Liberians

“ Looking to this country as their fatherland and the home of their benefactors, the Liberians would develop a nation, taking the religion, customs and laws of this country as their models, marketing their produce in this country and purchasing our manufactures. In spite of its independence, therefore, Liberia would be American in feeling, language and interests, affording a means to get rid of a class undesirable here but desirable to us there in their power to extend American influence, trade and commerce. ”

“ That we desire the civilization and enlightenment of Africa—the high and elevated position of Liberia among the nations of the earth, may not be doubted, as the writer was among the first, seven or eight years ago, to make the suggestion and call upon the Liberians to hold up their heads like men; take courage, having confidence in their own capacity to govern themselves, and come out from their disparaging position, by formally declaring their Independence. ”

“ Towns and cities are being built where once [Pg 130] the slave-trade flourished with all its untold cruelty, bloodshed, and carnage. Agriculture is extending, and commerce is increasing. The Republic of Liberia numbers to-day among its civilized inhabitants, about thirty thousand persons, about fifteen thousand of which are American Liberians; that is, those who have emigrated from the United States with their descendants. ”

“ If we cast our eyes upon the natives of the west and north, the Vai and other tribes of the Mandingo race, it is a different grade of comparison which offers itself to us, but always to the disadvantage of the Liberians. These natives, half islamized, have, much more than the Liberians, the sentiment of human dignity, and their costume, fitted to the climate and the race, far from rendering them ridiculous, as the European does the Liberians, is not devoid of a certain æsthetic character. ”

“ For that at Bromley, Clay-Ashland and Kru chapel I have only words of praise. My own opinion is that Liberia’s greatest asset is the native. He exists in a score of independent tribes and counts a million souls. If the little black republic is to hold its own, if it is to remain a nation among nations, if it is to lead the way to African redemption, [235] there must be a mutual realization by Liberians and Natives of their common interest, and a hearty co-operation. The burden is too heavy for the Liberian alone. ”

“ General Condition of the People and Social Life in Liberia. It must be well known to you that the majority of those who emigrate are poor and ignorant. Many manumitted slaves, consisting of whole families, of both sexes and all ages, from the decrepid grandsire to the infant at the breast. Therefore, it is to be expected that a large proportion of the citizens of Liberia are poor people, many destitute, and dependent to a greater or less degree upon charity, either an extension of aid from the Colonization Society or upon the Liberians themselves, individually or associated. ”

“ Order is maintained in Liberia to some extent by a militia. The population of Americo-Liberian origin in the coast regions is estimated at from 12,000 to 15,000. To these must be added about 40,000 civilized and Christianized negroes who make common cause with the Liberians in most matters, and have gradually been filling the position of Liberian citizens. ”

“ They have great influence and it certainly is to the advantage of Government that their influence be utilized in its favor. If they are well informed in regard to governmental policy and favorable to it, they can do much.
Is it desirable that Liberians and natives intermarry? It is certain that the native endures the climate better than the newcomers; it is true that he has far more energy, vigor, enterprise—in case his interest is once aroused. There can be no question that close breeding among the little handful of Liberians is fraught with danger ”

“ It is also true that Americo-Liberians occasionally take to the bush. Sometimes they are persons who have had difficulties in the settlements and find [158] it convenient to change location; sometimes they are men who have married native women and find it easier and more profitable to turn their attention toward the natives; sometimes they are traders who spend about one-half their time in settlements and the other half in going from town to town to secure products; sometimes they are shiftless vagabonds merely drifting from place to place in order to avoid labor. ”

“ Liberians may go into the bush to bring out the products; there are always little traders who divide their time between the settlements and the interior; they travel in, sit down for several days at native towns, trade with the natives for whatever stuff they have on hand, then have it carried out; such traders are usually independent men of small means who are trading on their own account. It is not uncommon for the large trading-houses to hire agents,—Liberians or natives,—and send them into the interior to buy up and bring down products. ”

“ It places the native man above his ignorant fellow, and gives him some of the dignity of civilization. New ideas are caught up, new habits formed, and superior and elevating wants are daily increased. Then the instruction in schools, and service in our own families for a few years, put the native boy so far in advance of his tribe that he must either become head-man or revolutionist; and if the latter, dividing the nation and carrying his party to a higher mode of living, and to a closer connection with Liberians or foreign traders. ”

“ Liberia offers, as its greatest gift, a free country. Our own race there are in power and in honor. You have heard of it, we know, and therefore prize it. We are a free and independent State, having a Constitution and Bill of Rights, like that of the United States. We do our own voting, while you, in most of this country, do not. ”

“ The founders of Liberia contemplated removing, a whole people, as they may be called (the free colored people of the United States) some of whom were wealthy—some of whom were highly cultivated—some of whom were amongst the most precious jewels in their country, of the Lord of hosts—many of whom were in independant circumstances, and all of whom taking them as a body, might have been most happy and useful at home—and why then remove them? ”

“ It is Liberia. Across the Atlantic waste, that bright land glitters to our mental view, like a light-house guiding the tempest-tossed mariner to a haven of refuge. This is the gate of freedom, which God has opened; and it stands open wide to all who are willing to enter. There the colored man can be free, and yet moral and religious. There, free from the baneful over-shadowing of the white race, he can enjoy true liberty; there he can become a true man, with all worldly encouragements and prospects to urge him on in the path of activity and usefulness, — and Heaven beckoning in the distance. ”

“ Liberia is an asylum from the most grinding oppression. In coming to the shores of Africa, we indulged the pleasing hope that we should be permitted to exercise and improve those faculties which impart to man his dignity--to cherish and indulge those aspirations which a Beneficent Creator has implanted in every human heart, and to evince to all who despise, ridicule and oppress our race that we possess with them a common nature, are with them susceptible of equal refinement, and capable of equal advancement in all that adorns and dignifies man. ”

“ In thirty-three years Liberia gained wonderfully in population, and, at the breaking-out of the Rebellion in the United States, had about a hundred thousand souls, besides the three hundred thousand natives in the vast territory over which her government is recognized. Business of every kind has grown up. The laws are wholesome; the law-makers intelligent and upright; the army and navy are creditable, and the republic is in every sense a grand success. ”

“ Some natives presented palm oils. "The natives have been made to understand that the United States has given aid to Liberia in a financial way and the customs-service of the republic is temporarily administered headed by an American." "A thoroughly civilized Negro state does not exist in Liberia nor do I believe in any part of West Africa. Superstition is the interpretation of their religion, their political views are a hodgepodge of unconnected ideas. Strength over rules knowledge and jealousy crowds out almost all hope of sympathetic achievement and adjustment." ”

“ Liberia is the most interesting colony in existence, and from its history we may draw some useful lessons in social economics. It is a settlement of pure negroes, speaking the English language, imbued with the Anglo — American civilization, and influenced by Christian belief and ethics. Placed on the African coast facing the Atlantic, it may be said to present a cheering spot on that great waste, — a frontier of intelligence to what has been hitherto a wide-spread and hopeless world of savagery. ”

“ Africa is your fatherland, in which, through aid of a munificent philanthropy, your brethren from this and other states have founded the free and independent Government of Liberia—the merit of which, as a home for yourselves and your children, for all coming time, I propose now to examine. ”

“ There will soon be a great change among the free blacks on this subject. When Liberia shall expand and become a considerable power—when she shall have great marts of commerce, and her flag shall float in our harbors—when the Messages of her President, the reports of her Cabinet, the debates in her Congress shall be read here, her ministers and consuls be found among us, and the ambition of her race shall thus be aroused, we shall probably have as great a negro exodus from our country to Africa, as there ever was from Europe to America. ”

“ We are yet a small people and small population. Much has been done for us, and yet much remains to be done. We are, as it were, on the fringes of Africa. We are free, and rejoice at the present, and hope for the future. Our Republic may yet extend, as do the United States, from. one ocean to the other — from the Atlantic to the Indian. When we recall to mind the short time it has taken America to attain her greatness, what shall forbid to hope for such a future for ourselves, and that a vast emigration will yet take place to Liberia? What may not Liberia become? ”

“ The fortitude and courage and patience and enthusiasm with which those people have devoted themselves to their task, are beyond praise. The Republic of Liberia, in spite of malign influence and slander and misrepresentation, in spite of poverty which would have broken the spirit of white men, is an established entity. Let Liberia make good, and she will have made possible the realization of the phrase, ‘Africa for the Africans.’ That Liberia can do it, would be evident to anyone who has the wish to see and comprehend the miracle that has been wrought there. ”

“ We do not dispute the soundness of this conclusion neither—but we utterly deny that it has any application to the people of Liberia. Away with all the false notions that are circulating about the barrenness of this country. They are the observations of such ignorant or designing men, as would injure both it and you. A more fertile soil and a more productive country, so far as it is cultivated, there is not, we believe, on the face of the earth. ”

“ The time has been, I admit, when men—without being chargeable with timidity, or with a disposition to undervalue the capacities of the African race, might have doubted the [Pg 12] feasibility of establishing an independent Christian state on this coast, composed of, and conducted wholly by Coloured men,—but, fellow-citizens, that time has passed, and I believe in my soul, that the permanency of the government of the Republic of Liberia is now fixed upon as firm a basis as human wisdom is capable of devising. ”

“ Far beyond the recognized limits of the country, and hundreds of miles away from the coast, the effects of American civilization were to be witnessed. Men of color entirely governed the republic, and if any proof were wanting of the capacity of freedmen to govern, Liberia was an interesting illustration. The ability, learning, and skill of many of Liberia’s citizens were found in their code of laws, which for humanity, justice, and morality no other country could excel. The English tongue is spoken throughout the republic except among the native tribes not yet civilized ”

“ When once acclimated and settled down, the Liberian not only becomes satisfied with his new home and country, but ardently attached to it, proud of it, and ready to sacrifice his life for his Government. Nowhere have I ever witnessed a more strong and lively attachment to country, or stronger feeling of patriotism, than in the people of Liberia. ”

“ If it is necessary for us as a nation to look for African adventure; if to give a strenuous President the feeling that he is ‘doing something’ we must meddle in the affairs of the Dark Continent, there is a district where we might intervene with more of reason and consistency and grace than we are doing by going to the Congo. We once established on African soil, whether wisely or not I do not intend to discuss, a free republic for the blacks. In Liberia we have an American enterprise, pure and simple. ”

“ In the colonization scheme he entertained the liveliest interest. The Liberian Republic offers a comfortable home for those in the United States who choose to go there, but it can never exert an influence which will reach the remote part of the continent. To study out the barbarous languages, prepare dictionaries, to give shape to a community emerging into the light of civilization, we never look to colored men as best adapted to this work. ”