George Whitefield is said to have declared to Oglethorpe when lamenting
his failure to exclude slavery from Georgia, that he was making a
mistake: the Africans were much better off as slaves than in their
native barbarism, and would receive a training that would enable them
ultimately to return and civilize the land of their nativity. In this
bold idea he anticipated one of the leading thoughts of the fathers of
colonization, and, perhaps prophesied, a great migration which the
world is yet to see. But to confine ourselves to the present and the
strictly practical--there is to the interior of Liberia, sweeping away
beyond the valley of the Niger, a country of teeming population and vast
resources. That this territory be opened to the commerce of the world,
and the blessings of civilization be conferred upon the people, it is
necessary that some impulse of enlightenment come from without. The
casual visit of the trader has been proved by experience to do vastly
more harm than good. Vice and demoralization have too often followed in
his track. The direction and instruction of European agents accomplish
little. The best efforts of all men of this class have resulted in an
unequal hand-to-hand fight with the deadly climate, in which no white
man can work and live. Besides, the natives need more than guidance;
they must have before them the example of a civilized settlement.
It would be impossible to imagine a more ideal agent for accomplishing
this work than Liberia. True, its slow development has prevented it as
yet from penetrating to the most fruitful portion of the interior
district; but so far as it has gone the work has been wonderful. One
after another of the native chiefs has sought, with his people,
admission to the privileges of citizenship, agreeing to conform to the
laws of the country and abolish inconsistent aboriginal customs. The
schools are full of native children, while large numbers are distributed
in a sort of apprenticeship among Liberian families for training in the
arts of civilized life. The English language has become widely known.
More remote tribes, while retaining native customs, have entered into
agreements or treaties to abstain from war, to keep open roads and
routes of commerce, to protect travellers and missionaries and such
Liberians as may settle among them. This is in itself an advance; and in
addition various forms of knowledge, improved implements and methods of
agriculture must enter in and insensibly raise these tribes to a higher
plane.
In reclaiming the natives lies a source of great future power for
Liberia. When immigration from the United States shall assume such
proportions that numbers of interior settlements can be made which shall
be radiating centres of civilization, the enormous potential energy of
native intelligence and labor will be brought to bear on the development
of the country with marvellous results.