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+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #63279 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/63279)
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-Project Gutenberg's The American Navy and Liberia, by R. W. Shufeldt
-
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most
-other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
-whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of
-the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
-www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have
-to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook.
-
-Title: The American Navy and Liberia
- An Address before the American Colonization Society, January 18, 1876
-
-Author: R. W. Shufeldt
-
-Release Date: September 23, 2020 [EBook #63279]
-
-Language: English
-
-Character set encoding: UTF-8
-
-*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE AMERICAN NAVY AND LIBERIA ***
-
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-Produced by hekula03 and the Online Distributed Proofreading
-Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from
-images generously made available by The Internet Archive)
-
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-
-
- THE
- AMERICAN NAVY AND LIBERIA.
-
- AN ADDRESS
- BEFORE THE
- AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY,
- JANUARY 18, 1876,
-
- BY
- COMMODORE R. W. SHUFELDT, U. S. N.
-
- WASHINGTON CITY:
- COLONIZATION BUILDING, 450 PENNSYLVANIA AVENUE.
- 1876.
-
-
-
-
-ADDRESS.
-
-
-GENTLEMEN: It is not inappropriate to this occasion that an officer
-of the navy should address your honorable Society, and although your
-committee might easily have chosen a more worthy representative of that
-branch of the public service, they could have found none more sincerely
-interested in your cause or more deeply impressed with its importance.
-
-From the first disastrous effort, in 1819, to colonize the negroes from
-the United States at Sherbro, up to the present time, the Navy has
-contributed with sword and pen to advance the interests and protect
-the rights of the Americo-Africans. In that year, 1819, the U. S. Ship
-“Cyane” convoyed to Africa the “Elizabeth,” the first emigrant ship,
-the “Mayflower” of these new pilgrims, and Lieutenant Townsend lost his
-life in the duty incidental to landing them. The inexorable march of
-time, however, has placed upon the roll of the distinguished dead most
-of those whose words and deeds contributed so much to the founding of
-the Republic of Liberia. First among these, and almost the first in the
-hearts and memories of his naval brethren, stands the name of Stockton.
-In 1821 Lieut. Stockton took command of the “Alligator,” a vessel sent
-out by the U. S. Government at the earnest solicitation of Justice
-Bushrod Washington, President of the Society, and Francis S. Key, one of
-its managers, for the express purpose of selecting a site on the Western
-Coast of Africa, better adapted to the purposes of colonization than
-Sherbro, a place notoriously unhealthy and in many respects undesirable.
-The first order issued by Lieut. Commanding Stockton to the crew of his
-little craft, while yet in sight of the shores of America, was to throw
-overboard the cat, (the lash was then a legal mode of punishment on board
-of our vessels of war,) informing them that he intended to exact their
-obedience by some other means. He was wiser than, perhaps, he knew, for,
-bound on this mission of humanity, there would have been a strange
-inconsistency in his conduct had he carried with him into Africa that
-vile relic of barbarism. Yet this act indicates the character of the man
-who in that day, and in the face of current opinion, dared to vindicate
-by word and deed the right of man, black or white, to exemption from a
-barbarous thraldom whether upon land or sea. December 11th, 1821, Lieut.
-Stockton placed his foot on African soil at Cape Mesurado, and, at the
-risk of his life, wrested from savagery that spot whereon now stands the
-light-house guiding the mariner to Monrovia, the Capital of a new born
-Republic, and in its firm foundations, and its light gleaming alternately
-on land and sea, fitly emblematic of him who ever stood fixed in his
-strong convictions of the right, and showed to all men the guiding star
-of his brilliant intellect and spotless character.
-
-Liberia, then only an isolated spot of land, now spreads herself on the
-south to the extent of 500 miles from this point. A narrow belt upon
-the sea-shore, slowly but surely widening her influence, brightening
-up the dark cloud in the background, as year by year she struggles and
-penetrates here and there, now up a river and then into the forest,
-like the streak of light in the eastern sky which tells of the coming
-day. An author says that the name of Stockton will be associated in
-history with the names of the founders of this now prosperous State, for
-to his courage and prudence its original acquisition may be ascribed.
-Accompanied only by one companion he went into the presence of the native
-King of that part of the Coast, and when threatened with instant death,
-presented his pistol at the head of the angry chief, cowing the multitude
-by the danger of their Sovereign and obtaining from the subdued savages
-the desired territory.
-
-If we add to this achievement in Africa the fact, that throughout his
-brilliant career, he adhered with wonderful pertinacity to his idea
-of punishment without the lash, until he obtained, or greatly aided
-in obtaining, the passage of that law which banished the cat from the
-Navy, we may fairly place him high on its rolls as one whose memory we
-may cherish, and whose deeds we may emulate, and point him out to the
-Liberian as the man whose nature, revolting at inhumanity in any form,
-taught his own men before landing on African soil that first lesson of
-freedom which Liberians have since learned to appreciate as it deserves.
-
-The name of Perry, among the brightest in the annals of naval history,
-shone with undimmed lustre in the person of Commodore M. C. Perry while
-in command of our squadron on the Coast of Africa. Perry cruised along
-the Liberian seaboard, using force when force was necessary, discretion,
-combined with firmness, always. Under his surveillance the timid colonist
-became more bold, and the wary savage more circumspect, until when he
-left the station, Gov. Russwurm, of Cape Palmas, was constrained to write
-him under date of December 25, 1843, “Our prospects have been brighter
-since the arrival of your squadron on this Coast than ever, and however
-willing we were before to endure everything for liberty, our hearts swell
-with gratitude to you for the deep interest expressed in our future
-well-being. That a gracious Providence may long preserve your life for
-usefulness, is the ardent prayer of every citizen of Maryland in Liberia.”
-
-From the time of Commodore Perry’s command (1844) up to the commencement
-of our civil war the Navy was not without its representatives on the
-Liberian Coast. Many prominent officers not only gave that country
-their warmest support, but have recorded their meed of praise to its
-inhabitants. Commodore Joel Abbott, 1845, says: “Although it is the day
-of small things with our colored colonists in Africa, yet I believe there
-is no one who has visited them but is favorably impressed with their
-present condition beyond what was anticipated, and with the belief of
-their progressive improvement and of their growing importance in all the
-relations concerning Africa and the African race that should interest the
-Christian philanthropist and statesman.”
-
-Commodore Isaac Mayo, 1853, says: “I have long felt the warmest interest
-in the only scheme which promised relief to the colored people of our
-country, and this interest was confirmed by my visit to Liberia, when
-in command of the frigate “Macedonian,” in the years 1843 and 1844. My
-more recent observations in this ship convince me that the Colonization
-Societies have been crowned with the most substantial success, and that
-the result of their generous philanthropy is no longer doubtful.... I
-have the strongest faith in the bright future that awaits Liberia, and
-the strongest confidence that she is to wield the most powerful influence
-in regenerating Africa.”
-
-Commodore Francis H. Gregory, 1855, says: “Previously to my visiting
-Liberia I had a hope the Colonization Society would be successful. I
-considered it an experiment and entertained but little faith, but on my
-first visit to Monrovia every doubt was dispelled. I visited the people
-collectively and individually and had every opportunity of forming a
-correct judgment of their condition and prospects.... I found the people
-industrious and happy, apparently in the enjoyment of every domestic
-comfort, and some of the most opulent having many of the luxuries and
-elegancies of more famed and refined regions.” By those to whom Commodore
-Gregory was known, the value of his testimony will be appreciated.
-Throughout a long and earnest life this officer devoted all of his time
-and thought to the service of his country.
-
-Paymaster General Bridge, in his “Journal of an African Cruiser,”
-remarks, “After having seen much, and reflected upon the subject even to
-weariness, I write down my opinion that Liberia is firmly planted and
-is destined to increase and prosper. This it will do though all further
-support from the United States be discontinued.... My faith is firm in a
-favorable result.”
-
-Chaplain Chas. W. Thomas adds his testimony in the following extracts
-from “Adventures and Observations in Africa:” “Our duty as a Christian
-nation towards her (Liberia) is clear. Far be it from us to witness with
-cold-blooded indifference the struggles of those who have gone out from
-us with barbarism and ignorance. If Liberia is a weak and myopic child,
-it is not ours to look calmly upon her attempts to walk alone, guessing
-cruelly as to the chances of her making a safe journey, but it is ours by
-kind words to encourage her heart and to lead her by the hand until age
-shall bring strength to her feet and clearness to her vision.”
-
-Perhaps upon the Navy list we have no purer and nobler character than
-that of the late Rear Admiral A. H. Foote. Foote wielded the sword and
-the pen of the philanthropist, the Christian, and the patriot. How much
-the lessons he learned while on the Coast of Africa in command of the
-brig “Perry,” among the iniquities of the slave-trade and the struggles
-of the Liberian colonists had to do with the excellence of his character,
-may be traced in the history of his life. He says: “Civilization with its
-peace, intelligence with its high aims, was rooted in Africa. The living
-energy of republicanism was there, Christianity in various influential
-forms was among the people. Education was advancing and institutions
-for public good coming into operation. Native hereditary enmities and
-factions were yielding perceptibly in all directions to the gentle
-efficacy of Christian example. All this constituted a great result.”
-
-The Christian virtues of Admiral Foote are the property of the country,
-his professional qualities are the inheritance of the Navy—these will be
-remembered as long as we have a Country to defend or a Navy to defend it.
-
-The concurrent testimony of these distinguished officers and thoughtful
-men, embracing the period from the foundation of the colony to the time
-of our civil war, express not only the hope, but the belief that Liberia,
-poor and weak as she is, yet possesses many of the elements of national
-wealth and strength, and proves beyond cavil the progress and the
-permanence of that Republic.
-
-During the war, and while our own nationality was in peril, the Navy had
-but little time to spare for the interests of Liberia. The battle for
-the freedom of the black man was being fought upon a grander scale than
-within her narrow limits. After that victory had been gained our ships
-began once more to visit the African Coast, though at rare intervals.
-
-In 1873 it became my duty and my pleasure to visit the Coast of Africa,
-after an interval of twenty-five years. A quarter of a century had passed
-leaving its furrows upon my face, as it does upon the face of every son
-of Adam, but the interest I had felt in that lone lorn colony was as
-fresh as ever. It was therefore with unmixed satisfaction that I landed
-again at Cape Mesurado, and in an instant recalled the familiar streets
-and many of the faces that used to greet me in Monrovia years ago.
-
-I do not propose to go into the history of Liberia; that is to be
-found in every Cyclopedia—those who run may read it. My own personal
-impressions will be of more interest to you; these have vitality which
-comes of contact, a freshness not to be found in the musty pages of a
-book however well written. Personal experience compared with history is
-the original compared with the photograph.
-
-Cape Mesurado juts out into the sea, a promontory of gentle height,
-covered with the verdure which the tropics only can produce. The surf
-roars at its base and the water of the Mesurado river breaks over the bar
-by its side—the canoe of the native glides through the surf over this bar
-and lands you with wonderful safety at Monrovia, which lies just behind
-the cape by the side of the river.
-
-In the growth of a new nation, in its consolidation and crystalization,
-_time_ forms no just measure of _progress_. Not to go back, to stem the
-adverse tide, to wait, is absolutely to advance. To be where you were,
-after years of struggles against obstacles almost insurmountable, is a
-point gained, and a success accomplished.
-
-Monrovia presented the same sunny streets and shaded houses, the same
-evidences of comfort, and of the absence of want, that it did twenty-five
-years before; no great mark of improvement, no sad evidences of decay.
-In the meanwhile, however, more activity on the wharves, more canoes
-laden with produce coming down the river, steamships stopping eight times
-a month landing and receiving cargo, more sugar mills, coffee trees
-growing where the forest undisturbed had waved before—all this, and more,
-indicated life, business, commercial and agricultural prosperity.
-
-I thought to myself as I walked again through the streets, “Monrovia is a
-_fixed fact_.” No reflux tide can wash her into the sea. She may advance
-more rapidly, she may stand still. But every event, whether rapid, slow,
-or stationary in her course, Liberia is there to _stay_. An island in the
-ocean of barbarism, “a little cloud out of the sea like a man’s hand,”
-yet full of portent to Africa, a herald of the coming of that army of
-civilization which by an inexorable law exterminates where it cannot
-convert.
-
-But a great change manifested itself in the temper and tone of the
-people. Years ago I saw indicated everywhere that innate consciousness
-of inferiority, that deprecating humility which came of their
-birth—emigrants from the slave cabins in our own country—that absence
-of independent thought, that shrinking humility which feared to give an
-opinion; these came from the remembrance of that grand old thing, now of
-the past—the _master_. With warm affections toward their home, as they
-called America, favors easily remembered and wrongs as easily forgotten,
-they welcomed us and bore with us as we tacitly claimed that superiority
-which comes of being born white men.
-
-Now a change had taken place, a new generation had come and a
-regeneration. We were welcomed with hospitality devoid of servility, and
-with kindness devoid of fear. They acknowledged gratefully the protection
-which the American flag affords them, not more for the fact than as a
-token of remembrance from the mother country.
-
-President Roberts is an epitome of Liberian history. He stands
-pre-eminently the guiding genius of Liberia through all her struggles.
-That there is none equal to him in point of ability, combined with wisdom
-and linked to virtue; that he is superior to all in these respects, to
-every other Liberian, is no more an argument for the average inferiority
-of the colored race than the proud pre-eminence of George Washington is
-an argument for the inferiority of the American branch of the white race.
-The history of nations is written in the lives of individuals. President
-Roberts has shaped the destiny of his country, and as much as any other
-man living has contributed to the moral and physical good of the human
-race.
-
-I dined at President Roberts’ table with the members of his Cabinet,
-Ex-President Warner, and the Haytien Consul, Mr. Yates. Most of them
-were new men to me. They exhibited a general knowledge of passing events
-which, from their isolated condition, would have surprised me, had I not
-in previous experience observed that men forced to read what others daily
-saw were generally more accurate in their knowledge and more critical
-in their deductions. The Cabinet of Mr. Roberts seemed to me respectable
-men, quite up to the average of men, whether white or black.
-
-Without disparagement to others, I wish to make a brief mention of a
-pleasant visit to the house of a private citizen. This house was presided
-over by a lady whose refined and elegant manners would have attracted
-attention and admiration in any drawing-room. In her conversation she
-exhibited a brilliancy which was really remarkable, and an intelligence
-quite as surprising. She was Liberian born, but spoke of America with the
-love she had inherited.
-
-Along the streets and by-ways of Monrovia are to be seen the ordinary
-variety of human beings, young and old, rich and poor, sick and well. You
-note the absence of grogshops and the presence of churches. Like pilgrims
-as they are, or were, the prevailing and controlling sentiment of the
-community is a religious one. To land upon a foreign shore, to cut one’s
-self off from kith and kin, to plunge into a wilderness, needs faith
-absolute, vital, in the personality of God and in Divine protection. Add
-to this the emotional character of the negro and you have the ordinary
-Liberian; law-abiding and, from his nature and race, indolent, timid,
-willing to be helped, loth to help himself. I do not mean to compare
-this colonist with the great domineering, self-asserting, self-dependent
-Anglo-Saxon, who bullies and conquers and rules wherever he emigrates,
-but I do mean to say that Liberia and its inhabitants will compare, and
-favorably, too, with the towns and the people scattered over Central
-and South America and Mexico, settled by the Spaniard, the Italian, and
-the Frenchman. Go where you will in these countries you see the same
-evidences of indolence, the same apparent lack of progress, yet these
-people _are_ prospering in their way, gradually but surely reaching a
-higher plane, and so I contend are the Liberians. Remember, the Liberians
-were _poor_ even to abject poverty, they had received no inheritance but
-the badge of their servitude, they were ignorant—the law in this free
-country of ours had taken care to keep them so—painfully ignorant, not
-only of the common principles of law by which they were to construct a
-government, but of the common principles of life by which they were to
-live.
-
-God measures people for Himself. He is patient because He is
-Eternal. Fifty years in the life of a nation born under such adverse
-circumstances, struggling under poverty and obliquy—predicted a failure
-by the prophets of caste, checked and thwarted by the priests and
-politicians of conservatism, unaided, uncheered, born in a wilderness,
-surrounded, hemmed in by barbarism while just emerging from barbarism
-itself—fifty years in the life of such a nation is but a moment of time
-in the Providence of God. Let us then endeavor in our imperfect way to
-imitate God’s patience and wait while we hope and pray.
-
-The Krooman, whose tribes are scattered for eighty miles along the
-Liberian Coast, is the Bedouin of the African sea. He is the sailor-man
-and the boat-man for every ship that comes and sails down the Coast. His
-skill in landing through the surf and passing over bars in his frail
-canoe is something wonderful. His canoe and himself are one and the same
-thing; together they glide over the swell of the ocean _with speed and
-safety, now hidden, now seen_. If capsized he soon rights his boat, rolls
-in again and paddles away. He is a bird upon the water and a fish in
-the sea. Always willing and obedient, he is honest and trustworthy. He
-wants his wages when his contract is up, when he returns to his tribe and
-invests in another wife. Wives are his treasures; they are the support
-of his old age. He speaks a little English, of which he is very proud.
-Some ship-master gives him a fantastic name, as “Draw Bucket” or “Plug
-of Tobacco,” to which he clings as his badge of honor, and his merits
-are duly recorded in his “book,” which he receives from his employer and
-carries around his neck, each succeeding master increasing the wealth of
-his recommendation. His mother is his great object of reverence; he never
-ventures to dispute her authority. In this respect he never “comes of
-age.”
-
-If Monrovia, the capital, had not largely increased in wealth and
-population during these twenty-five years, Liberia had extended her
-boundaries league by league, each additional possession encroaching upon
-or destroying some well-known haunt of the slave trader, until for six
-hundred miles of the adjacent Coast not a slave factory could be found or
-a slaver get a cargo. In the very nature of things slavery was abhorrent
-to Liberia. It could not exist within or near her borders. It disappeared
-by virtue of the expelling force which exists in the power of light and
-civilization. These two things could not be at the same time in the same
-place. By this moral alliance with the Powers of the world—this silent
-partnership, which in the end banished the trade in human beings from the
-entire Coast of Western Africa; this passive victory over the greatest
-sin of modern times—by this deed alone she has earned her title to the
-possession of her territory, and her friends and the friends of humanity
-have met with more than their reward.
-
-An author says, in 1853: “The fact stands acknowledged before the world
-that Great Britain, after the expenditure of more than one hundred
-millions of dollars, has failed in suppressing the slave trade on one
-mile of Coast beyond the limit of her colonies, while Liberia has swept
-it from nearly four hundred miles of Coast where it existed in its chief
-strength, liberated 80,000 slaves, and bound by treaties 200,000 natives
-never to engage in the traffic in their brethren.”
-
-Liberia, geographically considered, is situated upon the West Coast
-of Africa, between the latitudes 4° 20´ and 7° 20´ north. It extends
-from the British Colony of Sierra Leone, on the northwest, to the Pedro
-river, on the southeast, a distance of 600 miles along the Coast, the
-interior boundary varying from 10 to 40 miles from the seaboard, an area
-of 9,700 square miles, every mile of which has been _purchased_ from the
-original proprietors. No war of conquest marks this gradual enlargement
-of territory or mars the record of the consequent progress. In 1873,
-the period of my last visit, Monrovia, the capital, had about 13,000
-inhabitants. The total number of Americo-Liberians in the Republic at
-that time was estimated at 20,000, and 700,000 aborigines. The Americans
-are settled in sixteen towns, all of which have the characteristics of
-Monrovia, and are situated in propinquity to the sea. Millsburg, which is
-twenty miles up the St. Paul’s river, is an agricultural settlement.
-
-The most important of the native tribes is the Mandingo, which occupies
-nearly the whole of the eastern frontier of Liberia. These people
-are Mahomedans, and their influence extends into the interior of the
-Continent as far as Soudan. Travelers in Africa agree upon the fact
-that Mahomedanism is spreading over that land with marvelous strides.
-I ask your attention to this religious phenomenon in connection with
-the prospects of Liberia as a Christian community. If you believe that
-Christianity is to be the religion of the future in Africa, essential
-not only to her salvation but to her temporal welfare, then I beg you to
-consider Liberia as an important bulwark against the encroachment of the
-followers of the Prophet, and as a point from whence to start Christian
-propagandism into the heart of Africa. Most of the foreign settlements
-on the Coast are simply trading ports, and the duty of Christianizing
-the country is lost sight of in the pursuit of gain. Liberia, on the
-other hand, is a Christian community, established as such. Upon it and
-upon its friends devolves this positive mission, preaching the Gospel to
-the heathen. It is our duty to assist her in this mission by every means
-in our power. Liberia is the initial point for American effort in the
-Christianization of Africa. The tendency of all the African tribes is to
-approach the sea; most of the tribal wars are made on this account. To
-reach the “heach,” as they call it, to open trade with the white man is
-the great object of their ambition. To occupy the “heach,” therefore, to
-present there the bold front of Christianity, is to set back the tide of
-Mahomedanism and to bring within the peaceful influence of Christianity
-the pagan when, after his struggles, he reaches the sea.
-
-Among the other tribes living in the Liberian territory is the Grebo.
-This tribe occupies the land in the immediate vicinity of Cape Palmas and
-is the one now threatening that portion of the Republic with a war of
-extermination.
-
-I mean no disrespect to the people of Great Britain when I say that
-the British trader on the Coast of Africa is among the most grasping
-and unscrupulous of men. He has succeeded the Frenchman, the Spaniard,
-and the Portuguese, those reckless factors in the prosecution of the
-slave trade, and substituted a trade in rum, tobacco, and gunpowder, a
-trade not quite so baneful in its immediate results, but as pernicious
-as it dares to be in the logic of events. These articles the native
-is eager to buy and the trader anxious to sell. Year by year the
-British government, yielding to the demand of the British trader, has
-increased its possessions upon the Coast either by acquisition from the
-native Kings, or by purchase from foreign Powers, until it owns 1,500
-miles of the African shore. Liberia is now bounded on its northern and
-southern limits by British territory, but the trader, not content with
-this stealing as it were in the rear of Liberian settlements with his
-contraband products, is enticing the willing native to trade in violation
-of the laws of the Republic, and inducing him to believe that if the poor
-and defenseless Liberian settler can be driven from his home, the trader
-can sell his goods without restriction and at half the price; hence this
-war which is now trying the courage and the resources of the Liberians.
-
-These two tribes, the Mandingos and Grebos, both of them intelligent
-and aggressive, the one crusaders in the name of Mahomet, and the other
-warriors in the cause of greed and gain, form the most important elements
-in the internal economy of the Republic. The destiny of Liberia depends
-on the conquest of these two opposing forces. Will she? Will she? She
-must meet and conquer morally and physically these antagonistic ideas or
-see herself swept into the sea; but I have faith that she will conquer in
-the name of God and with the aid of America. We know that God will not
-fail them; let us see to it that America does not fold her arms and turn
-upon these struggling people the cold shoulder of indifference.
-
-The other tribes that come under the jurisdiction of the Government of
-Liberia are the Veys, the Pessehs, the Barlines, and the Bassas. The Veys
-are amongst the most intelligent, and thirty years ago made an alphabet
-for themselves. Mahomedanism is rapidly spreading among them. None of
-these have any special significance. They constitute, however, the
-material nearest at hand for the missionary and the philanthropist.
-
-According to my observation among the heathen, conversion to Christianity
-is not the work of a moment, it is an influence gradually permeating
-and pervading, until a community finds itself raised to a higher
-plane, converted to a nobler faith. This I anticipate will, in a
-measurable period of time, be the result of the moral influence of the
-Americo-African upon the surrounding mass of barbarism. One by one its
-dark superstitions will disappear in the everincreasing light, until
-in the brightness of mid-day the Sun of Righteousness will cast His
-beneficent rays on the whole area of that broad and benighted land.
-
-I found the climate of Liberia decidedly improved since my first visit.
-As the land is cleared miasmatic influences become less fatal. To the
-native-born Liberian it is as healthful as any tropical country. The
-emigrant takes his risks as any of us do who migrate from a temperate
-to a torrid zone. The white man has no business in Africa. “_Similia
-similibus curantur._” “Like things are cured by like.” To the black man,
-the Ethiopian, is given the mission of laboring in the vineyard until
-he comes to his own again. Time enters largely into this problem of
-regenerating Africa. But it will be done and find its reward in Eternity.
-Without conflicting with the theories of the savans, I take it upon
-myself to say that to the white and black races is given the glorious
-work of rehabilitating the world, each in its own latitude and in its own
-way.
-
-The Government of Liberia is apparently stable and well administered.
-It would be an anomaly in political history to find the off-shoot of a
-republican country establishing for itself any other than a republican
-form of government; her constitution therefore is similar to our own,
-containing one proviso, however, to which I wish to draw your attention.
-
-Liberia came into existence as a nation preceded by no war; she was born
-of no internecine strife, but in harmony with her mission she declared
-herself free and independent, and was gracefully acknowledged as such
-by the Great Powers of the world—the mother country alone hesitating
-to receive as an equal her neglected child—and in an humble and lowly
-manner, becoming her color and condition, she peacefully and quietly
-took her back seat in the family of nations. I say that Liberia has a
-government apparently stable. Compare it, in the twenty-eight years
-of its existence, with the government of France in its throes with
-monarchism, pseudo republicanism, imperialism, and communism—“everything
-by turns and nothing long”—or with that of Spain in its dynastic
-revolutions. It seems to me that the people of Liberia are in the hands
-of a guiding Power, which carries them hither and thither, always
-safely, to the end that they may become the arbiters of the fate of
-their race, the peaceful conquerors of a new world. I know it is the
-fashion to deride such pietistic notions, to sneer at such unscientific
-theories; but, my friends, as I grow older, as I watch the ebbing and
-flowing of the human tides, as I read of human destiny moulded to serve
-Divine ends, I feel how insignificant men are in themselves, how great
-they are in the hands of God. I say that the government has, in the
-main, been well administered. The _world_, so called, _i. e._, the
-greed, the superstition, the bigotry, the clannish conservatism, added
-to the thoughtlessness and the indifference of the world, combine to
-crush out these abstract notions, these impracticable ideas of the mere
-philanthropist, to deny the capacity of certain “inferior” races for
-self-government, to prognosticate failures, to come in with malevolent
-predictions, to settle the whole matter finally with complacent “I told
-you so.”
-
-There is no denying that Liberia has had her crisis, that she has
-trembled on the verge of ruin, that her rulers have made mistakes; but I
-contend that she has recovered from these shocks with increased stability
-and without the barbarism of bloodshed. Run your eye over the pages of
-contemporaneous history, read of the bloody executions, the fusillades
-in France, count the victims to the garoté in Cuba, number the exiles to
-Siberia, count the expatriated in New Caledonia—all in the name of order
-and good government—then turn to the records of our own eventful career
-or to the modest pages of Liberian history, and tell me which of all the
-Powers contain within themselves the surest foundations, the best promise
-of stability and permanence. Like our own, the Government of Liberia is
-based upon the will of the people, and although sometimes swayed from the
-path of wisdom by popular clamor, it in the main has been administered
-for the _good_ of the people. Resting as it is upon education, secular
-and religious, it possesses a constantly increasing tendency toward
-perfect excellence and consequent permanence.
-
-I dislike to be considered as a constant apologist, but the Republic
-of Liberia is on trial, and she needs the services of even so poor
-a pleader as myself. If we, gentlemen, have _real_ faith in our own
-institutions, we _must_ also have faith in the institutions of our little
-sister Republic. And in order to form an unbiased opinion we must lose
-sight of the question of _color_. Fortunately for the future of Liberia,
-the homogeneousness of her population removes one of her greatest
-dangers. In our own country the question of _caste_ is yet to be fought
-out, and in my opinion upon its result will depend the permanence of our
-own Government and the stability of our own institutions.
-
- “For in this Union, you have set
- Two kinds of men in adverse rows—
- Each loathing each.”
-
-Events are rapidly shaping themselves, and at this present moment we
-hardly know how swiftly we are approaching the crisis which is to
-determine the question of color—of equal rights to all men, without
-regard to color, in the administration of the Government of this country.
-While, therefore, we remember Liberia, let us not forget ourselves, or
-the day may come when she can point out to us the fatal rock upon which
-we split.
-
-I do not apprehend for Liberia dangers from incapacity of her rulers or
-instability in her institutions. She has had her Roberts, her Benson, her
-Benedict, and hosts of others, good and true, and she will find their
-peers in the time of her need. She has her schools and her churches,
-and under their tuition her next generation will improve upon this as
-this has upon the last. She will resist the heathen and drive back the
-Mahomedan. The danger which I _do_ apprehend for her is the danger of
-_absorption_.
-
-They themselves seem to have had a half-prophetic dread of this
-absorption. In her earliest days Elijah Johnson, amidst the dangers of a
-threatened attack by the surrounding savage tribes, being offered a force
-of marines from a British man-of-war if he would only cede a few feet of
-land on which to plant a British flag, promptly refused, saying, “We want
-no flagstaff put up here that would cost more to get down again than it
-would to whip the natives.” _Now this danger is at their very doors._
-
-A few years ago there was a rage for “internal improvements” in Liberia;
-$500,000 were borrowed in London, which netted $425,000. This sum was
-again reduced by paying the first two years’ interest in advance, and
-then from the remainder was deducted the agents’ commissions, until
-finally it reached Monrovia in gold and useless goods to the aggregate
-amount of $200,000, and this residue has disappeared without an “internal
-improvement.” To use a slang phrase, “We know how it is ourselves.” From
-Canada to California every town and village in the country has gone
-through the same experience, but poor Liberia, with an income at the most
-of $100,000 a year, is unable to pay either principal or interest. She
-lies at the mercy of her bondholders. England, with her lion’s paw upon
-the trade of the world, would, and perhaps _will_ eventually, assume
-the debt for the trifling consideration of possession. It is in fact a
-mortgage upon the integrity of Liberia. Already England occupies 1,500
-miles of the Coast; already she hems in Liberia, the most coveted of
-all, on the north; already the British trader is encroaching upon her
-boundaries and stealing in behind her settlements. Slowly and surely the
-process of absorption will go on to its consummation as the anaconda
-swallows the kid. England herself is almost powerless to stay it unless
-we intervene.
-
-I don’t mean by intervention that cold-blooded indifferentism
-which measures every national emotion with the line and plummet of
-international law, which restrains within the bounds of obsolete
-diplomacy every beat of the nation’s heart. I mean the warm, sympathetic
-intervention which will say to all the world, that, happen what may, the
-_United States of America will see to it that no power on earth shall
-obliterate from the map of Africa the infant Republic of Liberia_.
-
-In this centennial year, the proudest anniversary in recorded history,
-which proclaims in trumpet tones the triumphant fact that a government by
-the people and for the people is not only the best but the stablest on
-earth, let us extend to our own offspring the right hand of fellowship,
-and declare by every legitimate means we will help her forward in that
-career which has led us to our present proud pre-eminence. In the
-language of another who visited Liberia at the same time I did, and
-came away as deeply impressed, “We are bound to help them by all the
-considerations that have force with men and nations. By interest and by
-sympathy we are bound. By interest, because Liberia, the only American
-colony on the West Coast of Africa, once strong and resting under the
-protection of the American flag, would open to us the inexhaustible
-riches of Africa, and in so doing would revive the lost glories of
-American commerce, which, to our national shame and disgrace, has almost
-faded from the seas. By sympathy, because of the close parallel between
-their history and our own. Like us, they went forth from a land where
-they could no longer remain with honor; to battle for the dear sake of
-freedom, with poverty, with privation, with hostile savages, and with
-all the thousand difficulties of an unknown and barbarous land. Like us,
-they struggled, if not with oppression, still under neglect, and, like
-us, they conquered. Like us, they have declared and maintained themselves
-a free Republic, and if in less than thirty years of their national
-existence they have not accomplished all that they desired, the failure
-has been largely owing to our own indifference to the children whom we
-sent out from among us, and then left to take care of themselves. Their
-love for us is strong. Like most strong affections, ill-treatment only
-seems to augment its force. Their confidence in us, though so abused, is
-still unabated. Can we, in this their hour of need and danger, coldly
-pass by on the other side? Surely it has been want of knowledge, not want
-of interest, that has so long held us supine. Let us make the parallel,
-so strong in the past, hold good for the future. Let us strengthen the
-hands of Liberia, that she may be enabled to do for Africa what we have
-already done for America.”
-
-Fortunately, we _can_ intervene in the cause of Liberia, if requested
-so to do by her government. Article 8, of the treaty between the United
-States of America and Liberia, concluded at London, October 21, 1862,
-says:
-
-“The United States Government engages never to interfere, unless
-solicited by the Government of Liberia, in the affairs between the
-aboriginal inhabitants and the Republic of Liberia in the jurisdiction
-and territories of the Republic. Should any United States citizens
-suffer loss, in person or property, from violence by the aboriginal
-inhabitants, and the Government of the Republic of Liberia should not
-be able to bring the aggressor to justice, the United States Government
-engages, a requisition having been first made therefor by the Liberian
-Government, to lend such aid as may be required. Citizens of the United
-States residing in the territories of the Republic of Liberia are desired
-to abstain from all such intercourse with the aboriginal inhabitants as
-will tend to the violation of law and a disturbance of the peace of the
-country.”
-
-I violate no official propriety when I inform you that in all probability
-a ship of war is now on her way to Liberia for the purpose of protecting
-American interests, and of aiding the authorities, if so requested, in
-the suppression of insurrection among the natives. That this intervention
-will be effectual not only in suppressing the natives, but indirectly
-in suppressing the zeal of the white traders, I have not the slightest
-doubt. This assistance to Liberia is of a temporary nature; what she
-needs and what _we_ need is a permanent naval force on her Coast, and
-she has almost a right to demand it; for Liberia is our only colony,
-the only off-shoot of the parent stem, the only American outpost on the
-confines of barbarism; it is our duty to protect her for the sake of our
-institutions and for the sake of our religion.
-
-I therefore propose that the Government be requested to establish a line
-of mail steamers, to consist of the smallest class of naval vessels,
-half-manned and half-armed, to run monthly between any designated port
-in the United States and Liberia, touching on that Coast at Monrovia and
-Cape Palmas, and coaling each way at Porto Grande, Cape de Verde Islands.
-These vessels to retain the character of men-of-war, and to carry no
-passengers except officials of either government.
-
-The distance from Norfolk to Monrovia is about 4,000 miles; the quantity
-of coal required for each round voyage would be about 320 tons,
-aggregating for a monthly service about 4,000 tons per annum. These ships
-could perform this duty at a cost for coal of about $50,000.
-
-A law of Congress appropriating this amount and authorizing the President
-to employ the vessels on this duty would be a great point gained for
-Liberia, by insuring a regular mail communication, and by having
-constantly on the Coast one or other of these ships of war.
-
-It is no new thing for men-of-war to be employed in this service. England
-commenced her foreign postal system in this way, which, subsequently
-taken up by private companies, now ramifies over the globe and touches
-every port. The same result would follow in this case. The merchantman
-would follow the man-of-war, and thus the initial step would be taken in
-securing the trade of Liberia to our own country. I see no other way at
-present of inaugurating a direct trade with Liberia; for our commercial
-pride has fallen so low, and our capital has become so timid, that it
-dares not and cares not to venture upon the sea. It is in vain that we
-appeal to patriotism; it is in vain that we utter the truism that no
-nation can be truly great without an external commerce. Our merchants
-cross the sea, and point with complacency to the foreign flag waving over
-their heads, and bring back their goods in foreign bottoms, without any
-sense of the shame that ensues.
-
-It would also be utilizing the navy, which, in time of peace, could find
-no nobler employment. It would, indeed, be but a continuation of the aid
-which the Navy has heretofore given to Liberia, and a new title to its
-claim of guardianship.
-
-I submit this proposition to you, gentlemen, for your consideration, and,
-if it meets with your approval, I suggest that you endeavor to put it
-into practicable shape during the present session of Congress.
-
-The Government of the United States can give to Liberia no material
-aid. We cannot pay her debts nor fight her battles. We _can_ throw over
-her the mantle of our protection. We can say that we will not see her
-absorbed by any European Power, nor obliterated by any savage horde; but,
-after all, Liberia must work out her own salvation.
-
- “Who would be free—themselves must strike the blow.”
-
-So I would say to Liberians: The history of your country is full of
-instances of heroism in conflict with savages; of suffering from scarcity
-of food; of endurance of the effects of climate—full, I say, of instances
-of heroism and self-denial on the part of your predecessors. Learn from
-their history to practice their virtues now.
-
-Thirty years ago Commodore Perry cautioned the colonists against a
-growing timidity, a tendency to rely upon others for the defense of
-their lives and property. He advised them to build blockhouses as _our_
-forefathers did in the olden time; to become accustomed to the use of
-arms, to organize at every settlement, and learn not only to repel attack
-but to assume the offensive, thereby instilling into the surrounding
-savages that wholesome fear which is the greatest safeguard.
-
-Be brave also in the face of nature as well as in the face of the native;
-attack your forests, clear away the wilderness before you. Agriculture
-is the handmaid of commerce. You cannot have one without the other. The
-tiller of the soil is the nobleman of the land. From the bosom of mother
-earth comes the chief real wealth of the nation.
-
-Bear the burden of your national debt cheerfully. For this purpose submit
-to taxation; remember that repudiation of the debt would be followed by
-extinction, and that your failure as a nation would throw you back into
-the confused heap of mistakes which the world would willingly attribute
-to the imbecility of your race. You _must_ carry this load upon your
-shoulders. Consider what a load of debt this parent country of yours is
-carrying for the sake of your race, for the vindication of your title as
-Liberians—free men!
-
-
-
-
-
-End of Project Gutenberg's The American Navy and Liberia, by R. W. Shufeldt
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-Project Gutenberg's The American Navy and Liberia, by R. W. Shufeldt
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-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most
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-Title: The American Navy and Liberia
- An Address before the American Colonization Society, January 18, 1876
-
-Author: R. W. Shufeldt
-
-Release Date: September 23, 2020 [EBook #63279]
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-
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_1"></a>[1]</span></p>
-
-<p class="titlepage larger"><span class="smaller">THE</span><br />
-AMERICAN NAVY AND LIBERIA.</p>
-
-<p class="titlepage">AN ADDRESS<br />
-<span class="smaller">BEFORE THE</span><br />
-AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY,<br />
-<span class="smaller">JANUARY 18, 1876,<br />
-BY</span><br />
-COMMODORE R. W. SHUFELDT, U. S. N.</p>
-
-<p class="titlepage">WASHINGTON CITY:<br />
-<span class="smaller smcap">Colonization Building, 450 Pennsylvania Avenue.<br />
-1876.</span></p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_2"></a>[2]</span></p>
-
-<hr />
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_3"></a>[3]</span></p>
-
-<h1>ADDRESS.</h1>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Gentlemen</span>: It is not inappropriate to this occasion that an
-officer of the navy should address your honorable Society,
-and although your committee might easily have chosen a more
-worthy representative of that branch of the public service,
-they could have found none more sincerely interested in your
-cause or more deeply impressed with its importance.</p>
-
-<p>From the first disastrous effort, in 1819, to colonize the negroes
-from the United States at Sherbro, up to the present time,
-the Navy has contributed with sword and pen to advance the
-interests and protect the rights of the Americo-Africans. In
-that year, 1819, the U. S. Ship “Cyane” convoyed to Africa
-the “Elizabeth,” the first emigrant ship, the “Mayflower” of
-these new pilgrims, and Lieutenant Townsend lost his life in
-the duty incidental to landing them. The inexorable march
-of time, however, has placed upon the roll of the distinguished
-dead most of those whose words and deeds contributed
-so much to the founding of the Republic of Liberia. First
-among these, and almost the first in the hearts and memories of
-his naval brethren, stands the name of Stockton. In 1821 Lieut.
-Stockton took command of the “Alligator,” a vessel sent out
-by the U. S. Government at the earnest solicitation of Justice
-Bushrod Washington, President of the Society, and Francis S.
-Key, one of its managers, for the express purpose of selecting
-a site on the Western Coast of Africa, better adapted to
-the purposes of colonization than Sherbro, a place notoriously
-unhealthy and in many respects undesirable. The first order
-issued by Lieut. Commanding Stockton to the crew of his little
-craft, while yet in sight of the shores of America, was to
-throw overboard the cat, (the lash was then a legal mode of
-punishment on board of our vessels of war,) informing them
-that he intended to exact their obedience by some other
-means. He was wiser than, perhaps, he knew, for, bound on<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_4"></a>[4]</span>
-this mission of humanity, there would have been a strange inconsistency
-in his conduct had he carried with him into Africa
-that vile relic of barbarism. Yet this act indicates the character
-of the man who in that day, and in the face of current
-opinion, dared to vindicate by word and deed the right of man,
-black or white, to exemption from a barbarous thraldom
-whether upon land or sea. December 11th, 1821, Lieut. Stockton
-placed his foot on African soil at Cape Mesurado, and, at
-the risk of his life, wrested from savagery that spot whereon
-now stands the light-house guiding the mariner to Monrovia,
-the Capital of a new born Republic, and in its firm foundations,
-and its light gleaming alternately on land and sea, fitly emblematic
-of him who ever stood fixed in his strong convictions
-of the right, and showed to all men the guiding star of his
-brilliant intellect and spotless character.</p>
-
-<p>Liberia, then only an isolated spot of land, now spreads herself
-on the south to the extent of 500 miles from this point.
-A narrow belt upon the sea-shore, slowly but surely widening
-her influence, brightening up the dark cloud in the background,
-as year by year she struggles and penetrates here and
-there, now up a river and then into the forest, like the streak
-of light in the eastern sky which tells of the coming day. An
-author says that the name of Stockton will be associated in
-history with the names of the founders of this now prosperous
-State, for to his courage and prudence its original acquisition
-may be ascribed. Accompanied only by one companion he
-went into the presence of the native King of that part of
-the Coast, and when threatened with instant death, presented
-his pistol at the head of the angry chief, cowing the multitude
-by the danger of their Sovereign and obtaining from the subdued
-savages the desired territory.</p>
-
-<p>If we add to this achievement in Africa the fact, that
-throughout his brilliant career, he adhered with wonderful
-pertinacity to his idea of punishment without the lash, until
-he obtained, or greatly aided in obtaining, the passage of that
-law which banished the cat from the Navy, we may fairly
-place him high on its rolls as one whose memory we may
-cherish, and whose deeds we may emulate, and point him out
-to the Liberian as the man whose nature, revolting at<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_5"></a>[5]</span>
-inhumanity in any form, taught his own men before landing
-on African soil that first lesson of freedom which Liberians
-have since learned to appreciate as it deserves.</p>
-
-<p>The name of Perry, among the brightest in the annals of
-naval history, shone with undimmed lustre in the person of
-Commodore M. C. Perry while in command of our squadron on
-the Coast of Africa. Perry cruised along the Liberian seaboard,
-using force when force was necessary, discretion, combined
-with firmness, always. Under his surveillance the timid colonist
-became more bold, and the wary savage more circumspect,
-until when he left the station, Gov. Russwurm, of Cape Palmas,
-was constrained to write him under date of December 25, 1843,
-“Our prospects have been brighter since the arrival of your
-squadron on this Coast than ever, and however willing we
-were before to endure everything for liberty, our hearts swell
-with gratitude to you for the deep interest expressed in our
-future well-being. That a gracious Providence may long preserve
-your life for usefulness, is the ardent prayer of every
-citizen of Maryland in Liberia.”</p>
-
-<p>From the time of Commodore Perry’s command (1844) up
-to the commencement of our civil war the Navy was not without
-its representatives on the Liberian Coast. Many prominent
-officers not only gave that country their warmest support,
-but have recorded their meed of praise to its inhabitants.
-Commodore Joel Abbott, 1845, says: “Although it is the day
-of small things with our colored colonists in Africa, yet I believe
-there is no one who has visited them but is favorably impressed
-with their present condition beyond what was anticipated,
-and with the belief of their progressive improvement
-and of their growing importance in all the relations concerning
-Africa and the African race that should interest the
-Christian philanthropist and statesman.”</p>
-
-<p>Commodore Isaac Mayo, 1853, says: “I have long felt the
-warmest interest in the only scheme which promised relief to
-the colored people of our country, and this interest was confirmed
-by my visit to Liberia, when in command of the frigate
-“Macedonian,” in the years 1843 and 1844. My more recent
-observations in this ship convince me that the Colonization
-Societies have been crowned with the most substantial success,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_6"></a>[6]</span>
-and that the result of their generous philanthropy is no longer
-doubtful.... I have the strongest faith
-in the bright future that awaits Liberia, and the strongest
-confidence that she is to wield the most powerful influence in
-regenerating Africa.”</p>
-
-<p>Commodore Francis H. Gregory, 1855, says: “Previously to
-my visiting Liberia I had a hope the Colonization Society
-would be successful. I considered it an experiment and entertained
-but little faith, but on my first visit to Monrovia
-every doubt was dispelled. I visited the people collectively
-and individually and had every opportunity of forming a correct
-judgment of their condition and prospects.... I
-found the people industrious and happy, apparently in the
-enjoyment of every domestic comfort, and some of the most
-opulent having many of the luxuries and elegancies of more
-famed and refined regions.” By those to whom Commodore
-Gregory was known, the value of his testimony will be appreciated.
-Throughout a long and earnest life this officer devoted
-all of his time and thought to the service of his country.</p>
-
-<p>Paymaster General Bridge, in his “Journal of an African
-Cruiser,” remarks, “After having seen much, and reflected upon
-the subject even to weariness, I write down my opinion that
-Liberia is firmly planted and is destined to increase and
-prosper. This it will do though all further support from the
-United States be discontinued.... My
-faith is firm in a favorable result.”</p>
-
-<p>Chaplain Chas. W. Thomas adds his testimony in the following
-extracts from “Adventures and Observations in Africa:”
-“Our duty as a Christian nation towards her (Liberia) is clear.
-Far be it from us to witness with cold-blooded indifference the
-struggles of those who have gone out from us with barbarism
-and ignorance. If Liberia is a weak and myopic child, it is
-not ours to look calmly upon her attempts to walk alone, guessing
-cruelly as to the chances of her making a safe journey, but
-it is ours by kind words to encourage her heart and to lead her
-by the hand until age shall bring strength to her feet and
-clearness to her vision.”</p>
-
-<p>Perhaps upon the Navy list we have no purer and nobler
-character than that of the late Rear Admiral A. H. Foote. Foote<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_7"></a>[7]</span>
-wielded the sword and the pen of the philanthropist, the Christian,
-and the patriot. How much the lessons he learned while on
-the Coast of Africa in command of the brig “Perry,” among
-the iniquities of the slave-trade and the struggles of the Liberian
-colonists had to do with the excellence of his character,
-may be traced in the history of his life. He says: “Civilization
-with its peace, intelligence with its high aims, was rooted
-in Africa. The living energy of republicanism was there,
-Christianity in various influential forms was among the people.
-Education was advancing and institutions for public good
-coming into operation. Native hereditary enmities and factions
-were yielding perceptibly in all directions to the gentle
-efficacy of Christian example. All this constituted a great
-result.”</p>
-
-<p>The Christian virtues of Admiral Foote are the property of
-the country, his professional qualities are the inheritance of
-the Navy—these will be remembered as long as we have a
-Country to defend or a Navy to defend it.</p>
-
-<p>The concurrent testimony of these distinguished officers and
-thoughtful men, embracing the period from the foundation of
-the colony to the time of our civil war, express not only the
-hope, but the belief that Liberia, poor and weak as she is, yet
-possesses many of the elements of national wealth and
-strength, and proves beyond cavil the progress and the permanence
-of that Republic.</p>
-
-<p>During the war, and while our own nationality was in peril,
-the Navy had but little time to spare for the interests of Liberia.
-The battle for the freedom of the black man was being
-fought upon a grander scale than within her narrow limits.
-After that victory had been gained our ships began once more
-to visit the African Coast, though at rare intervals.</p>
-
-<p>In 1873 it became my duty and my pleasure to visit the
-Coast of Africa, after an interval of twenty-five years. A quarter
-of a century had passed leaving its furrows upon my face,
-as it does upon the face of every son of Adam, but the interest
-I had felt in that lone lorn colony was as fresh as ever. It
-was therefore with unmixed satisfaction that I landed again
-at Cape Mesurado, and in an instant recalled the familiar streets<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_8"></a>[8]</span>
-and many of the faces that used to greet me in Monrovia
-years ago.</p>
-
-<p>I do not propose to go into the history of Liberia; that is to
-be found in every Cyclopedia—those who run may read it. My
-own personal impressions will be of more interest to you; these
-have vitality which comes of contact, a freshness not to be
-found in the musty pages of a book however well written.
-Personal experience compared with history is the original compared
-with the photograph.</p>
-
-<p>Cape Mesurado juts out into the sea, a promontory of gentle
-height, covered with the verdure which the tropics only can
-produce. The surf roars at its base and the water of the
-Mesurado river breaks over the bar by its side—the canoe of
-the native glides through the surf over this bar and lands you
-with wonderful safety at Monrovia, which lies just behind
-the cape by the side of the river.</p>
-
-<p>In the growth of a new nation, in its consolidation and crystalization,
-<i>time</i> forms no just measure of <i>progress</i>. Not to go
-back, to stem the adverse tide, to wait, is absolutely to advance.
-To be where you were, after years of struggles against obstacles
-almost insurmountable, is a point gained, and a success
-accomplished.</p>
-
-<p>Monrovia presented the same sunny streets and shaded
-houses, the same evidences of comfort, and of the absence of
-want, that it did twenty-five years before; no great mark of
-improvement, no sad evidences of decay. In the meanwhile,
-however, more activity on the wharves, more canoes laden
-with produce coming down the river, steamships stopping
-eight times a month landing and receiving cargo, more sugar
-mills, coffee trees growing where the forest undisturbed had
-waved before—all this, and more, indicated life, business, commercial
-and agricultural prosperity.</p>
-
-<p>I thought to myself as I walked again through the streets,
-“Monrovia is a <i>fixed fact</i>.” No reflux tide can wash her into
-the sea. She may advance more rapidly, she may stand still.
-But every event, whether rapid, slow, or stationary in her
-course, Liberia is there to <i>stay</i>. An island in the ocean of
-barbarism, “a little cloud out of the sea like a man’s hand,”
-yet full of portent to Africa, a herald of the coming of that army<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_9"></a>[9]</span>
-of civilization which by an inexorable law exterminates where
-it cannot convert.</p>
-
-<p>But a great change manifested itself in the temper and tone
-of the people. Years ago I saw indicated everywhere that innate
-consciousness of inferiority, that deprecating humility
-which came of their birth—emigrants from the slave cabins in
-our own country—that absence of independent thought, that
-shrinking humility which feared to give an opinion; these
-came from the remembrance of that grand old thing, now of
-the past—the <i>master</i>. With warm affections toward their
-home, as they called America, favors easily remembered and
-wrongs as easily forgotten, they welcomed us and bore with
-us as we tacitly claimed that superiority which comes of
-being born white men.</p>
-
-<p>Now a change had taken place, a new generation had come
-and a regeneration. We were welcomed with hospitality devoid
-of servility, and with kindness devoid of fear. They
-acknowledged gratefully the protection which the American
-flag affords them, not more for the fact than as a token of
-remembrance from the mother country.</p>
-
-<p>President Roberts is an epitome of Liberian history. He
-stands pre-eminently the guiding genius of Liberia through
-all her struggles. That there is none equal to him in point of
-ability, combined with wisdom and linked to virtue; that he
-is superior to all in these respects, to every other Liberian, is
-no more an argument for the average inferiority of the colored
-race than the proud pre-eminence of George Washington is an
-argument for the inferiority of the American branch of the
-white race. The history of nations is written in the lives of
-individuals. President Roberts has shaped the destiny of his
-country, and as much as any other man living has contributed
-to the moral and physical good of the human race.</p>
-
-<p>I dined at President Roberts’ table with the members of his
-Cabinet, Ex-President Warner, and the Haytien Consul, Mr.
-Yates. Most of them were new men to me. They exhibited
-a general knowledge of passing events which, from their
-isolated condition, would have surprised me, had I not in previous
-experience observed that men forced to read what others
-daily saw were generally more accurate in their knowledge<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_10"></a>[10]</span>
-and more critical in their deductions. The Cabinet of Mr.
-Roberts seemed to me respectable men, quite up to the average
-of men, whether white or black.</p>
-
-<p>Without disparagement to others, I wish to make a brief
-mention of a pleasant visit to the house of a private citizen.
-This house was presided over by a lady whose refined and
-elegant manners would have attracted attention and admiration
-in any drawing-room. In her conversation she exhibited
-a brilliancy which was really remarkable, and an intelligence
-quite as surprising. She was Liberian born, but spoke of
-America with the love she had inherited.</p>
-
-<p>Along the streets and by-ways of Monrovia are to be seen
-the ordinary variety of human beings, young and old, rich
-and poor, sick and well. You note the absence of grogshops
-and the presence of churches. Like pilgrims as they are, or
-were, the prevailing and controlling sentiment of the community
-is a religious one. To land upon a foreign shore, to cut
-one’s self off from kith and kin, to plunge into a wilderness,
-needs faith absolute, vital, in the personality of God and in
-Divine protection. Add to this the emotional character of the
-negro and you have the ordinary Liberian; law-abiding and,
-from his nature and race, indolent, timid, willing to be helped,
-loth to help himself. I do not mean to compare this colonist
-with the great domineering, self-asserting, self-dependent
-Anglo-Saxon, who bullies and conquers and rules wherever
-he emigrates, but I do mean to say that Liberia and its inhabitants
-will compare, and favorably, too, with the towns and the
-people scattered over Central and South America and Mexico,
-settled by the Spaniard, the Italian, and the Frenchman. Go
-where you will in these countries you see the same evidences
-of indolence, the same apparent lack of progress, yet these
-people <i>are</i> prospering in their way, gradually but surely reaching
-a higher plane, and so I contend are the Liberians. Remember,
-the Liberians were <i>poor</i> even to abject poverty, they
-had received no inheritance but the badge of their servitude,
-they were ignorant—the law in this free country of ours had
-taken care to keep them so—painfully ignorant, not only of
-the common principles of law by which they were to construct<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_11"></a>[11]</span>
-a government, but of the common principles of life by which
-they were to live.</p>
-
-<p>God measures people for Himself. He is patient because He
-is Eternal. Fifty years in the life of a nation born under such
-adverse circumstances, struggling under poverty and obliquy—predicted
-a failure by the prophets of caste, checked and
-thwarted by the priests and politicians of conservatism, unaided,
-uncheered, born in a wilderness, surrounded, hemmed
-in by barbarism while just emerging from barbarism itself—fifty
-years in the life of such a nation is but a moment of time
-in the Providence of God. Let us then endeavor in our imperfect
-way to imitate God’s patience and wait while we hope
-and pray.</p>
-
-<p>The Krooman, whose tribes are scattered for eighty miles
-along the Liberian Coast, is the Bedouin of the African sea.
-He is the sailor-man and the boat-man for every ship that
-comes and sails down the Coast. His skill in landing through
-the surf and passing over bars in his frail canoe is something
-wonderful. His canoe and himself are one and the same thing;
-together they glide over the swell of the ocean <i>with speed and
-safety, now hidden, now seen</i>. If capsized he soon rights his
-boat, rolls in again and paddles away. He is a bird upon the
-water and a fish in the sea. Always willing and obedient, he
-is honest and trustworthy. He wants his wages when his
-contract is up, when he returns to his tribe and invests in
-another wife. Wives are his treasures; they are the support
-of his old age. He speaks a little English, of which he is very
-proud. Some ship-master gives him a fantastic name, as
-“Draw Bucket” or “Plug of Tobacco,” to which he clings as
-his badge of honor, and his merits are duly recorded in his
-“book,” which he receives from his employer and carries around
-his neck, each succeeding master increasing the wealth of his
-recommendation. His mother is his great object of reverence;
-he never ventures to dispute her authority. In this respect
-he never “comes of age.”</p>
-
-<p>If Monrovia, the capital, had not largely increased in wealth
-and population during these twenty-five years, Liberia had extended
-her boundaries league by league, each additional possession
-encroaching upon or destroying some well-known haunt<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_12"></a>[12]</span>
-of the slave trader, until for six hundred miles of the adjacent
-Coast not a slave factory could be found or a slaver get a cargo.
-In the very nature of things slavery was abhorrent to Liberia.
-It could not exist within or near her borders. It disappeared
-by virtue of the expelling force which exists in the power of
-light and civilization. These two things could not be at the
-same time in the same place. By this moral alliance with the
-Powers of the world—this silent partnership, which in the end
-banished the trade in human beings from the entire Coast of
-Western Africa; this passive victory over the greatest sin of
-modern times—by this deed alone she has earned her title to
-the possession of her territory, and her friends and the friends
-of humanity have met with more than their reward.</p>
-
-<p>An author says, in 1853: “The fact stands acknowledged
-before the world that Great Britain, after the expenditure of
-more than one hundred millions of dollars, has failed in suppressing
-the slave trade on one mile of Coast beyond the limit
-of her colonies, while Liberia has swept it from nearly four
-hundred miles of Coast where it existed in its chief strength,
-liberated 80,000 slaves, and bound by treaties 200,000 natives
-never to engage in the traffic in their brethren.”</p>
-
-<p>Liberia, geographically considered, is situated upon the West
-Coast of Africa, between the latitudes 4° 20´ and 7° 20´ north. It
-extends from the British Colony of Sierra Leone, on the northwest,
-to the Pedro river, on the southeast, a distance of 600
-miles along the Coast, the interior boundary varying from 10
-to 40 miles from the seaboard, an area of 9,700 square miles,
-every mile of which has been <i>purchased</i> from the original proprietors.
-No war of conquest marks this gradual enlargement
-of territory or mars the record of the consequent progress. In
-1873, the period of my last visit, Monrovia, the capital, had about
-13,000 inhabitants. The total number of Americo-Liberians
-in the Republic at that time was estimated at 20,000, and 700,000
-aborigines. The Americans are settled in sixteen towns,
-all of which have the characteristics of Monrovia, and are
-situated in propinquity to the sea. Millsburg, which is twenty
-miles up the St. Paul’s river, is an agricultural settlement.</p>
-
-<p>The most important of the native tribes is the Mandingo,
-which occupies nearly the whole of the eastern frontier of<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_13"></a>[13]</span>
-Liberia. These people are Mahomedans, and their influence
-extends into the interior of the Continent as far as Soudan.
-Travelers in Africa agree upon the fact that Mahomedanism
-is spreading over that land with marvelous strides. I ask
-your attention to this religious phenomenon in connection
-with the prospects of Liberia as a Christian community. If
-you believe that Christianity is to be the religion of the future
-in Africa, essential not only to her salvation but to her temporal
-welfare, then I beg you to consider Liberia as an important
-bulwark against the encroachment of the followers of
-the Prophet, and as a point from whence to start Christian
-propagandism into the heart of Africa. Most of the foreign
-settlements on the Coast are simply trading ports, and the duty
-of Christianizing the country is lost sight of in the pursuit of
-gain. Liberia, on the other hand, is a Christian community,
-established as such. Upon it and upon its friends devolves
-this positive mission, preaching the Gospel to the heathen. It
-is our duty to assist her in this mission by every means in our
-power. Liberia is the initial point for American effort in the
-Christianization of Africa. The tendency of all the African
-tribes is to approach the sea; most of the tribal wars are made
-on this account. To reach the “heach,” as they call it, to open
-trade with the white man is the great object of their ambition.
-To occupy the “heach,” therefore, to present there the bold
-front of Christianity, is to set back the tide of Mahomedanism
-and to bring within the peaceful influence of Christianity the
-pagan when, after his struggles, he reaches the sea.</p>
-
-<p>Among the other tribes living in the Liberian territory is
-the Grebo. This tribe occupies the land in the immediate
-vicinity of Cape Palmas and is the one now threatening that
-portion of the Republic with a war of extermination.</p>
-
-<p>I mean no disrespect to the people of Great Britain when I
-say that the British trader on the Coast of Africa is among the
-most grasping and unscrupulous of men. He has succeeded
-the Frenchman, the Spaniard, and the Portuguese, those reckless
-factors in the prosecution of the slave trade, and substituted
-a trade in rum, tobacco, and gunpowder, a trade not
-quite so baneful in its immediate results, but as pernicious as
-it dares to be in the logic of events. These articles the native<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_14"></a>[14]</span>
-is eager to buy and the trader anxious to sell. Year by year
-the British government, yielding to the demand of the British
-trader, has increased its possessions upon the Coast either by
-acquisition from the native Kings, or by purchase from foreign
-Powers, until it owns 1,500 miles of the African shore. Liberia
-is now bounded on its northern and southern limits by British
-territory, but the trader, not content with this stealing as it
-were in the rear of Liberian settlements with his contraband
-products, is enticing the willing native to trade in violation of
-the laws of the Republic, and inducing him to believe that if
-the poor and defenseless Liberian settler can be driven from
-his home, the trader can sell his goods without restriction and
-at half the price; hence this war which is now trying the
-courage and the resources of the Liberians.</p>
-
-<p>These two tribes, the Mandingos and Grebos, both of them
-intelligent and aggressive, the one crusaders in the name of
-Mahomet, and the other warriors in the cause of greed and
-gain, form the most important elements in the internal economy
-of the Republic. The destiny of Liberia depends on the
-conquest of these two opposing forces. Will she? Will she?
-She must meet and conquer morally and physically these antagonistic
-ideas or see herself swept into the sea; but I have
-faith that she will conquer in the name of God and with the
-aid of America. We know that God will not fail them; let us
-see to it that America does not fold her arms and turn upon
-these struggling people the cold shoulder of indifference.</p>
-
-<p>The other tribes that come under the jurisdiction of the
-Government of Liberia are the Veys, the Pessehs, the Barlines,
-and the Bassas. The Veys are amongst the most intelligent,
-and thirty years ago made an alphabet for themselves. Mahomedanism
-is rapidly spreading among them. None of these
-have any special significance. They constitute, however, the
-material nearest at hand for the missionary and the philanthropist.</p>
-
-<p>According to my observation among the heathen, conversion
-to Christianity is not the work of a moment, it is an influence
-gradually permeating and pervading, until a community finds
-itself raised to a higher plane, converted to a nobler faith.
-This I anticipate will, in a measurable period of time, be the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_15"></a>[15]</span>
-result of the moral influence of the Americo-African upon the
-surrounding mass of barbarism. One by one its dark superstitions
-will disappear in the everincreasing light, until in the
-brightness of mid-day the Sun of Righteousness will cast His
-beneficent rays on the whole area of that broad and benighted
-land.</p>
-
-<p>I found the climate of Liberia decidedly improved since my
-first visit. As the land is cleared miasmatic influences become
-less fatal. To the native-born Liberian it is as healthful as
-any tropical country. The emigrant takes his risks as any of
-us do who migrate from a temperate to a torrid zone. The
-white man has no business in Africa. “<i>Similia similibus curantur.</i>”
-“Like things are cured by like.” To the black man,
-the Ethiopian, is given the mission of laboring in the vineyard
-until he comes to his own again. Time enters largely into this
-problem of regenerating Africa. But it will be done and find
-its reward in Eternity. Without conflicting with the theories
-of the savans, I take it upon myself to say that to the white
-and black races is given the glorious work of rehabilitating
-the world, each in its own latitude and in its own way.</p>
-
-<p>The Government of Liberia is apparently stable and well
-administered. It would be an anomaly in political history to
-find the off-shoot of a republican country establishing for itself
-any other than a republican form of government; her constitution
-therefore is similar to our own, containing one proviso,
-however, to which I wish to draw your attention.</p>
-
-<p>Liberia came into existence as a nation preceded by no war;
-she was born of no internecine strife, but in harmony with
-her mission she declared herself free and independent, and
-was gracefully acknowledged as such by the Great Powers of
-the world—the mother country alone hesitating to receive as
-an equal her neglected child—and in an humble and lowly
-manner, becoming her color and condition, she peacefully and
-quietly took her back seat in the family of nations. I say
-that Liberia has a government apparently stable. Compare
-it, in the twenty-eight years of its existence, with the government
-of France in its throes with monarchism, pseudo republicanism,
-imperialism, and communism—“everything by turns
-and nothing long”—or with that of Spain in its dynastic<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_16"></a>[16]</span>
-revolutions. It seems to me that the people of Liberia are in
-the hands of a guiding Power, which carries them hither and
-thither, always safely, to the end that they may become the
-arbiters of the fate of their race, the peaceful conquerors of a new
-world. I know it is the fashion to deride such pietistic notions,
-to sneer at such unscientific theories; but, my friends, as I grow
-older, as I watch the ebbing and flowing of the human tides,
-as I read of human destiny moulded to serve Divine ends, I feel
-how insignificant men are in themselves, how great they are
-in the hands of God. I say that the government has, in the
-main, been well administered. The <i>world</i>, so called, <i>i. e.</i>, the
-greed, the superstition, the bigotry, the clannish conservatism,
-added to the thoughtlessness and the indifference of the world,
-combine to crush out these abstract notions, these impracticable
-ideas of the mere philanthropist, to deny the capacity
-of certain “inferior” races for self-government, to prognosticate
-failures, to come in with malevolent predictions, to settle
-the whole matter finally with complacent “I told you so.”</p>
-
-<p>There is no denying that Liberia has had her crisis, that she
-has trembled on the verge of ruin, that her rulers have made
-mistakes; but I contend that she has recovered from these
-shocks with increased stability and without the barbarism of
-bloodshed. Run your eye over the pages of contemporaneous
-history, read of the bloody executions, the fusillades in France,
-count the victims to the garoté in Cuba, number the exiles to
-Siberia, count the expatriated in New Caledonia—all in the
-name of order and good government—then turn to the records
-of our own eventful career or to the modest pages of Liberian
-history, and tell me which of all the Powers contain within
-themselves the surest foundations, the best promise of stability
-and permanence. Like our own, the Government of Liberia
-is based upon the will of the people, and although sometimes
-swayed from the path of wisdom by popular clamor, it in the
-main has been administered for the <i>good</i> of the people. Resting
-as it is upon education, secular and religious, it possesses a
-constantly increasing tendency toward perfect excellence and
-consequent permanence.</p>
-
-<p>I dislike to be considered as a constant apologist, but the
-Republic of Liberia is on trial, and she needs the services of<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_17"></a>[17]</span>
-even so poor a pleader as myself. If we, gentlemen, have <i>real</i>
-faith in our own institutions, we <i>must</i> also have faith in the
-institutions of our little sister Republic. And in order to form
-an unbiased opinion we must lose sight of the question of <i>color</i>.
-Fortunately for the future of Liberia, the homogeneousness of
-her population removes one of her greatest dangers. In our
-own country the question of <i>caste</i> is yet to be fought out, and
-in my opinion upon its result will depend the permanence of
-our own Government and the stability of our own institutions.</p>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry">
- <div class="stanza">
- <div class="verse indent0">“For in this Union, you have set</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Two kinds of men in adverse rows—</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Each loathing each.”</div>
- </div>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<p class="noindent">Events are rapidly shaping themselves, and at this present
-moment we hardly know how swiftly we are approaching the
-crisis which is to determine the question of color—of equal
-rights to all men, without regard to color, in the administration
-of the Government of this country. While, therefore, we
-remember Liberia, let us not forget ourselves, or the day may
-come when she can point out to us the fatal rock upon which
-we split.</p>
-
-<p>I do not apprehend for Liberia dangers from incapacity of
-her rulers or instability in her institutions. She has had her
-Roberts, her Benson, her Benedict, and hosts of others, good
-and true, and she will find their peers in the time of her need.
-She has her schools and her churches, and under their tuition
-her next generation will improve upon this as this has upon
-the last. She will resist the heathen and drive back the Mahomedan.
-The danger which I <i>do</i> apprehend for her is the
-danger of <i>absorption</i>.</p>
-
-<p>They themselves seem to have had a half-prophetic dread of
-this absorption. In her earliest days Elijah Johnson, amidst
-the dangers of a threatened attack by the surrounding savage
-tribes, being offered a force of marines from a British man-of-war
-if he would only cede a few feet of land on which to plant
-a British flag, promptly refused, saying, “We want no flagstaff
-put up here that would cost more to get down again than
-it would to whip the natives.” <i>Now this danger is at their very
-doors.</i></p>
-
-<p>A few years ago there was a rage for “internal improvements”<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_18"></a>[18]</span>
-in Liberia; $500,000 were borrowed in London, which
-netted $425,000. This sum was again reduced by paying the
-first two years’ interest in advance, and then from the remainder
-was deducted the agents’ commissions, until finally it
-reached Monrovia in gold and useless goods to the aggregate
-amount of $200,000, and this residue has disappeared without
-an “internal improvement.” To use a slang phrase, “We know
-how it is ourselves.” From Canada to California every town
-and village in the country has gone through the same experience,
-but poor Liberia, with an income at the most of $100,000
-a year, is unable to pay either principal or interest. She
-lies at the mercy of her bondholders. England, with her lion’s
-paw upon the trade of the world, would, and perhaps <i>will</i>
-eventually, assume the debt for the trifling consideration of
-possession. It is in fact a mortgage upon the integrity of
-Liberia. Already England occupies 1,500 miles of the Coast;
-already she hems in Liberia, the most coveted of all, on the
-north; already the British trader is encroaching upon her
-boundaries and stealing in behind her settlements. Slowly
-and surely the process of absorption will go on to its consummation
-as the anaconda swallows the kid. England herself is
-almost powerless to stay it unless we intervene.</p>
-
-<p>I don’t mean by intervention that cold-blooded indifferentism
-which measures every national emotion with the line and
-plummet of international law, which restrains within the
-bounds of obsolete diplomacy every beat of the nation’s heart.
-I mean the warm, sympathetic intervention which will say to
-all the world, that, happen what may, the <i>United States of
-America will see to it that no power on earth shall obliterate from
-the map of Africa the infant Republic of Liberia</i>.</p>
-
-<p>In this centennial year, the proudest anniversary in recorded
-history, which proclaims in trumpet tones the triumphant fact
-that a government by the people and for the people is not
-only the best but the stablest on earth, let us extend to our
-own offspring the right hand of fellowship, and declare by
-every legitimate means we will help her forward in that career
-which has led us to our present proud pre-eminence. In the
-language of another who visited Liberia at the same time I
-did, and came away as deeply impressed, “We are bound to<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_19"></a>[19]</span>
-help them by all the considerations that have force with men
-and nations. By interest and by sympathy we are bound.
-By interest, because Liberia, the only American colony on the
-West Coast of Africa, once strong and resting under the protection
-of the American flag, would open to us the inexhaustible
-riches of Africa, and in so doing would revive the lost
-glories of American commerce, which, to our national shame
-and disgrace, has almost faded from the seas. By sympathy,
-because of the close parallel between their history and our
-own. Like us, they went forth from a land where they could
-no longer remain with honor; to battle for the dear sake of
-freedom, with poverty, with privation, with hostile savages,
-and with all the thousand difficulties of an unknown and barbarous
-land. Like us, they struggled, if not with oppression,
-still under neglect, and, like us, they conquered. Like
-us, they have declared and maintained themselves a free
-Republic, and if in less than thirty years of their national
-existence they have not accomplished all that they desired,
-the failure has been largely owing to our own indifference
-to the children whom we sent out from among us, and then
-left to take care of themselves. Their love for us is strong.
-Like most strong affections, ill-treatment only seems to augment
-its force. Their confidence in us, though so abused, is
-still unabated. Can we, in this their hour of need and danger,
-coldly pass by on the other side? Surely it has been
-want of knowledge, not want of interest, that has so long held
-us supine. Let us make the parallel, so strong in the past,
-hold good for the future. Let us strengthen the hands of Liberia,
-that she may be enabled to do for Africa what we have
-already done for America.”</p>
-
-<p>Fortunately, we <i>can</i> intervene in the cause of Liberia, if requested
-so to do by her government. Article 8, of the treaty
-between the United States of America and Liberia, concluded
-at London, October 21, 1862, says:</p>
-
-<p>“The United States Government engages never to interfere,
-unless solicited by the Government of Liberia, in the affairs
-between the aboriginal inhabitants and the Republic of Liberia
-in the jurisdiction and territories of the Republic. Should
-any United States citizens suffer loss, in person or property,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_20"></a>[20]</span>
-from violence by the aboriginal inhabitants, and the Government
-of the Republic of Liberia should not be able to bring
-the aggressor to justice, the United States Government engages,
-a requisition having been first made therefor by the
-Liberian Government, to lend such aid as may be required.
-Citizens of the United States residing in the territories of the
-Republic of Liberia are desired to abstain from all such intercourse
-with the aboriginal inhabitants as will tend to the violation
-of law and a disturbance of the peace of the country.”</p>
-
-<p>I violate no official propriety when I inform you that in all
-probability a ship of war is now on her way to Liberia for the
-purpose of protecting American interests, and of aiding the
-authorities, if so requested, in the suppression of insurrection
-among the natives. That this intervention will be effectual
-not only in suppressing the natives, but indirectly in suppressing
-the zeal of the white traders, I have not the slightest doubt.
-This assistance to Liberia is of a temporary nature; what she
-needs and what <i>we</i> need is a permanent naval force on her
-Coast, and she has almost a right to demand it; for Liberia is
-our only colony, the only off-shoot of the parent stem, the only
-American outpost on the confines of barbarism; it is our duty
-to protect her for the sake of our institutions and for the sake
-of our religion.</p>
-
-<p>I therefore propose that the Government be requested to
-establish a line of mail steamers, to consist of the smallest
-class of naval vessels, half-manned and half-armed, to run
-monthly between any designated port in the United States and
-Liberia, touching on that Coast at Monrovia and Cape Palmas,
-and coaling each way at Porto Grande, Cape de Verde Islands.
-These vessels to retain the character of men-of-war, and to
-carry no passengers except officials of either government.</p>
-
-<p>The distance from Norfolk to Monrovia is about 4,000 miles;
-the quantity of coal required for each round voyage would be
-about 320 tons, aggregating for a monthly service about 4,000
-tons per annum. These ships could perform this duty at a
-cost for coal of about $50,000.</p>
-
-<p>A law of Congress appropriating this amount and authorizing
-the President to employ the vessels on this duty would
-be a great point gained for Liberia, by insuring a regular mail<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_21"></a>[21]</span>
-communication, and by having constantly on the Coast one or
-other of these ships of war.</p>
-
-<p>It is no new thing for men-of-war to be employed in this
-service. England commenced her foreign postal system in
-this way, which, subsequently taken up by private companies,
-now ramifies over the globe and touches every port. The
-same result would follow in this case. The merchantman
-would follow the man-of-war, and thus the initial step would
-be taken in securing the trade of Liberia to our own country.
-I see no other way at present of inaugurating a direct trade
-with Liberia; for our commercial pride has fallen so low, and
-our capital has become so timid, that it dares not and cares
-not to venture upon the sea. It is in vain that we appeal to
-patriotism; it is in vain that we utter the truism that no nation
-can be truly great without an external commerce. Our
-merchants cross the sea, and point with complacency to the
-foreign flag waving over their heads, and bring back their
-goods in foreign bottoms, without any sense of the shame that
-ensues.</p>
-
-<p>It would also be utilizing the navy, which, in time of peace,
-could find no nobler employment. It would, indeed, be but a
-continuation of the aid which the Navy has heretofore given
-to Liberia, and a new title to its claim of guardianship.</p>
-
-<p>I submit this proposition to you, gentlemen, for your consideration,
-and, if it meets with your approval, I suggest that
-you endeavor to put it into practicable shape during the present
-session of Congress.</p>
-
-<p>The Government of the United States can give to Liberia
-no material aid. We cannot pay her debts nor fight her battles.
-We <i>can</i> throw over her the mantle of our protection.
-We can say that we will not see her absorbed by any European
-Power, nor obliterated by any savage horde; but, after all,
-Liberia must work out her own salvation.</p>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry">
- <div class="stanza">
- <div class="verse indent0">“Who would be free—themselves must strike the blow.”</div>
- </div>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<p class="noindent">So I would say to Liberians: The history of your country is
-full of instances of heroism in conflict with savages; of suffering
-from scarcity of food; of endurance of the effects of climate—full,
-I say, of instances of heroism and self-denial on the part<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_22"></a>[22]</span>
-of your predecessors. Learn from their history to practice
-their virtues now.</p>
-
-<p>Thirty years ago Commodore Perry cautioned the colonists
-against a growing timidity, a tendency to rely upon others
-for the defense of their lives and property. He advised them
-to build blockhouses as <i>our</i> forefathers did in the olden time;
-to become accustomed to the use of arms, to organize at every
-settlement, and learn not only to repel attack but to assume
-the offensive, thereby instilling into the surrounding savages
-that wholesome fear which is the greatest safeguard.</p>
-
-<p>Be brave also in the face of nature as well as in the face of
-the native; attack your forests, clear away the wilderness before
-you. Agriculture is the handmaid of commerce. You cannot
-have one without the other. The tiller of the soil is the nobleman
-of the land. From the bosom of mother earth comes the
-chief real wealth of the nation.</p>
-
-<p>Bear the burden of your national debt cheerfully. For this
-purpose submit to taxation; remember that repudiation of the
-debt would be followed by extinction, and that your failure as
-a nation would throw you back into the confused heap of mistakes
-which the world would willingly attribute to the imbecility
-of your race. You <i>must</i> carry this load upon your
-shoulders. Consider what a load of debt this parent country
-of yours is carrying for the sake of your race, for the vindication
-of your title as Liberians—free men!</p>
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-<pre>
-
-
-
-
-
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