FROM THE REPORT OF THE BOARD OF MANAGERS OF THE AMERICAN
COLONIZATION SOCIETY, PRESENTED AT ITS ANNUAL MEETING, JANUARY
THIRTEENTH, 1827, READ BY MR. CLAY IN THE COURSE OF THE DELIVERY
OF THE PRECEDING SPEECH.
The system of government established with the full consent of the
colonists, in the autumn of 1824, and which the managers had the
happiness to represent in their last report, as having thus far
fulfilled all the purposes of its institution, has continued its
operations during the year without the least irregularity, and with
undiminished success. The republican principle is introduced as far
as is consistent with the youthful and unformed character of the
settlement, and in the election of their officers the colonists
have evinced such integrity and judgment as afford promise of
early preparation for all the duties of self-government. ‘The civil
prerogatives and government of the colony and the body of the laws
by which they are sustained,’ says the colonial agent, ‘are the pride
of all. I am happy in the persuasion I have, that I hold the balance
of the laws in the midst of a people, with whom the first perceptible
inclination of the sacred scale determines authoritatively their
sentiments and their conduct. There are individual exceptions, but
these remarks extend to the body of the settlers.’
The moral and religious character of the colony exerts a powerful
influence on its social and civil condition. That piety which had
guided most of the early emigrants to Liberia, even before they left
this country, to respectability and usefulness among their associates,
prepared them, in laying the foundations of a colony, to act with
a degree of wisdom and energy which no earthly motives could inspire.
Humble, and for the most part unlettered men; born and bred in
circumstances the most unfavorable to mental culture; unsustained
by the hope of renown, and unfamiliar with the history of great
achievements and heroic virtues, theirs was nevertheless a spirit
unmoved by dangers or by sufferings, which misfortunes could not darken,
nor death dismay. They left America, and felt that it was forever;
they landed in Africa, possibly to find a home, but certainly a grave.
Strange would it have been had the religion of every individual of
these early settlers proved genuine; but immensely changed as have
been their circumstances and severely tried their faith, most have
preserved untarnished the honors of their profession, and to the purity
of their morals and the consistency of their conduct, is in a great
measure to be attributed the social order and general prosperity of
the colony of Liberia. Their example has proved most salutary, and
while subsequent emigrants have found themselves awed and restrained,
by their regularity, seriousness, and devotion, the poor natives have
given their confidence and acknowledged the excellence of practical
christianity. ‘It deserves record,’ says Mr. Ashmun, ‘that religion
has been the principal agent employed in laying and confirming the
foundations of the settlement. To this sentiment, ruling, restraining,
and actuating the minds of a large proportion of the colonists, must
be referred the whole strength of our civil government.’ Examples
of intemperance, profaneness, or licentiousness, are extremely rare,
and vice, wherever it exists, is obliged to seek concealment from the
public eye. The sabbath is universally respected; sunday schools, both
for the children of the colony and for the natives, are established;
all classes attend regularly upon the worship of God; some charitable
associations have been formed for the benefit of the heathen; and
though it must not be concealed, that the deep concern on the subject
of religion which resulted, towards the conclusion of the year 1825, in
the public profession of christianity by about fifty colonists, has in
a measure subsided, and some few cases of delinquency since occurred;
and though there are faults growing out of the early condition and
habits of the settlers which require amendment; yet the managers have
reason to believe, that there is a vast and increasing preponderance on
the side of correct principle and virtuous practice.
The agriculture of the colony has received less attention than its
importance demands. This is to be attributed to the fact, that the
labor of the settlers has been applied to objects conducing more
immediately to their subsistence and comfort.
It will not, the board trust, be concluded that, because more might
have been done for the agricultural interests of the colony, what
has been effected is inconsiderable. Two hundred and twenty-four
plantations, of from five to ten acres each, were, in June last,
occupied by the settlers, and most of them are believed to be at
present under cultivation. One hundred and fourteen of these are on
cape Montserado, thirty-three on Stockton creek, (denominated the
half-way farms, because nearly equidistant from Monrovia and Caldwell,
the St. Paul’s settlement) and seventy-seven at the confluence of
Stockton creek with the St. Paul’s.
The St. Paul’s territory includes the half-way farms, and is
represented as a beautiful tract of country, comparatively open,
well watered and fertile, and still further recommended as having
been for ages selected by the natives, on account of its productiveness
for their rice and cassada plantations. The agricultural habits of
the present occupants of this tract, concur with the advantages of
their situation, in affording promise of success to their exertions.
‘Nothing,’ says the colonial agent, ‘but circumstances of the most
extraordinary nature, can prevent them from making their way directly
to respectability and abundance.’
Oxen were trained to labor in the colony in 1825, and it was then
expected that the plough would be introduced in the course of another
year. Although commerce has thus far taken the lead of agriculture, yet
the excellence of the soil, the small amount of labor required for its
cultivation, and the value and abundance of its products, cannot fail,
finally, to render the latter the more cherished, as it is, certainly,
the more important interest of the colony.
The trade of Liberia has increased with a rapidity almost unexampled,
and while it has supplied the colonists not only with the necessaries,
but with the conveniences and comforts of life, the good faith with
which it has been conducted, has conciliated the friendship of the
natives, and acquired the confidence of foreigners.
The regulations of the colony allowing no credits, except by a written
permission, and requiring the barter to be carried on through factories
established for the purpose, has increased the profits of the traffic,
and prevented numerous evils which must have attended upon a more
unrestricted license.
Between the first of January and the fifteenth of July, 1826, no less
than fifteen vessels touched at Monrovia, and purchased the produce of
the country, to the amount, according to the best probable estimate,
of forty-three thousand nine hundred and eighty dollars, African value.
The exporters of this produce realize, on the sale of the goods given
in barter for it, a profit of twenty-one thousand nine hundred and
ninety dollars, and on the freight, of eight thousand seven hundred
and eighty-six dollars, making a total profit of thirty thousand seven
hundred and eighty-six dollars.
A gentleman in Portland has commenced a regular trade with the colony;
and for his last cargo landed in Liberia, amounting to eight thousand
dollars, he received payment in the course of ten days. The advantages
of this trade to the colony, are manifest from the high price of
labor, (that of mechanics being two dollars per day, and that of
common laborers from seventy-five cents to one dollar and twenty-five
cents,) and from the easy and comfortable circumstances of the settlers.
‘An industrious family, twelve months in Africa, destitute of the means
of furnishing an abundant table, is not known; and an individual, of
whatever age or sex, without ample provision of decent apparel, cannot,
it is believed, be found.’ ‘Every family,’ says Mr. Ashmun, ‘and nearly
every single adult person in the colony, has the means of employing
from one to four native laborers, at an expense of from four to six
dollars the month; and several of the settlers, when called upon in
consequence of sudden emergences of the public service, have made
repeated advances of merchantable produce, to the amount of three
hundred to six hundred dollars each.’
The managers are happy to state, that the efforts of the colonial
agent to enlarge the territory of Liberia, and particularly to bring
under the government of the colony a more extended line of coast, have
been judicious and energetic, and in nearly every instance resulted
in complete success. From cape Mount to Tradetown, a distance of one
hundred and fifty miles, the colonial government has acquired partial
jurisdiction. FOUR of the most important STATIONS on this tract,
including Montserado, belong to the society, either by actual purchase,
or by a deed of perpetual lease; and such negotiations have been
entered upon with the chiefs of the country, as amount to a preclusion
of all Europeans from any possessions within these limits. The fine
territory of the St. Paul’s, now occupied by settlers, was described
in the last annual report of the society.
The territory of Young Sesters, recently ceded to the society, is
ninety miles south of Montserado, in the midst of a very productive
rice country, affording also large quantities of palm oil, camwood,
and ivory. The tract granted to the colony, includes the bed of the
Sester’s river, and all the land on each side, to the distance of half
a league, and extending longitudinally from the river’s mouth to its
source. In compliance with the terms of the contract, the chief of the
country has constructed a commodious storehouse, and put a number of
laborers sufficient for the cultivation of a rice plantation of forty
acres, under the direction of a respectable colonist, who takes charge
of the establishment.
The right of use and occupancy have also been obtained to a region of
country on the south branch of the St. John’s river, north nine miles
from Young Sesters, and the trading factory established there, under
the superintendence of a family from Monrovia, has already provided
a valuable source of income to the colony. Rice is also here to be
cultivated, and the chief who cedes the territory, agrees to furnish
the labor.
The upright and exemplary conduct of the individual at the head of this
establishment, has powerfully impressed the natives with the importance
of inviting them to settle in their country; and consequently, the
offer made by the colonial agent for the purchase of Factory island,
has been accepted by its proprietor. This island is in the river St.
John’s, four miles from its mouth, from five to six miles in length,
and one third of a mile in breadth, and is among the most beautiful
and fertile spots in Africa. A few families are about to take up their
residence upon it, and prepare for founding a settlement, ‘which cannot
fail,’ says Mr. Ashmun, ‘in a few years, to be second to no other in
the colony, except Monrovia.’
Negotiations are also in progress with the chiefs of cape Mount,
which, if successful, will secure to the colony the whole trade of
that station, estimated at fifty thousand dollars per annum, and
may ultimately lead to its annexation to the territories of Liberia.
‘The whole country between cape Mount and Tradetown,’ observes Mr.
Ashmun, ‘is rich in soil and other natural advantages, and capable of
sustaining a numerous and civilized population beyond almost any other
country on earth. Leaving the seaboard, the traveller, every where, at
the distance of a very few miles, enters upon a uniform upland country,
of moderate elevation, intersected by innumerable rivulets, abounding
in springs of unfailing water, and covered with a verdure which knows
no other changes except those which refresh and renew its beauties.
The country directly on the sea, although verdant and fruitful to a
high degree, is found every where to yield, in both respects, to the
interior.’
Much progress has been made the last year in the construction of
public buildings and works of defence, though with adequate supplies
of lumber, more might doubtless have been accomplished. Two handsome
churches, erected solely by the colonists, now adorn the village
of Monrovia. Fort Stockton has been rebuilt in a style of strength
and beauty. A receptacle capable of accommodating one hundred and
fifty emigrants, is completed. The new agency-house, market-house,
Lancasterian school, and town-house, in Monrovia, were some months
since far advanced, and the finishing strokes were about to be
given to the government-house on the St. Paul’s. The wing of the old
agency-house has been ‘handsomely fitted up for the colonial library,
which now consists of twelve hundred volumes systematically arranged in
glazed cases with appropriate hangings. All the books are substantially
covered, and accurately labelled; and files of more than ten newspapers,
more or less complete, are preserved. The library is fitted up so as to
answer the purpose of a reading-room, and it is intended to make it a
museum of all the natural curiosities of Africa, which can be procured.’
No efforts have been spared to place the colony in a state of adequate
defence, and while it is regarded as perfectly secure from the native
forces, it is hoped and believed, that it may sustain itself against
any piratical assaults. ‘The establishment has fifteen large carriage
guns and three small pivot guns, all fit for service.’ Fort Stockton
overlooks the whole town of Monrovia, and a strong battery is now
building on the height of Thompson-town, near the extremity of the
cape, which it is thought will afford protection to vessels anchoring
in the roadstead. The militia of the colony consists of two corps
appropriately uniformed, one of artillery of about fifty men, the other
of infantry of forty men, and on various occasions have they proved
themselves deficient neither in discipline nor courage.