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

Society it maintained a wholly separate existence till 1857 when it sought admission to the Republic of Liberia, and became a part of it."

A confederation of the several settlements, except Maryland, was effected in 1837, and a definite form of government established." The governor was appointed by the American Colonization Society, but by the terms of this arrangement a self-governing community was established. This government subsisted till 1847 when the Republic was established.

The United States intervened so frequently between the natives and the colonists, patching up difficulties and settling disputes, that it was commonly understood that the settlements were under the protection of the United States. A naval squadron was maintained continuously in these waters, and the officers came frequently to the aid of the local authorities in adjusting their difficulties with the tribesmen by whom they were surrounded. Liberia was to all intents and purposes a de facto colony of the United States, but the time was approaching when it should become necessary to define

• See Latrobe, J. H. B. Maryland in Liberia. Baltimore, 1885.

7 For form of government adopted, see SUPPLEMENT, p. 193.

8 An interesting account of many such affairs is given in the correspondence of Commodore Matthew G. Perry, 1843. Senate Executive Document 150, 28th Congress, 2d Session. See also Foote, Commander Andrew H., Africa and the American Flag, New York, 1854.

9" The story of Liberia from its earliest inception to its elevation to independ ent statehood demonstrates its American character throughout. Its first foothold on the African coast was through the efforts of American citizens. From 1819 the association of the Government of the United States with the project is distinct. The colony was a necessary factor in the execution of a federal statute. The vessels of the United States participated in the initial act of colonization. Negotiations with the inland tribes for the purchase of lands were conducted by officers of the United States. Prior to the civil war the United States maintained a squadron on the west coast of Africa to suppress the slave trade, and the officers of this squadron lent their aid and assistance to the Liberians in their troubles with the natives. In 1886 Congress authorized the Secretary of the Navy to transfer a gunboat to Liberia, but no vessel was found available for the intended service.

"Thus the resources of the United States Government have been employed to colonize the liberated Africans, to build homes for them, to furnish them with farming utensils, to pay instructors for them, to purchase or charter ships for their convenience, to detail naval vessels for the transport of its agents and as convoys to the colonists, to build forts for the protection of the settlers, to

more precisely the legal relations, if any, which bound it to the mother country. The status of the Commonwealth of Liberia in the period preceding independence was peculiar. Within its territory it essayed to exercise the prerogatives of sovereignty, yet possessed none in law. Its laws and ordinances had the same binding force as the rules and regulations of an unincorporated association upon its members. Upon others they could have no effect unless voluntarily accepted by the latter. They were backed by no sovereignty either original or derived. In a sense under the protecting care of the United States, the colonists derived their form of government from a private company, and not from the government of the mother country.

To sustain the government which had been established the Commonwealth levied duties upon imports. It had by this time acquired possession of a considerable strip of coast-land extending from the limits of Maryland some distance to the west of its present boundary which it held by a somewhat precarious tenure. The attempt to collect duties placed trammels upon traffic with the natives along the coast which had hitherto been regarded as free. British trading ships contested the right of Liberia to collect duties and disregarded her authority. In this attitude they were supported by the colonial government of Sierra Leone. When the Liberians captured a couple of British boats engaged in this illicit trade and brought them to Monrovia for the trial of the cause, they were rescued by a government vessel from Sierra Leone, and demand was made upon the colony for indemnity. In a number of cases in the early forties the

supply them with arms and munitions of war, to enlist troops to guard them, and to employ the army and navy in their defense. The lands which the several state colonies established were purchased with American money by the several state societies. The initial organization of the Commonwealth was perfected and controlled by the parent societies in the United States, and the eventual creation of the Republic of Liberia was due to the generous counsel and action of the American societies in advising the organization to become an independent state and in relinquishing to the new state the directory powers they had theretofore exercised." (Report of Mr. Knox, Secretary of State, to the President, March 22, 1910. Senate Document No. 457, 61st Congress, 2d Session.)

For a similar view, see N. J. Bacon, Some Insular Questions, Yale Review, August, 1901.

authority of the colonial government was flouted, and the governor was continually in hot water with his British neighbors.

The Colonization Society sought the aid of the Government.10 It hoped that the United States might make such representations at the Court of St. James as would put an end to these annoyances. It has been the usual history of establishments in foreign parts under the auspices of chartered companies that when international questions arose, the mother country has come to the aid of its citizens, with the usual result that recognized colonies have succeeded such quasi-private efforts. But the United States chose a temporizing course, and by declining to invest the colony of Liberia with the sovereignty of the United States, impelled it to assume a sovereignty of its own.

Our Government at the request of the Society made an informal representation of its interest in Liberia to the British Foreign Office. Our Minister in London was instructed, among other things, to say that while the American Government had passed no laws for their regulation it took a deep interest in the welfare of the people of Liberia, and was disposed to extend to them a just degree of countenance and protection.11 Efforts were made by the Colonization Society and its friends to secure the direct aid of the Government in upholding the colony. The matter was brought before the House of Representativs in February, 1843, in a voluminous report from Mr. J. P. Kennedy of the Committee on Commerce. This report, one of the chief documentary sources for the history of Liberia, recites at length the circumstances of the founding of the colony, dwells particularly upon the services which it has and might render for the suppression of the slave traffic, and the advancement of American commerce, and contends for a more exact definition of its political relations to the United States. What they should be the writer of the report does not attempt to outline, though the whole tendency of the report is toward the adoption by the United Sates of Liberia as a colonial dependence of the national government.

10 See Letter of American Colonization Society, December 22, 1842, SUPPLEMENT, p. 207.

11 Mr. Webster to Mr. Everett, March 24, 1843, SUPPLEMENT, p. 211.

This, however, is not openly expressed, and the report ends somewhat lamely with a resolution that the matter of political relations be referred to the Secretary of State with instructions to report. therein to the next session of Congress. But the report, valuable as it is as a record, provoked no action by Congress.12

Conditions going from bad to worse so far as the relations of the Liberian settlements and British traders were concerned, the British Government was pressing the United States for a more definite statement of its attitude towards Liberia. The British Minister in Washington desired to know specifically whether the United States regarded Liberia as a colonial establishment and whether the United States was in any way responsible for the acts of Liberia towards foreign powers. He also asked what territorial limits were recognized as under the jurisdiction of Liberia, believing it disposed to extend its area and restrict the freedom of commerce.13

The reply of the Secretary of State, Mr. Upshur, puts at rest all the doubts as to the strictly legal relations of the United States with Liberia. Concerning Liberia he says,

14

it was not, however, established under the authority of our Government, nor has it ever been recognized as subject to our laws and jurisdiction. * * * This Government does not of course undertake to settle and adjust differences which have arisen between British subjects and the authority of Liberia.

These categorical statements, extracted from the midst of the somewhat voluminous communication, answer in unmistakable terms the questions submitted by the British Minister; but, as already indicated, the Secretary went further than a mere reply to the question put to him. At some length he explained the purpose of the colony and made a strong appeal for its friendly consideration by the British authorities. He says:

Its object and motive entitle it to the respect of the stronger powers and its very weakness gives it irresistible claim to their forbearance. Indeed, it may justly appeal to the kindness and support of all the principal nations of the world, since it has afforded, and still continues to

12 For the report in full see SUPPLEMENT, p. 198.

13 Mr. Fox to Mr. Upshur, August 9, 1843, SUPPLEMENT, p. 211.

14 Mr. Upshur to Mr. Fox, September 25, 1843, SUPPLEMENT, 212.