THE UNITED STATES AND LIBERIA1

To most persons in the United States the name of Liberia represents, if it means anything at all, the somewhat inglorious outcome of the dream of a few high-minded but impractical men, that they could solve the great question of slavery in the United States by transporting its negro population back to the shores of Africa. This aspect of the matter is so firmly lodged in the popular consciousness that the story of the intimate connection of the United States not only as a people but as a government in the founding of the negro republic comes as a surprise. Liberia is in fact the only colony which the United States ever established, and though political dependence, always vague, ceased many years ago, it has a rightful claim upon the sympathy and succor of the mother country.

To understand aright the newly awakened interest in the affairs of the Republic of Liberia we must recount with some detail the more than half-forgotten history of the relations existing between the people and the Government of the United States and the negro commonwealth. Such a recital will bring to light some rather unique colonial and international relations, and will, we believe, show the present concern of the United States with the welfare of Liberia to be no gratuitous meddling, but the revival of a deep and fundamental interest which though generally dormant has been for nearly a century one of our political traditions.

In the history of Liberia we see the reflex of the great struggle with slavery which dominated the first century of our national existence. Its inception in the second decade of the nineteenth century belongs to the period where the question of slavery was still largely academic, when the statesmen and thinkers of the slave States deplored its existence and discussed plans for gradual emancipation. Liberia is the product of Southern philanthropy, not the outcome of the militant type of anti-slavery sentiment which arose 1 The writer of this article was chairman of the American Commission to Liberia in 1909. - ED.

later in the Northern States. It owes its origin in large measure to the efforts of the Government to suppress the importation of slaves, and thus reflects another phase of the struggle against slavery. During the fiercer struggle of later years, the colonization idea appears as an olive branch held out by men of milder temperament to the more eager combatants on both sides of the contest. After the final appeal to arms, and the settlement of the question once for all, the people of the United States forgot Liberia, and the relatively few at best who had sought the welfare of the negro in his original home, turned their thoughts to other problems which confronted the reunited nation. But Liberia has not forgotten the land of its origin, and has time and again pleaded with the United States for sympathy and support. Nor have these ever been denied, a fact which in the present juncture of affairs encourages her in the hope that they may be extended in even greater measure.

In the early days of the nineteenth century there was a large body of public opinion in the slave-holding States which was far from enamored with the institution of human slavery. This was especially true in Maryland and Virginia, where it found a practical expression in the not infrequent emancipation of slaves, especially by testamentary disposition. By this means there arose a not insiderable body of free negroes who were plainly out of place in commonwealths whose laws, social traditions, and economic order, were based upon the antithesis of freeman and slave, which in this case meant white and black. The free negro was looked upon by many as the peaceful Indians were regarded, as in the body politic yet not a part of it. It was partly the desire to better the condition of the free negro, partly no doubt the fear that his presence might be a harmful influence among the blacks held in bondage, which first suggested the idea that he be sent back to Africa where he belonged. The idea of a sort of expiatory repatriation of the African had been preached in the United States before the Revolution.2 In

2 See Ferguson, John. Memoirs of the Life and Character of the Rev. Samuel Hopkins, D. D. Boston, 1830. Hopkins' idea was mainly that of missionary effort to Christianize Africa, to be conducted by negroes trained for that purpose in America. Out of it grew, it is said, the notion of a permanent settlement of our American blacks in Africa.

England the efforts of Wilberforce had been instrumental in planting a colony of emancipated British slaves in Sierra Leone. The State of Virginia had occupied itself with the question, and had sought the aid of the general government to secure some appropriate place for the settlement of free negroes.3 These tendencies came to a focus in the American Colonization Society founded in 1816 in Washington through the efforts of Rev. Robert Finley. It counted its supporters among the leading men of the nation. Henry Clay presided over its initial meeting held in the hall of the House of Representatives, and Justice Bushrod Washington was long its president.

Preliminary arrangements for the proposed colony were made in 1818 when representatives of the society visited the coast of Africa, and negotiated for the cession of Sherbro Island in the present colony of Sierra Leone. Two years later a body of emigrants was sent thither under the convoy of the United States sloop of war Cyane. The hostility of the natives caused the abandonment of the project and the retirement of the would-be colonists to Sierra Leone. A second expedition in 1821 found a more suitable site at Cape Mesurado, but were unable to come to terms with the natives, until the arrival of Lieutenant Stockton of the U. S. Schooner Alligator, who, with Doctor Eli Ayres, agent of the Society, forced the natives to enter into a deed of cession. Part of the purchase price was paid from the ship's stores. To the energetic action of an officer of the United States Navy the colony owes its existence.

If the United States Government thus exhibited, as we have seen, a fatherly interest in the projected colony, it was because it was from the start a partner in the enterprise. The importation of slaves into the United States being forbidden, the United States joined with the other maritime powers, and especially Great Britain, in the effort to suppress this traffic at its source and employed its navy for this purpose. We could not, as did other nations, leave the matter largely to Great Britain. We had vigorously denied the right of search, and our flag protected American vessels off the coast

3 See McPherson, J. H. T. History of Liberia. Johns Hopkins Studies, 1891, p. 17 et seq.

of Africa as well as elsewhere. To maintain the principles in whose defense we had become involved in the war of 1812 it became necessary to take an active part in the suppression of the slave traffic.

One of the embarrassments of this policy was the question what to do with the slaves captured on the slave ships. They could not be returned whence they came. To do so would be to return them to the native slave-dealers or the middlemen who had sold them into captivity. Great Britain had an asylum for these unfortunates in the colony of Sierra Leone. When in 1819 the President was empowered by Act of Congress to provide in Africa a suitable place for the recaptured Africans the projected colony of the American Colonization Society offered a happy solution of the difficulty. The first expedition to Liberia was in a ship chartered by the United States Government to transport thither captured Africans who had been brought as prizes to the United States. The Government also agreed to take out such free emigrants as the Society desired to send to Africa. Out of this grew a regular system of settling these victims of the slave traffic in Liberia. Receiving stations were established, and for many years an agent of the United States was stationed in Liberia to provide for these persons rescued from slavery. In theory, the agent of the United States and the representative of the Colonization Society had entirely distinct functions. Practically they worked together, and not infrequently they were united in the same person. The colony of Liberia thus served a distinct purpose of the Government of the United States. Up to 1866 upwards of 5,000 persons were added to the population through the activities of our navy.

In this manner the United States Government became an active

4 See Act of March 3, 1819, and special message of President Monroe, stating his interpretation of it, SUPPLEMENT, pp. 188 and 190.

5 In the Memorial of the Semi-Centennial Anniversary of the American Colonization Society, Washington, 1868, we find the following statement (p. 190) of the numbers sent to Liberia.

partner in promoting the colony. It disclaimed being the managing partner, leaving that role to the Colonization Society, but its concern in the welfare and continuance of the settlement was more than that of friendly interest and good will. This attitude was strongly revealed in 1824. The young colony had suffered the usual privations which fall to those who engage in such enterprises, and had not escaped the bickerings and dissensions which so frequently mark the beginnings of such undertakings. Complaints against the Society's manager reached the United States, and the Government sent out to Liberia a special agent, Rev. R. Gurley, to examine into all controversies and report to the Government upon the same. This visit of Mr. Gurley not only evinced the interest of the Government, but proved extremely helpful to the colony. Assuming the role of a peacemaker, as a few years before Lieutenant Stockton had assumed that of a founder, he brought the warring factions together, suggested rules and regulations for the government of the settlement, and established the conditions of a healthier development.

The propaganda of the Society met with considerable success. Branch organizations were founded in several States, and then soon arose a series of settlements along what is now the Liberian coast, each under the fostering care of a separate State society. Of all the States, Maryland took the deepest interest in the matter. Its legislature provided by law that all free negroes should be deported, and contributed an annual appropriation of $10,000 to the Maryland Society. Under the auspices of the latter the State of Maryland in Africa with its headquarters at Harper, Cape Palmas, was established. The colony was quite successful, though it held aloof from the other settlements. Under the management of the Maryland

Recaptured Africans settled in Liberia by the United
States Government

5,722