Liberia and the Colonization Society, Part 4 [pp. 583-594]

LI3BERIA AND THE COLONIZATION SOCIETY.
587
the native savages within the limits of Liberia, by the colonists, and
of their being neglected both by the missionaries sent from the
United States, for their especial benefit, and also by the people generally. On these points, however, he expresses himself with much
caution, and in evident fear of giving offence.-Among his much
more full remarks, are the following:
" Liberia should pay more attention to the condition of the natives living
within her political jurisdiction..... I could not see nor learn what measures
the government had in operation to draw them into the enjoyment of civil privileges.... It is true that in many families male and female natives are employed
to work. But there appears not a feeling of common brotherhood toward them."....
"I could not but notice it on the part of the Liberians as a body toward the
natives. How many of those who were living in families were clothed? How
many of them were clothed for the Sabbath, and taken to the church for public
worship I would not judge harshly. But I fear that cheap pay (and that pay
not regulated by the rule' do unto them as you would they should do unto you')
has much to do with the employment of the natives." (p. 180.)
Revenue.-" It is plain that her national support is depending on the labor
of the natives."-(p. 163.) "The Liberian government receives no revenue by
taxing her citizens. She can pass no laws and enforce them on the tribes within
her territorial limits that will bring in a revenue from their labor. She reaches
them only by the coastwise trade that is carried on chiefly by foreigners."(p. 164.) [Of course foreign traders will soon learn to go to other poirts neighboring to Liberia, which are open to them, and where no revenue laws are in
operation.]
"The revenue from her own productions last year, was but four dollars and sixty-five cents." (p. 179.)
How different is the Liberia as truly depicted and exposed to view
in the foregoing pages, and upon unquestionable evidence, with
the flattering representation which has been made to occupy most
persons' minds, and which was produced by false recommendations
and panegyrics of either designing, or of credulous. or fanatical
colonizationists! The impressions which have thus been made on
strangers, and the credulous and confiding world, are indicated in
the following extract from the (Wesleyan) London Quarterly Reviewand which eulogy was copied in the African Pepository (of 1856),
without a word of dissent:
",The achievements of colonization on the West coast of Africa can hardly be
exaggerated. There we find a national polity, municipal institutions, Christian
churches and Christian ministers; schools and a sound system of education; a
public press, rising towns and villages, a productive agriculture, alnd a growing
commerce. Under its rule, about two hundred and fifty thousand human beings
are found living together in harmony, enjoying all the advantages of social and
political life, anrd submitting to all the restraints which government and religious
principle demand. Means are found to harmonize the habits and interests of the
colonists, their descendants, the native-born Liberians, and the aborigines of the
coast. As the creation and achievement of less than forty years, we insist that this
is without parallel in the history of the world."
If the total pecuniary cost of colonizing and supporting Liberia
could be set forth-without estimating other costs, in human suffering
and sacrifices of life-the simple arithmetical statement would be
more impressive on many than all the other facts and arguments here