classes of citizens -  merchants, lawyers, and auctioneers -who pay a license-fee for being
allowed to follow their various vocations. It is not clear to my
mind, upon what principle certain classes of our citizens are taxed
for procuring a livelihood, while others are exempt. I have on a
previous occasion spoken of the propriety of requiring persons
following other trades or professions to pay a reasonable licensefee, and I would again bring this subject to your notice.
MANUFACTURE OF ARDENT SPIRITS. - There is pursued in the
country an occupation which, to say the least of it, brings no good
either to proprietors or customers. I refer to the distilling of
ardent spirits. We are, it is true, under a free government, with a
liberal constitution; and while total prohibition may appear to
some as an invasion of the rights of citizens, yet I cannot see upon
what principle of political economy or justice the trade in distilling
ardent spirits has been encumbered with the lightest tax, while
wholesome, unobjectionable occupations pay to support a Government which knows that its people are demoralized, and shuts its
eyes upon the fact.  Each still erected or in operation in the
Republic should pay a tax proportioned to the capacity in gallons
of the said still.
It would be very far firom fulfilling our mission to this country,
that we continue to demoralize the natives by the abundant sale to
them of ardent sp)irits. It seems clear to my mind that, as in the
case of individuals, God holds men responsible for thus putting
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ANNUAL MESSAGE OF PRESIDENT WARNER.
into the hands of their fellows materials capable of so much harm,
inciting them to rapine, murder, and war. So in our case, as a
nation, God will not hold us guiltless of this sin which we have been
committing to the destruction of our heathen brethren, as well as
ourselves; and surely their blood will he require at our hands, and
will hold us chargeable for the evils which these tribes commit
under the influence of this destructive drink.
The manufacture of ardent spirits, and the traffic in them by
other civilized countries, should not be argued by us in justification
of the Republic of Liberia engaging in the same thing. The
prosperity of those other countries might have been much more
abundant and abiding, and there would have been committed in
them a less number of murders, had there been in them a total
absence of ardent spirits. And may not the secret of the slow
progress we are making, compared with the great advantages we
have of a'fertile soil, a uniformly favorable climate, and the enormous percentage of the yield of our crops, and the evanescent
character which the accumulations we make firom time to time
assume, be attributed to the sin of manufacturing and selling rum?
Ardent spirits had much to do with the kidnapping and forcing of
our forefathers from their ancient homes to a land of slavery. It
caused the opening in that land of many premature graves, which
closed over the mangled bodies and broken hearts of the victims
of American bondage. We may not hope to escape similar misfortunes and evils, if we persist in manufacturing and selling ardent
spirits.
Besides this, the ease with which these natives procure fire-arms
and ammunition increases the hostilities, and protracts those bloody
struggles in which they engage, but which is our duty to check.
The Government of Liberia is the guardian of the tribes which
have placed themselves under its jurisdiction; and we should
advise, admonish, and gently coerce them into that subjection to
law and order which they sometimes appear reluctant to yield.
And when our civilized communities so far forget their duty to
22
169 
AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY.
these heathen as to place in their hands the instruments of death,
encouraging them to lawless and murderous acts, they, too, should
be restrained by law. I have, therefore, to recommend the placing
of a high duty on the importation of fire-arms, powder, and ardent
spirits. These articles are by no means essential to the traffic of
the country.
INTERCOURSE WIT  THE NATIVES. -There is no subject which
more affects the interests of this Government than that of the tribes
by whom we are surrounded. It must be admitted that the relation we sustain to these aborigines is very different firom that held
by any other civilized people to the natives of a barbarous country
which they have entered. We often find the circumstances attendant on this relation exceedingly embarrassing. These people are
our brethren, and yet we sometimes find them in antagonism to
us. And then, again, in their own case, another and very important' difficulty arises from the fact, that there are chiefs under our
jurisdiction who have laws, which we find it difficult to abrogate
at once, conflicting with our statutes; thus keeping their subjects
in constant dread of violating our laws on the one hand, and incurring the penalty of their own code on the other.
I have already referred to the propriety of making these tribes
understand the necessity of contributing to the maintenance of
this government; and I have now to suggest that there be some
restriction placed on the intercourse of the civilized settlers with
the natives, defining how far that intercourse shall extend, and
when and for what purposes it shall be allowed. Many disturbances, and during the present year several of a serious nature, have
arisen, resulting from that unlimited intercourse with the natives,
which has been continued for years by persons ostensibly engaged
in trade, who have gone among these tribes to the demoralizing of
themselves and to the great disprofit of the natives.
I am of opinion that persons going among the aborigines to
reside should be made to show that they are engaged in some
lawful and necessary enterprise, and to give bond and security, to
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be renewed from time to time, for their conforming to law and
conserving the public peace; and, whenever it might appear that
such persons are no longer prosecuting lawful business with the
natives, they should be required to withdraw from them; and, for
being allowed to prosecute trade among the natives, they should
obtain a license, for which they ought to pay a tax; proportionate
to the amount of capital invested in such native trade.
PRINCE BOYER. -I have to inform you that in the month of
June last, Prince Boyer, of Tradetown, seized and detained the
Hon. J. M. Horace, at said place.  By this act of Boyer, the Government was placed in a serious dilemma.  To have attempted to
force the exasperated chief while Mr. Horace was in his power,
would have endangered the life of the latter; and the conditions
proposed by Boyer, on which his prisoner could be released, were
such as the Government could not accede to and maintain its dignity, and preserve the majesty of our laws.
The Government sent a note to Boyer, requiring him to set Mr.
Horace at liberty. Mr. Horace has been released. Boyer, however, gives the following ground of grievance: 1st, That an annuity promised him in 1849, and fixed by law, has not been regularly
paid him; 2d, That, after he had become reconciled to the port-ofentry law, the domestic trade was interdicted to him, simply because
it was rumored by his native enemies that he was contemplating a
descent upon the settlements in Grand Bassa County; 3d, That
his confessions of repentance for the wrong he had done, by refusing,
when commanded to do so, to surrender the goods of foreigners
detained by him, were spurned by the Legislature; 4th, That his
officers, while on a peaceful mission to the Government, were detained at Grand Bassa, and stripped of their insignia; 5th, That a
present which he sent to the Government as an assurance of peace,
was seized at Bassa; 6th, That the passage of the law interdicting
the domestic trade seemed to be a last resort to crush him; 7th,
That Senator Horace, by coming within the territory interdicted,
violated the law which he himself assisted to make, and that he,
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AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY.
Boyer, under the circumstances, could not but act according to the
natural impulse of a man. He has written to the Government,
earnestly imploring a removal of the interdict.
On the other hand, it is clear that the tribes within our jurisdiction have no right to indulge in the spirit of reprisals which they
manifest either towards ourselves or each other. When they have
complaints against the laws or any proceedings of the Government,
they should set forth their grievances in a proper manner. And
no men know better the force and virtue of law than some of the
powerful chiefs who preside over these tribes. Neither Boyer nor
any other chief has any right to execute our laws, or to set up his
authority against the majesty of the Republic.
But these chiefs and their subjects have, undoubtedly, certain
rights, both natural and political, which should be highly respected
by this Government and people. And when this is done, and the
natives are not provoked by us to the commission of lawless deeds,
or instigated by dishonorable foreigners to insubordination, there
will subsist between us and them a permanent good understanding
and the greatest cordiality of feeling.
MURDER AT. SETTRA KROO.-  Sometime in the month of October last, one James Douglas, of Greenville, Sinou, was wantonly
murdered at Settra Kroo, by a native of that place. Immediately
after intelligence of the tragical affair reached the Government, I
sent down to Sinou a proclamation, interdicting all intercourse with
Settra Kroo until such time as satisfaction should be given for the
murder committed. By the vessel bringing the legislators to this
city, I received a communication from the King and head men of
Settra Kroo, assuring the Government that the murderer shall be
delivered up to justice as soon as he can be placed in the hands of
the Nanna Kroo natives.
SEIZURE  FOR VIOLATING REvENUE  LAW.    Presuming upon
another illustration of the might of the British naval force on this
coast over the just rights of the Republic, one J. M. Harris, a subject of Her Britannic Majesty's Government, who has for some
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time kept a trading establishment at Solyma contrary to the laws
of the Republic, arrogantly sent, a few weeks ago, his vessel into
the little Cape Mount River to prosecute a trade with the aborigines of that place, as if to see how far and with how much impunity he could contravene the laws of the Republic. It will be
remembered that this vessel is one of the two that were brought
into this port from Solyma by the gunboat "Quail," in 1860, to be
tried for trading at that place contrary to our revenue laws, but
were forcibly taken out of our harbor by Her Britannic Majesty's
cruiser "Torch."  The vessel, having been seized by order of the
Government, has been brought to this port, and now lies in the
river awaiting the investigation of her case by the proper authorities.
PROPOsAL FOR A BANK. - In connection with the subject of
finance, I have further to inform you that the plan proposed by
Messrs. McFarlan & Co., of London, for transacting financial business for this Government, and which was adopted by you at your last
session, has not been acted upon by that firm; they preferring to
operate on a totally different basis, merging their proposal into the
plan of a bank, of which the details will be duly laid before you.
CODIFICATION OF THE LAWS.- The revision and compilation
of our statute laws, which are at present in such inconvenient
publications, require your authorization. I have to solicit an appropriation for this object.
EDUCATION. -During the year, Liberia College has continued
in operation. The Preparatory Department, under the care of
Mr. H. R. W. Johnson, has given the greatest satisfaction in the
training of its scholars.
In connection with this I am happy to inform you, that we have
intelligence from the United States of a growing and active spirit
of emigration to Africa among the blacks. In a week or two,
some five or six hundred will probably be landed on our shores.
The Attorney General of this Republic, now on his way home,
made an interesting tour, during the last summer, over a portion
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AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY.
of the Western  States; and he assures us, that, from what he has
witnessed among the blacks with whom he came into contact, a
steady stream of emigration has just begun. We are doubtless all
glad to receive such intelligence. But the question that occurs to
every thoughtful mind is, Can Liberia, with her feeble institutions,
take up and absorb safely this influx of our down-trodden brethren, unaccustomed as they are to the duties and responsibilities
of building up new States? I answer, without hesitation, that
we can. But it becomes us, as legislators, and executors of law,
to make provisions to guard and perpetuate more effectually the
liberties of our country. And, among the provisions necessary, a
most important, and, indeed, indispensable one, is the establishment
of an efficient common-school system.   We  have in our statute
books many laws referring to common schools, but they need revision and consolidation. Depend upon it, unless this matter is
attended to, our free institutions will be in danger. Let knowledge
be generally diffused, and we need not fear the debates and discussions which periodically take place among us as to our political
affairs.
But the diffusion of education among us will, for some time, be
dependent chiefly upon legislative action in the establishment and
maintenance, throughout the country, of common schools. The
Government must here, as in other countries, take this subject into
its hands,- a subject which, to my mind, involves the whole matter of what is generally termed popular education, comprising not
only schools established by the Government, but also mission
schools in our townships or within our jurisdiction.
SYSTEM OF COMMON SCIIOOLS. - By having tile education of
the people under some system -I mean something like the following - so as always to keep the subject of education prominently before the people:  1. Let the different counties be divided into school districts,
and let the people in those districts be taxed to provide schoolhouses and help to support the schools, the Government furnishing a certain amount.
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ANNUAL MESSAGE OF PRESIDENT WARNER.
2. Let a Secretary of Education be appointed, to regulate the
educational interests of the country, in connection, if thought advisible, with a committee of Council. All appointments of instructors to common schools to be made by the Secretary, with
the advice of the Council; and no teacher to be appointed with
out a certificate of capability fiom recognized examiners, i.e.,
any of the professors in Liberia College, or any other well-known
instructor.
3. School teachers to be examined twice a year by the Secretary
of Education or his deputy.
4. Provision to be made for schools for girls, in which, besides
mere book learning, they may be taught domestic economy and
general habits of industry. This is a sore and pressing need of
Liberia.
5. Children of the aborigines in our settlements and their neighborhood t~o have the same rights to education as emigrants; and the
Government to have the right to establish schools in purely
heathen districts.
Our brethren who flee from the United States to this country
for freedom, find, on arriving here, a large and superabundant freedom; but they lose the advantages of enlarged education afforded
them in their native country, - advantages which, since the war,
have been increasing in various parts of the United States.  It
is therefore meet and proper that in a system of common schools,
such as I have just referred to, efficiently established, they
should find some compensation for the sacrifices they have voluntarily made.
PENSION RECOMMENDED.- Before closing this statement, I
would request for Jonas Carey a stated pension during his lifetime. He is one of the only three male pioneers of Liberia surviving, and connecting the present with the past. He took part
in the memorable battle of Dec. 1, 1822, on the issue of which depended the question whether Christian civilization should be established on this coast by black colonists from America, or not. He
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AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY.
is now aged and feeble, and deserves whatever aid or patronage
the government can render him.
CONCLUSION.- And now, in conclusion, I beg to assure you of
the cordiality and cheerfulness with which I will co-operate with
you in any measure for the promotion of the public weal. In all
your deliberations, fail not to keep steadily before your mind the
great object we should all have in view, viz- the vindication, upbuilding, and honor of the negro race, and the opening up of this
great continent to civilization and religion.  Keeping this elevated
and glorious aim always before you, your labors will be considerably lightened, and harmony, peace, and fraternal feelings will
mark your whole intercourse during the session.
I). B. WARNER.
MONROVIA, Dec. 6, 1866.
176 
CHIEF MAGISTRATES OF LIBERIA.
THIS table is believed to include the names of all persons who
were ever authorized to act as chief magistrates of Liberia. The
original plan was, that an agent appointed by the Colonization
Society should be the chief magistrate, and an agent appointed by
the Government of the United States should have the care of the
recaptured Africans: but the same person often held both offices;
and there seems to have been an understanding, that, when either
agent was absent, his duties should devolve on the other. After
the adoption of the constitution proposed by Mr. Gurley, August,
1824, the duties of the Society's agent, in his absence, devolved on
a vice-agent, elected by the people. After July, 1836, the Society's
agent was styled governor, and the vice-agent, lieutenant governor. Since the Declaration of Independence, in 1847, presidents
have been elected by the people. The names of all who are known
to have acted as chief magistrates by authority from the Society
or by popular election are placed in SMALL CAPITALS. The names
of agents of the United States Government, who may have sometimes acted in that capacity, are placed in other type. The dates
are given with as much completeness as has been practicable. Two
agents of the Society and two of the Government died before the
removal from Sierra Leone to Cape Mesurado; but their names
none the less deserve to be retained. The names of physicians
appointed by the Government or the Society, who may have acted
as agents in case of necessity, are also given
23 
AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY.
Dr. SAMUIEL  A. CROZFR. -Instructions dated Dec. 10, 1819;
sailed Feb. 6, 1820; died April 15, 1820.
Rev. Samuel Bacon.-Appointed Jan. 8, 1820; sailed Feb. 6,
1820; died May 21, 1820.
John P. Bankson. - Sailed Feb. 6, 1820; died May 13, 1820.
Rev. DANIEL CORER, emigrant.- Appointed by Dr. Crozer,
just before his death; he was the Society's agent at Campelar, and
at Fourah Bay, Sierra Leone, where he remained when the other
colonists removed to Cape Mesurado.
Rev. Ephraim Bacon. -Sailed Jan. 23, 1821; returned 1821.
Jonathan B. Winn.- Sailed Jan. 23, died Aug. 25,1821.
Rev. JosEPrn ANDRUs. —Sailed Jan. 23, died July 28, 1821.
CHRISTIAN WITLBERGER. - Sailed Jan. 23, 1821; returned
June 4, 1822.
Dr. ELI AYREs.- Appointed July 25, 1821; acquired Cape
Mesurado Dec. 15, 1821, and removed the colonists thither; appointed United-States Government agent, May 15, 1822; returned
June 4, 1822; sailed again May 24; and returned December, 1823.
ELIJAH JoHNsoN, emigrant. - Appointed by Dr. Ayres as Society's agent during his absence, firom June 4, 1822.
Rev. JEuUDI ASHMUNv. -Agent for the Society and the Government, sailed May 20, 1822; appointment confirmed, under the new
constitution, August 1824; sailed, on his return, March 25, 1828;
died Aug. 25, 1828.
Rev. R. R. GURLEY. -Agent of the Society and Government,
arrived Aug. 13, 1824; confirmed Ashmun's authority, under a new
constitution, and returned Aug. 22, 1824.
Dr. John W. Peaco. -Arrived March 26, 1826; returned 1826.
Dr. George P. Todsen.- Appointed June, 1827; afterwards appointed Society's physician, Nov. 17, 1830, to 1834.
Rev. LOT CARY, emigrant. - Vice-agent, administered from
Mr. Ashmun's departure, March 25, 1828; died Nov. 8, 1828.
Rev. COLSTON M. WARING  emigrant.- From Nov. 8 to Dec.
22, 1828.
178 
CHIEF MAGISTRATES OF LIBERIA.
Dr. RICHARD RANDALL. -Appointed by the Society Sept. 8,
and by the Government October, 1828; arrived Dec. 22, 1828;
died April 19, 1829.
Dr. JOSEPH MECHLIN. -Appointed assistant agent and physician Oct. 17, 1828; succeeded Dr. Randall April 19, 1829; appointed agent Sept. 14, 1829; appointed Government agent to
succeed Dr. Randall; returned May, 1830; sailed again October,
1830; returned July, 1832.
Dr. J. W. ANDERSON. - Appointed assistant agent and physician Jan. 1, 1830; arrived Feb. 27; died April 20, 1830.
ANTHONY D. WILLIAMS, emigrant. - Vice-agent, administered
in Dr. Mechlin's absence in 1830, and after his departure in 1832.
Rev. JOHN B. PINNEY. - Appointed Oct. 24, 1833; from ill
health, transferred his duties to Dr. Skinner in the summer of 1834.
Dr. EZEKIEL SKINNER. -Sailed as Society's physician June 21,
1834; appointed agent Jan. 26, 1835; returned late in 1836; again
appointed physician Oct. 27, 1837.
ANTHONY D. WILLIAMS. - Formerly vice-agent, succeeded Dr.
Skinner in 1836.
THOMAs BUCHANAN.- Appointed governor, Dec. 10, 1838, on
the union of the settlement of the New-York and Pennsylvania Societies with the Commonwealth of Liberia.  Also UnitedStates Government agent. Arrived April 1, 1839; died Sept. 3,
1841. The last white chief magistrate.
Dr. J. W. Lugenbeel, Society's physician, and Government
agent. Appointed by the Society July 27, 1843; sailed Sept. 16,
1843; returned May, 1849.
JOSEPH J. ROBERTS, emigrant. - Succeeded Gov. Buchanan, as
lieut.-governor, Sept. 3.1841; appointed governor Jan. 20, 1842;
administered till the organization of the Republic, Jan. 3, 1848.
JOSEPH J. ROBERTS, emigrant, president, 1848 to 1856.
STEPHEN A. BENSON, emigrant, president, 1856 to 1864.
DANIEL B. WARNER, emigrant, president, 1864.
179 
AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY.
GOVERNORS OF MARYLAND IN LIBERIA.
Dr. JAMES HALL.- Founder and first governor.  Appointed by
the Maryland Colonization Society, October, 1833; sailed Nov. 23,
1833; purchased Cape Palmas, the site of the colony, by treaty,
Feb. 13, 1834; resigned, and returned July, 1836. Dr. Hall had
been assistant physician in Liberia firom October, 1831, to June,
1833.  As early as 1832, he urged the appointment of colored
governors.
Dr. O. W. HOLMES, temporary agent, a few months from June,
1836.
JoHN B. RuSSWURM, emigrant. -Appointed 1836; died June
9, 1851.
Dr. SAMUEL F. MCGILL, emigrant. - Succeeded Gov. Russwurm in 1851; administered to June, 1854.
WILLIAM A. PROUT, emigrant. - Elected governor under the
new Constitution of the colony as an independent state. Inaugurated, June 6, 1854; administered till April, 1856.
BOSTON J. DRAYTON, emigrant. - As lieutenant governor, he
succeeded Gov. Prout in April, 1856, and administered till the
annexation of the State to the Republic of Liberia, March 3, 1857.
GOVERNORS AT BASSA COVE.
Rev. Rufus Spalding. - The New-York Colonization  Society,
Dec. 13, 1833, while he was on his voyage to Liberia as a missionary, appointed him as their special agent to plant a new settlement under their auspices.   He arrived at Monrovia Dec. 31,
1833; had the ordering of the erection of mission buildings at
Bassa Cove, but was unable, fiom sickness, to visit that place. lHe
returned in May, 1834.
Israel W. Searle. -Appointed by the same Society as sub-agent,
Feb. 17, 1834.   He was instructed to consult with Mr. Spalding
as to a location for the proposed settlemenet, and to direct their
180 
CHIEF MAGISTRATES OF LIBERIA.
attention to Cape Mount and Bassa Cove.   He sailed June 23,
1834, and died in a few weeks after his arrival. That Society had
already sent out a few emigrants.
EDWARD Y. HANKINSON.- Appointed  by the Pennsylvania
Colonization Society; sailed Oct. 24, 1834, with emigrants to
found a colony at Bassa Cove.   The two Societies were then
negotiating on terms of co-operation.
THOMAS BUCHANAN.- Appointed by the united Societies; arrived at Monrovia Jan. 1, 1836.
Rev. JOHN J. MATTHIAS. -Appointed by the united Societies;
arrived Aug. 4, 1837; returned, landing at New-York June 17,
1838.
Dr. WESILEY JOHNSON. -- Succeeded Gov. Matthias as acting
governor; administered till all the settlements were united under
Gov. Buchanan in 1839.
MISSISSIPPI COLONY AT SINOU.
Rev. JOSIAH F. C. FINLEY. -Appointed  by the Mississippi
Colonization Society; sailed April, 1837; robbed and murdered
by natives, while on a journey, September, 1838. The settlement
was united with the Commonwealth of Liberia in 1839.
181 
TABLE OF EMIGRANTS SETTLED IN LIBERIA BY T4E AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY.
E
.    =
-5 —5
8I...
2i    2
8j..
25...
24!i
4'...
... I...
i... 2
......
12...
12... 
651....
......
12...
171 2,
-E
R
_I
C)
,5
0
....
....
....
....
....
Names of      Date of              
,      Vessel s.     Sailing.  1 v
Il Elizabeth....... Feb. 1820.......   2   2
2 Nautilus....... Fe.,'21....8...
3 Strong........ Junie,'22i......
4Oswego........               24. I
5 Fidelity........ June, 231 
Cyrus.......... Jan.,'24......1
7 Hunter........ Jan.,'25......
8 Vine.......... Jan.,'26.. 32..
91Indian Chief.... Feb.,'26.....
10 Doris..........Feb.,'27.......
11Doris..........Nov.,'27........
12'Randolph.......Dec.,'27.........
13INautilus........Jan.,'28........
14tHarriet........ Jan.,'29......
._.7...
,         a
0   w 
I I
.............. 
..........
Yess~.  Saiing.   ~   ~                      a      ~,,    ~                a:        a.........by.
a                              a0   ~          a   ~    ~               f             ~         0~,'    ~      ~      a~    a ~        a                     00......ar...
a    as   0.j      a      a            a
Ji = ~ l 
Total
by
~ Years.
o
86'
— 3 86
33
33
37
-i  37
601
5
65
1031
--   103
66        66
1   182
92
102'
27
222
163
163
147
i
I
OC)
C3
C,
PI
2..
9..
I...
9
t
n
t4
0
0
0
t4
N
0
m
0
n
C)
0
t
It
pq
...
...
...
...
9
...
14
'a
le
9
25
....
1 7
....
103
62
....
12
7
22
8
......
.. I..
...
...
...
...
...
...
....
126
72
143
..........
..........
...
...
...
....
....
27
...
...
...
125.. 
TABLE OF EMIGRANTS - CONTINUED.
...  1      301
9... 9. 8...........
~~~~...........i
..N of...  of..........*.
...... 18....
..........i'
................................,8
34  39...  21... 1........
17 Carolinian..~~~~~~~~~~....No.,3.............9.   80..........  8.....................7
146  221......
... 1eape...J........
21 Orio..................................................
............  21  5 99241
~~~~~~ I* — -— j —l* —1-..373
29Roanoke.......Dec.,~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~'32-.-.....*6- 98   20*2.. -.......1j.................2
31~~~~~~ ~ ~ ~ Ajx.....My'3...........................................
_z j                 w
4V            -,
_  _    _ 
,w i-       1%
7 1 31
9...      80
......    41
6.......
31.......
........ 291
...........
........168
!.. 13    26
1.. 37
,*........
144... I
........98
1 @-   502
Total
by
. Years.
'o
58!
— I  205
70!
1071
,821!
-    259
46!
31
338
--   421
22        7
169
126
38
168
1461
1271
796
61
[148\
16
52:
Name s of
cVessels.
15 Liberia.........
16 Montgomery....
17 Carolinian......
18 Volador........
19 Reaper.........
20 Criterion.......
21 IOrion..........
221James Perkins..
23 Crawford.......
24 Jupite r.........
25 tAmerica........
2.6IJupiter.........
27 Hercules.......
28 Lafa,yette.......
29 Roanoke.......
30 Arnerican......
31 Ajax............
32 MNargaret Merecr
33 [Jupiter.........
I
I
i
.1
P-4
. r_
,4 - '  t
g        ;Z
0 0, 4
r_
P4
.. I "...
.. I'i''''
....i....
pq
...........
...........
...........
...........
t
It
ItI
Date of
Sailing.
td
t4
tt-i
It
t4
i-3
9)
Dec.,'29
April,'30
Nov.,'30
Dec.,'30
Jan.,'31
Jtllv.'31
o c i.,''31
Dec.,'31
Jan.,'32
Mav,'32
JUIV:'32
No."'32
Dec.,'32
Dec.,'32
Dec.,'32
Mar.,'33
May,'33
Oct.,'33
,Nov.,'33
...
I
...
40
I....
..........
61
21
....
47
...I.
.I I
....
22
87
....
....
....
20
....
....
....
....
00 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~. ~
C Cs Cs Cs Cs Cs Cs CZ o C. wO Z C.t CsI  (
~~~~~~~~~~~~~Pnslan i a n.
C -    -5  a a'  a a-      a              a'  3>
,,..;.......... r.:  *   an  aa              I  U
~~*..  D...
........                                                        a
~ a.
s ~ ~    ~     ~     ~     ~.:    -   4,D ~ t3 5a; C     
::....:::: i  ~::''''Massachusetts.
...... *                    *   * * * i Rhode Island.
.......  *.......
_Connecticut.
..::::: New York.
....::.... -:                    * * -   * *      New Jersey.
................ I..   Pennsylvania.
*    P p.... [,...,..... ~.......    
::::::::::.....:::'.::',''-Delaware.
:.... -       Maryland.
....... ~....... ~  ~~Dist. Columbia. 
.............I
::::::::::                      Di....ort. Carolui na.
:::::::::: No................South Carolina.
..............~~~~~ Sut  Croin.
.  I
............. ~-.... Georgia~
__    _._  __  _..or_i_
............'...'                    labama.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~r.....;......n..
a
(1
0
i
i
I
I
ii
II
~
C 
TABLE OF EMIGRANTS - CoNTIN
Names of
Vessels.
._.
p
1.     
C) p
0 V
.
'P
0
Saluda.........
Hobart.........
Rud'h Groning..
Union.........
Saluda.........
Mariposa.......
Globe..........
Renown........
Latrobe........
Lime Rock.....
Virginia........
Chipola........
Reanoke.......
Rothschild......
Chatham.......
Liberia Packet..
.............. 
........... 1...
58 Renown.......June,'43.................................3........77.
59 Latrobe........Nov.,'43.5.
64............
65.I........4..1
............c.... 1.2
I
I
;I
I
I
I
I.
d
O
*_t
p 
d
C-)
V
d
O
'A
ccD
't
,z
c5
_It
PI
Q)
1I
Date of
Sailing.
* P.4
1
f~
0
.w
-c;;
9
It
* 51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
3...
60
1
30
16
18
30
Feb.,'40
Sept.,'40
Feb.,'41
May,'41
Oct.,'41
June,'42
lDec.,'42
lJune,'43
Nov.,'43
Mar,'44
June,'44
Nov.,'44
Nov.,'45
Jan.'46
May,'46
DeC.,'46
. -...
.............
.........
....'1...
.......
....   *.
....
4
10
....
14
,.
...
.... *..
.......
77
*..
91
..........
.......                         5..
.........
.....
o..
I...
7  
............ 7
............
................ 
13
,?.I.
166
....
13
I.
.1 
..........
..........
..........
....
....
....
25
...- 
..A..
* * 
.....
* -..
*... 
TABLE OF EMIGRANTS - CONTINUI
d
* 4
p
..
d3
~'i
C.)
....
1
4
......... 4.
....... 23
..     6;
45    541...
2....   - 1
*~   1~ ~C  a9
..........
*......... 
50  131...
'1i.'....
..........
1.3  1541...
..........
14.......
..........
Mary Wilkes....
Liberia Packet. 
Nehemiah Rich..
Amazon........
Liberia Packet..
Col. Howard....
Liberia Packet..
Laura..........
Liberia Packet..
Clinto'a Wright.
Huma.........
Liberia Packet..
Liberia Packet..
Chieftain.......
D. C. Foster....
Liberia Packet..
Edgar.........
Liberia Packet..
Alida..........
Sea Mew.......
I
'i~
v
._
13
o.
w
It
-6
r.
'o
*4
v
Q)
*.
* 
. 
..
'5 3
142
.25
oq.
~' x
Names of
Vessels.
Date of
Sailing.
2
.)
2
d
._
....
24
1**
.o
p
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
Jan.,'47
Sept.,'47
Jan.,'48
Feb.,'4 8
April,'48
May,'48
Sept.,'48
Jan.,'49
Feb.,'49
April,'49
May,'49
Aug.,'49
Jan.,'50
Feb.,'50
Mar.,'50
July,'50
Oct.,'50
Dec.,'50
Feb.,'51
[Mar.,'51
...
1
~..
8
*i
~~
*..
,.
28
134
8
1
4
'i
3
...
2
9
13
o...
3  
...
*...
..
o**
*..
* * 
...
''i
.1
6
46
....
....
69
....
37
3
2
...
65
'~~i
12
....
1
8
151i.
.. I
....
*.. -
0 0 ~  
TABLE OF EMIGRANTS - CONTI
a. a
-. 
...4 I...
441...
......
30...
Date of                                                           a
Sailing. I'
April,'51.
Juily,'51!..
Sept.,'51 9
NAv.,'51..
Dec.,'51!.
Jan.,'521.
Mav.,'52..
Oct.,'52 2
NOV.,'52..
Nov.,'52..
Nov.,'52 2
Dec.,'52..
April,'53 6
June, "53..
June,'53..
Nov.,'53
Nov.,'53..
Dec.,'53.
May,'54 6
June,'54
Oct.,'54
i 
*I *'
.4
1.4
.. 
. z
v5
s0
3
Baltimore.....
Liberia Packet.
8Zeno..........
Morgan Dix...     
Liberia Packet.
Julia Ford....
Ralph Cross...
Oriole.........
Jos. Maxwell..
Linda Stewart..
Shirley........
Zebra.........
Banshee.......
Shirley........
Adeline.......
Banshee.......
Isla de Cuba...
General Pierce.
Sophia Walker.
Harp.........
Estelle..........
iI
I
I
I
I
I
i
Names of
Vessels.
I.~
H4 |
C) I 
-.=   r
....i
li
-8
28!
*..
c3
.*..
...
16
...
...
3
2
14
._
....
ii
B
It
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
9t
98
-96
197
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
6
136
9
Ii
I~
1
4
o.,
6
..o
-5
* "
...;
*...
...
..o
*..
.16
*..
*..
...
...
16
*..
25
i21
' i
11
1
*i
.o.
'......
....
48
....
....
129
81
6
....
16
105
39
*...
52
....
....
4
*..
*...
*...
36
*...
*..
I1
**..
32
*..
4
I.
i 1
o...
*..
*. o
*..
...
*..
...
**o
*..
7
...
154
122
*... 
.......
56 15
6...
3...i...
...!'..
....
15
.    1
......  
TABLE OF EMIGRANTS -CoNTINU
o
d   d
o   o
....1I...I....
....... 54
0  -       0              Q 
Names of
Vessels.
108 Euphrasia.....
109 Gen. Pierce....
110 Cora'..........
111 Cora..........
112Lamartin     e.....
1lSiElvira Owen...
114 -I. C. Stevens..
115 M. C. Stevens..
116 M. C. Stevens..,
117 G. T. Ackerly..
118M. C. Stevens..
119Morgan.......
120M. C. Stevens..
121 Homer........
122 Rebecca.......
123 M. C. Stevens..
124 Mendi:.......
125jM. C. Stevens..
-i
'I1
...I
7
...
4
1 
. i
I
I
I
'A
.,F
151
34
21
57
103
117
117
r..
0
i 
, 0
Cr.
O t,
.. I
CR
IH
B
d
.,
r.
2
*..
._
oo
I.
94
I...
:i
...
m6
.,
.,
I 
4
c3
...
...
Date of
Sailing.
Nov.,'54
Dec.,'54
May,'55
Nov.,'55
Dec.,'55
May,'56
Dec.,'56
May,'57
Dec.,'57
Jan.,'58
May,'58|
Oct.,'58[
Nov.,'58i
Dec.,'581
April,'59 
Mav,'59i
May,'59
Nov.,'59i
.......
.......
I1...
.*.
-4
2
3
1
...
1I
7
2
.......... 
..........
13:11       7..
....
85
56
41
13
125
6..
,....      1..
..   3.
.......
...
.......                33...
2
1
2
.2 
...
...i
*..
...
...
I...
II...
'i
'&;
63
....
...
...
*..
I..
2.
I..
o.
1441
44..
1
....
4
....
....
35
19
........
.3......
..........
10 241..
.......... 
5,......
.oo
1
.       I
1i
....
/. *.
24
*..
...
*.. 
TABLE OF EMIGRANTS - CONTIN
,,....
d
._,
c0
O
u
V
I                  _
Date of        1 1      =
Sailin g.,     
,I  2 O 
I   I2  v   
. *PI
0                 -
P  w
14
Names of
Vessels.
126 Mendi.........
127M. C. Stevens.. 
128M. C. Stevens..
129 Edward.......
130 Teresa Baildell.
131 Justice Story...
132 John H. Jones..
133 Greyhound....
134 Justina........
135 M. C. Stevens..
136 M. C. Stevens..
137 Thomas Pope..
138 Thomas Pope..
139 Greyhound....
140 M. A. Benson..
141 Cora..........
142 Thomas Pope..
143 H. P. Russell.  
...
I
I
I
II
i
i
I
I
I
I
I
i
._
r_
O
0
.
cc
14
r.
._,
.O
.G
P._
.4
:q
Q;
5p
c3
.
p
April,'60..
May,'60
Nov.,'60..
Apri,'61
July,'61..
Aug.,'61 1
NOV.,'61..
Dec.,'61
Jan.,'62..
Nov.,'62 1
May,'63..
Jan.,'64 2
Sept.,'64..
Jan.,'65..
Feb.,'65  1
April,'65..
June,'65
NOv.,'65
....
.. 5
....
8,.
,..,., I...,
7.~
1 6
.4..
...    3
11 15
418
7..
I.-.
.....
o.....
,...  I..
" I"
39
32
...
...
13
2
5
4
4
!...
.oo
12
o..
o...
10
... I
.oo
.o.
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'~~~~~~~~AL OF EM'AT -- C' 
a                                         a
144 Edith Rose..... Mar.'664.........................
145 Golconda... Nov.,'66...............262 194 
146 Edith Rose..... Dec.,'66.......... 14.............................
147 Forest Oak..... Dec.,'66 3.
Totals.............. 633655295 77 337 9            580109  3733l371722 1341!10555
:RE:CA P?ITUJLATIOl;
Massachusetts..................... 63
Rhode Island...................... 36
Connecticut........................5   n 55
New York......................... 295
New Jersey....................... 77
Pennsylvania..................... 337
Delaware......................... 9
Maryland......................... 580
District of Columbia............... 109
Virginia..........................3,733
North Carolina.................... 1,371
South Carolina.................... 722
Georgia........................... 1,341 
Alabama.......................... 105
Mississippi........................ 551
Louisiana........................ 309
Tennessee......................... 870
Kentucky.........................
Ohio............................
Indiana..........................
Illinois........................
Missouri...........................
Michigan........................
Iowa............................
Wisconsin.......................
Texas........................
Indian Territory..................
Barbadoes........................
Total...................... ]
Born free.........................
Purchased their freedom...........
Emancipated to go to Liberia...... 
COST OF AFRICAN COLONIZATION.
The following Table will show the Annual Receipts of the American Colonization. Society during the fifty years of its existence.
YEARS.                  RECEIPTS.
1817-9................. $14,031 50
YEARS.                        RECEIPTS.
1853.................... $82,458 25
1854.................... 65,433 93'
1855.................... 55,276 891856.................... 81,384 41
1857.................... 97,384 84
1858.................... 61,820 19
1859.................... 160,303 23
1860.................... 104,546 92
T861.................... 75,470 74
1862.................... 46,208 46
1863.................... 50,900 36
1864.................... 79,454 70
1865.................... 23,633 37
1866............I....... 59,375 14
$2,141,507 77
1823...'................. 4,758 22 1
1824.................... 4,379 89
1825.................... 10,125 85
1826.................... 14,779 24
1827.................... 13,294 94
1828.................... 13,458 17
1829..................
1830.................... 26,683 41
1831.................... 32,101 58,
1832.................... 43,065 08
1833.................... 37,242 46
1834.................... 22,984 30
1835.................... 36,661 49
1836....................33,096 88
1837.................... 25,558 14
1838.................... 10,947 41
1839.................... 51,498 36
1840..................... 56,985 62
1841.................... 42,443 68
1842.................... 32,898 88
1843.................... 36,093 94
1844.................... 33,640 39
1845...................56,458 60
1846.................... 39,900 03
1847.................... 29,472 84
1848.................... 49,845 911849.................... 50,332 84
1850.................... 64,973 71
1851.................... 97,443 77
1852.................... 86,775 74
iI
(191)
I
II
- 1820-2..................
5,627 66
The Maryland State So ciety, since its organiza  tion, received........ $309,759 33
The New-York State So ciety and Pennsylvania
Society, during their
independent condition,
received............. 95,640 00
The Mississippi Society,
during its independent
12,000 00
Ma'k-ing a total to Jaru  ary 1, 1867.......... $2,558,907 10 
ORIGINAL MEMB ERS      OF TiHE 
H. Clay,                                 Jh  Le
E. B. Caldwell,
Tho. Dougherty,
Stephen B. Balch,
Jno. Chalmers, Jun.,
Thos. Patterson,
John Randolph of Roanoke,
Robt. H. Goldsborough,
William Thornton,
George Clarke,
James Laurie,
J. I. Stull,
Dan'l Webster,
J. C. Herbert,  A                        P --
Wm. Simmons,
E. Forman,
Ferd'no. Fairfax,
V. Maxey,
Jno. Loockerman,
Jno. Woodside,
William Dudley Digges,
Thomas Carberry,
Samuel J. Mills,
Geo. A. Carroll,
W. G. D. Worthington,
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Johii Lee,
Richard Bland Lee,
1). Murray,
Robert Finlev,
B. All,
B. L..
W. Jo "nft,
J. Mason,
Mord. Booth,
J. S. Sbaa
Geo. Peter,
John P..%
Overton- Carr,
P. H. Wendover,
F. s. l, ey,,
Charle Marsh,
David M. Forest,
John Wiley,
Nathan'Luf bioough,
William- 4,aeade,
Willia a. wi
Geoi7,e law^
Edm. 1.
John P. Todd,
Bushrodi WAigtm
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