Cam wood and other dye woods are found in great quantities in many parts of the country. About thirty miles east of Bassa Cove is the commencement of a region of unknown extent, where scarcely any tree is seen except the cam wood.
Gums of different kinds enter largely into commercial transactions.
Dyes of all shades and hues are abundant, and they have been proved to resist both acids and light.
Pepper, ginger, arrow-root, indigo, tamarinds, oranges, lemons, limes, and many other articles which are brought from tropical countries to this, may be added to the list. Indeed, there is nothing in the fertile countries of the East or West Indies which may not be produced in equal excellence in Western Africa.
The soil is amazingly fertile. Two crops of corn, sweet potatoes, and several other vegetables, can be raised in a year. It yields a larger crop than the best soil in the United States. One acre of rich land well tilled, says Governor Ashman, will produce three hundred dollars’ worth of indigo. Half an acre may be made to grow half a ton of arrow-root.
“An immense market may be opened for the exchange and sale of the innumerable products of the skill and manufactures of our people. Africa is estimated to contain one hundred and sixty millions of inhabitants. Liberia enjoys a favorable geographical position. She is protected by the great Powers of Europe. The Liberians have constitutions adapted to the climate, and a similarity of color with the natives. They will penetrate the interior with safety, and prosecute their trade in the bays and rivers of the coast, without suffering from the diseases which are so fatal to the white man. Liberia is the door of Africa, and is destined to develope the agricultural and commercial resources of that continent, besides being the means of regenerating her benighted millions.”
The foregoing remarks have related entirely to the advantages of the proposed measure. It is possible some scruples may be entertained in regard to its constitutionality. This, the committee think, cannot be reasonably doubted. The Government has already adopted this mode of providing a powerful steam navy, at the same time giving incidental but important encouragement to great commercial interests. In this instance, the effectual suppression of the slave trade and the withdrawal of the African squadron by the substitution of a number of mighty steamers regularly plying to that coast, afford a motive and a justification which do not exist in regard to any one of the lines already established.
It was the opinion of Mr. Jefferson that the United States had power to establish colonies for the free blacks on the coast of Africa, and he desired its exercise. Chief Justice Marshall and Mr Madison concurred in this opinion. And it is to be observed that the first purchase in the colony of Liberia was made by the Government of the United States. The opinions of the leading jurists of our day do not appear to differ from those of the great founders of the Constitution, who believed not only that indirect aid to the cause of colonization may be given in accordance with that instrument, but that the Government has power to establish the colonies themselves. The proposition of the committee does not, by any means, go to this extent. It goes no further than recently adopted and still existing operations of the Government, while it is believed to rest upon far higher and better grounds of support.
Nor does it involve any merely sectional considerations. The committee have, therefore, refrained from expressing any views which might be considered favorable to the peculiar interests either of the North or of the South. The question of slavery, now the cause of so deep an excitement, is not, to any extent, either directly or indirectly involved. The Government of the United States, it is admitted on all hands, has no power to interfere with that subject within the several States. Neither does the proposition at all interfere with the question of emancipation. This is wholly beyond the jurisdiction of the Federal Government, and belongs exclusively to the people of the several States, and the individual slaveholders themselves. But the removal of the free blacks to the coast of Africa is a measure in which all sections, and all interests, are believed to be equally concerned.
From the foregoing considerations, the committee believe it to be wise and politic to accept the proposition of the memorialists, with some modifications which meet with their approval.