History of Liberia | Page 9

with him
the name of the colony--Liberia, and of its settlement on the
Cape--Monrovia, which had been adopted by the Society on the
suggestion of Mr. Robert Goodloe Harper of Maryland. He returned
from his successful mission in August leaving the most cordial
relations established throughout the colony.
Gurley's visit seemed to mark the turning of the tide, and a period of
great prosperity now began. Relay after relay of industrious emigrants
arrived; new land was taken up; successful agriculture removed all
danger of future failure of food supply; and a flourishing trade was
built up at Monrovia. Friendly relations were formed with the natives,
and their children taken for instruction into colonial families and
schools. New settlements were formed; churches and schools appeared;
an efficient militia was organized; printing presses set up and hospitals
erected. On every side rapid progress was made. After years of
illustrious service Ashmun retired to his home in New Haven, where he
died a few days later, on August 25, 1828. Under Dr. Richard Randall
and Dr. Mechlin, who successively filled his post, the prosperity of the
colony continued undiminished.
The decade after 1832 is marked by the independent action of different
State colonization societies. At first generally organized as tributary to
the main body, the State societies now began to form distinct
settlements at other points on the coast. The Maryland Society first
started an important settlement at Cape Palmas, of which we shall make
a special study. Bassa Cove was settled by the joint action of the New
York and Pennsylvania Societies; Greenville, on the Sinou river, by
emigrants from Mississippi; and the Louisiana Society engaged in a
similar enterprise. The separate interests of the different settlements at
length began in many cases to engender animosity and bad feeling; the
need of general laws and supervision was everywhere apparent; and a
movement toward a federal union of the colonies was set on foot. A
plan was at length agreed upon by all except Maryland, by which the
colonies were united into the "Commonwealth of Liberia," whose
government was controlled by a Board of Directors composed of
Delegates from the State societies. This board at its first meeting drew
up a plan of government, and Thomas Buchanan was appointed first
Governor of the Commonwealth, 1837. The advantages of the union

were soon apparent. The more aggressive native tribes with whom not a
little trouble had been experienced, were made to feel the strength of
the union; and many of the smaller head-men voluntarily put
themselves under the protection of the Government, agreeing to
become citizens, with all their subjects, and submit to its laws. The
traffic in slaves all along the coast was checked, inter-tribal warfare
prevented, and trial by the sassa-wood ordeal abolished wherever
colonial influence extended. Mr. Buchanan was the last white man who
exercised authority in Liberia. On his death the Lieutenant-Governor,
Joseph Jenkins Roberts, succeeded him. Roberts, who afterward
became Liberia's most distinguished citizen, was a Virginia Negro,
having been born at Norfolk in 1809, and brought up near Petersburg.
He obtained a rudimentary education while running a flat-boat on the
James and Appomattox Rivers. In 1829 he went with his widowed
mother and younger brothers to Liberia, where he rapidly rose to
wealth and distinction. As Governor he evinced an efficient
statesmanship that promised well for his future career.
Roberts had not long been governor when trouble arose with the British
coast-wise traders that gave rise to a most interesting crisis. The
Liberian Government in regulating commerce within its jurisdiction
had enacted laws imposing duties on all imported goods. The English
traders, accustomed for hundreds of years to unrestricted traffic on this
very coast, were indignant at the presumption of the upstart colony, and
ignored its regulations. The Government protested, but in vain. And at
length the little colonial revenue schooner John Seyes, while attempting
to enforce the laws at Edina, was actually seized by the stalwart
Britisher and dragged before the Admiralty Court at Sierra Leone. A
long discussion which would be profitless to follow in detail, ensued.
The result was, that the John Seyes was confiscated. The British
Government opened a correspondence with the United States, in which
it was ascertained that Liberia was not in political dependence upon
them. Whereupon the sovereignty of Liberia was promptly denied, her
right to acquire or hold territory questioned, and she was given to
understand that the operations of British traders would in future be
backed by the British navy.
Evidently if Liberia was to maintain and govern her territory something
must be done. The Colonization Society while claiming for Liberia the

right to exercise sovereign powers, seems to have had the
unacknowledged conviction, that England's position, however
ungenerous, was logically unassailable. The supreme authority wielded
by the Society, its veto