Africa and the American Flag

by Andrew H. Foote

The necessity of union was a clear case to every man, and Buchanan prepared himself to accomplish it. The Bassa Cove people entertained sentiments not very conciliatory towards the Monrovians. The Mississippi people of Sinoe might come under suspicion next, and no one could imagine how far the evil would extend.

This state of things was clearly understood among the friends of the American Colonization Society and of the State societies, and the corrective was applied. A committee, comprising the names of Charles F. Mercer, Samuel L. Southard, Matthew St. Clair Clark, and Elisha Whittlesey, met at Washington, and drew up a common constitution for the colonies. Mr. Whittlesey moved, and the motion was adopted, “That no white man should become a landholder in Liberia,” and that full rights of citizenship should be enjoyed by colored men alone. Political suffrage was extended to all adult males, and slavery was absolutely prohibited.

This constitution divided the territory into two provinces or counties, and having been acceded to and acted on by the different colonies, superseded and abolished the political relations of the separate establishments to the associations which had preceded it.

The American Colonization Society retained the right to disapprove, or veto, the acts of the local legislature. This last particular, as an indication of national dependence, was the characteristic distinguishing the commonwealth from the republic subsequently established.

The emancipation of the negroes under the English government was now taking effect. The United States government were beginning to realize the expediency of keeping permanently a naval force on the west coast of Africa; and notwithstanding difficulties and apprehensions resting gloomily on the future, Governor Buchanan, on landing with the new constitution, at Monrovia, on the first of April, 1839, seems to have inaugurated a new era for the African race.

He arrived with a full supply of guns and ammunition, furnished mostly from the navy department, besides a large quantity of agricultural implements, and a sugar-mill. The constitution was at once approved by the Monrovians, and in course of time it was accepted by the entire three colonies.

A firm stand was taken against the slave-trade, and the governor succeeded in getting the legislature at Monrovia and the people to back him in efforts to suppress it. His indignant appeals and strong-handed measures had their effect in turning the attention of our government to the use of the American flag in the slave-trade as a protection from British cruisers. Hear him: “The chief obstacle to the success of the very active measures pursued by the British government for the suppression of the slave-trade on the coast, is the American flag. Never was the proud banner of freedom so extensively used by those pirates upon liberty and humanity as at this season.” He did not stop at words. An American schooner named the Euphrates, which had been boarded fifteen times, and three times sent to Sierra Leone, and escaped condemnation on account of her nationality, was brought into Monrovia by a British cruiser, and instantly seized by Governor Buchanan, for the purpose of sending her to the United States for trial, on suspicion of being engaged in the slave-trade.

It may here be remarked that not only this vessel, but the American sloop “Campbell” was also detained, and taken to Governor Buchanan, under similar circumstances. These proceedings were in direct violation of our doctrine as to the inviolability of American vessels by foreign interference; and he had no right to authorize or connive at English cruisers interfering in any degree with such vessels. These circumstances, together with the report of Governor Buchanan, that “The Euphrates is one of a number of vessels, whose names I have forwarded as engaged in the slave-trade, under American colors,” will show the extent to which the American flag has been used in the traffic; and to those who have patriotism and humanity enough to vindicate the rights of that flag against foreign authority, and resist its prostitution to the slave-trade, it will conclusively prove the necessity of a well-appointed American squadron being permanently stationed on the west coast of Africa.

The Euphrates being placed in the hands of Governor Buchanan, who had resolved on sending her to the United States for trial, was made available in a crisis when she proved of singular service as a reformed criminal against her old trade.

A Spanish slaver had established himself at Little Bassa, within fifty miles of the capital. The governor prohibited the purchase of slaves, and ordered the Spaniard off. This he disregarded. An Englishman, in the character of a legal trader, sided with the Spaniard. The governor, on Monday, the 22nd of July, dispatched a force of one hundred men by land to dislodge the slavers and destroy the barracoons. The respectability, or the safety of the colony, which is the same thing, in its dealings with the mass of corrupted barbarians with which it was begirt, required summary measures. Three small schooners were sent down the coast with ammunition to assist the land force at Little Bassa. A fresh southerly wind, however, prevented these vessels from reaching their destination, leaving the land forces in a perilous predicament. Affairs looked gloomy at Monrovia as the schooners returned, after beating in vain for sixty hours.