CONDITION OF LIBERIA AS A NATION—ASPECT OF LIBERIA TO A VISITOR—CHARACTER OF MONROVIA—SOIL, PRODUCTIONS AND LABOR—HARBOR—CONDITION OF THE PEOPLE COMPARED WITH THAT OF THEIR RACE IN THE UNITED STATES—SCHOOLS.
Notwithstanding the heterogeneous population of Liberia, a commendable degree of order, quiet and comparative prosperity prevails. With such men as President Roberts, Chief-Justice Benedict, Major-General Lewis, Vice-President Williams, and many other prominent persons in office and in the walks of civil life, the government and society present an aspect altogether more favorable than a visitor, judging them from the race when in contact with a white population, is prepared to find. The country is theirs—they are lords of the soil; and in intercourse with them, it is soon observed that they are free from that oppressive sense of inferiority which distinguish the colored people of this country. A visit to Monrovia is always agreeable to the African cruiser.
Monrovia, the capital, is situated immediately in the rear of the bold promontory of Cape Mesurado, which rises to the altitude of 250 feet. The highest part of the town is eighty feet above the level of the sea. The place is laid out with as much regularity as the location will admit. Broadway is the main or principal street, running nearly at right angles with the sea. Besides this, there are twelve or fifteen more. The town contains not far from two thousand inhabitants. Many of the houses are substantially built of brick or of stone, and several of them are handsomely furnished. The humidity of the climate has greatly impaired the wooden buildings. The State-House, public stores, and the new academy are solid, substantial buildings, appropriate to their uses. There are five churches, and these are well attended. The schools will compare favorably with the former district schools in this country, which is not saying much in their favor.
The soil in the vicinity of the rocky peninsula of Mesurado is generally sandy and comparatively unproductive, except where there are alluvial deposits along the margin of the streams or creeks. The lands on the banks of the rivers—of the St. Paul’s, for instance, four or five miles north of Monrovia—are very rich, of loamy clay soil, equalling in fertility the high lands of Brazil, or any other part of the world. Here more care is devoted to the culture of sugar, and increasing attention is given to agriculture. These lands readily sell at from forty to fifty dollars per acre. A fork of this river flows in a southeasterly direction, and unites with the Mesurado River at its mouth. This fork is called Stockton’s Creek, in honor of Commodore Stockton. The largest rivers of Liberia are navigable only about twelve or fifteen miles before coming to the Rapids.
As the country becomes settled, and the character of its diseases better understood, the acclimating fever is less dreaded. In fact, it now rarely proves fatal. This having been passed through, the colored emigrants enjoy far better health than they did in most parts of the United States. The statistics, as President Roberts stated, show some three per cent smaller number of deaths than in the New England States and Canada among the same class of population. The thermometer seldom rises higher than 85°, nor falls lower than 70°.
The productions of the soil are varied and abundant,—capable of sustaining an immense population. The want of agricultural industry, rather than the incapacity of the country to yield richly the fruits of the earth, has been the difficulty with the Liberians. With well-directed labor, of one-half the amount required among the farmers of the United States, a large surplus of the earth’s productions, over the demands of home consumption, might be gathered. The country certainly possesses elements of great prosperity.
“A bill for the improvement of rivers and harbors” should be forthwith passed by the Liberian legislature. A country exporting articles annually amounting to the sum of eight hundred thousand dollars, and this on the increase, might make an appropriation to render landing safe from the ducking in the surf to which one is now exposed. Sharks, in great abundance, are playing about the bars of the rivers, eagerly watching the boats and canoes for their prey. Dr. Prout, a Liberian senator, and several others, have been capsized in boats and fallen victims to these sea-tigers.
A full and very interesting description of the geography, climate, productions and diseases of Africa has been published by Dr. J. W. Lugenbeel, late colonial physician, and the last white man who was United States agent in Africa.
In devising measures for the benefit of Liberia, one thing was pre-eminently to be kept in view, which was, that the people be prevented from sinking back to become mere Africans. It is believed that this danger was wholly past under the energetic administration of Buchanan, to whom too much praise cannot be awarded. He infused life and spirit into the nation, and brought out such men as Roberts and others, in whose hands we believe the republic is safe. A large majority of the emigrants having been slaves, and dependent on the will and dictation of others, many of them are thereby rendered in a measure incapable of that self-reliance which secures early success in an enterprise of this kind.
Slaves do not work like freemen. The question, then, arises—Is this the case because they are slaves, or because they are negroes? Those who have been emancipated in the British territories have hitherto cast no favorable light on this inquiry. They do not now work as they did when compelled to work, although they are free. Neither do the Sicilians, Neapolitans, or Portuguese work as men work elsewhere. There are no men freer than the slavers, who steal children and sell them, in order that they themselves may live in vicious idleness. It is the freeman’s intelligence and his higher motives of action, which produce his virtues.
The slave-trade being extirpated within the boundaries of Liberia, and the natives brought under new influences, the necessity produced for new kinds of labor has become favorable to the improvement of the African. There is now the will and ability of the native population to work in the fields. The low rate of remuneration which they require, favors the employment of capital, but keeps wages for common labor very low. It is of no use to urge upon colonists to employ their own people in preference to natives, when the former want eighty cents a day and the latter only twenty-five. These things must take their natural course. The increase of capital must be waited for ere wages can rise. But it all tells strongly in favor of settlers securing grants of land, and becomes a great inducement for colored men emigrating to Liberia who have some little capital of their own.
It is in Liberia alone that the colored man can find freedom and the incentives to higher motives of action, which are conducive to virtue. There these sources of good are found in abundance for his race. In this country he can gain the intelligence of the free population, but is excluded from the vivifying motives of the freeman. In Liberia he has both. Means are needed to sustain this condition of things. The first of these is religion, which to a great degree, pervades the community there: it is true that some of the lower forms of a vivid conception of spiritual things characterize the people; but far preferable is this, to the tendency of the age elsewhere—towards attempting to bring within the scope of human reason the higher mysteries of faith. The second is the school, which keeps both intelligence and aspiration alive, and nurtures both. Roberts is aware of this, and keeps it before the people. They will transfer, therefore, what the United States alone exemplifies, and what is vitally important to free governments, namely, a system of free public education in the common schools; such a system is that of the graded schools in many parts of our country, far surpassing most of the select schools, where a thorough education may be freely obtained by all the children of the community.
Liberia contains a population exceeding one hundred and fifty thousand inhabitants; not more than one-twentieth of this number are American colonists. Its growth has been gradual and healthy. The government, from its successful administration by blacks alone, for more than six years, appears to be firmly established. The country is now in a condition to receive as many emigrants as the United States can send. To the colored man who regards the highest interest of his children; to young men of activity and enterprise, Liberia affords the strongest attractions.
We would not join in any attempt to crush the aspirations of any class of men in this country. But it is an actual fact, whatever may be thought of it, that here the colored man has never risen to that position, which every one should occupy among his fellows. For suppose the wishes of the philanthropist towards him to be fully accomplished,—secure him his political rights; unfetter him in body and intellect; cultivate him in taste even; then while nominally free, he is still in bondage; for freedom must also be the prerogative of the white, as well as of the black man; and the white man must likewise be left free to form his most intimate social relations; and he is not, and never has been disposed, in this country, to unite himself with a caste, marked by so broad a distinction as exists between the two races. The testimony on these two points of those who have had abundant advantages for observation, has been uniform and conclusive. For the colored man himself then, for his children, Liberia is an open city of refuge. He there may become a freeman not only in name, but a freeman in deed and in truth.
Liberia has strong claims upon Christian aid and sympathy. Its present and prospective commercial advantages to our country, will far counterbalance the amount appropriated by private benevolence in planting and aiding the colony and the republic. Its independence ought to be acknowledged by the United States. This, according to the opinion of President Roberts, would not imply the necessity of diplomatic correspondence, while the moral and political effects, would be beneficial to both parties. England, by early acknowledging the independence of Liberia, and cultivating a good understanding with its government and people, has greatly subserved her own commercial interest, while responding to the call of British philanthropy.