Government.
—1. The Declaration of Independence of Liberia was adopted on July 26, 1847. It is a human document of extraordinary interest. As a basis for it, the declarers state their case in the following words: “We the people of the Republic of Liberia, were originally inhabitants of the United States of North America. In some parts of that country we were debarred by law from all rights and privileges of men—in other parts, public sentiment, more powerful than law, ground us down. We were everywhere shut out from all civil offices. We were excluded from all participation in the government. We were taxed without our consent. We were compelled to contribute to the resources of the country, which gave us no protection. We were made a separate and distinct class, and against us every avenue of improvement was effectually closed. Strangers from all lands, of a color different from ours, were preferred before us. We uttered our complaints, but they were unattended to, or met only by alleging the peculiar institution of the country. All hope of a favorable change in our country was thus wholly extinguished in our bosoms, and we looked about with anxiety for some asylum from the deep degradation.” The [whole document] is well worth reading.
2. The Constitution was adopted on the same day, which date is celebrated annually as the birthday of the nation. The document is largely patterned after our own, but presents some interesting points of difference. Among these, three deserve special mention. Slavery is absolutely prohibited throughout the Republic. Citizenship is limited to negroes or persons of negro descent; in the original Constitution the wording was, that it was confined to “persons of color,” but, as curious questions gradually arose in regard to who should be considered “persons of color,” an amendment was adopted, changing the expression to “negroes or those of negro descent.” The ballot is cast by male citizens, twenty-one years of age, and owning real estate.
3. This Constitution remained without amendment for sixty years. In the beginning the term of president, vice-president, and representatives had been fixed at two years, and that of senators at four; experience demonstrated that these terms were too short and a vigorous agitation to lengthen them took place. The Liberians are a conservative people and look back with pride to the doings of the “fathers”; very strong feeling was aroused at the suggestion of changing the wording of the sacred document which they had left. In time, however, sufficient sentiment was developed to lead to the submission of amendments at the election of 1907; the amendments were carried by a vote of 5112 to 1467. By these amendments the term of office of president, vice-president, and representatives was extended to four years and that of senators to six.
4. The flag of the Republic has six red stripes with five white stripes alternately displayed longitudinally; in the upper angle of the flag, next to the staff, a field of blue, square, covers five stripes in depth; in the centre of the field is a lone white star.
5. The great seal of the Republic bears the following design:—a dove on the wing with an open scroll in its claws; a ship under sail upon the ocean; the sun rising from the water; a palm-tree, with a plough and spade at its base; above, the words: Republic of Liberia; below, the national motto: The Love of Liberty Brought Us Here.
6. The government of Liberia consists of three co-ordinate branches—the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial. The executive branch consists of the President, Vice-President, and a Cabinet of seven members. The Legislature consists of two houses—the Senate and the House of Representatives. The judicial branch consists of a Supreme Court with a Chief Justice and two Associates, and Circuit Courts under the supervision of the Supreme Court. The President, Vice-President, and Congressmen are elected; all other officers of state are appointed by the President, subject to the approval of the Senate.
7. The President and Vice-President are elected by the voters for a period of four years. The President’s Cabinet consists of seven members—Secretary of State, Secretary of the Treasury, Secretary of the Interior, Secretary of War and Navy, Postmaster-General, Attorney-General, Superintendent of the Department of Education. These officers have the usual functions connected with such positions. The Vice-President is President of the Senate.[C]
[C] The present President of the Republic is Daniel Edward Howard. He is the third “native son” to hold that office—the first having been President Johnson. President Howard’s Cabinet consists of the following members: Secretary of State, C. D. B. King; Secretary of the Treasury, John L. Morris (son of the Secretary of the Interior); Secretary of the Interior, James Morris; Secretary of War and Navy, Wilmot E. Dennis; Postmaster-General, Isaac Moort; Attorney-General, Samuel A. Ross; Superintendent of the Department of Education, Benjamin W. Payne (educated in the U. S.). The Vice-President is Samuel G. Harmon, of Grand Bassa, whose father was vice-president in 1876.
8. The Legislature consists of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Senate consists of eight members, two from each county; they are elected for a term of six years. The House of Representatives at the present time includes fourteen members, apportioned as follows: Montserrado County, four; Grand Bassa County, three; Sinoe County, three; Maryland County, three; Cape Mount Territory, one. Notwithstanding its small size, this Legislature has as broad a range of matters to consider as any legislative body elsewhere; thirty-two committees deal with matters ranging from foreign affairs and commerce through military and naval affairs, native African affairs, and pensions, to engrossing and enrolling. Naturally in such a multiplicity of committees—most of which consist of five members—ample opportunity is found for the development of political ability among the members; it seems, however, as if membership on twenty-two committees, a case of which occurs in the present standing committee roll, was over-ambition or over-loading. In case of necessity the President, Vice-President, and Cabinet officers may be impeached. Impeachment must originate in the House of Representatives; the trial is made by the Senate, over which at the time the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court presides.
9. The judicial branch of the government consists of the Supreme Court, with a Chief Justice and two Associates, and of Circuit Courts with rotating judges under the supervision of the Supreme Court. All judges are appointed by the President. The Supreme Court holds two sessions annually; the Circuit Courts hold quarterly.
10. Mr. George W. Ellis, for a number of years secretary of our legation at Monrovia, and exceptionally well informed regarding Liberian affairs, states that the political authority of the President is exercised in the counties and territories by a governor appointed by the Executive, who is called Superintendent. In the interior the President is represented by a Commissioner, who presides over each commissioner-district, and who associates with himself the native chiefs in the control or government of the native peoples in his district. In some instances this Commissioner has judicial functions, from which an appeal lies to the Quarterly and Supreme Courts. The authority of the Commissioner is supported by a detachment of the Liberian Frontier Police Force, with head-quarters at the Monrovia barracks.
11. In the matter of lesser courts there are Quarterly, Probate, and Justice courts, for each of the counties and territories. The judges can only be removed for cause, the President suspending, and his suspension meeting the approval of the Legislature. Monrovia recently abolished the Justices of the Peace and established a Municipal Court with a special judge, whose tenure of office is during good behavior.
12. Politics is in great vogue. The Liberians have never liked to work. Since the establishment of the colony, agriculture even has had but slight attractions for the people. It is not strange, all things considered. The ancestors of these people used to work hard in the fields before they went over there; one reason they went was that they wanted to escape field-labor. They had always been accustomed to see their masters live in ease, without soiling their hands with toil; when they became their own masters, they naturally wanted to be like the men to whom they had been accustomed to look up with respect. Trade has always been in high repute. It was easy for the new-comers to trade with the natives of the country and rapidly acquire a competence. So far as work was concerned, there were plenty of “bush niggers” to be had cheaply. There is, however, another way of escape from manual labor besides trade—that is professional life. Everywhere people who do not wish to work with their hands may seek a learned profession; it is so here with us—it is so there with them. The Liberians would rather be “reverends” or doctors or lawyers than to work with their hands. Of all the professions, however, law seems to be the favorite. The number of lawyers in Liberia is unnecessarily large, and lawyers naturally drift into politics; they aim to become members of Congress or judges of the Supreme Court or members of the Cabinet or President of the Republic. It is unfortunate that so many of them are anxious for that kind of life; but they are skilled in it, and we have nothing to teach them when it comes to politics.
13. Ellis says: “. . . the most notable characteristic of Liberian government is the existence practically of only one political party. The reasons for this no doubt are many, but important, if not chief among them, is the economic depression which followed the decline in the price of Liberian coffee. Coffee was the overshadowing industry of the Republic. The Liberian planters had invested all the capital they had in the coffee industry, and when coffee went down in the early nineties, the different Liberian communities were thrown into such a paralysis of hard times that they have not recovered to this day. Disheartened and financially distressed, formerly strong, self-sustaining, and independent, Liberian planters one after another abandoned their plantations and transferred their time and attention from coffee and the farm to politics and office-seeking. And while something is due to the ability of the administrations to undermine opposition by capturing its capable leaders through the charm of political preferment, something due to the smallness of the civilized population and the disposition of voter and leader alike to be on the winning side, yet, economic depression is at the foundation of the one-party system which now obtains in Liberia.”
14. Still there has ever been a nominal division into parties. Again we quote from Ellis: “Thus after the adoption of the Liberian constitution the people divided themselves into two parties under the same names as those which obtained at the time in the United States—the Republican and the Whig parties. For some time the Republican Party has ceased to exist in Liberian politics. The opposition to the Whig Party has been for the most part unorganized, without wise and resourceful leaders, and without funds adequate to compete with the dominant Whig administrations in national campaigns. But like the present Republican Party of the United States, the Liberian Whigs have met all the Liberian difficulties during the past thirty years or more. The Whigs had been progressive, and inspired by wise and distinguished statesmen, the Liberian Whigs have repeatedly addressed themselves with success to the Liberian voters. Opposition to the Whig Party in Liberia at the polls seems now to have little or no chance of success, so that nomination on a Whig ticket is equivalent to election.”
15. All this is true, but after all, at the last election there was a considerable awakening of party spirit; it was a bitter political contest. The cry of fraud was loudly raised; seats in Congress were challenged by more than half the total number of membership; the question was seriously asked how an investigation would be possible on account of the lack of unimplicated to conduct it. This outburst of feeling and this cry of fraud, came at a bad moment; the nation was appealing for our financial assistance; it was feared that a bad impression might be produced by the condition of disharmony; under this fear, personal feeling was for the time suppressed and the demand for investigation dropped.
16. We have already said that the Liberians are skilled in politics and that we have but little to teach them. They know quite well what graft means. In fact, graft of the finest kind exists and has existed among the native Africans from time beyond the memory of man; if the Americo-Liberians could have escaped from our own republic without ideas in this direction, such would quickly have been developed through contact with their native neighbors. Unfortunately there is considerable opportunity for graft in the black Republic. The actual salaries of public officers and congressmen are very small. Important concessions are, however, all the time being demanded by wealthy outside interests. English, German, French, American promoters have always something to propose to that little legislature, and they never come with empty hands. One of the greatest dangers which the nation faces is found in these great schemes of exploitation offered from outside. The natural resources of the country are very great; but they should be, so far as possible, conserved for the benefit of the people and the nation. The temptation to betray the nation’s interest for present personal advantage is always very great.