PROBLEMS
I have heard men express preferences. They have made mention of whom they desire to rule over them if the worst should come upon us nationally. Some are rampant after American associations; some are enamoured of the English; some would have the Germans, others the French. Personally I indulge no such predilections. They argue an abandonment of hope; they display a lack of vitality; they are an absolute admission of incapacity and of failure. For my part I am a Liberian first and last and my desire is that Liberia should endure till the heavens fall, that this country be controlled by Liberians for Liberians. But I also desire that these Liberians be tolerant; that they be prescient; that they be energetic, industrious, and public-spirited; that they be courageous in shouldering their national responsibilities; that they be liberal and that they become a great and glorious people, unanimous in sentiment, united in action, abounding in all the virtues which make a nation powerful, perpetual and enduring.—E. Barclay.
BOUNDARY QUESTIONS.
The most pressing and ever urgent question which the Republic has to face is the protection of its frontier against aggression; Liberia has two powerful neighbors, both of which are land-hungry and are continually pressing upon her borders; she has already lost large slices of her territory and is still menaced with further loss.
FIRST BRITISH AGGRESSION.
Shortly after his election to the presidency of the Republic, President J. J. Roberts visited Europe. He was well received both in England and France. On one occasion, in 1848, when he was dining in London with the Prussian Ambassador, the conversation dealt with the difficulties which the Liberian settlers had with the native chiefs along the Gallinhas River; these hostilities were kept alive by slave traders who had their trading stations near the river’s mouth; these difficulties had generally been incited and directed by a chief named Mano. Among the guests who were present at the dinner were Lord Ashley and Mr. Gurney; it was suggested that an end might be put to these difficulties and the anti-slavery cause advanced, if Liberia would purchase this territory; considerable interest was aroused by the suggestion, and through Lord Ashley’s effort the necessary money was raised for consummating the purchase. On his return to Liberia, President Roberts entered into negotiations which extended from 1849 to 1856, by which the land was gradually acquired; the area secured stretched from the Mano River to the Sewa and Sherbro Island on the west. Through the annexation of this territory, Liberia’s domain extended from Cape Lahon to the eastward of Cape Palmas, west to the border of Sierra Leone, a distance of 600 miles. This acquisition of territory was attended with considerable difficulty; the influence of traders, of slavers, and even of England herself was thrown in the way of the negotiations—so Commodore Foote tells us. Nor did the acquisition of the territory put an end to the difficulties in that region. In the year 1860 John Myers Harris, an English trader, had established himself in the country between the Mano and Sulima Rivers and refused to acknowledge Liberia’s authority; as he was conducting a flagrant trade in contravention of Liberian laws of commerce, President Benson sent a coast guard to seize two schooners, the Phoebe and Emily, which had been consigned to him; the seizure was made between Cape Mount and Mano Point, clearly Liberian territory. It is curious that this seizure was made by a Liberian government vessel, the Quail, which had been a gift to the Republic from Great Britain. We have, then, a vessel, contributed through British sympathy, operating within an area secured through British philanthropy, against law-breaking indulged in by British subjects. The captured schooners were taken to Liberia and were held for legal adjudication; under the orders of the Sierra Leone Government, the British gunboat, Torch, appeared at Monrovia, and seized the two schooners by force on December 17; at the same time the commander of this gunboat demanded from the Liberian Government a penalty of fifteen pounds per day for nineteen days’ detention. Shortly after these events, President Benson, on his way to England for public business, visited the government of Sierra Leone and tried to adjust the difficulties which had arisen; he was, however, referred to London. At about this time part of the disputed territory was annexed by Sierra Leone to her own area. While in London, Benson took up the matter with the British Government. Lord Russell acknowledged the territorial rights of Liberia to extend from the coast east of Turner Point (Mattru) to the San Pedro River on the east, thus admitting the point for which Liberia contended. This decision was by no means satisfactory to the troublers in Africa. Harris agitated the matter in dispute. Backed by Governor Hall of Sierra Leone, he and neighboring traders protested against the concession Russell had made. A commission was therefore appointed and met at Monrovia April 25, 1863, continuing in session until May 4, when it adjourned without decision. The British Commissioners examined the title deeds held by Liberia and were inclined to recognize some of these and to refuse others; they objected to Liberia’s possessing any territory beyond the Mano River, and proposed that river as the boundary. The Liberian Commissioners demurred, urging the validity of the deeds they showed and proposing that the Sherbro should be their northwest boundary; they asserted a good title to the territories known as Cassee, Gumbo, and Muttru. The British Commissioners based their claims upon letters from the chiefs of the territories involved and on statements which they asserted had been made by them. The Commission broke up without a settlement, as the Liberians held strictly to the concession which Lord Russell had previously made. London, however, yielding to the colonial pressure, regretted that no solution had been reached, and claimed that it was “justified in view of the facts” in only recognizing Liberia’s sovereignty over Sugaree. The closing episode in this exchange of views was the sending of a letter by Dr. Blyden, who was then Secretary of State for the Republic, which ran as follows: “The President is equally grieved that the oral statements of barbarous and heathen chiefs on a subject affecting the prosperity of a rising Christian state should be regarded by Her Majesty’s Government as entitled to more weight than the statements of Christian men supported by written documents and by the known local conduct of the chiefs towards the Liberian Government since the cession of their territories until very recently.”
As might be expected, the troubles did not cease. Traders continued to smuggle; local chiefs continued to harass; shipping continued to bid defiance to Liberian laws; vessels continued to be seized; threats continued to be made. Harris began to act almost as if he were an independent chief within this territory; there were various tribes about him, and some of them were inclined to resist his exactions; disputes with him aroused the Vai to undertake reprisals; Harris organized the Gallinhas peoples in an attack upon the Vai; the Liberian Government sent forces in 1869 to aid the Vai, who were loyal to them. The Gallinhas natives were defeated, fled, and in their rage turning on Harris, destroyed one of his factories; this of course gave him a basis for new claims for damages. On this military expedition some property had been destroyed or confiscated. Thus new difficulties grew up; there were occasional seizures, retaliatory threats, demands for damages, shows of force. Naturally, the hostile chiefs living in the Mano District, encouraged by the unsettled conditions, raided and destroyed Liberian settlements; things presently were critical, and in 1871 another expedition was despatched by the Liberian Government into Mano and Sulima; property was destroyed, including powder and goods belonging to British owners; the usual demands for damages were made, and these demands known as the “Mano River Claims” were pending until 1882.
Between the constant pushing of the “Harris Claims” and the “Mano River Claims,” things finally came to a head in December, 1878. A new commission was then appointed which met in 1879, first at Sierra Leone, then at Sulima; Commodore Shufeldt, of the American navy, was chosen as an arbitrator between the two contestants. The “Harris Claims” by this time amounted to some 6000 pounds. The conduct of Great Britain on this occasion was supercilious. The Liberian Commissioners, after reaching Sierra Leone, were kept waiting for three weeks before the British Commissioners made their appearance; the commissioners examined the title deeds of the Liberian Government and took oral testimony of witnesses favorable to and hostile to the Liberian claims. The Liberians claimed the territories known as Sugaree, Mano, Rock River, and Sulima; the British Commissioners took the ground that no such countries were in existence. The meeting was rather stormy; Shufeldt reduced the “Harris Claims” to £3000, but the British Commissioners were not inclined either in this matter or in others to abide by the decision of the umpire; finally the Commission broke up without accomplishing any good results. The British claimed that Sierra Leone should undertake the protectorate of the whole country as far as the Mano River, as they said Liberia was unable to maintain order west of that point. “Undoubtedly they were unable to fight British traders, since every time they used force, marine or military, the said traders were able to command the armed interference of the Sierra Leone Government.” The matter was again referred to London; nothing final was there done.
Matters reached a crisis when, on March 20, 1882, Sir Arthur Havelock, governor of Sierra Leone, with four gunboats appeared before Monrovia and demanded that the Republic should pay an indemnity of £8,500 to settle all outstanding claims, and that it should accept the Maffa River as a boundary. The Liberian Government yielded to these insistent claims. They promised to pay the indemnity, admitted the Maffa River as a temporary boundary, and agreed to receive from Great Britain a money payment in return for what she had expended for the purchase of the disputed territory. Before the Liberian Government yielded, she set up a statement of her own position which was just and dignified. As soon as the action of the government was known at Monrovia, Havelock having returned to Sierra Leone, violent hostility arose; the Senate rejected the treaty; the Liberians asked that the whole matter be submitted to arbitration. On September 7, Sir Arthur Havelock again appeared with gunboats, demanding immediate ratification of the treaty. Liberia again raised her defense: “If the contested territory was British, why did the British Government claim from Liberia an indemnity for acts of violence amongst the natives which had taken place thereon? If, however, Liberia acknowledged her responsibility, as she had done, and agreed to pay an indemnity, why should she be in addition deprived of territories for the law and order of which she was held responsible, and which were hers by acts of purchase admitted by the British Government?” The Senate again refused to ratify the treaty. Sir Arthur Havelock sailed away; but in March, 1883, the Sierra Leone Government seized the territories in question between Sherbro and the Mano River, territories which from first to last had cost Liberia £20,000. The whole matter was finally settled by a treaty signed at London, Nov. 11, 1885, whereby the river Mano was admitted to be the western boundary; a badly defined interior line was agreed upon; a repayment of £4750 of purchase money was made to Liberia.