I 
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 PRESENTED BY 
 
 PROF. CHARLES A. KOEdir) AND 
 
 MRS. PRUDENCE y^OFOID 
 
\. 
 
 \ 
 
 ) 
 
■^ J n 
 
 THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA 
 
' All hail, Liberia ! hail ! 
 Arise and now prevail 
 
 O'er all thy foes. 
 In truth and righteousness, 
 In all the Arts of Peace, 
 Advance and still increase 
 
 Though hosts oppose ! 
 
 * At the loud call we rise, 
 And press toward the prize 
 
 In glory's race. 
 All redolent of fame, 
 The land to which we came, 
 We breathe the inspiring flame. 
 And onward press. 
 
 ' Here Liberty shall dwell, 
 Here Justice shall prevail, 
 
 Religion here ; 
 To this, fair virtue's dome, 
 Meek innocence may come 
 And find a peaceful home, 
 And know no fear.' 
 
 Hilary Teague of Liberia. 
 
THE 
 
 LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA; 
 
 Being tbe ©utcome of IRetlecttons on our 
 ©wn people. (^ 
 
 BY 
 
 FREDERICK ALEXANDER DURHAM, 
 
 AN AFRICAN, 
 
 OF LINCOLN'S INN (STUDENT-AT-LAW). 
 
 WITH AN INTRODUCTION 
 
 BY 
 
 MADAME LA COMTESSE C. HUGO. 
 
 LONDON: 
 ELLIOT STOCK, 62, PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C. 
 
 1892. 
 

 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 I WAS quite a child when I read ' Uncle Tom's Cabin,' by 
 Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe, and became enthusiastic for 
 the abolition of slavery. My heart was full of anxious 
 thought on this subject. Later in life the tragedy of 
 ' Toussaint L'Ouverture,' by Lamartine, opened my mind to 
 fresh considerations. After reading it I apprehended that 
 the sons of Ham have precisely the same human, as well 
 as civil, rights as have the sons of Shem and of Japheth. The 
 passionate interest which my uncle, Victor Hugo, took in 
 the fate of the generous but unfortunate John Brown 
 further fixed my attention on this question, which has 
 humanitarian as well as social aspects. And when recently 
 reading books and articles relating to the subject of the 
 emancipation of Africa's sons, I have added indignation to 
 compassion. 
 
 It is not right to reduce the ethics of that important 
 question to the proportions of a mere work of mercy. It 
 ought to be regarded as one of the gravest questions of our 
 time — the final blow struck at an old tree, which mould has 
 long invaded and rotted. 
 
 This great question of the emancipation of the African 
 race has more than one interesting aspect. Perhaps its 
 most striking feature is its connection with human progress 
 
vi INTRODUCTION, 
 
 and with advancing Christianity. The Gospel may be 
 a creation or an imitation, but it is certainly full of social 
 and moral principles which are useful and adaptable to the 
 conditions of every period, because they are essentially wise 
 and just. If religion or Christianity means the actual 
 practice of Gospel principles, then even the most advanced 
 man can make no reasonable objection to Christianity. 
 
 But things do not seem trending in the direction of the 
 triumph of Gospel principles. Human Governments make 
 their boast of their reverence for religion, and yet they 
 commit all sorts of frauds and crimes against dependent 
 populations, which are the antipodes of the requirements 
 and recommendations of the New Testament. 
 
 Both Europeans and Americans may, with the help of 
 Messrs. Froude, Laird Clowes, and H. M. Stanley, regard 
 themselves as the natural and supernatural 'Magisterial 
 Guardians ' of the Ethiopian race, and they may proclaim, 
 with mingled blasphemy and humour, that the Africans — or 
 at least the mass of them — are half brutes and animals. 
 But no right-minded, no fair-thinking man, will follow these 
 writers in so savage and unworthy a conclusion. 
 
 The great ' pack-horse ' of the Africophobists is a phrase 
 which occurs in the Old Testament Scriptures : ' And^ 
 Canaan will be their servant.' Mr. Jos. L. Janvier, a 
 learned doctor and Haytian diplomatist, in one of his 
 remarkable and witty books, has chosen these words for the 
 epigraph : * Hayti et ses Visiteurs.' We are exactly of his 
 opinion. This Bible sentence is a very difficult one to 
 apply in a universal way. The Bible is full of merely 
 personal incidents and personal references, and we have no 
 right to look in every part of it for such perfect and 
 absolute directions as the Gospel alone can afford.* 
 
 * But apart from all this : had not Ham had three other 
 sons besides Canaan ? Were not Gush, Mizraim and Phut 
 
INTRODUCTION. vii 
 
 Mr. Durham's book, ' The Lone-Star of Liberia,' offers to 
 our consideration a project which I regard as in every way a 
 hopeful one both for the African and for the Caucasian. He 
 pleads for the removal of the slave — enfranchised slave — 
 populations to the republic of Liberia, where there is 
 abundant space for them all, and where a certain population 
 is already established which is doing its best to fashion for 
 itself a civilized life and society and government. The 
 climate of Liberia is good, and the soil is fertile ; and it is 
 an altogether legitimate and reasonable desire on the part of 
 the sons of Ham that they should form a united and inde- 
 pendent race on that very same continent from whence 
 their fathers were arbitrarily, cruelly, and in ways involving 
 untold misery and degradation, dragged away. 
 
 Mr. Laird Clowes himself, in his ' Black America,' wrote 
 (see the last chapter, ' The Ideal Solution ') : * If America 
 would do its duty by the Negroes, those civilized nations 
 which have established themselves in Africa would, in 
 pursuance of their own interests, aid her. Great Britain, 
 France, and Germany would each and all welcome the 
 immigration to their African possessions of large and 
 leavening bodies of American blacks.' Why does not the 
 government at Washington endeavour to carry out this plan, 
 which would be so acceptable to the African, and which 
 would relieve the States of one of their heaviest burdens ? 
 To accomplish the scheme only requires the formation of a 
 vigorous financial executive. I need not say that I do not 
 believe the Government at Washington is disposed to con- 
 firm the old Italian motto : 
 
 Canaan's elders ? Did Noah also curse Cush, Mizraim and 
 Phut ? Are Africans, are Ethiopians, the descendants of 
 Canaan ? If they are — we presume, on the authority of the 
 Bible, they are — the descendants also of Canaan's brothers, 
 Cush, Mizraim and Phut, and were they cursed ? ' 
 
viii INTRODUCTION. 
 
 ' Fra il dire e il fare 
 C e di mezzo il mare.' 
 
 (' Between words and actions there is an ocean.') 
 
 Authorities in a country like America are not disposed to 
 make promises only for that kind of people who can be 
 contented with chaff. Why, then, when the question has 
 been before it of helping to create a powerful black re- 
 public in Liberia, has it not brought the matter to an issue ? 
 Can it be that these excellent ' Magisterial Guardians ' have 
 such an amount of love to their black brethren that they 
 are afraid of exposing them to the perils of a new-born in- 
 dependence ? What a wonderful solicitude ! 
 
 Mr. F. A. Durham, the author of this book, is animated 
 by the eagerness of youth and the ardour of patriotic long- 
 ings to secure the autonomy of his race. He mentions 
 several distinguished men and women who belong to the 
 race, and judging by the rapid yet great attainments and 
 capabilities of these Ethiopians, we may reasonably hope 
 soon to see all the progeny of Ham — all the descendants of 
 Cush, Mizraim, Phut and Canaan — fairly civilized. But 
 ought not the enterprise of securing that civilization to be 
 placed in the hands of the Africans themselves ; that is, in 
 the hands of those who are already in the forward rank, and 
 have shown talent for learning, ability to fill civil and 
 governmental offices, and capacity for good citizenship ? 
 
 Our own convictions are, in relation to the social move- 
 ment, that the next stage of the world's progress will witness 
 the triumph of Christian Socialism. But at the same time we 
 admit that Africans, if they remain as they are now, cannot 
 hope to march under the flag of the new social system. They 
 must go through every phase of civil and national organiza- 
 tion. Their aspirations towards U7ie patrie, and their wish 
 to gain autonomy, are, however, praiseworthy, and indicate 
 
r™'" ■' INTRODUCTION. ix 
 
 awakening intelligence in them. Therefore we think that 
 every man who values his own national liberties ought to sym- 
 pathize with and support the Africans in their enterprise, 
 which is in itself, and cannot fail to prove in its results, an 
 advancement for the race in social and national life, in all 
 that properly goes into the term ' civilization.' We shall 
 never, of course, expect, request, or call in the sympathy 
 and support of men like a messenger of the Times, or 
 a great representative of Downing Street, and consequently 
 our beliefs are not likely to be placed in either ' Black 
 America ' or * Darkest Africa.' Let us hope that H. 
 M. Stanley has learned a useful lesson by falling from 
 general enthusiasm into general reprobation ; but the lesson 
 was a severe one for the public, as reminding them that 
 sober mistrust of people who come with wonderful tales 
 from far countries is no unnecessary precaution. There is in 
 Stanley's story matter enough to arouse our indignation, 
 and indignation is not always a vain sentiment. I might 
 call slavery itself a prime mover in modern civilization, for 
 the indignation which this long and grave infamy has gene- 
 rated has been the great stimulant in the struggle which has 
 at last resulted in the African enfranchisement. Independ- 
 ence and autonomy will now follow, and when these come 
 they will prove to benefit not only those directly interested, 
 but also the whole civilized races. 
 
 The author of ' The Lone-Star of Liberia ' in his third 
 chapter gives a painful exhibition of the gross immoralities 
 of well-known people who have not black skins. His story 
 is not new — there is nothing new that is true — but the 
 terrible record will call attention to the unreasonableness of 
 Caucasian blame of African immorality. The Africans 
 made their escape from the debasing conditions of slavery 
 only very recently, and it is altogether unreasonable to 
 expect from them a perfection which Caucasians, who have 
 
X INTRODUCTION. 
 
 had ages of independence and civilization, have so demon- 
 strably failed to reach — a perfection which, indeed, does 
 not seem to be possible in this world. Rich and powerful 
 men of the ' magisterial ' race commit far worse iniquities 
 than can be charged at the door of the Africans, but having 
 at their disposal arsenals and constables, army and navy, 
 judges and clerks and law, they can cover over their wrong- 
 doings, and their tarnished honour and secret infamies can 
 be hidden from view, and, if discovered, recriminations are 
 prevented by shutting the mouth of the scandalized in a 
 variety of ways. 
 
 Ham's son, on the contrary, is always vilified, and ca- 
 lumniated, and ill-treated, and the worst that can be said of 
 him is paraded in view. Surely the time is now come 
 when all prejudices should disappear ! Are you not of my 
 opinion ? Then let us have more patience : Eroia's walls 
 fell, the Bastille fell, the Vatican's doors fell, and prejudices 
 against the African race will one day fall. At the end 
 righteousness always wins the day. 
 
 COMTESSE C. HUGO. 
 
 London, 
 March, 1892. 
 
PREFACE 
 
 I. The aspersions and libels cast on the African Race by 
 Mr. W. Laird Clowes in his ' Black Anaerica/ first issued in 
 February of this year (1891) by Messrs. Cassell and Co., 
 his publishers, impose on me the duty of repelling and re- 
 fating the same. Having dealt with Laird Clowes at length 
 in the book to which this is meant to be the preface, I have 
 little to say here so far as his (Laird Clowes) relations with 
 the African are concerned. Yet I cannot forbear mentioning 
 that while Homer, one of the greatest poets, and Herodotus, 
 the ' Father of History ' — mighty and illustrious Greeks of 
 yore both of them — have eulogized and made immortal — 
 Homer in song and Herodotus in history — the Ethiopian 
 Race, Mr. W. Laird Clowes and Mr. James Anthony Froude, 
 men who are not universally known even in Great Britain 
 and Ireland, and men who are manifestly ignorant concern- 
 ing African History, have thought fit to vilify it. They are 
 surely men far inferior to Homer and Herodotus in intel- 
 lectual attainments — they are but as pigmies before these 
 intellectual giants ; and nobleness of soul towards their 
 African or Ethiopian fellow-men does not seem to be theirs. 
 Whatever may be the accomplishments of Clowes and 
 Froude, the latter more particularly, as British literati, we 
 cannot withhold the opinion that this great writer does not 
 
xii PREFACE. 
 
 always prove the great man in his estimate of other races 
 than his own. There is often an important distinction 
 between the great author and the great fna7i. Two of the 
 greatest writers the white man's world produced in the 
 eighteenth century were Voltaire and Jean Jacques Rous- 
 seau. But they were men whose nobility of character bore 
 no comparison with the greatness of their intellectual or 
 their literary power. 
 
 II. While this work is a criticism of these critics, it is 
 also meant to be a summary of the history of the Ethiopian 
 Race in Western Africa. No person can be properly 
 termed educated who knows little or nothing of the history 
 of his own race and of his own country. The African or 
 other Ethiopian reader who reads Liberian Blyden's ' Chris- 
 tianity, Islam, and the Negro Race,' will have more than a 
 fair knowledge of the History of his Race and Fatherland ; 
 and I venture to hope that this work will be found a not 
 unsuitable appendix or supplement to that work. 
 
 How many Africans, both educated and uneducated, there 
 are who foolishly believe that the Ethiopian Race has not 
 produced even one truly eminent scholar, or philosopher, or 
 soldier, simply because they do not happen to know of any ! 
 There are too many, unfortunately, who prefer to remain in 
 ignorance ; while there are many more who, although they 
 do not know of one remarkable African, take no pains to find 
 out for themselves what every intelligent African should find 
 out and know concerning his own people. This work will, 
 it is hoped, supply a long-felt deficiency. And at the same 
 time it would be well for those who disparage my people — 
 the African Race — to read these ' Reflections on Our Own 
 People,' and also Dr. Edward Wilmot Blyden's 'Chris- 
 tianity, Islam, and the Negro Race,'"^ before rushing to any 
 
 * A larger and more exhaustive work than Dr. Blyden's is 
 Africo-American Colonel the Honourable George W. William's 
 
PREFACE. xiu 
 
 hasty conclusions, which are the untrustworthy consequence 
 of incomplete and misguided researches, which have not 
 duly revealed the achievements performed by the Africans 
 through their eminent soldiers, governors, and literati. 
 It is easy to argue that as Africa has never produced any 
 great men, the Ethiopian Race must be inferior to the 
 Caucasian. 
 
 After having fully exposed, refuted, and corrected the 
 mistakes and misrepresentations of Mr. W. Laird Clowes, I 
 have thought it advisable to point out to the African in the 
 United States of North America, and to other non-Liberian 
 Africans generally, what an important and advantageous 
 thing it is for them to have a Free and Independent 
 African Fatherland in Republican Liberia. 
 
 The African will and can learn the language of, and dress 
 like, his white governor ; but he cannot, and will never be, 
 Caucasianized. It is impossible. History shows no prece- 
 dent of a subject race becoming thoroughly like their rulers, 
 when those rulers happen to belong to an essentially 
 different race. The African will always be an African. His 
 nature and racial instincts will always remain what they are 
 to-day. On the other hand, the Caucasian will always be a 
 Caucasian. His racial peculiarities or characteristics will 
 remain the same. And it is better, in the interests of 
 humanity as a whole, that the races should keep their dis- 
 tinctions. It is ' kismet.' We all know that the white 
 man has been on the Gold Coast more than 400 years, but 
 has not the Gold Coaster just the same peculiarities or 
 
 ' History of the Ethiopian Race in America,' in two volumes, 
 from 1619 to 1800, and from 1800 to 1880, published by G. P. 
 Putnam's sons. We would certainly recommend that, as well 
 as the Honourable Liberian Blyden's work, to the self-respect- 
 ing, and only to the self-respecting African, for close attention 
 and study. 
 
xiv PREFACE. 
 
 racial characteristics as his forefathers had before him ? 
 The European has failed to Europeanize him. Nor could 
 the African Africanize the Caucasian were he to try to. 
 
 The African subject of the Caucasian has qualities which 
 he cannot develop in the land of the white man and the 
 stranger. He can only develop in a free and independent 
 Fatherland of his own. Where can the African develop 
 them so well as in Liberia ? 
 
 Is Liberia improving ? It has been shown that it is. But 
 if that be not so, and the West African Republic is either 
 stationary or retrograding, why does not the non-Liberian 
 African hurry to the rescue of Liberia and make it progress? 
 
 As long as the African remains under white rule, so long 
 will he be subjected to inconveniences and disadvantages. 
 What the white man says, the average African, be he 
 educated or uneducated, with charming simplicity implicitly 
 believes in. The white man tells the black man that God 
 is white and the Devil black, and the average African un- 
 reasoningly accepts that doctrine. The Liberian, the Hay- 
 tian, and the Dominican, as a matter of course, know 
 better. They have more sense. They reason for them- 
 selves, and do not allow the white man to lay down the 
 law for them in this and other like matters. 
 
 There are Africans (I mean, of course, those living under 
 and subject to the white man) who fervently wish they had 
 never been born black, and who deem it the greatest 
 privilege to have white associates. Vanity is a sin, they say, 
 but I think it is better for a black man to be vain of his 
 skin than wish he had never been born black. When a 
 man wishes that he had never been born an African, he 
 must, of course, be ashamed of a fellow-African whenever 
 he sees him, particularly if he happens to be dwelling in a 
 country where the whites are either in equal proportion to 
 blacks, or in a large majority, and are the rulers. 
 
PREFA CE. XV 
 
 Liberian Blyden, in his ' Christianity, Islam, and the 
 Negro Race,' forcibly calls one's attention to the cringing 
 and servile attitude of the subject black towards the ruling 
 white ; and I am of opinion that Blyden is justified in so 
 writing. It is only too true. It is true not only of the un- 
 educated, but even of the educated, African living beneath 
 the sway of the European and the American. 
 
 There is another equally important matter which Mr. 
 Blyden forcibly brings home to one's mind. He asserts 
 that the Africans who were transported to the American 
 Continent (the West Indies included) as slaves were not as 
 a rule of the very best stamp or class. And I think he is 
 certainly justified in making that assertion. I must be 
 understood as interpreting his meaning in this way : The 
 Africans as a whole are not satisfied with their position 
 under the rule of the white. But does he not continue to 
 remain under the rule of the white, while Liberia has 
 been free and independent since 1847 ? The British 
 African grumbles. He wants Home Rule and Representa- 
 tion. There are in Liberia Independence pure and simple, 
 an elective Congress, and a full-fledged Government. The 
 British, like the American African, is free to go where he 
 lists. Still, Liberia has no charms for him. The American 
 African sees his kinsmen and comrades daily lynched in the 
 United States ; does he make any vigorous and manly efforts 
 to quit America, and be free and independent in Liberia ? 
 Neither the American nor the British Africans, nor any 
 other non-Liberian Africans subject to white rule, do any- 
 thing of the kind. 
 
 This is how, then, I think Dr. Blyden is justified in 
 making that statement. For were the Africans living under 
 Caucasian rule the descendants of men, Africans and 
 Ethiopians, after the type of the Liberians and the Haytians 
 
xvi PREFACE. 
 
 and the Abyssinians and others, they would not continue 
 to remain in their present position. 
 
 If the so-called leaders of the Africans in the United 
 States of North America had any sense of shame, any 
 spark of manliness, any touch of dignity, they would cer- 
 tainly have marshalled their hosts, after having brought 
 pressure to bear on the Yankee Government for a subsidy, 
 and left America, with her lynchings and other oppressions 
 and persecutions, which is their land of bondage, far 
 behind. Even now it is not too late to do so. The 
 person who is admitted on all sides to be the leading 
 African in the United States of North America is un- 
 doubtedly Mr. Frederick Douglass, the American Minister 
 to the Haytian Republic ; while it does not admit of a 
 doubt but that Sir William Conrad Reeves, the Chief 
 Justice of Barbadoes, is the leading British African. I pro- 
 pose to deal with these men, and to refer to their position. 
 I shall take each separately. I take Mr. Frederick Douglass, 
 He is the American Minister to Hayti at present ; when his 
 term is at an end, he will retire on a pension. He will 
 retire into the obscurity from which he temporarily emerged. 
 The reason for his representing the United States in Hayti 
 is that no white American would accept the post of 
 American Minister to Hayti were it offered to him. 
 Frederick Douglass would not be in his right senses were 
 he to indulge in the idea that some day he will be ap- 
 pointed to represent the United States of North America 
 as American Minister in Europe. He would be in the 
 same demented state were he to believe for a moment 
 that the President of the United States of North America 
 will send for him and charge him with the formation of 
 a Cabinet, or believe for a moment that he will be made a 
 Member of any American Cabinet. Were Mr. Frederick 
 Douglass to come forward some day as a candidate, with 
 
PREFACE. xvii 
 
 the view to be elected to the Presidentship of the United 
 States, and to sit in the Chair in which George Washington, 
 John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James 
 Monroe, and the seventeen other Presidents have sat, he 
 would be promptly arrested by indignant Americans, and 
 be lodged in bedlam as a dangerous lunatic, there to be 
 detained during the President's pleasure. 
 
 But what can he not be in the Republic of Liberia, if he 
 becomes a Liberian ? In Liberia he can be President, an 
 ordinary or even chief Member of the Liberian Government. 
 As a Liberian he can also be the Liberian Minister at one 
 of the European Courts, or in the United States of North 
 America. 
 
 The Chief Justice of Barbadoes, Sir William Conrad 
 Reeves, Knt. Bach., is himself placed in a predicament 
 similar to that of Mr. Frederick Douglass. When his term 
 as Chief Justice of Barbadoes expires, he will have to retire 
 on a pension. He will not be promoted to the post of 
 Chief Justice of one of the Australasian Colonies, nor will 
 he be promoted to the Chief Justiceship of Newfoundland, 
 or the Dominion of Canada. He would be termed de- 
 mented were he to apply for the Lord Chief Justiceship 
 of England and Wales, or the Chief Justiceship of Ireland, 
 or the Lord Justice Clerkship of Scotland on the first 
 vacancy ; or were he to apply for the post of Lord High 
 Chancellor of England and Wales, and to sit on the wool- 
 sack in the House of Lords, or that of Lord Chancellor of 
 Ireland, or the post of Lord Justice General and President 
 of Court of Session of Scotland on the first vacancy. A 
 lunacy commission would be instituted to inquire into the 
 state of his mind, and if he were to be found demented 
 he would be locked up in bedlam ' during Her Britannic 
 Majesty's pleasure ' as a dangerous lunatic. Reeves cannot 
 aspire to a higher post in the British Isles. But in Liberia 
 
xviii PREFACE. 
 
 he can be accommodated somehow in the public service. 
 If Douglass and Reeves were to inform the Liberians that 
 they would make use of their name and position, and try 
 their level best to take with them as many Africans to 
 Liberia as were willing to go, would the Liberian Govern- 
 ment not compensate Douglass and Reeves for their trouble 
 and time? If not, then I am much mistaken in the 
 Liberian People and Government. But if Frederick 
 Douglass and Reeves were to do so, they would earn 
 immortal renown. Their names would live forever and 
 evermore not only in Liberian, but in other histories and 
 songs. Will they, like Moses and Aaron, do this, or even 
 attempt now to do what they ought to have done long ago ? 
 or will they, from want of genuine ambition and through 
 listless apathy, prefer to remain in obscurity until their 
 Maker calls them unto Himself, when they will sink into the 
 grave in Mother-Earth comparatively unwept, unhonoured 
 and unsung ? I fear that it will be the latter course that 
 they will take. Douglass and Reeves have eyes, and refuse 
 to see ; they have ears, and refuse to hear. 
 
 There is a subject on which I should like to say a few 
 words here. It is the use of the words Negro and 
 Coloured by Africans, Europeans, and other non-Africans. 
 Ham's descendants are Africans by Nation and Ethio- 
 pians by Race, just as the progeny of Japheth are 
 Europeans by Nation and Caucasians by Race. We do 
 not see where the Negro comes in at all. Again, Africans 
 and other Ethiopians are black, as Europeans and other 
 Caucasians are white. Here, also, we do not see where 
 the coloured com.es in at all. It seems a pity that 
 Africans should blindly copy everything Europeans and 
 other Caucasians set before them. Africans should be 
 Men, form opinions worthy of Men, and act like Men. 
 I am bound to say, with Reginald Scot, who flourished in 
 
PREFACE. xix 
 
 the reign of James the First of England and Ireland, and 
 Sixth of Scotland, * tnith must not be fueasured by titne^ for 
 every old opinion is not sound. My great adversaries are 
 young ignorance and old custom.'' 
 
 I anticipate that many of my readers will find fault with, 
 and object to, many of my utterances in this work. I 
 should like it to be understood that 1 am not asking for 
 mercy or pardon, or writing in the 'Am I not a man and 
 a Brother ?' strain of the days of slavery, but I am defend- 
 ing and attacking vigorously, squarely and fairly. Not 
 only do I defend my fortifications against the invader, but 
 I assume the offensive and carry on the war in the enemy's 
 territories. I have written, as a freeman^ not only true 
 facts and justifiable statements as known by me, but I have 
 also given free and independent opinions compatible with 
 the dignity of the freeman and the free-born. But, I ask, 
 what man is there who can honestly and truly say that his 
 writing or writings has or have met with undiluted favour 
 or pleasure anywhere and amongst any people ? 
 
 What I think the British or white reader may take 
 objection to chiefly is my third chapter, which deals with 
 Immorality. But what I have said in the book from 
 beginning to end I stand by and am ready to repeat again. 
 It is a fact that wherever the Africans have come into con- 
 tact with Caucasian civilization, and lived under Caucasian 
 domination, they (the descendants of Ham) have been con- 
 taminated, demorahzed, and taught to wallow in the mire of 
 immorality, at the instance of and under the direction of 
 their white and unenviably apt preceptors — their Caucasian 
 civilizers. 
 
 There are certain things W. Laird Clowes says in his 
 ' Black America ' which the author of this work has not 
 thought fit to mention in the body of his ' Lone-Star of 
 Liberia.' 
 
XX PREFACE. 
 
 He tells us, for instance, that the white, or rather he 
 (Laird Clowes) is of opinion that the African ' more nearly 
 approaches the quadrumana than does any other member 
 of the human family ; . . . (and that) his (the African's) 
 arms are, on an average, two inches longer than his (Laird 
 Clowes's).' This is the white man's, or, to be more correct, 
 Laird Clowes's, opinion. It is an opinion as false as it is 
 foolish. It is an opinion derived from the mere ipse dixit — 
 the mere assertion of the erratic Charles Robert Darwin. 
 At the same time Laird Clowes is forgetful of the fact that 
 the African has an opinion of his own, and that he (the 
 African) does not entertain and admit for one moment such 
 an absurd and preposterous notion or opinion. 
 
 W. Laird Clowes proceeds to say that he, as a white 
 man, is of opinion that the African's ' facial angle is about 
 70 degrees, while his is about 82 degrees'; that 'the 
 average weight of his (the African's) brain is ten ounces 
 less than that of people of his (Laird Clowes's)'Own family'; 
 that the African has ' high and prominent cheek-bones ' ; 
 that 'his (the African's) cranium is much thicker than 
 Laird Clowes's ' ; that ' his (the African's) head is covered 
 not with hair, but with wool of nearly flat section ' ; that 
 the African's ' skin is thicker than W. Laird Clowes's, and 
 that it is velvety and emits a characteristic odour,' unlike 
 that of Laird Clowes, which is perfection ; that ' his (the 
 African's) frame, owing to structural peculiarities, is not as 
 erect as W. Laird Clowes, the Times Commissioner's ; that 
 ' the cranial sutures of the Negro close up much earlier 
 than those of W. Laird Clowes.' 
 
 The reader will have observed that these are all the 
 peculiar and preposterous notions of W. Laird Clowes, 
 who believes that he is perfection itself, and that the African 
 ' is everything that is horrid.' How comes W. Laird 
 Clowes to know that the African's facial angle is about 
 
PREFACE. xxi 
 
 70 degrees, while his (Laird Clowes's) is about 82 degrees — 
 that the average weight of the African's brain is ten ounces 
 less than that of his (Laird Clowes's) — that the African's 
 cranium and skin are much thicker than those of W. Laird 
 Clowes — that the cranial sutures of the African close up 
 much earlier than those of Laird Clowes? Whence did 
 he derive these preposterous notions? Are these things 
 so because W. Laird Clowes, big with importance and 
 indulging in tall talk, would fain make them so? 
 
 The Caucasian must not try to lay down the law to the 
 African, and force him to believe that he is this while he 
 is that, or that he is that while he is this. 
 
 Caucasians know, or ought to know, what their own 
 race is like; while we Africans know better than non- 
 Africans what we are, and what we are not, like. Mr. W. 
 Laird Clowes has an opinion, but the African has and can 
 form another opinion. 
 
 And I add that it is preposterous and erroneous for the 
 white man to suppose that the intelligent, self-reliant, and 
 last, not least, self-respecting African will accept any 
 doctrine as to his moral, mental and other peculiarities 
 and capacities as he (the white man) lays it down and 
 interprets, when it is to the disadvantage and detriment of 
 the African. 
 
 F. A. D. 
 
 Lincoln's Inn Library, 
 London, W.C. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER l-AGE 
 
 I. THE AFRICO-AMERICAN - - - - - I 
 
 II. IS THE ETHIOPIAN INFERIOR TO THE CAUCASIAN ? - 28 
 
 III. IMMORALITY - - - - - - 76 
 
 IV. SUPERSTITION IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY - - 1 37 
 
 V. UNDER CAUCASIAN RULE - - - - " - 180 
 
 VI. AFRICA GOVERNED BY AFRICANS .... 222 
 
 VII. REPATRIATION AND LIBERIA . - - - 24O 
 
THE LONE-STAR OE LIBERIA, 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE AFRICO-AMERICAN. 
 
 Commissioned by the Ti??tes of London, Mr W. Laird 
 Clowes (as he tells us in his introduction to 'Black 
 America') betook himself, in the autumn of 1890, to the 
 eight late Slave-holding States in the Southern portion of 
 the United States of America, for the purpose of studying 
 the condition of the ' ex-slave ' — or, in other words, the 
 * Africo- American ' — and his relations towards his white 
 neighbours. And he further says that he gives ' an impartial 
 review, not only of the present aspects, but also of the 
 past history, of the complex problem which has thus been 
 created.' We have given his work (' Black America ') our 
 careful attention, and we have set it down with that legiti- 
 mate feeling of indignation which all good and true Africans, 
 who have the welfare of their race at heart, must feel when 
 they hear of the calumnies — base, false, and therefore un- 
 justifiable — which are again and again heaped upon the 
 devoted heads of the unfortunate, down-trodden, and long- 
 suffering members of the African race in America, West 
 Indies, and elsewhere, by prejudiced Caucasians such as Sir 
 
2 THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA. 
 
 Spencer St. John, James Anthony Froude, James Bryce, Man- 
 ville Fenn, Henry M. Stanley (who slaughtered many of the 
 Africans in Central and East Africa) and W. Laird Clowes. 
 As Mr. Clowes had been commissioned by the Times, it 
 is not only possible, but also probable, that he threw him- 
 self into the arms of the Conservative Democrats of the 
 Southern States, and asked them for particulars, and for 
 their opinion of the Africo- Americans, the vast majority of 
 whom are Liberal Republicans. Can we, then, expect to 
 have an * impartial review, not only of the present aspects 
 but also of the past history, of the problem which has thus 
 been created,' at the hands of the White Democrat-Con- 
 servatives, who are politically out of sympathy with their 
 Ethiopian neighbours ? All the world knows well how strong 
 is the race hatred and prejudice that exists in the Southern 
 portion of the United States. 
 
 Happily, however, only a very few of the British people 
 are likely to endorse the malignant opinions and reports of 
 Mr. Clowes, so far as they affect the African. It would 
 seem that Laird Clowes has been following in the wake 
 of James Anthony Froude and others of his school, and 
 especially the traveller Stanley, who delights in seeing the 
 Africans kept under as much as possible. 
 
 After going through some eighteen pages of more or less 
 unimportant matter in 'Black America,' we come to the 
 so-called * Reconstruction ' period in the eight old Slave- 
 holding States in the Union. It would be superfluous for 
 us, here or anywhere else, to dwell for a moment on the 
 events and doings of that period, because Mr. Clowes has 
 been both kind and imprudent in informing us that all the 
 particulars concerning the doings of that time have been 
 furnished him by Messrs. Hilary A. Herbert, Zebulon B. 
 Vance, John H. Hemphill, Henry J. Turner, Samuel Pasco, 
 Robert Stiles, Ethelbert Burksdale and B. J. Sage, all, pre- 
 
THE AFRICO-AMERICAN. 3 
 
 sumably, Southern Democrat-Conservatives, imbued with 
 prejudices and hatred of the African which border closely 
 on childishness. When W. Laird Clowes gravely tells us 
 that such White Conservative-Democrats as H. A. Herbert, 
 Z. B. Vance, J. H. Hemphill and Co. (even supposing that 
 they did not hate the African) have been his informants as 
 to the alleged *' excesses ' said to have been committed by 
 the Liberal-Republican Africans of the South during the 
 * Reconstruction ' period, are we not justified in asking 
 whether we can ever hope to receive at the hands of the 
 British Conservative Party any good testimonials and favour- 
 able reports respecting the Irish Parliamentary Party, even 
 though the former may not entertain the slightest hatred 
 and ill-will towards the latter ? 
 
 As the American Africans are blacky and were slaves^ and 
 as they are now freemen, and as they are, almost unani- 
 mously, Republican-Liberals, what man — what impartial man 
 — is there who can ever hope that considerate and favourable 
 reports can be received at the hands of political opponents, 
 White Conservative-Democrats, such as Herbert, Vance, 
 Hemphill, Turner, Pasco, Stiles, Burksdale and Sage? Is 
 it at all probable that trustworthy reports of a party and a race 
 like the Liberal-Republican African Party can ever be forth- 
 coming from its opponents, when there is so much racial 
 and party prejudice? But what is even more to be regretted 
 is, that this blinding race-prejudice is not merely confined 
 to the men. The fair sex, however, are often, we admit, as 
 they ought to be always, gentle and pitiful. White women 
 do, throughout America, intermarry with blacks, in spite of 
 what Mr. Clowes may say to the contrary. 
 
 Apart from the fact that Mr. Clowes is probably himself 
 a Conservative, it is on record, and a matter of history, that 
 any ' irregularities,' not ' excesses,' which were committed 
 during the 'Reconstruction' period were committed by 
 
 1 — 2 
 
4 THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA. 
 
 the White Republican-Liberals ; and the responsibility and 
 blame consequently must lie, not at the doors of the 
 American Africans of Liberal-Republican tendencies, but 
 at the doors of the White Liberal-Republicans. 
 
 Mr. Clowes goes on to say, amongst other things, in 
 chap, ii., p. ^(i^ of ' Black America,' that ' there is or may 
 be danger in the fact that the Negro as a citizen does not 
 get all that to which he is legally entitled. How he is de- 
 prived of very much that the law affects to give him will be 
 the subject of the next chapter.' And in the next chapter 
 (iii.) Laird Clowes, on page 75, says, 'The attitude of the 
 Southern white towards the Negro is, nevertheless, not 
 exactly an unkind one. It is rather that of a magisterial 
 guardian.' 
 
 The impartial will at once have noticed the inconsistencies 
 which exist between the allegations on page 66, chap, ii., 
 and those on page 75, chap. iii. 
 
 Why does not Laird Clowes say at once what he means, 
 and what he would like us to understand ? Why does he 
 not frankly admit, without hesitation, and beating about 
 the bush, that the American African is shamelessly and dis- 
 gracefully cheated of the rights and privileges conferred 
 upon him by Amendments xiii., xiv., and xv. to the Consti- 
 tution of the United States of America ? 
 
 Though the author of ' Black America ' tells us that ' the 
 attitude of the Southern white towards the Negro is that of 
 a magisterial guardian,' he deliberately proceeds to con- 
 tradict himself in substance by practically admitting, 
 willingly or unwillingly, on pages 94, 95, 96, 97 and else 
 where, in effect, that ' the attitude of the Southern white 
 towards the Negro ' is not ' that of a magisterial guardian 
 inasmuch as he quotes, and verbatim, the Washington 
 correspondence of the Pittsburg Dispatch of January nth, 
 1890, which runs as follows : * It is impossible for the Negro^ 
 
 ) 
 
THE AFRICO-AMERICAN. 5 
 
 to get any justice at the hands of Southern magistrates 
 or juries. A man who resides in Augusta, Georgia — a 
 Democrat and a hater of the Negro — admits that the whites' 
 maltreatment of the blacks must one day recoil upon their 
 own heads. "Why," said he to me to-day, "you can't 
 convict a white man of the murder of a Negro, nor even of 
 a white friend of the Negro. Just before I left home a 
 Negro was found one morning in the street with his body 
 riddled with bullets. I was pretty certain that his death 
 was due to a certain gang of roughs, whose leader is under 
 obligation to me for keeping him out of the penitentiary. 
 Meeting him, I said, " Pat, who killed that nigger ?" — " Oh, 
 some of the boys," said Pat, with a grin. — " What did they do 
 it for ?" I asked. — " Oh, because he was a nigger," said Pat. 
 "And," he continued, "he was the best nigger in town. 
 Why, he would even take off his hat to me." I thought he 
 must be a good Negro indeed who would take off his hat 
 to that creature, and I walked away pondering upon what 
 must be the outcome of it all. It is my opinion that several 
 of the Southern States will have to be abandoned to the 
 Negroes if we would avoid terrible consequences from the 
 wrongs we are heaping on them.' 
 
 We ask Laird Clowes, or anyone else of his following, 
 whether that attitude of the Southern white towards the 
 African — as instanced in the murder recorded above — is 
 that of a ' magisterial guardian ' and 'not exactly an unkind 
 one'? 
 
 Where is ' magisterial guardianship ' of the African by the 
 Southern white when ' it is impossible for the Negro to get 
 any justice at the hands of Southern magistrates or 
 juries / when even ' a Democrat and a hater of the Negro,' 
 avowedly admitted that one ' cannot convict a white man of 
 the murder of a Negro, nor even of a white friend of the 
 Negro '? 
 
6 THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA. 
 
 The following summary from a Barnwell letter of 
 January nth, 1890, in the Charleston Budget of that year 
 and month, as given by Laird Clowes, shows that 'A 
 Negro named William Black stole some trifling articles from 
 the house of a white man, one Jim Bennett, near Robins, 
 South Carolina. Bennett followed and caught the negro 
 and, assisted by Dave Ready, Henry Sweat, and John 
 Walker, tied the prisoner to a tree. Ready then placed a 
 gun to the Negro's temple and blew out the man's brains. 
 Bennett, Walker, and Sweat were arrested as accessories in 
 the first degree, but were discharged by Justice Dunbar. 
 Ready apparently escaped.' Now, is that a fair specimen of 
 Anglo-Saxon civilization and humanity, as well as a fair 
 specimen of the ' magisterial guardianship ' of the African by 
 the Southern white of the United States ? Because the 
 African, William Black, ' stole some trifling articles from the 
 house of a white man,' he was set upon by four men and 
 murdered in cold blood. In any truly civilized and 
 Christian country the murderers would not have escaped. 
 William Black, it is true, committed an offence by stealing 
 ' some trifling articles,' it would seem, ' from the house of a 
 white man.' Then he ought to have been tried by the laws 
 of the land ; but a man's valuable life ought not to have 
 been taken away in this lawless manner. Such barbarities 
 can only be met with in uncivilized countries, and are 
 equalled only by the excesses committed by Henry M. 
 Stanley in Central Africa. Black's offence was what lawyers 
 call simple 'larceny,' and had he been properly tried and 
 found guilty, he would only have been given a term of im- 
 prisonment, which might have exercised a beneficial in- 
 fluence on him and brought about his reform ; but his 
 murder by four scoundrels, who succeeded in evading 
 justice, put an end to everything, and substituted injustice 
 
THE AFRI CO- AMERICAN. 7 
 
 for justice — injustice aggravated when these murderers suc- 
 ceeded in evading punishment. 
 
 Laird Clowes furnishes us with more arguments, or, 
 rather, evidences, which are like so many scourges to his 
 own back, because they prove that ' the attitude of the 
 Southern white towards the Negro ' is not ' that of a 
 magisterial guardian.' He gives a summary of a despatch 
 from Augusta, Georgia, dated October 24th, 1890 (see 
 Charleston News and Courier)^ in which it is said : ' Two 
 boys — Williams, a Negro, and Robertson, a white — were 
 playing together near Waynesborough with a gun, which, 
 being accidentally discharged, killed Robertson. The 
 Negro boy was arrested, but was taken from custody by a 
 mob of white men, who tied him up and shot him to death.' 
 Is that felonious act a specimen of the ' magisterial guardian- 
 ship' of the African by the Southern white? The poor 
 African boy was brutally murdered for an act which was the 
 result of accident. In any civilized and Christian country 
 the unhappy and unfortunate boy, after a trial, would have 
 been acquitted ; but in America things are done differently. 
 And yet Laird Clowes tells us that ' the attitude of the 
 Southern white towards the Negro ' is ' that of a magisterial 
 guardian.' Perhaps those brutal outrages are, in Laird 
 Clowes's sight, acts of ' magisterial guardianship.' We 
 referred to the boy Williams as * poor,' * unhappy,' and * un- 
 fortunate ' ; but he is neither now : he is in a better land, 
 where no difference is made between the dark skin and the 
 pale face. 
 
 Is the following account which Laird Clowes has culled 
 from the Boston Advertiser of June 2nd, 1889, also a 
 specimen of white man's magisterial guardianship ? — * The 
 report comes from South Carolina that a coloured man, 
 unarmed and defenceless, fell into an altercation with a 
 white man of that State named Gallman, Gallman slit the 
 
8 THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA. 
 
 coloured man's throat from ear to ear, and drove to a 
 neighbour's house, where he procured a shot-gun, and 
 emptied the contents of one barrel into the wounded man. 
 At a late hour that night Gallman's friends, hearing that the 
 victim had not died, although he was at death's door, rode 
 to where he lay, and carried him to the nearest churchyard, 
 where they riddled his body with bullets.' In this case the 
 victim was unarmed and defenceless. We reproduce 
 another quotation from ' Black America.' Clowes takes it 
 from the Greenville News of September loth, 1889: 'In 
 Fulton County, Georgia, a black boy, of eighteen years, was 
 taken from gaol and hanged for "assaulting" a white girl, 
 the assault consisting of catching the child by the arms and 
 running away, when she and her companions screamed. 
 Then a pack of white ruffians, heavily armed, went from one 
 cabin to another in an alleged search for the criminal, and 
 barbarously whipped and maltreated inoffensive Negroes^ 
 who were powerless to defend themselves against shot-guns 
 and revolvers presented at their heads.' 
 
 These are murders and other outrages committed on un- 
 armed and defenceless Africans, They are the evidences 
 of ' magisterial guardianship ' towards the Ethiopian only too 
 truly. Britishers hold Guildhall meetings to protest against 
 inhuman treatment of Jews by the Russian Government, 
 but they sit apathetic, listless and unmoved, though they 
 hear the groans of Christians (who happen to be black) like 
 themselves, who have innumerable claims on their sympathy 
 by reason of their having been torn away from their Father- 
 land, and held for generations in dehumanizing bondage. 
 Has the Lord Mayor of London sent a memorial to the 
 President of the United States to protest against the 
 ' American-African Horrors ' daily perpetrated in America ? 
 
 The Anglo-Saxons — who to-day pride themselves on the 
 fact that their ancestors handed down to them that great 
 
THE AFRICO-AMERICAN. 9 
 
 bulwark of liberty, ' Magna Charta,' the grant of which was 
 wrenched from the hands of tyrannical and unwilling John 
 at Runnymede — now deny to the members of an unfortu- 
 nate and downtrodden race the privileges and blessings of 
 that Great Charter. What laws, we ask, protect the personal 
 liberty and property of the Africans in America? Laird 
 Clowes will answer that question. For he quotes an ex- 
 tract from the ' Augusta (Georgia) Chronicle ' of January 5th, 
 1890, which says: 'Laws are powerless either to prevent 
 the commission of crime or to punish the criminals, unless 
 public sentiment forbids the one and commands the other. 
 Where there is little regard for human life — and we fear 
 this is the case in many portions of our country — the courts 
 are often to blame for not hanging those who slay their 
 fellow-men. Is it not a fact that it is almost impossible to 
 convict a man of the crime of murder who has any social 
 position or means to defend himself? If a Negro kills a 
 white man he is pretty sure either to be lynched or hung. 
 But if a white man slays a Negro he is in no danger of 
 being lynched, and as to his being hung for the crime, 
 there is not much probability.' And this frank confession 
 comes from a journal of the South, which is edited by a 
 white Conservative-Democrat ! 
 
 The British people stand aghast at the tales of the 
 Siberian horrors, which are from time to time drifted to 
 their shores, and demonstrative meetings are held to devise 
 the best possible means for bearding the Russian bear. But 
 those blood-curdling horrors of daily occurrence in America, 
 and which are always directed against the Ethiopians, are 
 thought nothing of. Africans are constantly murdered by 
 bloodthirsty mobs. Does the British Press ever say any- 
 thing about these things ? The Jews and the Poles are 
 undoubtedly more fortunate than the African race. The 
 African is forgotten. But will he always be forgotten? 
 
lo THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA. 
 
 We think not. It is on record that out of io8 persons 
 lynched in the United States of America during the year 
 1890, fully 90 were Africans, and — oh, horror ! — one was an 
 Ethiopian woman. And yet Mr. Clowes tells us that the 
 attitude of the Southern white towards the African is never- 
 theless ' not an unkind one.' It is rather that of a ' magis- 
 terial guardian.' Perhaps we do not quite understand what 
 'magisterial guardianship' is. We certainly do not if the 
 blood - curdling murders committed by ruffianly White 
 Americans on their Black compatriots, and their equals de 
 jure^ in the United States, form one of the component parts 
 of ' magisterial guardianship ' ! 
 
 Mr. Clowes, on page 11 (and we ask the reader to take a 
 glance at page 11 of ' Black America '), says that the Black 
 Americans ' have at present no strong ambitions and very 
 few wants ' ; but yet, with characteristic inconsistency, on 
 page 90, in ' Black America,' he admits that * on the side 
 of the Negro there is a desire to be what the white 
 man is, and to do what the white man does — to elevate 
 himself to the same level of privileges.' If this be so, the-n 
 the African evidently has ' strong ambitions and very great 
 wants,' and Mr. Clowes is inconsistent with himself. 
 
 Speaking of the fair sex of the Sunny South, Laird Clowes 
 gives it as his opinion, that the Southern white women 
 entertain a general aversion towards intermarriage with the 
 American Africans. We are not going to deny that there 
 may be some who do. But only a few are found who can 
 be so narrow-minded. It is safe to say that the great 
 majority of the fair sex among the Southern whites are not 
 averse towards intermarriage with the Africans. This is 
 the truth even concerning the prejudiced Sunny South ! 
 
 As Laird Clowes seems to know so much about Mr. 
 Frederick Douglass, he ought to be aware that the American 
 Minister to Hayti, and the acknowledged leader of all 
 
THE AFRICO-AMERICAN. ii 
 
 Africans living under European and American flags, is 
 joined in the bonds of wedlock with a Southern white 
 woman, a ' belle ' of the Sunny South. 
 
 We, as much as anyone else, deprecate all so-called 
 assaults alleged to be committed on the Southern white 
 women from time to time by Africans of too amorous and 
 affectionate a temperament. The 'assaults' committed by 
 the American Africans on the Southern white women are as 
 a rule petty, and can hardly be called assaults. Whilst we 
 do not approve of the conduct of the few among our kins- 
 men and countrymen in America who now and again 
 commit so-called ' assaults ' on women, by allowing their 
 too affectionate dispositions to get the better of them, we 
 offer our firm and unqualified protest against the daily 
 murders, euphemistically termed lynchings, of the Africans 
 by the whites which follow these ' assaults ' by the Ethiopians 
 on the white women. It is our opinion that if our kinsmen 
 and countrymen do commit real and serious assaults on 
 the white women in the United States, those assaults are 
 the offspring of powerful reasoning, and we think they 
 reason in this way : ' Whereas we American Africans 
 cannot get justice, and have no voice in the South, and 
 cannot get our grievances redressed at the hands of the 
 white magistrates and juries against our oppressors, be it 
 resolved that those of us American Africans who can do 
 and dare, and have sufficient courage to perform achieve- 
 ments of " derring do," retaliate on those on whom we can 
 retaliate, and so attract notice and get our grievances 
 righted.' It is the privilege of the weak — the grim resolve 
 of despair. 
 
 We certainly discountenance all such thoughts ; yet, at 
 the same time, we cannot but think how many Americans 
 of colour, both women and children, have been barbarously 
 outraged and murdered, and even burnt alive, by the 
 
12 THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA. 
 
 whites ; and these things have been done with little or no 
 cause. But if the Africans do afford sufficient occasion for 
 the resentment of the Whites by violating the social laws, 
 then by all means let the law take its ordinary course with 
 them. But mob-Xn-w is the rule in America ; the law of the 
 land is the exception when the Africans are concerned. 
 
 Here are two of many instances of Africo-Americans 
 being burnt alive : ' Louisville, Kentucky, September 2nd, 
 1889. — The Courier Journal has a special from Somerset, 
 Kentucky, which states that news has reached there of a 
 brutal outrage committed upon the twelve-year-old daughter 
 of William Oates, a prominent and wealthy farmer residing 
 a few miles from Montecello. Mr. Oates has two daughters, 
 aged respectively twelve and fourteen years. Mr. and Mrs. 
 Oates left home on business, and left the two young girls 
 in charge of the house. Mr. Oates had in his employ a 
 Negro boy about grown. Knowing that the old folks were 
 away, he entered the house, and, after locking the door 
 upon the two girls, assaulted the younger. The elder girl 
 escaped from the room, and, going to a neighbour's house, 
 gave the alarm. A posse was organized and started in pur- 
 suit. The Negro was caught in the woods and tied to a 
 stake. A rail-pen was then built around him, coal oil was 
 poured over him and upon the rails, matches were applied, 
 and the Negro was burnt to death.' The above appears on 
 pages 132 and 133 in 'Black America.' The murder of an 
 Africo-American boy by burning, because he happened to 
 have been too passionately inclined towards the young girl 
 Oates, was, to say the least, brutal, outrageous and unjusti- 
 fiable. Where was the law of the land? Why did it not 
 intervene if the unfortunate African boy was guilty ? When 
 that murder was committed in the United States, did we read 
 of * American Persecution ' or ' Persecution of the Africans,' 
 as we are now reading ' Russian Persecution ' or ' Per- 
 
THE AFRICO'AMERICAN. 13 
 
 secution of the Jews,' in the British daily press? Oh 
 no ! we never do. Says the Caucasian, We must keep the 
 Ethiopian down. If that be not so, where was the influential 
 and largely attended Guildhall meeting on behalf of the 
 Africans? Did the Lord Mayor and the Earl of Meath 
 send a petition to the President of the United States to 
 protest against the ' American African Horrors ' perpetrated 
 by the White Americans ? Did the Right Honourable W. 
 E. Gladstone write a pamphlet entitled ' American African 
 Horrors,' as well as his ' Bulgarian Horrors ' ? 
 
 When the ' Commander of the Faithful ' — the Turkish 
 Sovereign — and his Government some years ago barbarously 
 butchered a number of Christians, all Europe from one end 
 to the other raised a loud cry, and intervened between the 
 Porte and her Christian subjects. But where are those 
 who intervene on behalf of the dark-skinned American? 
 You British people who snatched us from our native land 
 and from our fathers' homes, and carried us to America and 
 to the West India Islands against our will, we ask you to 
 take us back — to give us money to return to the land of 
 our fathers, where we can be free and independent, and 
 where we can govern ourselves. One day (who knows ?) 
 you may find that you have to reap the whirlwind of the 
 wind which you are now sowing ! We are justified in 
 saying this, because it is admitted on all sides that we 
 Africans are a prolific race, and many times more prolific 
 than the Caucasian race ; and consequently one day we 
 may be in a position to avenge the shameful wrongs that 
 are being inflicted upon us now. It ought to be remem- 
 bered that we are but mortals, and even good old Job him- 
 self, with all his patience, were he alive to-day and sub- 
 jected, together with his people, to the outrages which the 
 African is to-day receiving at the hands of his White com- 
 patriots, would lose his world-wide reputation for patience. 
 
14 THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA. 
 
 and would surely resent the wrongs inflicted on him and 
 his. 
 
 Here is another instance of an African being burnt to death; 
 it is a man this time who suffers. Dalziel's Agency, dated 
 New Orleans, May 31st, 1891, telegraphing to the London 
 Daily T'^/*?^/'^//^, of Monday, June ist, 1891, says: 'The 
 details of a sensational lynching case have just transpired, 
 an official report of the matter having been forwarded to 
 the Governor by the authorities of the Claiborne parish. 
 The victim was a Negro tramp named Hampton. He was 
 suspected of stealing pigs from the parish, and a warrant 
 was issued for his arrest. In the attempt to take him 
 Hampton shot a farmer dead. He was, however, arrested, 
 but on being tried for murder was acquitted; he was then 
 put on his trial for stealing, and being convicted, was 
 sentenced to a year's imprisonment. The friends of the 
 farmer whom he had killed took an oath that they would 
 revenge his death upon the Negro as soon as his time ex- 
 pired. Hampton was released from prison on May 20th, and 
 as soon as he walked out of gaol was seized by a number of 
 men and handcuffed. He was then taken to a forest in the 
 vicinity of the town, tied to a stake, and burned to death. 
 The authoritiesHiave found no traces of the man except his 
 ashes and the manacles by which he was secured.' 
 
 Comment, we think, is unnecessary. Such a brutal 
 murder is simply a crying shame. There is no white woman 
 at the bottom of it this time. 
 
 But why is it that to-day, in the prejudiced Sunny South, 
 Africans are murdered more for ' assaulting ' white women 
 than for other sorts of offences ? We answer with one of 
 the numbers of the Montgomery Herald, for August, 1887 : 
 'Why is it that white women attract Africans more than 
 in former days ? There was a time when such a thing was 
 unheard of. There is a secret to this thing, and we greaily 
 
THE AFRICO-AMERICAN. 15 
 
 suspect it is the growing appreciation of the white Juliet for 
 the Ethiopian Romeo as he becomes more and more inteUi- 
 gent and refined. If something is not done to break up 
 these lynchings it will be so that after awhile they will 
 lynch every African that looks at a white woman with 
 a twinkle in his eye.' Just so. Laird Clowes, however, 
 sees the situation with different eyes, and calls that article 
 ' brutal.' But we think otherwise, and see no ' brutality ' in 
 the article of the Montgomery Herald. On the contrary, 
 we think that it reflects the opinions of all good and true 
 Africans all the world over. 
 
 There is one panacea, however, for all these lynching 
 evils which exist in the United States wherever there are 
 Africans, and that panacea is the universal cure of wholesale 
 Emigration^ which must carry with it as its almost inevitable 
 consequences (i) Repatriation and (2) Independence in 
 Africa, our Fatherland. We do not propose, however, to 
 dwell at length on that panacea here. 
 
 Laird Clowes commits a great blunder when he asserts, 
 on page 176, that: ' Mulattoes intermarry, and, in some 
 cases, have intermarried for generations. In more than one 
 place in the South they, with occasional admixtures of 
 Quadroons, constitute a small, distinct * community of 
 highly respectable people, living to themselves for the most 
 part, and having as little in common with their black as 
 with their white neighbours ; for white blood, even in small 
 quantities, " tells," and the pride of the Mulatto or 
 Quadroon, as a rule, rebels as much at the idea of alliance 
 with the Negro, as does the pride of the white at the idea 
 of alliance with coloured or black.' And, says this Com- 
 missioner of the Times, in another page (178): *In the 
 coloured man, again, we find the natural leader of the 
 Negro in all movements, political, religious, and social.* 
 We begin with, ' Mulattoes intermarry, and, in some cases, 
 
i6 THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA. 
 
 have intermarried for generations ;' we then read, ' having 
 as little in common with their black as with their white 
 neighbours; for white blood, even in small quantities, 
 " tells," and the pride of the Mulatto or Quadroon, as a 
 rule, rebels as much at the idea of alliance with the Negro 
 as does the pride of the white at the idea of alliance with 
 coloured or black.' But Laird Clowes takes care to tell us 
 that only ' in some cases ' Mulattoes ' have intermarried for 
 generations,' for these ' some cases ' may mean in ' very few 
 instances' they (the Mulattoes) have intermarried for 
 generations amongst themselves, to the exclusion of their 
 full-blooded kinsmen ; but, on the other hand, there are the 
 ' other cases,' the greater number of cases, in which they 
 have not intermarried for generations exclusively amongst 
 themselves. Whom do those who compose the 'other 
 cases,' the greater number of cases, then marry, if they 
 have ' as little in common with their black as with their 
 white neighbours ' ? Do these marry their pure-blooded 
 kinsmen and countrymen, or do they marry their white 
 neighbours, whose pride rebels ' at the idea of alliance with 
 coloured or black'? If these do neither, what do they do? 
 Do they stand aloof from their black as from their white 
 neighbours, and consequently wither and perish ? Our 
 ideas of human nature and our common-sense tell us that 
 the Mulattoes and other Africans of mixed blood, when 
 they do not intermarry amongst themselves, do not wither 
 and become extinct, but intermarry, not only with their full- 
 blooded African kinsmen, but also in many instances inter- 
 marry with the whites, just as the full blacks intermarry with 
 the whites all the world over. Mr. Frederick Douglass 
 (who is a Mulatto) had for his first wife a Black American 
 lady of full, unmixed blood. That one example will suffice 
 for many. 
 
 It is also an absurdity to say that white blood ' tells ' 
 
THE AFRICO-AMERICAN, 17 
 
 when blacks intermarry with whites nowadays. Mr. 
 Frederick Douglass's present wife, it is well known, is a 
 white ' belle ' of the Sunny South. That the late General 
 Solomon, the distinguished President of Hayti, was married 
 to a Parisian lady of ' la belle France,' and by her had a 
 daughter, who is a lady doctor of great eminence, who 
 graduated in one of the very best of Parisian medical 
 institutions, and is now practising in her Hayti home, in her 
 Fatherland, is common knowledge. General ex-President 
 Legitime, of Playti, is also wedded to a fair Parisian. And 
 that hero of duty, the late gallant, brave, honest and patriotic 
 French soldier, General Faidherbe, Senator and Chancellor 
 of the Legion of Honour, who in 1870-71, as commander- 
 in-chief of the Army of the North, distinguished himself 
 against the Germans, particularly at Pont de Noyelle and 
 Bapaume, and who, from 1854 to 1865, was Governor of 
 Senegal, was married to an African — a Senegalese who was 
 as black as she was beautiful. The chief magistrate of the 
 Gambia, John Renner Maxwell, Esq., an African, has a 
 British wife. If Mr. Clowes tells us that the white blood 
 of the Romans who did not intermarry with Britishers 
 *told,' we shall beHeve him. It is on record, indeed, 
 that the Latin blood of the Romans really rebelled 
 at the idea of matrimonial alliance with degenerated 
 Britishers. If Laird Clowes is ignorant of the fact and 
 doubts us, there are several histories of England, and it 
 would be well to look these up. 
 
 Africans, however, as we have had occasion to mention, 
 do intermarry with whites, though sixty years of freedom 
 have not yet gone over the heads of those of us Africans 
 who live under European and American flags ; and our 
 forefathers, and the immediate fathers of many of us, were 
 slaves. The Liberians, Haytians, and Dominicans do also 
 intermarry with Caucasians. 
 
i8 THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA. 
 
 Let us suppose that the Mulattoes, and other Africans 
 of mixed blood, have ' little in common with their full- 
 blooded kith and kin,' and that their white blood * tells ;' if 
 so, we are at a loss to understand how the African of 
 mixed blood can be ' the natural leader' of the other 
 branch of Africans — that is, the full-blooded blacks ; and 
 we should like the uninformed reader to be reminded 
 that there are two chief branches of Africans, viz., (i) the 
 Full-blooded African, whose blood has never been mixed, 
 and (2) those whose veins may contain an admixture of 
 Caucasian, Asiatic, or iVmerican Indian blood, coupled with 
 that of the Black ; who nevertheless belong to the same 
 African-Ethiopian family, and are therefore kinsmen, and 
 descendants of Ham — ' in all movements, political, religious, 
 and social,' when they have ' little in common ' with the Full- 
 blooded African. Can it be that the Mixed-blooded Africans 
 have only to show themselves amongst the Full-blooded 
 Africans, and are instantly made leaders, or do they simply 
 elect themselves leaders ? But the Mixed-blooded is not 
 the ' natural leader ' of the Full-blooded African in move- 
 ments political, religious, or social. He may be the leader 
 when he is the most capable man, but he is not the ' natural 
 leader.' It is true that Frederick Douglass, a Mulatto, is 
 the recognised leader of the Africans in the United States 
 to-day, but that fact does not prove the Mixed-blooded to 
 be universally and always the ' natural leader ' of the Full- 
 blooded African. The choice of leadership lies always with 
 the Full-blooded African. If he is the most distinguished 
 man, he leads ; if he is not, he may follow the leadership of 
 one of Mixed blood. The Full-blooded and Mixed-blooded 
 Africans have fought shoulder to shoulder and side by side 
 in bygone days, and will fight again shoulder to shoulder and 
 side by side in the future. We Africans — both Full and 
 Mixed-blooded — are proud of Frederick Douglass, and re- 
 
THE AFRICO-AMERICAN. 19 
 
 cognise in him the capable and distinguished generalissimo 
 of all Africans living under European and American flags 
 throughout the world. On the other hand, we ask Laird 
 Clowes this question — when the Haytians rose in insurrec- 
 tion in 1 791, who were their leaders ? Were their leaders of 
 full or mixed blood ? History tells us that Jean Frangois and 
 Biassou were Africans of full blood, and they were the leaders 
 of the Haytian insurrection of 1791. 
 
 When the Haytians were bravely battling for Indepen- 
 dence (after the leadership of Jean Frangois and Biassou 
 terminated by their deaths), who was their 'natural leader,' 
 a Mixed or Full-blooded African? History tells us that 
 Toussaint the Great — Toussaint L'Ouverture, the Liberator 
 of his fellow-countrymen, who gave Hayti practical Inde- 
 pendence — was a Full-blooded African. He was the Creator 
 and Regenerator of the Haytians, and their first President. 
 He was the most distinguished African statesman and soldier 
 of modern times — one of the most distinguished statesmen 
 and soldiers of all times. He takes rank among all dis- 
 tinguished soldiers and statesmen of European parentage, 
 both ancient and modern. After the treacherous seizure 
 of Toussaint the Great, and his conveyance as a prisoner 
 to France, where he was confined in a dungeon and died, 
 under the refined cruelties perpetrated at the instance of 
 the First Napoleon, round whom did the Haytians rally ? 
 Did they rally under a Mixed-blooded African ? We say 
 not. Jacques Dessalines (afterwards Jacques I., Emperor of 
 the Haytians) was their commander-in-chief, was the leader^ 
 and he was a Full-blooded Ethiopian, and coal-black ; he 
 was African born ; he came from the Gold Coast, and ably 
 did he fill up the place of Toussaint the Great, a nd lead to 
 victory his Haytian people. 
 
 When the Jamaican Maroons rose in rebellion in 1750 and 
 1795, whom had they to lead them ? Were their leaders of 
 
 2 — 2 
 
20 THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA. 
 
 mixed or full blood ? It is on record that their leaders and 
 advisers were Africans of full blood. 
 
 Sebituane, chief of the Makololo, in South Africa — who 
 was the contemporary of Livingstone, and whom Living- 
 stone praises and alleges to have been ' unquestionably the 
 greatest man in all that country ' {i.e., South Africa), and 
 who fought so bravely and successfully to regain the posses- 
 sion of his native land— was an African of full blood. 
 
 We repeat that the Mixed-blooded African leads when 
 his abilities qualify him, and George William Gordon, the 
 Jamaican African, the hero-martyr of 1865, and Leader of 
 the Opposition to Colonel Eyre's Jamaican Government, 
 was, we believe, a Mulatto. He it was who raised the 
 standard of Africo- Jamaican Rebellion in 1865, and had he 
 been actively supported by the great majority of his country- 
 men, who sedulously kept aloof, Jamaica would ere this have 
 come to occupy a place amongst the independent nations of 
 the earth. We referred to Africo-Jamaican rebellion ; it was 
 not a rebellion ! if anything, it could only have been a mere 
 revolt — a rising. The rising was suppressed, and George 
 William Gordon, the leader of the rising, was seized, under- 
 went a mock trial for high treason, and was lynched, not 
 hanged — murdered, not executed. For the so-called execu- 
 tion by hanging was the result of a mock trial. That it 
 was so can be evidenced by the protest raised by the British 
 people after Gordon's judicial murder, against Colonel Eyre, 
 on whose head lie the blood and responsibility of the death 
 of the martyred Gordon. It makes no difference to us 
 whether the Mixed or the Full-blooded African leads. Let 
 the man who is capable lead, whoever he may be. 
 
 Theodore, the greatest King or Emperor of the Abys- 
 sinians, was an African of full blood. And he was a distin- 
 guished ruler, though unfortunate. He was also a capable 
 soldier, and thoroughly civilized. Osai Tutu Quamina, who 
 was King of the Ashantees from 1800 to 1824, was a Full- 
 
THE AFRICO-AMERICAN. 21 
 
 blooded African. He it was who inflicted the demoralizing 
 defeat on Britishers under Sir Charles McCarthy in 1824, 
 on the banks of the Adoomansoo. King Tshaka, or Chaka, 
 who lived at the beginning of this (nineteenth) century, and 
 who was the founder of the great Zulu Empire, which 
 stretched from the confines of Cape Colony to the lands 
 watered by the Limpopo and Makoma, was a Full-blooded 
 African Quamina. 
 
 Langalibalele, Chief of the Amazulu Caffirs, in Natal, 
 who led the well-known movement in 1873, was a Full- 
 blooded African. Placido, the Cuban patriot and poet, 
 who fell a victim to the resentment of the Spaniards, 
 at whose hands he suffered death, was a Full-blooded 
 African. Zulu King Cetewayo, who inflicted the disastrous 
 defeat on Britishers at Isandhlwana, Inyezane, Intombi, 
 and Hloblane, not long ago, was a Full-blooded African. 
 His unfortunate son, Prince Dinizulu — who a few years ago 
 led the well-known movement to regain his fatherland and 
 the throne of his ancestors, and is now an exile in St. 
 Helena — is an African of full blood. His Lordship the Right 
 Rev. Dr. Crowther, who was made Bishop of the Niger by 
 the Archbishop of Canterbury, under the auspices of Lord 
 Palmerston's Government, in 1864, was formerly a slave. 
 He was an African of full blood, and is the first black Bishop 
 the British ever consecrated. The Right Rev. Bishop Burns, 
 of the American Methodist Episcopal Church, was a full- 
 blooded African, and he was a very learned man. An 
 eminent American- African scholar was the late Right Rev. 
 Bishop Payne, Principal of the Wilberforce University for 
 the Freedmen in America, but he was not of mixed blood. 
 
 To say, then, that the Mixed-blooded is ' the natural 
 leader ' of the Full-blooded African is absurd in the extreme, 
 and shows that Mr. Clowes knows very little about Africans. 
 To say, also, that the mixed-blooded has ' little in common ' 
 with the Full-blooded African is equally absurd. The full- 
 
22 THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA. 
 
 blooded and mixed-blooded Africans fought shoulder to 
 shoulder under the leadership of Toussaint the Great, and 
 then under that of Dessalines. In the days of slavery they 
 (the Africans) suffered together and perished together. The 
 full-blooded and the mixed blooded Ethiopians have one 
 common destiny because they are one African people. 
 
 Laird Clowes has certainly made a clumsy attempt to 
 sow discord and dissension amongst us Africans. There 
 are to-day, in Liberia, in Hayti, and everywhere else where 
 the descendants of Ham are to be found, both full and 
 mixed blooded Africans. They are one people, and must 
 live and die together. The greatest ruler Hayti has ever 
 had — next to Toussaint the Great, Jacques L (Dessalines), 
 Henry L (Christophe) and Boyer— was undoubtedly Fetion, 
 and he was a Mulatto, and an administrator of more than 
 ordinary talent. 
 
 Says Laird Clowes, on pages 172 and 173 of 'Black 
 America ' : ' In our West Indian colonies there are about 
 10,000 coolies, of whom Mr. Froude says: "They are 
 proud, and will not intermarry with the Africans. If there 
 is no jealousy, there is no friendship. The two races are 
 more absolutely apart than the white and the black." ' First 
 of all, in the British West Indies there are, at the very least, 
 100,000, and not 'about 10,000,' Coolies. Consequently 
 Clowes blunders from the very beginning, and so on to the 
 end, as we shall prove in due time. Mr. Froude, when he 
 says, in his ' English in the West Indies,' ' there are about 
 J 0,000' Coolies, is undoubtedly wrong. And Mr. Clowes 
 slavishly fell into the same error by taking Froude's state- 
 ment as law on the subject. Mr. Froude speaks of the 
 Trinidadian Coolies, and he knows very little about them 
 (just as little as he knows of the Africans), for there are in 
 Trinidad at present 70,000 Coolies at the very least. And 
 we make bold to say that when Froude took his short trip 
 
THE AFRICO-AMERICAN. 23 
 
 to Trinidad there were over 60,000 Coolies in the aforesaid 
 island. Now for other blunders. 
 
 Laird Clowes cannot in any way be congratulated on his 
 prudence or foresight, which we would have been only too 
 happy to have seen in him, our opponent though he be ; 
 for had Mr. Clowes, before quoting James Anthony Froude, 
 who says on page 73, chapter vi., in 'The English in the 
 West Indies,' that 'They' (meaning the coolies) ' are proud, 
 however, and will not intermarry with the Africans,' 
 looked on page 68, and higher up on the same page 
 (73) in the same chapter (vi.) in 'The English in the 
 West Indies,' he would have observed that Mr. Froude 
 says on page 68, that 'My friend' {i.e.^ Bertie Gatty, who 
 was a briefless barrister before he was given a Civil Service 
 appointment in the West Indies through backstairs in- 
 fluence) ' drove me round the town in his buggy the next 
 morning ' after his arrival in Trinidad ; and who (the same 
 Froude) further on in the same chapter (vi.), on page 73, 
 moreover adds, ' In Trinidad, as everywhere else, my own 
 chief desire was to see the human inhabitants, to learn 
 what they were doing, how they were living, and what 
 they were thinking ; and this could best be done by drives 
 about the town and neighbourhood.' Now, could Mr. 
 Froude, whilst driving in his buggy round the town of 
 Port-of-Spain, the city and capital which contains 35,000 
 inhabitants, have seen between 60,000 and 70,000 Coolies, 
 have learnt what the human inhabitants were doing, and 
 how they were living, all in one morning's drive ? If there 
 ever were grave statements made that were, in fact, 
 ridiculous and childish, those statements quoted above are. 
 Mr. Froude could not have seen all the human inhabitants, 
 35,000 souls, in one morning. Since there are few Coolies 
 in the capital — the greater part being in the country — it 
 was impossible for him to have seen all the Coolies, or 
 
24 THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA. 
 
 the greater part of them, in one morning, and found out that 
 * They are proud, and will not intermarry with the Africans.' 
 Froude no doubt saw some of the Coolies of the capital * by 
 drives about the town and neighbourhood ' in one morning ! 
 The Coolies, as we have said, are few in numbers in the 
 capital, but there are two divisions of Coolies, at least, in 
 religion : there are Hindoo Coolies, and there are Mahom- 
 medan Coolies ; these, however, in no way represent the 
 voice of their countrymen in the country districts, who are 
 in a preponderating majority. We venture to say that Mr. 
 Froude did not see all, or even the majority, of the few 
 Coolies resident in Port-of-Spain, in County St. George. To 
 that fact let us add the fact, that he did not see the vast 
 majority of Coolies scattered throughout the Counties of 
 St. David, Caroni, St. Andrew, Victoria, Nariva, St. Patrick, 
 Mayaro. As his 'drives about the town' did not enable 
 him to see these latter, how came he to know that ' they 
 are proud, and will not intermarry with the Africans ' ? 
 The vast majority of the Trinidadian Coolies are illiterate. 
 Because they are illiterate they do not correspond with 
 each other ; we mean, that those in the country do not 
 write to those in the capital, and vice versa, because they 
 are almost all illiterate. As they are illiterate, they neither 
 write books nor read books ; they neither read the newspapers 
 nor have they newspapers ; nor do they write to the news- 
 papers to express their thoughts and make the world 
 know that ' they are proud, and will not intermarry with 
 the Africans.' Those in the capital do not see those in the 
 country, and they do not write and exchange confidences 
 with each other, and say that 'they will not intermarry 
 with the Africans,' because they are illiterate. There is 
 not one barrister, solicitor, or doctor to be met with 
 throughout the length and breadth of Trinidad who is of 
 Asiatic, Indian, or Coolie parentage. They are an illiterate 
 class. If so, what can they have to be proud of? Mr. 
 
THE AFRICO-AMERICAN. 25 
 
 Froude could not have seen, we say, all the Coolies — even 
 all of those resident in the capital — even though the horse 
 which drew him in his friend's buggy was the winged horse 
 Pegasus himself, and its driver and master, Bertie Gatty, 
 or James Anthony Froude, was himself a Bellerophon. 
 
 Here is an entire absence of evidence to bear out Fronde's 
 statement, that the Coolies are proud and will not inter- 
 marry with the Africans. No man has yet ventured to 
 express similar sentiments, and no representative Coolies 
 have yet come forward to bear out the statements ; we 
 therefore say that Fronde's mere assertion that the Coolies 
 ' are proud,' and because of their pride ' will not intermarry 
 Africans,' does not hold water. Moreover, he did not 
 know the Coolies in the provinces. We do not know 
 whether he formed his own independent opinion, or 
 whether his host Gatty put him au coiirant by giving his 
 own opinion with regard to so-called Coolie pride, and their 
 alleged aversion to intermarriage with the Africans. It is, 
 however, of no great consequence to us whether Froude 
 formed his own opinion or Gatty told Froude what he 
 thought. Gatty knows as little about the Coolies as he 
 knows about the general affairs of the colony. Gatty, a 
 Member of both the Executive and Legislative Councils, 
 and the Crown's chief law officer in the island, ought to 
 have known, at least from official sources, and as an official, 
 if not as a private individual, that there were in Trinidad, 
 during Froude's visit, at least 60,000 Coolies in the Island, 
 and ought not to have allowed Froude to fall into such an 
 error. But Bertie is a bird of passage and migratory — is 
 not really interested in the affairs of the colony. 
 
 The same remarks apply also to the other portion of 
 Clowes's quotation from Froude, viz., 'if there is no jea- 
 lousy, there is no friendship. The two races are more 
 absolutely apart than the white and the black.' We must 
 add, however, a few words, and say that the Africans are 
 
26 THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA. 
 
 the people who will not intermarry with the Coolies, because 
 they (the Africans) are too proud ; and the Coolies render 
 matters worse by their general behaviour. Let the Coolies 
 give up the heathenish and barbarous custom of blackening* 
 their teeth ; let them stop mangling their ears and noses 
 and the reddening of their tongues, by giving up their 
 customs and ceasing to partake of nauseous, unsavoury, and 
 unpalatable articles of food, because such things are dis- 
 tasteful and abhorrent to us Africans, who despise all things 
 that have a tendency to degrade us, or which savour of the 
 uncivilized When the Coolies see the propriety of dressing 
 in a manner which would make the casual observer believe 
 that they are a civilized people, if only in an outward sense, 
 and when they cease to go abroad in a state of semi- 
 nudity ; when the Coolies give up boiling and eating their 
 repulsive food or diet ; when the Coolies put a stop to oil- 
 ing their bodies, an act which gives their shiny bodies the 
 appearance of gliding snakes, especially in the dry season ; 
 when they cease bathing their heads with oleaginous liquid, 
 the smell of which is the reverse of odoriferous ; and, lastly, 
 when they see the propriety of changing their Hindoo or 
 Mohammedan faith, with the superstitious rites accompany- 
 ing it, and embrace the truths of Christianity — when they 
 do all these, we say, and when they have undergone a com- 
 plete transformation, then, and only then, shall we pro- 
 gressive Africans join in wedlock with them (the Asiatic 
 Indians), but not before. It is we Africans who will have 
 nothing to do with the Indian Coolies as far as intermarriage 
 is concerned. And we say, in conclusion, that * the two 
 races' — that is, the African and the Asiatic Coolie — are 
 only too truly ' more absolutely apart than the white and 
 
 * One may use either ' blacking ' or 'blackening,' for which 
 see Webster's International Dictionary, Johnson's English Dic- 
 tionary, or Chamber's English Dictionary. 
 
THE AFRICO-AMERICAN. 27 
 
 the black' in Trinidad. Whatever the attitude of the African 
 towards the Asiatic, and the Asiatic towards the African, may 
 be in Trinidad, in the British West Indies it is not a hostile 
 one. Let us leave the African and the Asiatic in Trinidad, 
 and view them elsewhere. Let us for a moment consider 
 the condition of the Asiatic and the African in Asia. 
 
 Are Mr. Clowes and Mr. Froude aware that there are 
 thousands of Africans in Asia, particularly in Arabia and 
 India ? Are they aware that, when the Indian Mutiny 
 broke out, and throughout the year it lasted, the Nizam of 
 Hyderabad, with a splendid force of 100,000 soldiers, of 
 whom the best and the most efficient and bravest were 
 Africans, held, with the greatest facility, the southern 
 portion of India for the British ; and that if the Nizam, 
 the most powerful prince of the most powerful native 
 State in India, had but joined the Sepoys, the British 
 Empire would have crumbled to pieces? Is Mr. Clowes 
 and is Mr. Froude aware that the best officers and the 
 best soldiers in the present Nizam of Hyderabad's Army 
 are African Mahommedans ? 
 
 Are they aware that an African, in the ninth century, 
 reigned and ruled as Khalif at Bagdad ?* Are they aware 
 that the Great Asiatic, Mahommed, had as Crier or Herald 
 an African ?t Are they aware that more than three-fourths 
 of the Africans of Africa are Mahommedans, and were 
 converted by Asiatics ? 
 
 * ' Ibn Khallikan's Biographical Dictionary,' translated from 
 the Arabic by Baron Mac Guckin de Slane, vol. i., pp. 16, 17, 
 18 and 19. 
 
 t Muir's ' Life of Mahomet,' vol. iii., p. 54. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 IS UNCLE REMUS INFERIOR TO THE CAUCASIAN? 
 
 When given the same advantages, the African can always 
 hold his own with the Caucasian, and is in no way inferior 
 to him. We have shown our strength in the past, and 
 have produced our scholars, as we are doing at the present 
 time. We have ourselves witnessed the proud and glorious 
 spectacle of black scholars snatching away prizes which 
 their white confreres thought were within their easy grasp. 
 There are those who do not think thus, however, but 
 regard us as mentally inferior. Those who do are, as a 
 rule, very ignorant concerning the achievements of the 
 Africans in all the various branches of knowledge — of both 
 arts and sciences. Indeed, Laird Clowes throughout his 
 book displays' the greatest ignorance respecting the past 
 and present history of Africans. He applies the term 
 ' childish ' to the African ; but that term only reveals the 
 ignorance of the man who uses it. Even Froude has not 
 displayed so much ignorance as Laird Clowes, though 
 Froude's knowledge is within very narrow limitations. 
 
 This is what Laird Clowes says on page 76 of his ^ Black 
 America ' : 'No one who has associated much with the 
 Negro race can have failed to have remarked that in the 
 natural time of childhood the Negro is apparently as 
 vivacious and as intelligent as the white. With the 
 approach of puberty, however, the two races begin to betray 
 
UNCLE REMUS AND THE CAUCASIAN. 29 
 
 marked intellectual divergence. The white steadily pro- 
 gresses in intelligence, the black stops short ; so that in a 
 few years the latter is by comparison dull, stupid, and in- 
 dolent, though still frivolous, affectionate, good-natured, and 
 mischievous. I speak, of course, of the average Negro, and 
 more especially of the full-blooded one. There are ex- 
 ceptions, but they are few. As a rule, the grown Negro, 
 even if he have received a better education than the 
 majority of his fellows, is in mind always a child.' In brief, 
 Mr. Clowes is of opinion that the Ethiopian is in nature 
 inferior to the Caucasian. 
 
 We Africans, who claim the extinct Carthaginians as our 
 
 countrymen, cannot be inferior. Does Mr. Clowes know 
 
 the part that Carthage played in the world's history ? Her 
 
 part was a most distinguished one. Carthage was the 
 
 greatest State that ever existed in Africa, We all know 
 
 that the Romans never encountered a mightier nation in 
 
 arms than the Carthaginian. They disputed the empire of 
 
 the world with the Romans. But some people say that the 
 
 Carthaginians were not of the Ethiopian, but of the Semitic 
 
 stock. Now, we all know that the Carthaginians were of 
 
 Phoenician origin, and we are also aware that the Phoenicians 
 
 were the descendants of the Canaanites, and often styled 
 
 themselves Canaanites ; as we also know that the Canaanites 
 
 were the descendants of Canaan, who was a son of Ham, who 
 
 was the founder of the African Ethiopian Race. Then, by 
 
 their being the descendants of Ham, the Carthaginians must 
 
 have belonged to the Ethiopian stock. The Carthaginians 
 
 were inferior to none of the nations of the ancient world in 
 
 ability. 
 
 By the way, those who say that the Carthaginians were of 
 Semitic origin allege that the Bible is wrong in classing 
 Canaan amongst the sons of Ham ; and that Sidon, the 
 Hethite, the founder of the Phoenicians, and Canaan's first- 
 born son, was not a descendant of Ham. We say that if 
 
30 
 
 THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA. 
 
 objections be taken to that part of the Bible in which the 
 statement is made concerning Canaan, that he was a son of 
 Ham, what objections may not be taken to other parts of 
 the book when it treats of other historical facts ? If we 
 believe in one part, we ought to believe in another part, or 
 discard the Bible altogether. We believe the Bible to be 
 quite correct in giving Canaan as a son of Ham. Besides, 
 it is not given to the white man to lay down the law to the 
 African in the matter of Ethnography. The African can 
 see and reason for himself. 
 
 To resume. The Carthaginian navy was the best the 
 ancient world ever saw. Carthage produced men like 
 Hamilcar Barca, who, as a statesman and soldier, was 
 second only to his son Hannibal the Great, amongst the 
 great men of Carthage. Carthage also produced Hasdrubal, 
 the son-in-law of Hamilcar Barca, and he (Hasdrubal) was 
 a capable soldier, but a more distinguished statesman. 
 Carthage gave birth also to the brothers Barcidae, Hannibal, 
 Hasdrubal, and Mago, the ' lion's broods ' of Hamilcar 
 Barca. The three sons of Hamilcar whom we have just 
 mentioned were distinguished for soldiership and states- 
 manship, but the eldest of them, Hannibal, was the greatest 
 man that Carthage ever produced. The Romans, it is a 
 matter of history, never had a more formidable foe to 
 contend with. He it was who maintained himself for 
 sixteen years in Italy, in the enemy's country, with a mixed 
 army of Africans, Gauls, Spaniards, Ligurians, etc., unaided 
 and unsupported by his country, because of party strife at 
 home. Hannibal the Great is entitled to rank with 
 Alexander, Caesar, and Napoleon, both as a soldier and as 
 a statesman. Alexander was in some respects inferior to 
 Hannibal ; and it is a moot point with historians whether 
 Julius Caesar and Napoleon were really greater than the 
 Carthaginian Hannibal. 
 
UNCLE REMUS AND THE CAUCASIAN 31 
 
 If the Carthaginians had belonged to an inferior race, 
 they would never have played such a prominent part as they 
 have done in the world's history. 
 
 The mother-country and parent of Carthage, Phoenicia 
 (which consisted of Sidon, Tyre, Aradus, etc.), was not very 
 inferior to Carthage, and it also occupies a distinguished 
 place in ancient history. The Phoenicians were the 
 descendants of Sidon the Hethite, who was the first-born 
 of Canaan, who was the youngest son of Ham. The Empire 
 of the Phoenicians was a mighty one, and their navy was 
 formidable. If the Phoenicians had been an inferior race, 
 they would never have attained such greatness in the olden 
 times as they did. Does not the Bible give the country 
 and city of Nineveh, the country of the Philistines, and the 
 colossal Babylon as belonging also to the children of Ham ? 
 And Nineveh and the Philistines were renowned, while the 
 Babylonian Empire, at least, equalled that of Carthage. 
 
 The Moors of Morocco are the descendants of Asiatics 
 and Africans, and they are the persons whose ancestors 
 introduced the manufacture of cotton, wool, sugar, silk, 
 and other things into Spain and Portugal,"^ when 
 those countries fell before their conquering arms in the 
 years 710 and 711 a.d. Nor did the ancestors of these 
 same Moors quit Spain and Portugal until the year 1609 of 
 our era. Those who disparage the African forget that the 
 great and illustrious geometrician, Euclid, was an African 
 and an Ethiopian ; that P. Terentius Afer, commonly called 
 Terence, the friend and associate of P. Cornehus Scipio, the 
 African (Africanus), and Laelius, who from being a slave 
 became an eminent Latin Author, was not only an African , 
 but an Ethiopian.! Victor I., who succeeded Eleutherius as 
 Pope of Rome about 185 a.d., and died about 197 a.d., 
 
 * ' Encyclopsedia Britannica.' 
 
 t Gr^goire's ' Enquiry on Africans,' p. 45. 
 
32 THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA. 
 
 could hardly have been of any other race than the African- 
 Ethiopian. At any rate, it is certain that he was a native of 
 Africa. He could not have been childish, nor could his 
 talents have been in any way of an inferior order, or the 
 European — the Italian — ecclesiastical dignitaries, the 
 College of Cardinals, would not have made him Pope. 
 
 Aurelius Augustinus, better known as St. Augustine, who 
 was born at Tagaste, now called Tajelt, in Northern Africa, 
 and who was afterwards Bishop of Hippo, could not have 
 been of European origin, or a descendant of Shem ; at all 
 events, there are no records extant to show that he was of 
 European or Asiatic parentage ; and we must, p7-ima facie, 
 as he was born in Africa, take for granted that he was an 
 Ethiopian. He was one of the most illustrious Fathers of 
 the Catholic Church, and was even more distinguished than 
 Ambrose, Jerome, or Gregory the Great, his great European 
 colleagues. He wrote some forty theological works, some 
 of them of permanent value. St. Augustine lived from 354 
 to 430 A.D., and is held in high honour by all good and true 
 Catholics, and by other Christians. Such a man could not 
 have had talents of an inferior order. The Catholic Order 
 of Augustinians derives its name from this illustrious St. 
 Augustine. 
 
 The next greatest African theologian was undoubtedly 
 Tertullian, who was a priest of Carthage, and lived in the 
 third century, and was an eminent author, the best known 
 of his works being the 'Apology' and the 'Prescriptions.' 
 Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage, who lived in the third century, 
 who perished as a martyr under Valerian, was of African 
 origin, and takes his place next to Augustine and Tertullian 
 among the eminent uninspired writers and saintly men who 
 are of African birth. 
 
 Origen of Alexandria was a very prolific and distin- 
 guished author, who wrote many more books than even 
 
I^s.' 
 
 UNCLE REMUS AND THE CAUCASIAN. 33 
 
 ugustine. Indeed, we do not believe that there ever 
 existed a more prolific author in ancient or modern times 
 than Origen. 
 
 Clemens Alexandrinus, who was born about the middle of 
 the second century, and wrote thirty books ; Cyril of Alex- 
 andria ; Monica, the mother of St. Augustine ; Leonidas, the 
 father of Origen ; Perpetua and Felicitas, who suffered martyr- 
 dom under Septimius Severus ; Theophilus of Alexandria : 
 were all Africans, and their careers were distinguished ones. 
 
 Were all these men and women, then, ' dull, stupid and 
 indolent,' or did they ' stop short ' after attaining puberty ? 
 Was every one, or any one, of those just mentioned ' in 
 mind always a child ' ? 
 
 Would the grateful and impulsive French general Laveaux, 
 after he was (as the result of a conspiracy) arrested at Cape 
 Town, in Hayti, and then released by Toussaint L'Ouverture, 
 full of enthusiasm and admiration for his black deliverer, 
 have proclaimed him the protector of Frenchmen and the 
 avenger of the constituted authorities, and created him first 
 a general of brigade, next a general of division, and subse- 
 quently commander-in-chief of the French forces of San 
 Domingo, if Toussaint the Great had been ' dull, stupid and 
 indolent '? 
 
 Surely the Frenchmen who drove the English from France 
 (a.d. 145 1 ) in the reign of Henry VI., and finally wrested 
 Calais from the grasp of the First Mary; and who recaptured 
 Toulon in 1793 from the Britishers; and who, in 1794, 
 chased the allied British and Austrians, under York, out of 
 Flanders and Holland ; and who inflicted the humiliating 
 and disastrous defeat on the British and Austrians at Fon- 
 tenoy, in 1745, must be supposed to know how to choose 
 th*^ir commanders. And these same Frenchmen made 
 Toussaint the Great, an African, commander-in-chief of San 
 Domingo and of the French army therein. Yes ; Toussaint 
 
 3 
 
34 THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA. 
 
 L'Ouverture, who gave freedom and practical independence 
 to his Haytian nation, and under whom agriculture and 
 commerce flourished, and the arts of peace and good 
 government were encouraged, could not have been ' dull, 
 stupid and indolent,' nor could he have been ' in mind a 
 child' 
 
 Was Dessalines (who afterwards ascended the Haytian 
 throne as Jacques I., Emperor of the Haytians), who, after 
 he had seen Toussaint L'Ouverture treacherously seized and 
 conveyed as a prisoner to France by the perfidious French, 
 organized a Haytian National Army to regain the Inde- 
 pendence which Toussaint had practically given them, to 
 punish the French, if possible, for their perfidy and treachery, 
 * in mind a child,' or was he ' dull, stupid and indolent '? 
 
 Was that same eminent Dessalines, who, when he saw that 
 fortune was doubtful, and that there was an uncertainty of 
 his successfully coping with the French with his thin lines of 
 Haytians, sent ambassadors to his native Africa to the courts 
 of its princes, to ask for a reinforcement of Africans, ' stern 
 and wild '? He knew how to fight in the cause of freedom 
 and independence, and he succeeded in driving away the 
 French from San Domingo, and regaining the Independence 
 for his Fatherland ; and was he ' dull, stupid and indolent ? 
 
 Was Christophe (afterwards Henri L, second Emperor of 
 the Haytians), who, when he perceived that the scheming 
 Frenchmen were taking advantage of dissensions in Hayti, 
 and were trying to regain San Domingo, had the good sense, 
 patriotism and statesmanship to make overtures for a truce, 
 and sink his differences with his rival Petion, and unite his 
 forces with those of the latter to defend his Fatherland 
 against the encroachments of the Gaul, ' dull, stupid and 
 indolent,' or was he ' in mind a child ? Was Petion ' dull, 
 stupid and indolent,' and ' in mind a child,' for accepting 
 Christophe's overtures ? Geoffrey L'Islet, who was an 
 
I 
 
 UNCLE REMUS AND THE CAUCASIAN. 35 
 
 artillery officer m the French army, who founded a scientific 
 society in Mauritius, when that island belonged to France, 
 who, it is on record, although he had very few facilities for 
 acquiring know^ledge, and never set his foot in Europe, was 
 an accomplished astronomer, was a skilful botanist, and 
 excelled in natural philosophy and geometry j and who, in 
 1786, was appointed correspondent in Mauritius by that 
 illustrious body, the French Academy of Sciences ; who was 
 also a hydrographer of the first class, and a skilful meteorolo- 
 gist ; and whose works on astronomy received official recog- 
 nition by the French Government in 1791, could not have 
 been ' dull, stupid and indolent.' And he was an African. 
 
 Antony William Amo, an African, born in African Guinea, 
 about the year 1703; who in 1729 published his ' De Jure 
 Maurorum,' and in 1734 published another physiological 
 dissertation ; who in the latter year (1734) graduated as 
 Doctor in Philosophy at the University of Wittemburg, in 
 Germany ; who spoke Hebrew, Greek, Latin, German, 
 French, and Dutch ; who was an accomplished astronomer ; 
 who was afterwards made Councillor of State by the Court 
 of Berlin, could not have been 'dull, stupid, and indolent.' 
 And he was a full-blooded African. 
 
 Johann Friedrich Blumenbach, the eminent German, 
 who was a Member of the Academy of Sciences of Paris, 
 and physician to the Third Hanoverian George of Great 
 Britain and Ireland, it is said, recognised the great abilities 
 of the African, and eulogized the West African, Antony 
 WiUiam Amo. 
 
 Another African, and full-blooded Ethiopian, was Benjamin 
 Banneker, of EUicott's Mills, in County Baltimore, in the 
 State of Maryland, in the United States. He takes rank as 
 an astronomerwith other great astronomers the world has pro- 
 duced, and could not have been * dull, stupid, and indolent.' 
 
 But what men of letters and arts has Africa not pro- 
 
 3—2 
 
36 THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA. 
 
 duced ? Toussaint L'Ouverture was himself an author, for 
 he wrote a Memoir of his Life. 
 
 Phillis Wheatley, the African Poetess of Boston, Massachu- 
 setts, was born in Africa about 1754 ; she was a full-blooded 
 African, and, like Toussaint the Great, Dessalines, Chris- 
 tophe, Amo, Banneker, and others, she was a slave. She 
 wrote several poems before she was seventeen, which 
 attracted and received the approbation of eminent scholars, 
 and became bard to Selina, Countess of Huntingdon, who 
 founded the branch of the Church now known by the name 
 of the 'Countess of Huntingdon's Connexion.' Phillis 
 Wheatley published several poems, and wrote a monody 
 on George Whitefield's death. She was a full-blooded 
 African, and very patriotic, and she died in 1784. Wheatley 
 is not the only poet that Africa has produced, but she is 
 perhaps the best. At any rate, her name is in the front 
 rank of African poets. We now ask the reader, AVas Phillis 
 Wheatley, the contemporary of Benjamin Franklin, who 
 received the patronage of Selina, Countess of Huntingdon, 
 and the admiration of John Wesley, ' dull, stupid, and in- 
 dolent,' or was she ' in mind a child '? Supposing she were 
 * in mind a child,' then she could have been ' in mind' only 
 the ' poetic child,' to use the language of Sir Walter Scott. 
 Africa, 'stern and wild,' was her 'meet nurse.' Was that 
 Africo-Frenchman, General of Division Alexandre Dumas, 
 who was surnamed by the first Napoleon the ' Horatius 
 Codes of the Tyrol,' and who died in 1807, 'dull, stupid, 
 and indolent,' or was he ' in mind a child ' ? Was that dis- 
 tinguished novelist, dramatist, and romancer, his son, 
 Alexandre Davy Dumas /^r^, who flourished from 1802 to 
 1870, and who wrote 'Monte Cristo,' 'The Three Mus- 
 keteers,' and a vast number of novels, dramas, and romances 
 too numerous to mention, ' dull, stupid, and indolent,' or 
 was he ' in mind a child ' ? And are the children of the 
 
UNCLE REMUS AND THE CAUCASIAN. 37 
 
 last-named (Alexandre Davy Dumas p^re)^ and grand- 
 children of the first-named (Alexandre Dumas, General of 
 Division), Madame Petel, the romancer, and Alexandre 
 Davy Dumas fils, novelist, romancer, and dramatist, who 
 wrote ' La Dame aux Camelias,' and sundry other able 
 works, ' dull, stupid, and indolent,' or are they ' in mind 
 children ' ? 
 
 The same comments and remarks will apply to the 
 African poet, Ignatius Sancho, who was, it is said, 
 the correspondent and contemporary of Laurence Sterne, 
 of ' Tristram Shandy ' and ' Sentimental Journey through 
 France and Italy' celebrity, as well as to the Cuban 
 Placido, the African Poet-Patriot ; to the Africo-American 
 poet Caesar, who was born in North Carolina ; to Capitien, 
 who wrote Latin in both prose and verse, and was, like 
 Phillis Wheatley, noted for his saintly life ; to the 
 African poet, Francis Williams, who was, it was said, a 
 protege of one of the Dukes of Montague ; to the poets 
 Mrs. Harper, Miss Watkins, and James Whitbread; and 
 also to the Kafir Poet-Chief Suana. 
 
 These are not the only celebrities the' African race has 
 produced. The good people of Glasgow, we do not doubt, 
 retain the memory of Dr. James McClure or McCune. 
 Smith, an African, who, when he graduated in medi- 
 cine in the Scottish commercial metropolis, earned the 
 distinction of bearing away the first prize from five hundred 
 University of Glasgow alumni. He was not * dull, stupid, 
 and indolent,' nor was he 'in mind a child,' but was 
 enabled to defeat the Scotchmen on their own soil and in 
 their own University. 
 
 Give Africans the same chances as Caucasians, and the 
 descendants of Ham will more than hold their own against 
 Japheth's descendants ; they will not ' stop short.' 
 
 But, we ask, has Laird Clowes, and other disparagers of 
 
38 THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA. 
 
 the African, ever heard of such men as Thomas Fuller the 
 great Arithmetician ; James Derham, a very distinguished 
 Physician of New Orleans ; Samuel Ringgold Ward of 
 Toronto, Ontario, Can., the brilliant Abolitionist, Orator, 
 and Clergyman, who was for two and a half years (from 
 April, 1 841) the black Pastor of the white Congregational 
 Church of South Butler, Wayne Co., N.Y, ; Thomas 
 Jenkins; James William Charles Pennington, D.D. ; Henry 
 Highland Garnett ; Alexander Crummell ; Thomas Sipkins 
 Sidney ; Amos G. Beman ; Madison M. Clarke ; Charles 
 Lewis Reason ; Patrick Henry Reason ; James Forten ; 
 Theodore Sedgewick Wright ; Samuel Todd ; William 
 Hamilton ; Richard Allen ; John Gloucester ; Peter Wil- 
 liams ; George Hogarth ; Samuel E. Cornish ; Jehiel C. 
 Beeman; Stephen Smith; Timothy Este; William Whipper; 
 Pory-Papy, who was the Deputy for the Colony of Marti- 
 nique in the French National Assembly in 1872 ; William 
 Wells Brown; Henry Bibb; Roper; Christopher Rush; 
 Robert Morris ; Macon Bolden Allen ; John V. Degrasse ; 
 Thdmas Joiner White ; William G. Allen ; George B. 
 Vashon ; William Douglass ; William Paul Quinn ; Daniel 
 A. Poyne ; William H. Bishop ; WiUiam Howard Day ; 
 John J. Gains; Charles Mercer Longston ; William J. 
 Watkins; C. E. Taylor; Ralph Taylor; Tanner; C. H. 
 Thompson, D.D., of Newark, New Jersey; John M. 
 Brown ; James Johnson ; George T. Downing — all eminent 
 scholars and philosophers and optiinates of our (African) 
 Race and the world ? 
 
 Blyden, on whose authority these names are given (see 
 ' Christianity, Islam, and the Negro Race,' by Dr. E. W. 
 Blyden), also notices, on the authority of Muir, that 
 Mahommed's first Muezzin, or Crier, was an African, Billal 
 by name. He mentions, too, a celebrated African Khalif, 
 who reigned at Bagdad in the ninth century ; and on the 
 
UNCLE REMUS AND THE CAUCASIAN. 39 
 
 authority of Ibn Khallikan, one Abu'l-Aswad is said to 
 have been the first to reduce to system the Arabic language. 
 
 Another distinguished Ethiopian, whose name might have 
 been previously given, is the Africo-American, George W. 
 Williams, who is perhaps the only African who has attained 
 high military rank in the American army. He played a 
 distinguished part in the late American Civil War, as an 
 officer of the Federal Army of the North ; was a member of 
 the Ohio Legislature, and Judge-Advocate of the Grand 
 Army of the Republic of Ohio, and is an eminent author. 
 
 The thirteen rulers of the Haytians were not ' dull, 
 stupid, and indolent,' nor is the present President of Hayti, 
 General L. M. F. Hippolyte, who is a man of distinguished 
 parts, and has many admirers amongst Caucasians. Like- 
 wise the Presidents of Liberia were men of distinguished 
 ability. The present President of Liberia is Mr. J. H. R. 
 W. Johnson, who was repeatedly elected to the office, the 
 people thereby showing the confidence they placed in him. 
 He is also a distinguished and able man. It would be 
 absurd to apply the term ' dull, stupid and indolent ' to 
 him ; it would be an insult. Joseph Jenkins Roberts, the 
 first President of Liberia, who was more than twice re- 
 elected to the office by his fellow-citizens, was a man of the 
 greatest ability : we doubt whether Liberia has ever had a 
 more distinguished man as her President; and he was — like 
 Toussaint, the first President of Hayti — born a slave ; but 
 he could not have been ' dull, stupid, and indolent,' nor 
 could he have been ' in mind a child.' We dare say 
 Messrs. Hyde, Hodge, and Co., of London, contractors with 
 Her Britannic Majesty's Aberdeen Government, under- 
 rated the powers and capacities of the great Roberts, and 
 thought him ' dull, stupid, and indolent,' and ' in mind a 
 child,' for the aforesaid gentlemen, who held a contract 
 with Lord Aberdeen's Government for furnishing African 
 
40 THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA. 
 
 labourers to the West Indies, sent, in 1853, some of their 
 ships to the coast of the Liberian Republic in quest of 
 labourers, at the same time offering an advance of ten 
 dollars to anyone who might be induced to emigrate. Presi- 
 dent Roberts was sufficiently astute to perceive that Messrs. 
 Hyde, Hodge, and Co., the contractors, were trying to 
 revive slavery and the slave-trade ; and by Proclamation 
 the great Roberts put a veto on all emigration from the 
 Liberian Republic, and warned the agents of Messrs. Hyde, 
 Hodge, and Co. off his shores."* Joseph Jenkins Roberts, 
 one of the fathers of Liberia, and one of the authors of its 
 Independence, died on February 25, 1874. 
 
 George William Gordon, the Leader of the Opposition to 
 Colonel Eyre's Government in Jamaica ; Richard Hill, 
 Edward Jordan, Peter Moncrieff, were all of Jamaica, and 
 were eminent statesmen, but they were Africans ; these were 
 not ' dull, stupid and indolent,' nor were they ' in mind 
 children.' 
 
 Would Mitchell Maxwell Phillip have been appointed 
 Solicitor-General of Trinidad had he been ' dull, stupid and 
 indolent '? Or if he were ' in mind a child '.? Small credit 
 would be given to the British Government if it appointed an 
 African to a Government post who was ' dull, stupid and 
 indolent,' or who was ' in mind a child.' Maxwell Phillip was 
 not only a law officer of the Crown, but he was a legislator, 
 and figured as an author, but he was an African. The late 
 Mr. John Jacob Thomas, whom we knew personally, was a 
 grammarian and author. It was his pen that supplied a 
 long-felt want of those who were ignorant of the French 
 Creole patois. The 'Creole Grammar,' by John Jacob 
 Thomas, was published not many years ago. 
 
 When we referred to the statesmen of Liberia, we might 
 have mentioned the illustrious, the immortal Hilary Tange, 
 
 * See Proclamation of February 26, 1853. 
 
k 
 
 UNCLE REMUS AND THE CAUCASIAN. 41 
 
 late Secretary of State of the Liberian Republic. He was 
 one of the founders of Liberian Independence, and takes 
 rank with Joseph Jenkins Roberts, James Spriggs Payne, 
 A. VV. Gardner (who was dubbed Knight of the Grand 
 Cross of the Royal Order of Isabel the Catholic by the late 
 King Alfonso XII. of Spain), and the present President ot 
 Liberia, J. Hilary R. W. Johnson. Another great Liberian 
 is Professor Edward W. Blyden, M.A., D.D., LL.D., who 
 figured as a Member of more than one Liberian Govern- 
 ment. He is certainly not ' dull, stupid and indolent' 
 And he is a full-blooded African. 
 
 Though thirty years have not elapsed since the Africo- 
 Americans were given their freedom, they have produced 
 such men as E. D. Bassett, J. U. Langston, J. E. W. 
 Thompson, who were formerly United States Ministers to 
 Hayti. Would such men, were they 'dull, stupid and 
 indolent,' or 'in mind children,' have been appointed 
 Ministers to Hayti, to represent a great Republic like that of 
 the United States ? Would the United States Government 
 have appointed Frederick Douglass, the present Minister of 
 Hayti. to that post were he 'dull, stupid and indolent'? 
 The American Government appointed these four men to the 
 American Ministership of Hayti because they believed they 
 were capable men. But these are not the only men who 
 have come forward with Africo- American Emancipation. 
 Pinchback, Lieutenant-Governor of Louisiana ; B. K. Bruce, 
 of Mississippi ; and R. B. Elliott, formerly Members of 
 Congress; the Right Reverend H. M. Turner, D.D., LL.D., 
 of Atlanta, Georgia, Bishop of the Africo- American Metho- 
 dist Church, who was in 1876 appointed Vice-President of 
 the American Colonization Society; the Right Reverend 
 Petre, Bishop of the Africo- American Methodist Episcopal 
 Church, are all prominent men who have come to the front 
 since the Emancipation. These ornaments of the African- 
 
42 THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA. 
 
 Ethiopian Race are not ' dull, stupid, and indolent,' nor ' in 
 mind children.' They are ' affectionate,' but not ' frivolous 
 and mischievous,' nor are those whom we have previously 
 enumerated 'frivolous and mischievous.' Because he could 
 not bear the hardships of slavery, and because his brethren 
 in Canada were enjoying the boon of freedom under the 
 Union Jack, young Hawkins fled from the slaveholding 
 South, and marched to Canada. The Right Reverend 
 gentleman, Bishop Walter Hawkins, of the Africo-British 
 Methodist Episcopal Church in Canada, who escaped from 
 slavery, is a full-blooded African. He has now reached the 
 age of the psalmist — the hearty and hale old age of fourscore. 
 There are twenty thousand Africans in Canada belonging to 
 his diocese. He is a genial old man, and pleasant-faced. 
 
 The race which can produce the Honourable Sir William 
 Conrad Reeves, Knt., Chief Justice of the Colony of Bar- 
 badoes; His Worship Hendrik Vroom, District Commis- 
 sioner of Secondee, in the Gold Coast ; His Worship 
 Augustus William Thompson, District Commissioner of the 
 Gold Coast ; and His Worship D. B. Yorke, also District 
 Commissioner in the same Colony ; the Honourable J. R. 
 Maxwell, M.A., B.C.L., Chief Magistrate of the Gambia ; 
 His Worship L. P. Pierre, Magistrate of Arima and Blan- 
 chisseuse, in the Colony of Trinidad ; with but fifty-three 
 years of British African Emancipation, argues well in favour 
 of the progress the African has made and is making.* 
 
 * Mention may also be made of His Honour Francis Smith, 
 Puisne Judge of the Colony of Gold Coast ; the Honourable 
 Charles Pike, C.M.G., Colonial Treasurer of the Colony 
 of Gold Coast ; J. H. Spayne, Colonial Postmaster-General of 
 Sierra Leone ; Roland Cole, Colonial Postmaster-General of 
 Gold Coast ; J. C. Parkes, Minister for Native Affairs in the 
 Colony of Sierra Leone ; James A. McCarthy, LL.B., Queen's 
 Advocate of the Colony of Sierra Leone ; Archdeacon Robbin, 
 the right-hand man and able lieutenant of the white Bishop of 
 
UNCLE REMUS AND THE CAUCASIAN. 43 
 
 This shows that the African is not ' dull^ stupid, and in- 
 dolent,' nor is he ' in mind a child,' as Laird Clowes would 
 like to make out. If these men were 'dull, stupid, and 
 indolent,' 'in mind children,' 'frivolous and mischievous,' 
 it is not likely that the British Government would have 
 honoured them with their suffrages and patronage ; and 
 even if we could suppose that they had degenerated into 
 those weaknesses since they received their respective 
 appointments, we may be sure that they would have been 
 sent about their business by the British Government long 
 since. 
 
 Nor have we Africans ' stopped short,' producing as we 
 do still similar men of distinction. That the African is 
 often a property-holder, a clergyman, a lawyer, a dentist, a 
 doctor .; that he is often a merchant, an engineer, has 
 medical schools and colleges, law schools and colleges, 
 theological schools and colleges, public and normal 
 schools, colleges of arts and sciences, schools for secondary 
 education, and commercial schools ; that he is often a 
 mechanic, and has Reformed, Episcopal, Presbyterian, 
 Methodist, Baptist, and Roman Catholic churches and 
 chapels — all testify that the African is not ' dull, stupid, 
 and indolent,' but is progressive, and, moreover, marching 
 
 Sierra Leone, the Right Rev. Ernest Graham Ingham, D.D. ; 
 Archdeacon Crowther ; Dr. Esmon, Senior Assistant-Surgeon of 
 the Colony of Gold Coast ; Drs. J. S. Smith and Papafio, 
 Assistant-Surgeons of the Gold Coast Colony; Dr. Wm. Renner, 
 Senior Assistant- Surgeon of Sierra Leone Colony ; Dr. Garrett, 
 Assistant Colonial Surgeon of Sierra Leone ; Drs. J. Rendell and 
 O. Johnson, Assistant Colonial Surgeons of Lagos ; Charles 
 Barnes, Colonial Engineer and Assistant Surveyor of the Gold 
 Coast ; O. Morre, a Professor, and the Principal of the Colonial 
 Grammar School of Sierra Leone ; the Honourable Samuel 
 Lewis, Syble Boyle and T. J. Sawyer, Members of the Legis - 
 lative Council of Sierra Leone, and others. 
 
44 THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA, 
 
 on to claim equality with other races. These are recognised 
 and admitted facts. 
 
 But what says Laird Clowes? On page 76 are these 
 words : ' The black stops short, and is dull, stupid, and in- 
 dolent, as well as frivolous and mischievous, and in mind a 
 child.' This we have sufficiently refuted ; but, on page 116 
 of his ' Black America,' does he contradict himself or con- 
 firm his previous statement ? He says : ' Educationally the 
 Coloured man' (z>., the African) 'has undoubtedly made 
 great progress since his Emancipation. In the slavery 
 days ignorance was imposed by law upon the slave.' We 
 take it that as the 'African has undoubtedly made great 
 progress since his Emancipation,' he cannot have ' stopped 
 short,' nor is he ' dull, stupid, and indolent,' especially when 
 we know that ' in the slavery days ignorance was imposed 
 by law upon the slave.' Why should Laird Clowes confuse 
 his readers ? why does he not say what he means ? Why 
 does he say one thing on one page (76), and, apparently, 
 another thing on another page (116) ? 
 
 Again, there is another way of showing that we Africans 
 have not ' stopped short,' and are not ' dull, stupid, and 
 indolent.' We argue from the fact that, though the sun of 
 sixty years of Emancipation has not yet set over our heads, 
 we are already permitted to marry our rulers ; surely that 
 speaks volumes. Such a thing could not have happened 
 in the slavery days ; but it does happen to-day. ' There 
 was a time when such a thing was not heard of There 
 is a secret behind this fact ; we suspect it is the growing 
 appreciation which the white Juliet has for the African 
 Romeo, as he becomes more and more intelligent and 
 educated and refined.' The Romans entertained the 
 greatest antipathy to intermarriage with their British sub- 
 jects, on account of their inferiority, and their tendency to 
 retrogradation ; but Caucasians, and more particularly the 
 
UNCLE REMUS AND THE CAUCASIAN. 45 
 
 leading Caucasian races, i.e., the Saxon and the Gallic, 
 intermarry with Africans who are black — yes, black, it is 
 true, but ' black and comely.' And if proof were required 
 to show that black is as good a colour for humanity as the 
 white, surely the fact that the whites, who are the ruling 
 race, marry their black subjects, proves it, and speaks 
 volumes for the African. The British, moreover, did not 
 produce one single learned man when they were under the 
 Roman rule, from the time of the landing of Julius Caesar, 
 in the year 55 b.c, up to the year, say, 650 a.d., when 
 England was under the rule of the third Bretwalda, King 
 Ethelbert of Kent — that is, a period covering 705 years. 
 The earliest writer was Gildas of Dumbarton, a Scotchman, 
 but the earliest English writer, Casdmon of Whitby, did 
 not write until several years after Gildas of Dumbarton. 
 
 But Africans have been far quicker in taking advantage 
 of civilization than the British were, yet we do not call the 
 British ' dull, stupid, and indolent.' 
 
 Speaking under the heading of his so-called ' Ideal 
 Solution,' Laird Clowes (page 199) says : 'One of the most 
 conspicuous characteristics of the Negro is, as I have 
 already had to point out, his childishness. Referring to 
 the Negroes of Africa, Mr. H. M. Stanley, writing in 
 December last (1890) to the Titnes, said : " If one regards 
 these natives as mere brutes, then the same annoyances 
 that their follies and vices inflict are, indeed, intolerable. 
 In order to rule them, and to keep one's life amongst them, 
 it is needful resolutely to regard them as children, who 
 require, indeed, different methods of rule from English or 
 American citizens, but who must be ruled in precisely the 
 same spirit, with the same absence of caprice and anger, 
 the same essential respect to our fellow-men." 
 
 ' Another recent writer has said of them (the Negroes) : 
 " They are children — children naughty or children good ; 
 
46 THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA. 
 
 pleased or angry ; children to be ruled firmly, treated 
 kindly — but always at bottom children." ' 
 
 With regard to the latter part of Mr. Clowes's quotation, 
 i.e., his quotation of 'Another recent writer 'on the childish- 
 ness of the African, the author of ' Black America ' is 
 prudent enough to conceal the identity of this ' Another 
 recent writer,' and consequently we are quite in the dark 
 as to his status, and as to his qualification thus to give an 
 opinion of the Africans. We therefore, as a matter of 
 course, ignore the opinion of this 'Another recent writer,' 
 which is valueless until we can measure the extent of his 
 knowledge and authority. But have we not in the pre- 
 ceding pages sufficiently shown to Laird Clowes, or anyone 
 else, that the African is not childish, if this word refers to 
 the mental ability of the race } 
 
 With H. M. Stanley, however, we must deal; and we 
 shall endeavour to show that Stanley's opinion of the 
 Africans counts for very little, and is not to be trusted, 
 because he has a bad record, and is therefore disqualified 
 from speaking authoritatively on the qualities of the race 
 which he has thought fit thus to libel. And we shall show 
 that he has a bad record, as far as the Africans are con- 
 cerned, in two ways. In the first place, Stanley ill-treated 
 the Africans in Africa : it is the very Africans who were his 
 victims whom he has thought fit maliciously to libel. In 
 the next place, Stanley, with the Emin Pasha Relief 
 Expedition, plunged into the heart of the forest and the 
 desert of Africa with such alacrity and perseverance, not 
 from zealous philanthropy or for scientific purposes, but 
 for political purposes. Stanley was only too evidently 
 actuated by desire for fame, and perhaps for wealth. 
 
 The disgraceful dispute about the Rear-guard horrors, 
 which began immediately after Stanley's triumphal entry 
 into Britain, after his being dined and feted on an extensive 
 
UNCLE REMUS AND THE CAUCASIAN. 47 
 
 scale ; after he had received the patronage of Oxford and 
 Cambridge, and the freedom and degrees of their respective 
 Universities ; and, in brief, after he had been made much 
 of — fairly took the world by surprise, and certainly scandal- 
 ized it. When the cannibal stories, and Stanley's other 
 misdeeds, were first bruited about, a loud howl of indigna- 
 tion was raised, not only throughout the length and breadth 
 of the United Kingdom, but also throughout France. 
 Germany echoed it. Russia echoed it ; as did Austria, 
 Hungary, and Italy. The greater part of the United 
 States of America were not a whit behindhand, but they also 
 echoed it. The public, and the newspaper press of Britain, 
 loudly denounced Stanley in his capacity of chief of the 
 ' Emin Pasha Relief Expedition,' and said that he was 
 responsible, as such, for, first, the cruelties perpetrated by 
 the commanding officer (Major Barttelot) of his Rear-guard 
 at Yambuya Camp ; and, secondly, for neglecting to leave 
 medicine, and sufficient and proper provisions, for the 
 Africans who composed Stanley's Guard. 
 
 Mr. Stanley, though he well knew Major Barttelot's 
 character, his nervous irritability and great w^ant of self- 
 control, and his unconquerable hate for the Africans ; and 
 though he knew well that he was about to plunge further 
 into the interior of the African Continent with his advance- 
 guard, and expected to be away for five months, did not 
 hesitate to leave the Africans of his rear-guard just as if 
 they were so many brutes, under the care of a man with an 
 ungovernable temper, whose irreconcilable hatred for the 
 natives under his command was notorious. Major Bartte- 
 lot was left at Yambuya with unlimited powers by Stanley, 
 while the latter plunged into the interior and absented him- 
 self for ten months. We may well imagine how terrible 
 must have been the sufferings of the Africans for those ten 
 long months under the tyrannical and despotic Major 
 
48 THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA. 
 
 Barttelot. It is, however, best to let the European speak 
 of his fellow-Europeans ; the Britisher, of his British fellow- 
 countrymen ; the officer, of his brother officers. And no 
 man is better qualified to speak of Major Barttelot and his 
 atrocities, or of Stanley's ' Emin Pasha Relief Expedition,' 
 and its doings, than Lieutenant Troup, one of the chief 
 officers of that Expedition. And this is what he says of 
 Barttelot as well as of Stanley : ' I admit that certain 
 things were done which I would not have done ; but it 
 must be remembered that Major Barttelot was quick- 
 tempered and nervous, and had no control over himself. 
 He was unquestionably the wrong man to place in control 
 of the natives, no matter how large a force there might be. 
 The Major hated the natives, and made no effort to conceal 
 his dislike for them. He had never had any experience in 
 the jungle, and really did not know how to manage the 
 natives even if he had had the will. Mr. Stanley knew 
 intimately just what kind of a man Major Barttelot was ; 
 and if there was a blunder, Stanley was entirely responsible 
 for having placed such a man in control of the Rear-guard.' 
 This is what every sensible man recognises. On another 
 occasion, Lieutenant Troup, speaking to an interviewer at 
 Boston, Massachusetts, U. S. America, thus expressed 
 himself : ' I admit Major Barttelot's cruelty. I am re- 
 turning to England to-morrow. If Mr. Stanley is going to 
 bring an action against Major Barttelot's brother, and 
 against the surviving officers of the expedition, I suppose I 
 will be included. That will suit me immensely ; for then I 
 will have a chance to cross-examine. I am not afraid to 
 have my record laid bare by the most searching investiga- 
 tion, and Mr. Stanley must understand that he is the 
 accuser, not I. I said nothing about the disasters to the 
 rear-column until he drove me to the wall, and forced me 
 to defend my reputation from the false and unjust accusa- 
 
UNCLE REMUS AND THE CAUCASIAN. 49 
 
 tions he made; but if Mr. Stanley thought he could in- 
 timidate me he made a great mistake. I did not say a word 
 against Mr. Stanley or Major Barttelot until somebody first 
 made charges ; and I say again that I believe Mr. Stanley 
 was primarily responsible for the fate of the poor fellows 
 {i.e., the poor Africans) at Yarabuya Camp: first, on account 
 of his (Stanley's) poor judgment in the selection of a com- 
 manding officer ; and, second, by his neglecting to provide 
 sufficient food and supplies in case of emergency. This 
 emergency was Mr. Stanley's delay in returning to Yam- 
 buya Camp. He promised to return in five months, and 
 made provision for only five months. This was almost 
 criminal negligence.' We think it was 'criminal negli- 
 gence ' when Stanley neglected * to leave proper provision 
 for the Black men.' It was also 'criminal negligence,' 
 on the part of Stanley to fail in providing medicines, so 
 that ' when,' to quote Lieutenant Troup, ' the Blacks were 
 ill there was no medicine, thanks to Stanley,' as well as 
 when 'no medicine was sent from the camp' of the 
 advance-guard to the Africans. To use again the language 
 of Lieutenant Troup, ' when ten months had passed, and 
 Stanley had not returned, the people {i.e., the Africans), 
 whom he had left behind with barely food enough for five 
 months, were in a starving condition.' 
 
 Britishers were not alone in their denunciation of Stanley 
 for his direct and indirect ill-treatment of the Africans. 
 The French Journal des D'ebats of November 12, 1890, 
 commenting upon the Rear-guard scandals, says : ' It 
 is necessary in the dilemma to decide whether Major 
 Barttelot and Mr. Jameson were guilty of the cruelties im- 
 puted to them — and everyone is free to excuse the sorry 
 courage of Mr. Stanley in saying so — or whether they were 
 not guilty. In the latter case, there is no possible allow- 
 ance to be made for Mr. Stanley, and his charges constitute 
 
 4 
 
50 THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA. 
 
 a calumny, the responsibility of which he bears, and which 
 becomes an act more perverse than man has ever com- 
 mitted.' Indeed, it is a matter of common knowledge, 
 that such was the indignation felt in France, as in Russia, 
 against Stanley, because of his ill-treatment of the 
 Africans, that Frenchmen and Russians of all shades of 
 opinion unanimously said that they, from the moment it 
 was first bruited about that Stanley was on the point of 
 plunging into the heart of that Land of Mystery — Africa — 
 for exploring and philanthropic purposes, and in quest and 
 relief of Emin Pasha (who wished neither to be sought 
 after nor relieved, for he was safe and sound), suspected 
 that he (Stanley) was bent on a politico-filibustering and 
 trading mission. Stanley's philanthropy in the cause of 
 humanity was scouted to the winds and derided, so much 
 so that, when an influential and largely attended meeting 
 was held at the Mansion House, about December, 1890, to 
 protest against the persecution of the Jews in Russia, and 
 to send a memorial to the Russian Emperor, respectfully 
 and humbly requesting him to repeal, or otherwise use 
 his influence to repeal, the new and severe laws operating 
 against the Czar's Hebrew subjects, whereby the observers 
 of the Law of Moses were plunged into the greatest dis- 
 tress, the Russians indignantly, but justly, declared that 
 Britishers would be more profitably occupied if they gave 
 their due attention to removing the stain cast upon their 
 reputation by the scandals originating from the doings, or 
 rather the misdoings, of Stanley and his piratical Rear- 
 guard column in Central Africa. And the semi-official 
 journal, the Novoye Vremya, it is on record, furiously but 
 truly said : ' This concern for the Jews on the part of the 
 Enghsh, who have impoverished fertile Hindostan and 
 Egypt, who are poisoning the population of China with 
 opium, who have annihilated the native population of 
 
UNCLE REMUS AND THE CAUCASIAN. 51 
 
 Australia {i.e., the Australian Africans) just as if they were 
 vermin, and who now^ under the pretext of putting an end 
 to the slave-trade, are exterminating in the most savage 
 manner numerous tribes of Africa, is extremely touching. 
 Who is not aware of the value of English philanthropy !' 
 
 This is how Stanley in the first place ill-treated the 
 Africans. But it is for us to show that, in the next 
 place, Stanley had otherwise a bad record when he 
 marched into Africa for political and mercenary ends, 
 though giving out that he was bent on African exploration 
 in the interests of humanity. Let his own countryman, and 
 one of Stanley's right-hand men in the Stanley politico- 
 filibustering expedition into Africa, speak. Lieutenant 
 Troup thus disburdens himself: 'Mr. Stanley is a great 
 explorer, but he went into this Emin Pasha Relief Expedi- 
 tion for fame, and what he could get out of it. He has no 
 more philanthropy than my boot. I will go further, and 
 say that the expedition was in the nature of a speculation, 
 and not a philanthropic relief movement. The capitalists 
 backing it were after the ivory which Emin Pasha was 
 supposed to have collected. The officers (including Lieu- 
 tenant Troup) of the Expedition were promised certain 
 shares in the expected big supply of ivory as a reward for 
 their services. The release of Emin Pasha was a secondary 
 consideration entirely. Emin Pasha did not wish to be 
 released. He had been up there ten or twelve years, and 
 held his own to, at any rate, his own satisfaction. 
 
 'These facts explain the entire situation ; and the 
 Expedition must necessarily lose some of the glamour which 
 surrounds it, when it is known that greed for fame and 
 riches, instead of humanity, prompted the movement.' 
 
 This statement, coming as it does from one of Stanley's 
 chief officers, cannot fail to carry the greatest weight, and 
 helps to show up the sort of man that Henry M. Stanley 
 
 4—2 
 
52 THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA. 
 
 is. Many of the individual States composing the American 
 Union positively refused to see and hear Stanley when that 
 gentleman proposed journeying on a lecturing tour in those 
 States. Texas especially was loud and active in its denun- 
 ciation of him, refused to hear his lectures, and challenged 
 Mr. Stanley to cleanse his reputation of its stain. 
 
 Germany not only condemned Stanley for his misdeeds 
 in Africa, and gave out that he went on a politico-filibuster- 
 ing and mercenary mission, but took care to add that Emin 
 Pasha did not wish to be rescued, because he had been for 
 years safe and secure in his Province of Equatoria. 
 
 Dr. Carl Peters, a German, and one of the Pasha's right- 
 hand men in Equatoria, writing in the Contemporary 
 Review for November, 1890, says: 'What I am about to 
 publish now was told me at Upwapwa by Emin Pasha 
 himself, with the understanding that I should be permitted 
 to publish it. According to what Emin told me, the first 
 time Stanley arrived at the Mwata Nzige he was in an 
 almost ruined condition. When Stanley arrived at the 
 Mwata Nzige for the second time, he -at once announced 
 to the Pasha that he had with him orders from the Khedive 
 to evacuate the Equatorial province. The Khedive, he 
 said, wished to give up the whole Soudan, and could not 
 allow any longer that one of his Governors should main- 
 tain himself on the Upper Nile. This communication, 
 made by Stanley, cannot fail to appear strange — the more 
 so that it was in direct opposition to the interests of civiliza- 
 tion and European politics, the only motives which had 
 ostensibly led to Stanley's expedition. Stanley, by making 
 himself the carrier of a message, doing away with all the 
 work of civilization on the Upper Nile, was working for 
 barbarism in general, and for Mahdism in particular. If it 
 was intended to open up Central Africa to European civili- 
 zation, the first thing to do was to strengthen Emin's 
 
 i 
 
UNCLE REMUS AND THE CAUCASIAN. 53 
 
 I 
 
 ^^osition in Equatoria, not to abolish it. What interest 
 could Europe, and especially England, have in removing 
 this last stronghold of a higher civilization? The Emin 
 Pasha Relief Expedition had been organized in Europe, 
 not so much in order to save the person of Emin as in 
 order to strengthen the bearer of European civilization and 
 culture and political influence on the Upper Nile. I must 
 say that in this proposition as made to Emin there is some- 
 thing quite unintelligible ; nor can I help thinking that it was 
 made for the purpose only of rendering Emin Pasha more 
 willing to accept the propositions to be made afterwards.' 
 
 Continuing, Carl Peters says the Pasha told him that : 
 ' After several days, while I was considering Stanley's first 
 proposition, he surprised me with a second one. It was 
 just the reverse of the first one, but that did not prevent 
 Stanley from bringing along both of them in his pocket.' 
 
 ' In the name of the King of the Belgians Stanley requested 
 Emin not to obey the Khedive's orders, not to evacuate 
 Equatoria, but to hoist there the flag of the Congo Free 
 State. If he would do so, the King would make him his 
 Governor-General for that district, and would grant him 
 ;^i,ooo per month for the expenses of the administration 
 of the district. As to Emin's personal interest, he was 
 asked to name his figure, and was told in advance that it 
 would be granted. But Stanley, said Emin, very soon after- 
 wards told him that he did not advise him to accept that 
 proposition. The Congo Free State, he said, was in a bad 
 state of confusion, and Emin could plainly see how he 
 (Stanley) had been treated by the King of the Belgians. It 
 was only several days later that Stanley came out with his 
 real plan, the third proposition, which again stood in direct 
 opposition to the two former ones. In the name of the 
 British East African Company he proposed to Emin to go 
 round the Victoria Nyanza to its north-east corner, to Kavi- 
 
54 THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA. 
 
 rondo. There Emin was to be established on an island, 
 and left to fortify his position. Stanley would then hurry 
 for the coast, and go to Mombasa to raise ammunition and 
 troops for Emin. The British East African Company was 
 to take the whole army of Emin into its service, every man 
 with the rank and pay he possessed while under Egyptian 
 rule. Emin Pasha was to be Governor under the Company 
 of all lands in the Upper Nile. As for his salary, that was 
 to be settled by him with the Company. Stanley brought 
 forward a contract with that Company, stamped and sealed 
 in London, and only needing Emin's signature to make it 
 perfect. Finally ^3,000 was agreed upon as the salary. 
 The troops which Stanley was to bring back from Mombasa 
 were to restore the Christians to Uganda under the leader- 
 ship of Emin, fight Unyoro, and then reoccupy Emin's old 
 province, all this to be achieved in the name of the British 
 East African Company. Stanley, after having brought up 
 these auxiliary troops for Emin, was then to withdraw and 
 go off to England. Of course, the pliability of Stanley, who 
 was himself the bearer of three messages or propositions 
 whereof any one, by its nature, excluded the possibility of 
 even considering the other two, was somewhat confusing ; 
 but however that might be, Emin Pasha, with a heavy 
 heart and under the force of circumstances, made up his 
 mind to accept the third offer. Then a part of his people, 
 who would not quit their homes on the Nile, which had 
 become dear to them, mutinied, and refused to proceed. 
 Stanley and Emin Pasha, however, left the district and 
 advanced on the west side of the lake. When camping at 
 Busagala, west-south-west of Uganda, they received the 
 messengers of the Christian King Mwanga, imploring their 
 help against the Arab party. The chief of this Uganda 
 mission was a certain Marco, who, later, spent two months 
 in my camp and in my immediate neighbourhood, and to 
 
UNCLE REMUS AND THE CAUCASIAN. 55 
 
 whom I owe several details regarding Stanley's departure. 
 Stanley refused to help the Christians, remarking " that he 
 was too weak for such an undertaking." It was then,' the 
 learned Doctor proceeded, ' that Emin Pasha offered to go 
 to Uganda alone with his own people, if Stanley would 
 permit it. But Stanley had Emin Pasha put under watch, 
 and threatened to proceed against him by force should he 
 attempt to carry out that idea. 
 
 ' As for Stanley, having reached the south end of the 
 Victoria Nyanza, at Usumbiro, he could not make up his 
 mind to carry out the promise held out to Emin, viz., to 
 bring him around the east coast of the lake to Kavirondo, 
 and establish him there as agreed. He (Stanley) suddenly 
 declared himself unable to do so without an express order 
 of the Queen of England. Emin understood then that he 
 had been taken out of his own country under pretences or 
 promises not to be realized afterwards. He had lost what 
 he possessed, and now was forced, against his inclination, 
 to accompany Stanley to the coast. As a matter of course, 
 cordial relations could not exist between the two parties 
 under such circumstances. 
 
 ' I shall not personally take part against Stanley, but in 
 the interest of truth I must add, that what I heard about 
 Stanley's personal behaviour, not from Emin, but from the 
 missionaries on the Nyanza, could not diminish the naturally 
 bad feeling between the two parties. One day two Catholic 
 missionaries came from Ukumbi to Usumbiro to pay their 
 respects to Emin. They found the whole party at dinner, 
 Stanley at the head of the table, with a half-bottle of wine, and 
 served in European fashio/t, but all others at the same table 
 without wine, and living on " Negro " fare. Such a glimpse 
 of the social intercourse among the members of the expe- 
 dition speaks volumes, and it would be perfectly useless for 
 me to add a single word. I am not at all surprised that 
 
56 THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA. 
 
 Stanley should speak contemptuously of Emin Pasha. The 
 two men were too different to understand one another. I 
 believe Stanley lacks the organ necessary to appreciate a 
 deHcate and sensitive character like that of Emin Pasha, 
 just as a man with a bad cold is unable to enjoy the beauty 
 of a field of roses, but the beauty exists nevertheless. To 
 me (Carl Peters) Emin Pasha appears as a model in the 
 faithful performance of duty, and in the seriousness of his 
 scientific labours and his moral tact. 
 
 ' The fact of his not caring to go to Europe,' concludes 
 the worthy Doctor, ' to be feasted and honoured like others, 
 is proof enough of genuine modesty and candour of principle, 
 as is also the fact that he refrained from taking ;£3,ooo to 
 enter the British service, not, however, mainly from national 
 feelings, for he had been willing to take service with the 
 British, but because his innermost feelings had been hurt by 
 Stanley's behaviour towards him.' 
 
 Now, the man who has cruelly ill-treated the Africans, 
 both indirectly and directly, not only by his appointment of 
 Major Barttelot in command over them at Yambuya Camp, 
 with extraordinary and unlimited powers for ten months, 
 well knowing the Major's brutality and bad temper, and his 
 unconquerable hate for the Africans ; but also by leaving 
 the blacks without a sufficiency of provisions for five months, 
 and without any at all for another five months, and still 
 more by leaving no medicine for the Africans in case of 
 sickness for ten months, and even by cruelly and shamefully 
 ill-treating the Africans, shooting them down (for he did do 
 that) wholesale, for little or no fault whatever, just as if they 
 were ' mere brutes ' — this man ventures to come forward with 
 daring defamatory statements on his lips, and to say that 
 the Africans are 'mere brutes,' and that 'it is needful 
 resolutely to regard them as children.' Because Stanley 
 regarded these African natives as 'mere brutes' and as 
 
UNCLE REMUS AND THE CAUCASIAN. 57 
 
 ' children,' he ill-treated them, permitted Major Barttelot to 
 shoot them as well as flog them without mercy ; because 
 Stanley regarded the Africans as ' mere brutes ' and as 
 * children,' he left them with an insufficiency of provisions 
 for five months, and without any at all for another five 
 months ; because Stanley regarded these same Africans as 
 ' mere brutes ' and as ' children,' he left them to perish of 
 disease for ten. months without medicine ; because Stanley 
 regarded the blacks as ' mere brutes ' and as ' children,' he 
 massacred them by reason of the ' annoyances ' they 
 brought on him through ' their follies and vices.' 
 
 We have already said that Stanley was unanimously 
 denounced by British, French, Russian, and German public 
 opinion, and by the newspaper press, and to a great extent 
 also by the voice of the American people, and we have, more- 
 over, given the opinions of Troup and Peters, as well as those 
 of Emin Pasha. Stanley has not yet thought fit to demand a 
 trial of his conduct when in ' Darkest Africa,' as every 
 honourable man in his position would have done. We 
 therefore say — and the reader, we are sanguine, will bear us 
 out — that it does not lie with Stanley to express any opinion 
 of the Natives whom he ill-treated, and even massacred, and 
 towards whom he was guilty of criminal negligence. We 
 should think a second time, if we were Mr. Clowes, before 
 we borrowed Stanley's expressed opinion of the Africans, 
 after we had heard the scandals associated with Stanley's 
 name and with the doings of his Rear-guard in Central Africa. 
 We should hesitate the more seeing that the man, after 
 being repeatedly challenged and invited to institute what 
 Stanley, as plaintiff, would call libel proceedings against 
 eminent and philanthropic Britishers and the British press, 
 has not thought fit to redeem his sullied reputation from the 
 foul stigma cast upon it. If Stanley wants to speak with 
 authority on the qualities of the Africans in Africa, he must 
 
58 THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA. 
 
 come with clean hands, and not with a bad record, such as 
 we have described, and add his insults to the Africans whom 
 he has injured. 
 
 What a striking contrast Stanley presents to Chinese 
 Gordon, the British hero who died at Khartoum ! Stanley 
 went to Africa, as Troup says, for fame, riches, and the 
 acquisition of ivory. The simple and gentle-minded 
 Gordon went to Africa, not for fame, because he was very 
 modest and indifferent to praise or reward, but in the 
 interest of humanity ; not for riches and ivory, for it is a 
 matter of ommon knowledge that Chinese Gordon had the 
 greatest contempt for money and wealth, but to give freedom 
 to his African fellow-men, and to check slavery and the 
 slave trade. Stanley destroyed as many Africans as possible, 
 and robbed the African chieftains and their clansmen ; but 
 the sympathetic Chinese Gordon protected as many 
 Africans as he possibly could, and spared as many lives as 
 circumstances permitted, and did not rob the Soudanese. 
 Stanley returned to Europe and to Britain a very wealthy 
 man, and was received at first in triumph and with open 
 arms, though afterwards he was shown the cold shoulder 
 by many ; but Chinese Gordon remained in Africa and the 
 Soudan, and when the Mahommedan soldiers carried the 
 capital of the Egyptian Soudan by assault at the point of 
 the spear, Chinese Gordon, the hero, earned the martyr's 
 crown by perishing among the people whom his philan- 
 throphy had freed in Khartoum ; and there he, the white 
 man, the European and the Britisher, found a common 
 grave with the black man, the African and the Soudanese, 
 revered by all men in his death. Institutions and memorials 
 were raised, and statues erected in his honour. Chinese 
 Gordon is kindly remembered by his nation, but that same 
 nation looks suspiciously on Stanley, whose reputation is, for 
 many of his fellow-Britishers, under a cloud. 
 
UNCLE REMUS AND THE CAUCASIAN. 59 
 
 Having sufficiently confronted Stanley, and shown up 
 what the man and his opinion are worth, we now pass on to 
 foes worthier of our steel. 
 
 We must refer the reader to page 168 of Black America,' 
 in which Laird Clowes summarizes an article Mr. Cone con- 
 tributed to Belford's Magazine for September, 1889, a part 
 of which summary runs thus : ' The cases of Hayti and 
 Jamaica are cited to prove that the black man, when raised 
 by a higher race to a level of life which he was unable of him- 
 self to attain, has never shown any ability to maintain him- 
 self there ; he lacks the brain fibre, the brain power, which 
 is necessary to do so, and left to himself he retrogrades, 
 reverts.' We are of opinion that greater nonsense could not 
 have been uttered than these statements that we have repro- 
 duced. What autliority has either Mr. Cone or Mr. 
 Clowes for speaking on the condition of the Haytians and 
 Jamaicans ? Has either Cone or Clowes lived in Hayti or 
 Jamaica, or do they study the Haytians and Jamaicans? 
 The fact that Frenchmen once ruled the Haytians and 
 held them in ignominous bondage does not prove that the 
 French belong to a ' higher race ' than our Haytian cousins. 
 And the fact that the British rule the Jamaican Africans, 
 and once held them in servile thraldom, does not prove that 
 the British belong to a ' higher race ' than the Africans in 
 Jamaica. If anyone can feel himself justified in saying 
 these things, then we ask him this : Since the Romans 
 ruled the Britons, and sold them as slaves in the markets 
 of Rome, did these Romans belong to a ' higher race ' than 
 the Britons ? And since the Angles, Jutes, and Sovereign 
 tribes of Saxons ruled the Britons, did these former belong 
 to a ' higher race ' than the latter ? And since the North- 
 men and Normans ruled the Anglo-Saxons, did the former 
 belong to a * higher race ' than the latter ? And since the 
 German Franks subdued the Gauls, did the former belong 
 
6o THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA. 
 
 to a ' higher race ' than the latter ? And since the Visi- 
 goths, or West Goths, subdued and ruled the Iberians, did 
 the former on that account belong to a ' higher race ' than 
 the latter? And since the Moors {i.e. the descendants of 
 Asiatics and Africans) subjugated and ruled Spain for 
 several centuries, did the former belong to a ' higher race ' 
 than the Spaniards? And since the Moors subdued the 
 Lusitanians and ruled them, did the former on that 
 account belong to a 'higher race' than the latter? And 
 since the Visigoths ruled Portugal, did the former on that 
 account belong to a ' higher race ' than the Lusitanians ? 
 
 No man is justified in saying that the white man belongs 
 to a ' higher race ' than the black because accident or 
 fortune makes him the temporary ruler of the latter. The 
 Jamaican African has made wonderful progress in the arts 
 of civiHzation since Emancipation, all things being duly 
 considered. We have to bear in mind that a master, during 
 the period of slavery, was forbidden by law, by custom and 
 by public opinion, to educate his slave. And we should also 
 remember that the sun of two-thirds of a century of freedom 
 has not yet set over the heads of the Jamaican Africans. 
 
 But Sir Henry Arthur Blake, the British Governor of 
 Jamaica, shall deal with this question, and tell us whether 
 the Jamaican African 'has never shown any ability to 
 maintain himself in a high level of life, and whether the 
 lacks the brain-fibre, the brain-power. 
 
 The Jamaican Governor surely ought to know the 
 character of the people over whom he is sent to rule. And 
 we undoubtedly prefer to accept his opinion of the Jamaican 
 Africans rather than that of Mr. Cone or that of Mr. Clowes. 
 Writing in the North American Review for February, 1891, 
 on the condition and characteristics of the Jamaican 
 Africans, amongst other interesting facts he says : ' A 
 thoughtless estimate of these people (/.^., the Jamaican 
 
UNCLE REMUS AND THE CAUCASIAN. 6i 
 
 Africans) has been generally accepted. It may be summed 
 up in the statement that they are densely ignorant, un- 
 speakably lazy, and incapable of improvement. My expe- 
 rience for the past twelve months has shown me that this 
 estimate is not true. During that time I have visited every 
 portion of Jamaica, and spoken to large numbers of the 
 people. I have met the peasant proprietors in the moun- 
 tain valleys, where, with the exception of the clergyman 
 and the doctor, the face of a white man is not often seen. 
 I have met them in the lowland plains of the seaboard, and 
 I am bound to say that I have met among them men equal 
 in intelligence, shrewdness, and dignity of mind to men of 
 their class in the United Kingdom. Nor is the estimate 
 of laziness a true one. Both men and women work with 
 the full average of diligence. 
 
 ' The people who in times gone by had worked as slaves 
 on the estates were gradually extending into the higher 
 grounds of the interior, acquiring property, reclaiming and 
 planting, with all the diligence that is the offspring of owner- 
 ship.' To add words to what Sir Henry Blake has thus stated 
 is unnecessary. We therefore pass on to the Haytians. 
 
 The Haytians were not taught by the French, for igno- 
 rance was imposed by French law upon the slave; and 
 every master was forbidden by law, custom, and public 
 opinion to educate his slave. The Haytians received their 
 lessons in the arts of government from Toussaint the Great, 
 who was their king in everything — and in every way but 
 in name he was what is called an ' uncrowned king.' 
 Toussaint the Great was a born Governor as he was a born 
 Commander; his genius and governing qualities were in- 
 nate : he taught his able lieutenants, Dessalines and 
 Christophe, and others, how to govern, and encouraged 
 literature and the fine arts. When Toussaint the Great, 
 thanks to the perfidious French, disappeared from his 
 
62 THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA. 
 
 Fatherland, Dessalines, and then Christophe, followed in 
 the wake of the Liberator of San Domingo. 
 
 It cannot be correctly said that the Haytian, because he 
 has been left to himself, has ' retrograded ' or ' reverted,' as 
 we shall endeavour to show. We are of opinion that, if a 
 State be misgoverned, it necessarily yields a decreasing 
 revenue, and its commerce remains stagnant, if it does 
 not decline. If a State does not yield a reasonable 
 yearly income, then it may be fairly taken for granted that 
 the Government which pilots the destinies of that State is 
 an incapable one. The British Empire is the first in the 
 world to-day because its great wealth, derived from its com- 
 merce and exports, is unsurpassed. The richness of the 
 British Empire, then, is a sure sign that it is well governed. 
 If the British Empire were misgoverned, where would its 
 commerce be ? But the reverse is the case with it, as may 
 be seen in the fact that its commerce is the first in the 
 world, and more capital can be found put into it than is the 
 case in any other Empire. 
 
 As the commerce of the British Empire, then, testifies 
 that the Empire is being properly governed, and is pro- 
 gressing, we shall argue fairly if we show that Hayti is, as 
 evidenced by her commerce, also being properly governed, 
 and shows signs of progress. But that Hayti's progress may 
 be seen to greater advantage, we shall compare the mone- 
 tary value of her commercial transactions, and her revenue, 
 with those of other States which have an equal or a larger 
 population than that of Hayti. Hayti, with a population 
 of 550,000 Africans, had in 1887-88 a revenue, customs 
 o?ily, of the value of ;^ 1,34 2,604. Its imports were 
 returned at ;£964,382, and its exports were valued at 
 ^1,485,023. The Republic of Bolivia, with 2,300,000 
 inhabitants, had its public revenue valued at ^753,285 in 
 1887-88 ; that is, an amount nearly twice less than that of 
 the revenue of Hayti. Hayti's exports and imports were 
 
UNCLE REMUS AND THE CAUCASIAN. 63 
 
 greater than those of the Transvaal Republic, which con- 
 tains 800,000 inhabitants. The Republic of Guatemala, 
 with 1,427,116 inhabitants, had in 1889 a revenue valued 
 at ;£769,9i9, with ;£i, 113,842 as total exports, and 
 ^^839,934 as value of total imports for 1888; that is, less 
 than the revenue, imports, and exports of the Haytians. 
 
 The Republic of Costa Rica had not a greater revenue 
 in 1889-90 than ;^6i2,526, that is, an amount more than 
 twice less than that of the Haytians, while her total imports 
 in 1889-90, amounting to ^900,915, and her total exports 
 in 1889-90, which did not exceed ;£995,o5i, were also both 
 less than the proceeds of Hayti's imports and exports. 
 The Republic of Honduras in 1888-89 had her revenue 
 valued at only ;£43 1,000 ; that is, more than three times 
 less than that of the Haytian Republic. 
 
 The Haytian Republic's revenue exceeded that of the 
 Republic of Nicaragua, which had but ^£635, 690 in 1887-88 
 as public revenue, while her imports in 1886-87 amounted to 
 ^£"587, 146, and her exports were valued at ;£^578,3i5 in 
 1886-87, but they were considerably less than those of 
 Hayti in the corresponding period. San Salvador, with a 
 population of 651,130, that is, a Republic having over 
 100,000 inhabitants more than the Republic of Hayti con- 
 tains, had her exports for 1889 valued at ^£"840,5 61, and 
 her imports at £42^,^^$, both considerably less than those 
 of Hayti, while the public revenue yielded but ;^6o8,885 ; 
 that is, more than twice less than that of Hayti. The 
 Republic of Ecuador, with 1,000,000 inhabitants, received 
 only ;^6o7,i52 as her pubUc revenue for 1890. The im- 
 ports and exports of Madagascar, which is under a French 
 protectorate, with an estimated population of 4,000,000, 
 did not realize more than ;£"i62,o7i and ;^ 164,7 71 ^^" 
 spectively in 1888; that is, they were considerably less 
 than those of Hayti, with only 550,000 inhabitants. The 
 French possessions of Annam and Tongking, with 15,000,000 
 
64 THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA. 
 
 inhabitants, had their joint revenue estimated at only 
 ;;^692,4oo in 1888, while the imports in 1889 were valued 
 at ;£872,4oo and the exports at ^6^4,400; that is 
 to say, that they were considerably less than those of 
 the Haytians. Hayti's revenue exports and imports 
 exceeded and exceed those of French Cochin-China, 
 she having a population of 1,700,000, while they also 
 exceed those of French Cambodia, with 1,500,000 people. 
 Palestine, under Turkish rule and pilotage, with 620,000 
 inhabitants, had her imports valued at ;^232,ooo, and 
 her exports at ^^2 7 1,461, in 1889, the Holy Land con 
 sequently being left far behind by Hayti in the race of pro- 
 gress and wealth and commerce. Nepaul, with 2,000,000 
 Nepaulese, follows the leadership of the Haytians, for her 
 revenue did not amount to more than ;^i, 000,000 in 1885. 
 
 The Sultanate of Oman, with 1,600,000 demoralized 
 Asiatics, had her imports in 1889-90 valued at ;£"3o5,ooo 
 only, while the value of her exports did not reach a higher 
 figure than 3^243,000 ; her annual revenue not exceeding 
 ;£"37,5oo, the Asiatic thus yielding the palm in business 
 capabilities to the Haytian. 
 
 Under native rule, Hayti amasses a greater revenue 
 than does the Colony of the Straits Settlements, with a 
 population of over 600,000 under the British rule. 
 
 The imports and exports of Tripoli, under the Sultan of 
 Turkey, with a population of 1,010,000, did not yield more 
 than ;£'282,ioo and ;£323,ooo respectively in 1889. 
 
 The Asiatic Kingdom of Corea, with 10,518,937 inhabi- 
 tants, who own allegiance to his Corean Majesty, Li Ying 
 Kum, did not export more than ;£" 2 17, 149, and imported 
 only ^597,005 worth of goods in 1888."^' 
 
 Europeans have been four centuries in the Gold Coast, 
 
 * For confirmation of these statistics, if necessary, ' Whitaker's 
 Almanac' for 1891 should be consulted. 
 
iRii 
 
 UNCLE REMUS AND THE CAUCASIAN 65 
 
 r centuries in the Gambia, one century in Sierra Leone, 
 and more than half a century in Lagos, yet Gold Coast, 
 Lagos, Sierra Leone, and Gambia, with a grand total of 
 1,616,000 inhabitants, under British rule, altogether yield 
 less revenue and exports than Hayti does under native 
 rule ; and the imports of Hayti also exceed those of 
 the Gold Coast, Lagos, and Gambia put together. The 
 amount of Hayti's yearly imports and revenue is far in 
 excess of the amount of the revenue, exports, and imports 
 realized by Montenegro, Luxemburg, Monaco, Liechten- 
 stein, San Marino, and Andorra together. Hayti's exports, 
 revenue and imports are not far behind those of the Vene- 
 zuelan Republic in extent, while they are nearly equal to 
 those of the Kingdom of Servia. 
 
 Haytian imports and exports for the year 1889 were 
 returned at ^1,250,000 and ;^2, 500,000, and those for 
 1890 amounted to ^4,062,500 and ^^3, 125,000 respectively, 
 while the customs-revenue received during the year (1890) 
 amounted to ;£" 1,791,666.* 
 
 Hayti, then, has undoubtedly made great progress, as her 
 exports, revenue, and imports — the two former more so — 
 greatly exceed those of twenty different States with about 
 an equal number, or, to speak more correctly, with a greater 
 number, of inhabitants than Hayti has, some of these States 
 being under the government of men who glory and rejoice 
 in the fact that they are of European descent. Hayti has 
 not retrograded nor reverted. When the Haytian people 
 were beginning to undertake the government of their State, 
 they had to engage to pay over to the French the hand- 
 some sum of 90,000,000 francs by way of compensation for 
 
 * See page 5, Annex A, and page i. No. 902, of the Report for 
 the year 1890 on the Trade and Commerce of Hayti, by Acting 
 British Consul-General Arthur Tweedy to the Marquis of Salis- 
 bury, May, 1 89 1. 
 
 5 
 
66 THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA. 
 
 the losses supposed to have been incurred by the French 
 colonists during the great Haytian struggles for Indepen- 
 dence ; and this, of course, had the effect of crippling the 
 progress of Hayti. But, nothing daunted, Hayti emerged 
 from her fetters in a few years, and is now free, and 
 occupies no mean place in the ranks of civilized and 
 independent nations in the way of wealth and general 
 progress. 
 
 There are Faculties of Law and Medicine, Colleges, a 
 Military Academy, 600 Schools,* and what not in Hayti. 
 Of the long line of poets and historians Toussaint-L'Ouver- 
 ture le Grand and J. Jacques Dessalines's Fatherland boasts, 
 the following are a few : Demesvor Delorme, Fenelon 
 Duplesis, Paul Lochard, Alfred Williams, Ducas-Hippolyte, 
 Tertulian Guilband, Battier, Emmanuel Edouard, Jules 
 Auguste, Arthur Bowler, Thomas Madion, B. Ardouin, 
 Saint-Remy, J. J. Chaney, Thales Manigat, Emile Deslandes, 
 Chenet/(?r^, Oswald Durand, Arnold Laroche, while Joseph 
 Arelim, Louis Joseph Jauvier, Cauvin pere, Frangois and 
 Guillaume Manigat, A. Firmin, Dalbewar Jean Joseph, 
 Nemours Pierre Louis, Apollon, Stewart, Montasse, Saladin 
 Lamour, Nelson Desroches, Leger and Luxembourg Cauvin, 
 Jacques Nicolas Leyer, E. and A. Desert, and others, too 
 numerous to mention, distinguished in the arts and sciences, 
 literature and social matters, are the pride of Hayti 
 and the Ethiopian race. The minerals gold, silver, 
 tin, iron, copper, with timber, are found in abundance. 
 The Haytian grows sugar, cocoa, coffee, cotton, tobacco, 
 
 ■* Free or Assisted Education has existed in Hayti, a] 
 country not a hundred years old, from the year i860, during 
 General Geffrard's residency ; and yet Britain, a country as old 
 as the flood, is not able to boast oi free education^ in the strict 
 sense of the word. Education in Liberia, as in Hayti, is com- 
 pulsory. I 
 
UNCLE REMUS AND THE CAUCASIAN. 67 
 
 and he has honey, wax, gums, hides, logwood, and maho- 
 gany — all testifying that Hayti is not ' retrograding ' nor 
 * reverting.' Manifestly, then, the Haytian is not childish, 
 nor inferior to the Caucasian in any way. 
 
 Mr. Laird Clowes, not believing what he has said on the 
 score of African childishness, perorates with the following 
 sentences, ' And everyone who knows thoroughly the African, 
 either in Africa or in America, can have no other estimate of 
 his character.' 
 
 We say that the Island of Jamaica belongs to the American 
 Continent, and Sir Henry Arthur Blake, who knows the 
 Jamaican African ' thoroughly,' eulogizes the Africans, as 
 we had occasion in preceding pages to show. We should 
 like it, however, to be understood that in quoting Sir Henry 
 Blake we quote him merely as a private individual, for we 
 do not look up to Sir Henry with any admiration as an 
 administrator. But we prefer Sir Henry A. Blake's opinion 
 of the Africans to those of Stanley, Clowes, Cone, or any 
 other of their following. The British Governor of Jamaica, 
 however, does not stand alone in his praiseworthy and 
 appropriate eulogy of the Africans. Mr. Charles Foster 
 Smith, of Vanderbilt University, who, unlike Clowes, lives 
 in America, and therefore can speak with unqualified 
 authority of the qualities of the Africo-Americans, con- 
 tributes a letter, on the ' Negro in Nashville,' to the Ce?itury 
 illustrated monthly magazine for May, 1891, in which he 
 says : ' I have long believed that of all places in the South 
 the Negro has had in Nashville, Tennessee, the fullest 
 opportunity to show what he could make of himself, has 
 there been more nearly than elsewhere accorded all that the 
 law accords him. For some time, therefore, I have watched 
 pretty closely his progress, and now offer some of the results 
 of my observation, so far as I can, without advancing any 
 theory or pleading any cause. 
 
 5—2 
 
68 THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA, 
 
 ' It has doubtless been very fortunate for the Negroes in 
 Nashville that they have been in a decided minority, so that 
 they have given less attention to politics than they might 
 otherwise have done. Nashville is a city of schools and 
 colleges and churches, of considerable culture, decided 
 liberality of thought, a thriving place where honest men can 
 make a living and more, where the people like to own their 
 homes, and make themselves comfortable in them. It is a 
 good place, therefore, for the Negro to learn by contact. 
 
 ' The city superintendent of public schools says that the 
 Negroes show even more eagerness to get an education than 
 the whites, and he claims that no discrimination is made 
 against them in the appointments of their schools, which 
 are now taught exclusively by Negro teachers, thirty-six in 
 number. To the credit of these teachers, he mentions that, 
 at the last examination for teachers, the highest marks were 
 made by two Negro applicants. Besides their public 
 schools, there are three Negro colleges in Nashville — Fisk, 
 Central Tennessee, and Roger Williams. Two decades ago 
 the two older of these institutions were little more than 
 primary schools, most of the pupils just beginning to read, 
 some in the Fifth Reader, none beyond cube root in arith- 
 metic. In 1888 the college department of Fisk numbered 
 42, the normal 46 ; in Central Tennessee college 16, normal 
 (in classes corresponding to Fisk) about 61 ; in Roger 
 Williams college 7, normal (in classes corresponding to 
 those at Fisk) 21 ; total in Fisk (in all departments) 475, in 
 Central Tennessee 541, in Roger Williams 192. All these 
 students were, perhaps, as far advanced as were the furthest 
 twenty years ago. At Central Tennessee there are also 
 regular departments of medicine, dentistry, and law. 
 Though the charge is just that the Negro, at his present 
 stage, needs Latin, Greek, and the so-called liberal studies 
 less than anything else, surely 42 A.B. students out of 475 
 
UNCLE REMUS AND THE CAUCASIAN 69 
 
 is not an excessive proportion. The ministry and other 
 professions need already a larger ratio. The greater part of 
 the remainder are simply getting the plain elements that are 
 necessary to any man's or woman's well-being. Besides, 
 these institutions pay considerable attention to industrial 
 training. All boarding pupils are required to devote an 
 hour a day to such forms of labour as may be required of 
 them, and the cleanest school-building I ever saw is Living- 
 stone Hall, of Fisk University, which is kept clean by the 
 pupils. A certain number of young men at Fisk learn print- 
 ing every year, and others will henceforth learn carpentry 
 and other useful handicrafts ; while the young women are 
 taught nursing the sick, and the rules of hygiene, cooking, 
 dressmaking, and plain sewing. The course of industrial 
 training in Central Tennessee College and "Roger Williams 
 University is about the same. 
 
 ' The catalogue of Fisk University informs us where its 
 graduates are, and what they are doing. Of 62 college 
 graduates, 38 (or 61 per cent.) are teachers ; 18 (or 13 per 
 cent.) are preachers ; of 48 normal graduates, 32 (or 66 per 
 cent.) are teachers ; eight of the remainder are wives, leaving 
 only eight (or 17 per cent.) for other occupations. Doubt- 
 less the great majority of all that study in any department 
 become teachers at present. Does this education lift up 
 the Negroes as it usually does the rest of humanity ? I visited 
 lately, with the city superintendent, a Negro school, the 
 average attendance of which is nearly eight hundred, in 
 " Black Bottom," the very heart of the worst quarter of the 
 city, and I saw there hundreds of Negro children — very 
 many of whom came from environments hostile to all that 
 is good and elevating — with clean faces, for the most part 
 neatly dressed, orderly in behaviour, studious and attentive 
 — in conduct equal to any school I ever saw. A college 
 president, who has an exceedingly frank way of talking of 
 
70 THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA. 
 
 the dark as well as the bright side of the situation, says that 
 of more than four thousand pupils in twenty years he has 
 never heard of one in the penitentiary ; and there had never 
 been, so far as known, a case of unchastity among the pupils 
 boarding at the college. Other evidences will be given 
 indirectly below. 
 
 ' Just here I wish to say that Nashville has been blessed in 
 the character of the Northern men and women who have 
 come to teach in these Negro colleges. They have come 
 in the truest missionary spirit ; have patiently submitted to 
 a kind of social ostracism ; have endeavoured to cultivate 
 m the Negro only such qualities as make for peace, patience, 
 honesty, and good citizenship. They have " respect unto 
 the recompense of the reward," but do not expect it here. 
 They possess their souls in patience. The good men and 
 women estimate their own trials and sacrifices as less than 
 those of foreign missionaries, while those of their (white) 
 Southern neighbours who appreciate them know how much 
 easier it is to go to China and Japan and Africa, and be 
 considered heroes and heroines, than to do this home- 
 mission work. They are the best friends of the Southern 
 whites, as well as of the Southern Negroes, but only the 
 next generation of us will fully know it. 
 
 * But the country knows more about the Negro's educa- 
 tion than about his efforts in business and how he lives at 
 home. I have visited the places of business of a large 
 number ; e.g.^ a tailor's shop where from five to eight hands 
 are employed ; a shoe shop employing from eight to fifteen 
 men, two of them white ; a poultry and egg store, having 
 two branch houses in other towns, and a trade extending 
 into several States, the business amounting to 100,000 dozen 
 eggs per month, and a shipment of five car-loads of poultry 
 per week, requiring seven clerks, two of them white book- 
 keepers ; a feed store with a business worth over $1,000 per 
 
I 
 
 UNCLE REMUS AND THE CAUCASIAN. yi 
 
 month ; three furniture stores, new and secondhand ; a coal 
 
 |,nd wood yard requiring four waggons ; two undertakers' 
 hops ; the offices of three doctors, one of whom requires 
 wo horses, and though two-thirds of his practice is charity, 
 idllected last year $2,600, another a graduate of the Harvard 
 Sledical School, and already after three months making a 
 living ; grocery stores and butchers' shops ; a livery stable ; 
 several offices of lawyers and real-estate dealers, to say 
 nothing of hack-drivers, owning from one to several car- 
 riages ; barbers, and the like. I have heard white business 
 men commend the character of some of them in a manner 
 of which any man might be proud. The trade of most of 
 them is mainly, or very largely, with the whites. They are 
 only a few of the most thriving of the well-to-do Negroes of 
 Nashville ; but of course the great majority are still only 
 day labourers. A number of Negroes told me with pardon- 
 able pride of their investments in real estate. One had 
 made his first purchase with money saved while in a Govern- 
 ment clerkship, and now his income from city property is 
 $100 per month. Most buy, I am told, with the view to 
 building a home. The Negroes realize already that nothing 
 so elevates them in the eyes of the world as property, and 
 the " business " fever among the young is so strong that one 
 of the colleges has found it necessary to have sermons 
 preached against excessive eagerness to make money. 
 
 ' The Negroes of Nashville have also made a promising 
 beginning in the way of combining for church or benevolent 
 enterprises. 
 
 ' The only Negro-church publishing house in the world is 
 located here, the building, five stories high, being situated 
 on the public square. It was purchased with the contribu- 
 tions of the children of the African Methodist Episcopal 
 Church. A home for aged and indigent Negroes is the 
 latest enterprise, while a shop for teaching mechanical 
 
72 THE LONE STAR OF LIBERIA. 
 
 trades was opened a year or so ago. The number of 
 benevolent church societies is, of course, legion. 
 
 ' More interesting still were the discoveries I made in the 
 homes of the Negroes. Through the courtesy of a well- 
 educated Negro who works ardently for the welfare of his 
 race, I had the opportunity, in company with a friend, to 
 inspect in one day more than twenty of the better class of 
 homes. The list of representative homes we were to see 
 included more than fifty ; but the time was too short. Most 
 were taken by surprise, but willingly showed their houses 
 from cellar to garret. The result may be summed up as 
 follows : The occupant was the owner in every case but one. 
 In most parlours there were pianos, and handsome carpets 
 on the floor, with other furniture to match ; indeed, the 
 houses were generally carpeted throughout, while bedrooms, 
 dining-rooms and kitchens were remarkably clean. I noted 
 with pleasure several bath-rooms, and remarked how one 
 thrifty pair had so arranged their handsome base-burner 
 stove that it heated comfortably the whole house of four or 
 five rooms at a cost of only a few cents a day. It was 
 interesting to learn that in most cases where the heads of 
 families were young, they had been educated at one of the 
 Negro colleges in the city ; where old, that the children had 
 
 attended these. Let one example stand for all. A is 
 
 the janitor of one of the banks of the city. By working 
 hard at the bank, while his wife worked and saved at home, 
 he has graduated one son and two daughters at Fisk Uni- 
 versity, the fourth and last child being now there. His 
 son, at first a teacher, is now in the service of the Pullman 
 Company ; one daughter is married, the other is a teacher. 
 His house is comfortably furnished, and his lot extends one 
 hundred feet in a very respectable street in the heart of the 
 city. 
 
 'Just two or three remarks at the close. First, I am 
 quite sure that more comfortable and well-kept homes could 
 
UNCLE REMUS AND THE CAUCASIAN. 73 
 
 not be found anywhere among the same number of whites 
 of the same income, and the owners of these homes have 
 the same interest in good government, peace, good morals, 
 the well-being of society, as the better class of whites have. 
 These well-kept homes are not only the best proof of the 
 progress in civilization of the Negro race, but they are also 
 the best security for the welfare of the whites in property 
 and in morals ; and I have never had so much hope for the 
 future of this region as since I learned these things. Granted 
 that these may be the picked few, it is most hopeful that 
 there is a picked few, whose example will inspire others to 
 lift themselves up. Finally, an interesting fact which I have 
 not found place for elsewhere — one of the daily papers of 
 Nashville reports a circulation among the Negroes of more 
 than eighteen hundred copies.' 
 
 Even Mr. James Bryce, M.P. for Aberdeen, who is not 
 by any means the African's friend, is compelled to admit 
 that the American Africans ' have not relapsed into sloth 
 and barbarism ;' and he further says : ' The proximity of 
 trading and manufacturing towns draws a number of the 
 Africans into closer relations with the whites, and gives an 
 impulse towards progress to the whole mass.'* 
 
 With all these testimonies before us, dispelling the theory 
 that the African is inferior to the Caucasian, and is * childish,' 
 the statement as made by Laird Clowes, that ' Everyone 
 who knows thoroughly the African Negro, either in Africa 
 or in America, can have no other estimate of his character ;' 
 that is, that he is childish, and therefore inferior to the 
 Caucasian, is but a sorry joke, if it may not be more strongly 
 characterized. 
 
 Mr. Bryce's testimony as to the Africans speaks volumes 
 for our people, inasmuch as the Honourable Member for 
 ifcA-berdeen is in the ranks of the opposition to the Africans. 
 
 I^K^ Bryce's 'American Commonwealth,' Vol. III., Part VI., 
 I^Hap. cxvi., p. 671. 
 
74 THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA. 
 
 We do not know whether we have said enough in dis- 
 proof of the saying, that the intellectual capacity of the 
 African is of an inferior order to that of the Caucasian, and 
 we are not sure, therefore, whether we ought to carry on 
 the discussion a little further. We have cited the testi- 
 monies of men, white men, competent to judge of the rela- 
 tive position of the black and the white man on the score 
 of intellectuality. We have done more. We have men- 
 tioned by name many distinguished Africans. But how 
 many eminent men there have been of our people whose 
 names we, unfortunately, do not even know, because they 
 have been ' unhonoured and unsung ' in public print ! 
 
 We are, however, greatly indebted to Liberian Blyden 
 for telling us, in his ' Christianity, Islam, and the Negro 
 Race,' p. 46, on the authority of Ticknor, who wrote on 
 p. 582, in his ' History of Spanish Literature,' that an 
 African, the ' el Negro Juan Latino ' of Cervantes, who was 
 born in Africa, and early in his youth transferred to Spain, 
 rose by his learning to be Professor of Latin and Greek in 
 the school attached to the Catholic Cathedral of Granada, 
 and was the distinguished author of a Latin poem in two 
 books, in the sixteenth century. 
 
 Liberian Blyden also tells us that Henry Diaz, the distin- 
 guished and celebrated Brazilian African General, is held in 
 the highest estimation by Brazilian Historians. 
 
 It is not only the Ancient and Pagan, and the Modern 
 and Christian, worlds which have produced African opti- 
 raates in camp, cabinet, and church. The Modern Mahom- 
 medan world has produced just as many (if not more in 
 point of numbers) Africans of distinction. But there is a 
 difference between the Mahommedan African and the 
 Pagan or Christian African. 
 
 The Mahommedan African differs from the Christian 
 and the Pagan African in this much, that whilst the 
 
I 
 
 UNCLE REMUS AND THE CAUCASIAN 75 
 
 virtues and other great qualities of the Mahommedan 
 African have been not only ' honoured and sung,' but 
 written eulogies have been handed down to posterity, those 
 of the Christian African have been ' unhonoured and un- 
 sung ' as a general rule ; while those of the Pagan African, 
 if they have been 'honoured and sung,' have not been 
 handed down, as a general rule, in written eulogies to 
 posterity. 
 
 For the same eminent man and brilliant author, Liberian 
 Blyden, teaches us that ' it is well known that numerous 
 characters have arisen in Africa — Negro Muslims — who 
 have exerted no little influence in the military, political, and 
 ecclesiastical affairs of Islam, not only in Africa but in the 
 lands of their teachers. In the biographies of Ibn Khal- 
 likan are frequent notices of distinguished African Mahom- 
 medans. Koelle, in his " Polyglotta Africana," gives a 
 graphic account of the proceedings of the great Fodie, 
 whose zeal, enthusiasm, and bravery spread Islam over a 
 large portion of Nigritia.' 
 
 He (Dr. Blyden) makes mention of the celebrated 
 Sheikh Omaru Al-Hajj, a native of Futah Toro, who sub- 
 jugated several mighty chiefs of powerful Pagan tribes 
 lying to the east and south-east of Futah Toro. One of 
 his sons, Ahmadu by name, is now, says Blyden, King of 
 Sego in Bambarra, while another rules over Hamd-Allahi, 
 two of the largest cities in Central Africa. 
 
 ' Al-Hajj Omaru,' Liberian Blyden again informs us, 
 ' wrote many Arabic works in prose and poetry. His poems 
 are recited and sung in every Mahommedan town and 
 village, from Futlah-town, in Sierra Leone, to Kano. His 
 memory is held in the greatest respect by all native students, 
 and they attribute to him many extraordinary deeds, and 
 see in his successful enterprises, literary and military, proofs 
 of divine genius.' 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 IMMORALITY. 
 
 In this chapter we propose to treat of ' Immorality.' But 
 if there is a subject less pleasant, and more uninviting to 
 discuss, it surely is the subject of Immorality. The un- 
 pleasant duty is not self-imposed, nor does the subject 
 derive its origin from us ; and yet we cheerfully and un- 
 hesitatingly take up the task which has been forced upon 
 us by the unrivalled libellers of that African race to which 
 we have the honour and pleasure to belong. 
 
 We shall, then, deal with Immorality as it exists in the 
 world to-day, and have also a look at the past, and see 
 what are the mischievous effects of which immorality can 
 be traced as the direct or indirect cause. 
 
 Immorality prevails everywhere — in Asia and Australasia, 
 as well as among the Africans ; and it is just as rampant in 
 America and in Europe. We must, however, in the first 
 place, look at Immorality as it affects the African Race. 
 
 Those who are responsible for whatever immorality there 
 is amongst the Africans are the Europeans and Americans, 
 all those Caucasians who engaged in the infamous traffic of 
 slavery and the slave-trade, and who owned slaves. We 
 admit that Immorality exists amongst the Africans; yet 
 we must not be misunderstood as saying that it exists to a 
 
IMMORALITY. \ 77 
 
 greater extent than among Caucasians. | Immorality was 
 always in the world, and always will be while men are 
 swayed by sensual passions ; and that will; probably be as 
 long as there are men upon the earth. , 
 
 But to return to immorality as it affects the African. 
 That kind of Immorality which we propose to deal with, 
 and which is often laid at the African's door by his enemies, 
 is none other, though it may not be thus designated, than 
 'Lust.' Of other kinds of immorality, Africans seldom 
 stand accused before the reading public. That kind of 
 immorality, lust, the African is often accused of, and we 
 shall deal with it under the general term ' Immorality,' 
 leaving out the word * lust' altogether, which, however, the 
 reader will understand as meant, whenever the word ' im- 
 morality' is used. We take that step because Immorality is, 
 in our opinion, a less repulsive and a more refined term. 
 
 The responsibility, then, for the Immorality which may 
 lurk among the Africans lies at the door of those who once 
 enslaved them and put them into a degrading thraldom. 
 
 When the dissipated, giddy, and licentious young, and 
 their seniors, the sensual old men, with the flickering fires 
 of wanton senility, owned the Africans as slaves, full swing 
 was given to their passions, and the female Africans, whom the 
 whites had in their power as bondswomen, dare not raise a 
 word of protest against the ill-usage and the brutal conduct 
 of their masters without courting severe punishment at their 
 hands. Many an African woman was ruined, her life 
 blighted, and her modesty sapped in those days. The 
 African females never were willing victims ; but they had 
 to submit to their fate and their shame. That was the 
 baneful example set the slaves by their masters. When 
 the masters were compelled to manumit their slaves, and 
 slavery received its deathblow, the example of shame, the 
 pernicious example of Immorality set them by their late 
 
78 THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA. 
 
 masters, did not in any strength survive with the African 
 freedmen. There were a few, certainly, who allowed them- 
 selves to be influenced by the example set them by those 
 who had been their masters. Yet when the facts are care- 
 fully considered and noted, by the unbiased mind, that 
 two-thirds of a century have not yet elapsed since freedom 
 was given to the African, it will have to be admitted that 
 the African has contrived to raise his standard of morality 
 to a much higher level than it was at in the old days of 
 slavery. 
 
 Whatever individual cases of immorality there may be 
 amongst the Africans, it is certain that the standard of 
 African immorality will compare favourably when brought 
 into comparison with the standard of Caucasian immorality. 
 Indeed, we assert that, with the Caucasian, immorality 
 is the rule and morality is the exception. 
 
 Mr. Clowes is not of our opinion, however, and thinks it 
 is the other way ; and he quotes the Rev. Dr. Tucker, an 
 American citizen, who thus expresses his views on African 
 immorality : ' In all the country districts the removal of the 
 restraints of slavery, such as they were, has resulted in an 
 open abandonment of every semblance of morality, and the 
 loss almost of the idea of marriage. Why, in one county of 
 Mississippi, there were, during twelve months, 300 mar- 
 riage licences taken out in the county clerk's office for 
 white people. According to the proportion of population, 
 there should have been, in the same time, 1,200 or more 
 for Negroes. There can be no legal marriage of any sort 
 in Mississippi without a licence. There were actually 
 taken out by coloured people just three ! . . . Soon after 
 the war the Legislature passed an Act legalizing the union 
 of all who were then living together — marrying them whether 
 they wished it or not ; and for years afterwards the courts 
 were crowded with applications for divorce from coloured 
 
 I 
 
IMMORALITY. 79 
 
 people, which mostly had to be granted, since there was 
 ample cause for divorce under either the Divine or the 
 statute law. I know of whole neighbourhoods, including 
 hundreds of Negro families, where there is not one single 
 legally married couple, or couple not married, who stay 
 faithful to each other beyond a few months, or a few years 
 at most — often but a few weeks. And if out of every five 
 hundred Negro families one excepts a few dozen who are 
 legally married, this statement will hold true for millions of 
 coloured people. And these things I tell you to-night are 
 but hints. I cannot, I dare not, tell the full truth before a 
 mixed audience.' 
 
 That is what Dr. Tucker says. Of course we do not 
 accept his statement, but if there be any truth in it there is 
 undoubtedly much exaggeration. And his statement would 
 have been still more one-sided and exaggerated if he had 
 not been 'before a mixed audience.' Let us take it for 
 granted that, in the country districts, and in those country 
 districts only, as Mr. Tucker tells us (whom Laird Clowes 
 blindly follows in an unquestioning and unreasoning manner), 
 there are Africo-Americans who are averse to marriage, and 
 prefer leading the lives of single blessedness, and yet lead 
 immoral lives, then we must respect their reasons for avoid- 
 ing marriage ; for they have the same reasons for not marry- 
 ing, or wishing to marry, as a great many of their white 
 American countrymen, their European and other Caucasian 
 fellow-creatures. The Africo-American, like the Caucasian, 
 may have aged feeble and infirm relatives to provide for ; 
 he may have some young brothers or sisters, or both, in 
 addition to the authors of his being to care for ; and he may 
 be earning just barely enough to keep his body and soul 
 together. In either of these cases, why should a man marry 
 when he cannot afford to keep a wife ? 
 
 Just recently — it was only in the latter part of the past 
 
Bo THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA. 
 
 year (1890) — an eminent French legislator proposed, in the 
 French Chamber of Deputies, that a tax, a heavy tax, should 
 be levied on all Frenchmen — bachelors of a certain age — 
 who either did not promptly marry, or who were resolved 
 to remain bachelors ; that Bill was calculated to have the 
 effect of not only increasing the number of the French 
 population and adding to the defenders of La Grande 
 Nation^ but was also calculated to raise the French standard 
 of morality, which is at a low ebb ; as it was thought that 
 the severity of the bachelor-tax would drive many inveterate 
 French bachelors, there and then, into the arms of matri- 
 mony. The Bill, however, fell through. 
 
 There are those, again, of the sexes who, though not 
 married, yet cohabit, and with regard to these a few words 
 must be said. A woman may be thought good enough, in 
 the estimation of her paramour, to live in concubinage with 
 him, yet a Caucasian may not think her sufficiently deserv- 
 ing to be his recognised wife. This remark, as it holds good 
 for the white man, in whatever part of the world he resides, 
 must also hold good for the Africo-American. If there 
 were American Africans in the country districts who detested 
 marriage, and consequently avoided it for a few years after 
 the Act of Emancipation was passed in the glorious and 
 immortal year 1863 (and year 1838 for the British Africans), 
 they were few who disliked and avoided marriage. The 
 great majority knew better ; they did not follow the example 
 set them by their late but licentious masters. To-day the 
 Africo- American's standard of morality is higher than it was 
 before 1863, for when the American Africans received 
 emancipation they immediately began to reorganize their 
 hitherto demoralized ranks, which had been shattered in the 
 days of slavery, and unfurled the standard of virtue and 
 raised their moral condition to its present high level. They 
 buried rampant immorality in a common grave with slavery. 
 
IMMORALITY. 8i 
 
 To continue. If matrimony before 1882 (for Dr. Tucker 
 made his statements before the Episcopal Congress sitting 
 at Richmond, Virginia, in 1882) had no charms for those 
 Africans (and these were very few) who, although they lived, 
 in adulterous concubinage, avoided marriage, why, as we 
 said before, they had their reasons, and their scruples must 
 be respected, just as are those of Caucasians. 
 
 The Red King, the second Norman William of England, 
 lived in adulterous concubinage with sundry and divers 
 women, but he would not have married one of them, or any 
 other woman, for a consideration. And he died as he had 
 lived, an unmarried man.* 
 
 But we are told that when the Mississippi Legisla- 
 ture, immediately on the conclusion of the American Civil 
 War, ' passed an Act legalizing the union of all who were 
 then living together, marrying them whether they wished it 
 or not,' that ' for years afterwards the courts were crowded 
 with applications for divorce from coloured people, which 
 mostly had to be granted, since there was ample cause for 
 divorce under either the Divine or the statute law.' If such 
 a state of things did exist in Mississippi, in or before 1882, 
 to the extent depicted by the Rev. Dr. Tucker, we deeply 
 deplore it ; but, unfortunately for himself. Dr. Tucker was 
 only too prudent not to attempt to substantiate his state- 
 ments by adducing proofs, since the fact is that he had 
 none to bring forward : consequently we see no reason at 
 all why we should believe his word in the absence of all 
 satisfactory proofs. 
 
 Even though immorality existed, and may exist to-day in 
 ever so small an extent, among the American Africans, it is 
 
 ■''■ Lingard's 'History of England,' vol. ii., chap, ii., pp. 136, 
 137, and 147, second edition; 'The English Cyclopaedia of 
 Biography,' vol. vi., p. 717 ; Freeman's ' History of the Norman 
 Conquest of England,' vol. v., chap, xxiii., p. 72, A.D. 1876. 
 
 6 
 
82 THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA. 
 
 a matter to be deplored ; but it is consoling to think that 
 there are those — and they are the large majority — who are 
 not immoral, whose commendable example will serve to 
 influence others to lift themselves up from the mire of 
 immorality. 
 
 In every country and in every city, among all peoples and 
 in every community, Immorality must yet be a force and a 
 power as long as men are liable to carnal sin in this world 
 of ours ; and as they will always be liable to this sin, im- 
 morality must perforce be found everywhere in our world. 
 
 Let us take the British peoples by way of illustration. 
 They are as immoral as other peoples are ; they are as im- 
 moral now as their ancestors have been in the buried past ; 
 and we have every reason to believe that they will be so in 
 the future. We may have occasion, later on in this chapter, 
 to refer again to the past history of immorality in Britain, 
 but we shall for the present confine ourselves to dealing 
 with immorality as it exists to-day in England. 
 
 We say that immorality prevails in England to-day even 
 as it does in every other country; and as the outcome of 
 immorality there were, up to the year 1890, according to the 
 best-known computation, at least 16,220 petitions for divorce 
 filed in England alone (Ireland and Scotland being ex- 
 cluded), reckoning from the time of the establishment of 
 the Divorce Court in 1858. 
 
 Of those filed there is an average of 800 petitions 
 annually, to say the least ; and it may not be inaccurate 
 to say that more than five-sixths of those petitions pre- 
 sented at the Divorce Court are granted, and their decrees 
 made absolute. It can be safely said that the great majority 
 of those parties who figure as respondents in the divorc 
 causes must admit, that the presence of their names on the 
 Divorce Court list is the outcome of their failing to remain 
 faithful to their petitioning husbands or wives, even for a 
 
IMMORALITY, 83 
 
 few weeks ; and it may not be out of place to mention that 
 there must be many married parties who, though they have 
 grievances on the score of immorality against their husbands 
 or their wives that sorely need redressing, yet refrain from 
 publishing them to the world, and consequently avoid the 
 Divorce Court. 
 
 Very often— and it is a fact well known; a matter, indeed, 
 of common knowledge — as many as five co-respondents 
 figure in one divorce case ; while it is a deplorable thing 
 to contemplate, that the present year's (1891) Divorce 
 Statistics bid fair to throw those of previous years into the 
 shade completely. 
 
 But do not brothels and houses of ill-fame fall under the 
 heading of immorality — are they not the temples of im- 
 morality ? And their frequenters and worshippers are, as a 
 matter of course, all immoral men and women ; such 
 temples of ill-fame are to be met with in Britain as in 
 France. And we venture to say it is a matter of common 
 knowledge, that in Paris many a shrine of ill-fame exists 
 which is known to the Minister of the Interior and to 
 the Prefect of Police ; but these establishments are in no 
 way interfered with. To be brief, French immorality is 
 notorious. We presume, then, that we are justified when 
 we say that, if immorality exists to any great extent in 
 Britain and in France (and it unfortunately does exist to a 
 very great extent indeed both in Britain and in France), 
 it is likely to exist to an even greater extent among the 
 white American people of the United States of America 
 than it does even among Britishers and Frenchmen. 
 
 Britain and France are in the front rank of nations, and 
 may be termed the pioneers and leaders of civilization and 
 Christianity. If immorality, then, exists to a great extent in 
 either or both of these countries (and it only too truly exists 
 to an enormous extent in both of them), we do not see why 
 
 6—2 
 
64 THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA. 
 
 we should hesitate to say that it exists to a greater extent 
 among the white Americans of the United States, seeing 
 that American liberty is greater than the liberty which a 
 Britisher or a Frenchman enjoys. White American liberty 
 is unenvied by all good people, because it almost always is 
 synonymous with license — with unbridled license. What a 
 white American citizen dares do in his own country would 
 not for a moment be tolerated in Britain or in France. 
 The Britisher or the Frenchman would not even give it a 
 thought ; he would certainly shrink from doing it. Do we 
 ever hear of lynchings in Britain and France as we con- 
 stantly do of lynchings in the United States of North 
 America ? Do we hear of British New Orleans lynching- 
 tragedies ? Do we hear of French New Orleans lynching- 
 tragedies? Do we hear of British or French mobs over- 
 powering sheriffs' guards, taking hold of the Africans they 
 are conveying to gaol and lynching them ? Or do we hear 
 of British or French breaking into the gaols of North 
 Carolina, Virginia, or Florida, in bloodthirsty quest of 
 Africans or other unfortunate victims, that they may lynch 
 them ? We say, then, that white American liberty is greater 
 than that enjoyed by either the Britisher or the Frenchman ; 
 and that American liberty is virtually Hcense. Those who 
 read the daily papers, especially the American papers, the 
 New York Herald, the New York World, and the New York 
 Police Gazette, will certainly bear us out in our assertions, 
 and agree with us that American liberty is virtually license. 
 Then, in a country where there is the greatest license, we 
 may expect to find the greatest immorality. And we may 
 say that gross immorality is the offspring of gross license. 
 These are, then, our reasons for saying and believing that 
 greater immorality exists among the white American people 
 than among Britishers and Frenchmen. 
 
 That unbounded license which the white American has, 
 
IMMORALITY. 85 
 
 his black countryman, the American African, does not 
 share. Yet we must mention by the way that the American 
 Repubhc contains more inhabitants within its territory than 
 either the French RepubHc or the United Kingdom. And 
 the fact must be borne in mind, that immoraUty will very 
 often, we do not say always, be more rife and prolific in a 
 country which contains a very large number of people than 
 it will be in a country which contains a very small number 
 of inhabitants. 
 
 We now return to Laird Clowes, who, commenting on 
 the statement made by the Rev. Dr. Tucker, writes on 
 page III of 'Black America' in this wise: 'These words 
 were originally spoken before the Episcopal Congress at 
 Richmond, Virginia, in 1882 ; they were subsequently pub- 
 lished in a pamphlet, and I am generally assured, and im- 
 plicitly believe, that they were true then and are true now.' 
 And Laird Clowes proceeds to add that, ' Even the Negroes 
 themselves dare not deny them. One Negro preacher 
 pubhshed a pamphlet in which he admitted that ''This 
 speech reveals humiliating facts, so truthful yet so hard to 
 acknowledge. Not one of our social circles, if we can be 
 said to have any, is clean morally. They are full of base, 
 downright hypocrisy and falsehood, and fully two-thirds of 
 the whole are members of the churches. Moral character 
 is not the standard. Crimes that should cause a blush on 
 fair cheeks assume a front of brass, and defy you to speak 
 of or talk about them. ... A coloured man only a few 
 days ago contended with me that the Negroes were right 
 in certain of their practices, because the Lord Jesus Him- 
 self said that "Seven women should lay hold of one 
 man." ' ' Such was the confession,' proceeds the Times^ 
 Commissioner, 'of the Rev. Isaac WiUiams, with whom 
 four other Negro preachers fully concurred, adding, " Our 
 acquaintance extends over seven to ten thousand coloured 
 
86 THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA. 
 
 people, concerning whose lives we know the truth, and 
 that truth is set forth in Dr. Tucker's speech without exag- 
 geration. There are exceptions; but the general truth is 
 stated exactly as it is. We agree, also, that he has only 
 given hints as regards many things of such a nature that 
 only hints are possible." ' 
 
 Mr. Laird Clowes tells us that he 'implicitly believes' 
 that the Rev. Dr. Tucker's words 'were true then, and 
 are true now,' but what unfavourable report respecting the 
 African will Mr. Clowes not believe in? Fortunately for 
 us Africans, Laird Clowes' belief is of no moving force, 
 and in no way affects us, and we can afford to ignore him 
 and his belief But does not the Commissioner of the 
 Times candidly tell us, on page 91 in ' Black America,' to 
 which reference should be made by the reader, that the 
 author of ' The Silent South ' — which has the praiseworthy 
 * desire to do all that lies in the writer's power to abate the 
 prevalent race friction ' — has ' unwise love for the Negro ' ? 
 When a man like Mr. Clowes takes Mr. George W. Cable 
 to task for having what he (Mr. Clowes) calls ' unwise love 
 for the Negro,' what statement prejudicial to the African is 
 he not capable of ' implicitly believing ' ? Because Mr. 
 George W. Cable has ' a desire to do all that lies in his 
 power to abate the prevalent race friction ' in the Sunny 
 South, that commendable 'desire' is dubbed 'unwise' love 
 for the African by Mr. Laird Clowes. Would Mr. Clowes 
 like to see the ' prevalent race friction ' continue as long as 
 possible ? We are sure that it is no fault of Mr. Cable's if 
 he happens to think differently from Mr. Clowes, and enter- 
 tains brotherly affection for the African. 
 
 Mr. Cable is an honourable man, and the talented author 
 of many works, mostly novels : he, like a true Christian and 
 like the good Mussulman Abou ben Adhem, is a philan- 
 thropist and 'loves his fellow-men.' 
 
IMMORALITY. 87 
 
 Mr. Clowes tells us that, ' Even the Negroes themselves 
 dare not deny ' Mr. Tucker's statements ; but we ask Mr. 
 Clowes, Who are those Africans who ' dare not deny them '? 
 It is true that the Rev. Isaac Williams, 'with whom four 
 other Negro preachers fully concurred,' to all intents and 
 purposes, prima facie, admitted them ; yet it is also true 
 that their admission carries little or no weight. In an age 
 when oppression and tyranny are rife ; in an age when 
 the members of an unhappy people are looked down upon 
 as belonging to an inferior and degrading race ; in an age 
 when a subject-race reckons amongst its ranks the whimper- 
 ing and the fawning, there will not be wanting those who 
 are ashamed of their fellow-men ; nay, more, there will be 
 found base and unmanly dastards who, in order to court 
 the smiles, and win the good graces, of those of their rulers 
 who spurn them, are only too ready, like so many Judases, 
 to denounce their fellow-countrymen. Such things have 
 happened in the days of old ; history furnishes us with 
 many instances, and we are satisfied that they are happen- 
 ing also in our own time. They have happened among the 
 pale-faced Caucasians in times immemorial, why may not 
 they unfortunately happen to-day amongst the subject and 
 dark-skinned Africans ? When the Scottish Presbyterians 
 were sore-constrained, and matters fared ill with them, in 
 the days when the second Charles was King, they sent one 
 James Sharp as their ambassador, with full powers to plead 
 their cause before the third Stuart ; but when that astute 
 ambassador perceived that the Merry Monarch and his 
 ungodly court entertained the most deeply-rooted and un- 
 yielding aversion towards all Presbyterians and their creeds, 
 Sharp — when he might have pleaded the cause and urged 
 the suit of his hard-pressed and corner-driven Scottish com- 
 patriots and co-religionists, who implicitly confided in him, 
 and made him their commissioner — betrayed them, by 
 
68 THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA. 
 
 neglecting the duty involved in his commission, and, 
 with a view to currying favour, and as a stepping-stone 
 to power, embraced the faith of the Merry Monarch 
 and his depraved court, which the majority of the 
 British people professed — and that faith was Episco- 
 pacy. He was rewarded for his breach of faith with the 
 Archbishopric of St, Andrews ; but when, early in 1679, ^^ 
 closed his inglorious career, meeting with his death from 
 the knives wielded by the hands of indignant assassins — 
 leaving his character as one of the basest to be found in 
 Scottish History — few Scotsmen pitied him; fewer still 
 lamented him. Irish history also furnishes too many in- 
 stances of Irishmen betraying their fellow-compatriots. 
 There was the notable instance of the treachery of Esmonde 
 of Wexford in '98, when the noble Lord Edward Fitzgerald 
 and the gallant Robert Emmett were bravely battling for 
 independence. There was the notable instance of the 
 treachery of Keogh and Sadlier in 1852. 
 
 Even supposing that the Rev. Isaac Williams, and his 
 confreres^ the ' four other Negro preachers,' are not men of 
 the stamp of Sharp, Esmonde, Keogh, Sadlier, and others, 
 we are quite satisfied that they in no way represented, or 
 represent, the^ voice of Virginian people of the Ethiopian 
 race, and were not — nor are they now — entitled to speak on 
 this matter with any authority. It is idle to suppose that 
 the Rev. Isaac Williams and his four colleagues knew 
 900,000 Virginian Africans intimately ! 
 
 Some humiliating instances might be found of hypocrisy, 
 in English political circles, which should keep us from 
 undue surprise at what we suspect is the time-serving of 
 this Rev. Isaac Williams and the four negro preachers who 
 repeat after him. We sometimes see men who have been 
 themselves condemned in an English High Court of Justice, 
 and who have spent months in English gaols, active in their 
 
IMMORALITY. 89 
 
 'op^sition to other men who have also been condemned 
 for immoralities, and may have as good a cry that injustice 
 has also been done them. A man basing his claim to 
 purity on the injustice of his own legal condemnation, and 
 then hounding from all possible return to political life a 
 man who also declares the injustice of his own legal con- 
 demnation, is a strange revelation of the possibilities of 
 human nature. And it may also be added, that there is 
 now undergoing his punishment for immorality of an 
 unusually disgraceful kind, a man who bears an honoured 
 English name, and had taken a prominent part in the 
 defence of the very class which he was privately inveigling 
 to their ruin. The Rev. Isaac Williams, and his four 
 countrymen and co-religionists, may or may not be hypo- 
 crites and Pharisaical. If they are not pharisees, then we 
 say that they have our humble but warm encomiums for 
 thus manfully speaking in reproof of the conduct of some 
 of our African countrymen. Yet if the reproof or rebuke was 
 called for, the open confession — the confession in a pub- 
 lished pamphlet — was wholly uncalled for. But if they are 
 pharisees or hypocrites, then we say that they are offending 
 sinners of the deepest dye, preaching with their tongues 
 what they do not practise. 
 
 The Rev. Isaac Williams, moreover, tells us that ' a 
 coloured man, only a few days ago, contended with me 
 that the Negroes were right in certain of their practices, 
 because the Lord Jesus Christ Himself said that " Seven 
 women should lay hold of one man." '"^ Well, the African 
 might have told the reverend gentleman the statement 
 which he reports; but Mr. Williams does not tell us whether 
 that man was fairly educated or an ignorant person ; we 
 
 * This sentence belongs to the Book of Isaiah. They are 
 not the words of Jesus. 
 
90 THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA, 
 
 infer that he was an uneducated person, and that, though 
 blamable, his responsibility was less than a fairly educated 
 man would have to bear. At any rate, if that man did say 
 that ' Seven women should lay hold of one man/ we are 
 quite satisfied that he could have been none other than an 
 immoral man. 
 
 We have satisfied ourselves, then, that, whether the 
 African under review was educated or an illiterate, he 
 was of an immoral disposition. Like all other persons 
 who are sincerely interested in the welfare of our African 
 race, we are not behindhand in offering our rebuke to 
 that man of the African race who. may think as that 
 African appears to do. Yet we do not hesitate to say 
 that the reference made to this African in his pamphlet, 
 by the Rev. Isaac Williams, which furnishes a weapon 
 with which our enemies may strike at us Africans, 
 was entirely uncalled for. Laird Clowes has thought it 
 meet to fling the words of our countrymen, the Rev. 
 Isaac Williams and the ' four other Negro preachers,' in 
 our faces as sufficient proofs of African immorality ; but we 
 shall, and we must^ by-and-by, pay him back in his own 
 coin, by showing how Britishers and other Caucasians were 
 in the past, and are in the present, also immoral. We pro- 
 pose to cite passages from the writings of his own British 
 countrymen as proving whether Britishers are greatly 
 immoral or not. 
 
 How many Caucasians there are who, although they may not 
 say that ' Seven women should lay hold of one man,' actually 
 carry out in practice everything embodied in the sentence. 
 There are, we are certain, amongst Caucasians, those who 
 have allowed themselves to exceed in practice the limit fixed 
 by the ' coloured man's' motto; and there are also those who 
 have nearly reached the limit. Such immoral practices have 
 been, and are being, carried out by Caucasians, not only in 
 
IMMORALITY. 91 
 
 this our civilized nineteenth century, but also in the times 
 of the buried past. What a great contrast does the in- 
 significant ' coloured man ' present to the British Elizabeth, 
 the last of the Tudors, who in practice carried out (in the 
 days of Shakespeare) the ' coloured man's ' saying, but in 
 the reversed order 1 The one a black man, and an American 
 African, and a subject (not a citizen, because the African in 
 America is not allowed to exercise the rights conferred upon 
 him by law !) of the United States of North America ; the 
 other a Caucasian and Britisher, and once Queen of Eng- 
 land and Ireland. The one was presumably an illiterate 
 man ; the other was one of the cleverest women who 
 ever sat on a throne, and was at least an accomplished 
 linguist, speaking and writing five languages in addition to 
 her native English. And yet Elizabeth, the greatest of the 
 Tudors, was destitute of all moral principles ; and here is 
 our proof: 'The woman who despises the safeguards must 
 be content to forfeit the reputation of chastity. It was not 
 long before her familiarity with Dudley provoked dishonour- 
 able reports. At first they gave her pain ; but her feelings 
 were soon blunted by passion : in the face of the whole 
 court she assigned to her supposed paramour an apartment 
 contiguous to her own bedchamber, and by this indecent 
 act proved that she was become regardless of her character, 
 and callous to every sense of shame. But Dudley, though 
 the most favoured, was not considered as her only lover ; 
 among his rivals were numbered Hatton and Raleigh, and 
 Oxford and Blount, and Simier and Anjou : and it was 
 afterwards that her licentious habits survived, even when 
 the fires of wantonness had been quenched by the chill of 
 age. The court imitated the manners of the sovereign. 
 It was a place in which, according to Fount, 'all enormi- 
 ties reigned in the highest degree,' or, according to Harring- 
 ton, ' where there was no love but that of the lusty god of 
 
92 THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA, 
 
 gallantry, Asmodeus.'* Such was the reputation of Eliza- 
 beth Tudor, who is wrongly called the ' virgin-queen.' And 
 this account is culled from the most impartial of British 
 historians. 
 
 Whatever excuse could be accepted from the African 
 could not be accepted from Elizabeth. 
 
 The Israelite, King David the psalmist, more than 
 exceeded the ' coloured man's ' suggestion, that * Seven 
 women should lay hold of one man ;' for the second king 
 of Israel had many wives and many concubines. His wise 
 son and successor, King Solomon himself, with all his 
 wisdom, could not exercise control over his sensual pas- 
 sions ; and he even greatly surpassed his father David in 
 the multitude of wives and concubines — seven hundred 
 wives and three hundred concubines, making a grand sum 
 total of one thousand women. t But Solomon and his 
 father David were Asiatics ; and we therefore pass on to 
 Europeans. 
 
 A more immoral, depraved, and worthless monarch than 
 the British Charles II. never sat on any European throne. 
 When he died, this ' Merry Monarch' left several illegitimate 
 children, of whom the best known were James, Duke of 
 Monmouth, by Lucy Walters ; Charlotte, Countess of Yar- 
 mouth, by Lady Shannon ; Charles, Duke of Southampton; 
 Henry, Duke of Grafton; George, Duke of Northumber- 
 land ; and Charlotte, Countess of Lichfield, by the Duchess 
 of Cleveland {i.e., Mrs. Palmer, Countess of Castlemain) ; 
 Charles, Duke of St. Albans, by Eleanor (Nellie) Gwyn; 
 Charles, Duke of Richmond, by the Duchess of Ports- 
 
 ^ Dr. Lingard's ' History of England,' vol. xiii., chap, vii., 
 pp. 500, 501, second edition. 
 
 t 2 Kings xi. 1-4. We do not, however, mean to say that 
 King Solomon bore personal marital relations with them all. 
 Many were merely nominal wives. 
 
IMMORALITY. 93 
 
 mouth (Madame Carwell) ; Mary, Countess of Derwent- 
 water, by Mary Davies. Many more illegitimate children, 
 by other women, the Merry Monarch had, who gained no 
 such public prominence as these.* But we now turn to 
 more modern times. 
 
 There are hosts of white Americans who believe, like the 
 * coloured man,' in the plurality of wives. The Mormons have 
 for many years both believed in and practised polygamy ; 
 it is, indeed, a prominent article of the Mormon creed. If 
 Mormonism be a religion at all, it is certainly an immoral 
 one, sustaining immoral practices; a mixture of Protestant- 
 ism and Mahommedanism, and abhorred by both Pro- 
 testants and Mahommedans. The founder of American 
 Mormonism, Joseph Smith, was a very loose-thinking and 
 immoral man. From the leader we can form an estimate 
 of his followers, and they are loose-thinking people on all 
 the great moral questions, so much so that American law has 
 had to be directed against the Mormon polygamic practices. 
 
 It may be mentioned here that though he (Joseph Smith) 
 founded Mormonism in 1830, polygamy was not first prac- 
 tised amongst the Mormons, because it was not then 
 included in the tenets of the ' Book of Mormon.' And 
 though cohabitation was indulged in by Smith, it was only 
 when he perceived that his licentiousness did not find 
 favour with his followers, and when it was necessary to 
 appease the just resentment of his lawful wife, that he sud- 
 denly declared, in July, 1843 (^^ believe that is the date), 
 to his only too credulous and lax followers, that he had a 
 ' revelation ' from God, who, he said, not only sanctioned, 
 but even commanded, the polygamic practice. It was then 
 that polygamy began to fairly blossom among the ' Latter 
 Day Saints.' And such was its rapid and general spread 
 
 * Lingard's 'History of England,' vol. x., chap, i., p. 115, 
 fifth edition. 
 
94 THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA. 
 
 among the people that, when Brigham Young, Joseph 
 Smith's successor in the headship of American Mormonism, 
 died in 1877, he left seventeen wives and fifty-six children 
 behind him to mourn his loss.* 
 
 Though Mormonism is mainly composed of Americans, 
 there are Englishmen and Swiss, Germans, Norwegians 
 and Swedes, Frenchmen and Danes, in the Mormon ranks, 
 who perhaps number half a million. 
 
 The Mahommedans, too, believe in the plurality of wives ; 
 for when Mahomet died he left numerous wives and con- 
 cubines behind him; and a part of the Mahommedan Bible, 
 the Koran, actually deals with his (Mahomet's) loose rela- 
 tions with women.! 
 
 It is probable that had the Mormon Brigham Young 
 lived a few years longer he would have died leaving not 
 seventeen, but at least twice seventeen, wives behind him to 
 mourn his loss ; but in modern times he certainly yields 
 the palm to the present Sultan of Turkey, Abdul Hamid II., 
 who rejoices in having between eighty and one hundred 
 wives and concubines in his harem at Stamboul, and, as if 
 that number of women were not enough to satiate his im- 
 moral appetite, the ' Commander of the Faithful ' is kept 
 engaged in increasing the supply. The Shah of Persia, of 
 living men, owns a superior only in the Sultan of Turkey, 
 as far as the plurality of wives and concubines is concerned. 
 Thus it can be seen that the Rev. Isaac Williams* ' coloured 
 man' does not stand alone in the belief that ^ Many women 
 should lay hold of one man ;' for there were in other cen- 
 turies, and there are in this century, men and women of 
 position who were, and who are, just as immoral as this 
 obscure and nameless 'coloured man.' We now dismiss the 
 Rev. Isaac Williams and the ' four other Negro preachers,' 
 
 * ' Encyclopsedia Britannica,' vol. xvi., p. 827, ninth edition. 
 
 f Ibid.^ pp. 561, 599, ninth edition. 
 
IMMORALITY. 95 
 
 who in various ways furnished Mr. Clowes with a weapon 
 to use, in accusing us Africans of immorality. When Cauca- 
 sians come forward, like Mr. Froude, Clowes, Sir Spencer 
 St. John, and others, and accuse us Africans of immorality, 
 one would suppose that immorality never existed, and does 
 not exist, to any extent, amongst the countrymen of these 
 same Caucasians. But we shall show that immorality does 
 prevail to a frightful extent amongst them. We briefly 
 alluded, at the outset, to the immorality which is prevalent 
 in the British Isles ; now we propose to deal at some length 
 with the British immorality, that is, with immorality as it 
 exists in the country of Sir Spencer St. John, James 
 Anthony Froude, and Laird Clowes. The actions brought 
 in the Divorce Courts of every country testify to the 
 immorality which is prevalent in that country. The British 
 Isles have their Divorce Courts ; and the large number of 
 petitions annually filed in these Courts must testify to the 
 widespread extent of immorality in Britain. Caucasians 
 tell us Africans that we are immoral ; we say that we, as a 
 race, are not immoral. We say that immorality is as old as 
 the world, and must be a force — a demoralizing, indeed, 
 but not the less a powerful, force — in the world. It has 
 marched with Caucasian civilization ; it is marching 
 shoulder to shoulder with civilization to-day. We say 
 that immorality has had, and has, its abode amongst the 
 Caucasians as fully as among other men ; but it is our firm 
 conviction that those who are responsible for the condition 
 of the morals of the Africans who are living under Caucasian 
 rule are his Caucasian rulers and governors. It is the 
 business of the dominant Caucasian to watch over the 
 morals of the subject African, because morality is part 
 and parcel of civilization ; and do not Caucasians pose as 
 civilizers, as the civilizers of the African ? Great moral 
 responsibility, then, without doubt, rests on the shoulders 
 
96 THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA. 
 
 of the Caucasians, while instruction and precept and 
 example lie with him, and must originate from him who 
 governs, and who is the great boasted civilizer. If the 
 Caucasian rulers of us subject Africans fail to disseminate 
 moral instruction, and, what is of much greater moment, 
 if they fail to set their subjects a commendable example in 
 the path of virtue and chastity; if, instead, they themselves 
 plunge headlong into the abyss of vicious immorality, what 
 effect must their derelictions and shortcomings, their wicked 
 ways and bad example, have on us Africans? The ignorant 
 African will be sure to follow in the footsteps of those above 
 him. ' Example,' says Rogers, ' is a motive of a very pre- 
 vailing force on the actions of men.' Have the British 
 countrymen of James Anthony Froude and W. Laird 
 Clowes set their African subjects the good or the bad 
 example ? We answer, without fear of contradiction, that 
 they have decidedly set them not the good, but the bad 
 example ; and the following pages, we venture to say, will 
 prove our statement. What was it that forced the Right 
 Honourable Robert Bourke, G.C.I. E., Lord Baron Con- 
 nemara, in the peerage of the United Kingdom of Great 
 Britain and Ireland, ex-Lord Governnor of Madras, the 
 second Presidency and Province in British India, to resign 
 the Governorship of Madras early in the last year (1890)? 
 Was it not immorality ? Was he not caught, red-handed, in 
 adulterous intercourse with his own Irish servant, and did he 
 not thereby court a divorce suit at the hands of his wife, 
 which was in fact instituted by her, and heard in court, with 
 the result of a decree nisi ? When the poor ignorant African 
 hears that the noble lord, the Right Honourable Baron 
 Connemara, G.C.I.E., ex-Lord Governor of Madras, a man 
 of the greatest intelligence, and a legislator, has not thought 
 it beneath his dignity to stoop to commit a disgraceful 
 liaison with his own servant, where is he (the ignorant and 
 
IMMORALITY. 97 
 
 benighted African) to take his good example from ? Yes, 
 we ask, where are his good morals to come from when a 
 noble lord, the African's universal ruler (because he is a 
 Caucasian, and a Britisher to boot) sets him a bad example? 
 Mr. Laird Clowes evidently did not bear in mind the 
 divorce petition (heard in July, 1890) of Lady Connemara v. 
 Lord Connemara and Hannah Moore, a servant, when he 
 was treating of the moral condition of the Africans, and 
 quoting Froude as saying, in reference to us Africans, that 
 ' morals in the technical sense they have none ;' that 
 ' there is no sign, not the slightest, that the generality of 
 the race are improving either in intelligence' (we have dealt 
 with the African's intelligence in the second chapter) 'or 
 moral habits ; all the evidence is the other way.' If 
 their own countrymen are immoral, what right has either 
 Froude or Clowes to expatiate on, or even refer to, the 
 moral condition of the Africans to the detriment of their 
 character ? If the Caucasian does not practise what he 
 preaches, how dare he pretend to moralize on the wicked- 
 ness of the African ? 
 
 What was it that forced the Right Honourable Sir Charles 
 Wentworth Dilke, a Baronet of the United Kingdom of Great 
 Britain and Ireland, author and editor, an ex-M.P. for Chelsea, 
 ex-Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies, ex-President of 
 the Local Government Board in Her Britannic Majesty's 
 second Gladstonian Administration, and now presumptive 
 Gladstonian Liberal candidate, with a view to the represen- 
 tation in the British House of Commons of the Forest of 
 Dean, to retire into private Hfe in the year 1886? Was it 
 immorality? Did he figure as a co-respondent in the 
 notorious divorce suit of 'Crawford v. Crawford and Dilke,' 
 in January, 1886 ; and was he declared by judge and 
 jury guilty of adultery with the petitioner Crawford's 
 wife? Mr. James Anthony Froude never thought of the 
 
 7 
 
98 THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA. 
 
 divorce petition of 'Crawford v. Crawford and Dilke ' when 
 he was treating of the morals of the West Indian Africans 
 in his ' English in the West Indies ' ; nor did Mr. W. Laird 
 Clowes give that case, or that of Lady Connemara v. Lord 
 Connemara and Hannah Moore, a servant, a moment's 
 thought when he was denouncing so vigorously the morals 
 of the American Africans in his ' Black America.' 
 
 When the poor ignorant African — in far-off Georgia, 
 Mississippi, Virginia, South Carolina, Alabama, North 
 Carolina, Louisiana, Florida, or it may be in Cape Colony, 
 Natal, the Gold Coast, Bechuanaland, Zululand, Mauritius, 
 Jamaica, Trinidad, Sierra Leone, Barbados, Lagos, 
 Gambia, or elsewhere — hears that his universal ruler, a 
 Caucasian and an Anglo-Saxon, gives way to immoral 
 practices; or, what is of even greater moment, hears of 
 the scandal connected with a prominent Member of Her 
 Britannic Majesty's Government of 1 880-1 885, how can we 
 wonder if he falls into the sin of immorality, the very sin of 
 which educated and high-ranked Englishmen are guilty? 
 and is not that same African to be commiserated with rather 
 than assailed by his Caucasian ruler ? 
 
 Why do not Mr. Froude and Mr. Clowes, instead of 
 treating of the morals of the African, treat of the morals of 
 the Right Honourable Sir Charles Wentworth Dilke, Bart., 
 G.C.B., and of the Right Honourable Robert Bourke, Lord 
 Baron Connemara, G.C.I.E.? That would be a better occu- 
 pation for them. We Africans tell the Caucasians to practise 
 at home what they preach, and not play the part of the 
 pharisee. At all events the humble subject-African's re- 
 sponsibility for sinning against and breaking the Sixth and 
 Ninth Commandments is less than that of educated and 
 cultured English gentlemen, who belong to the race that 
 claims to be his rulers, his civilizers (?) and his legislators. 
 It is recognised that the soldiers of an army have less 
 
IMMORALITY. 99 
 
 responsibilities than their general, because their general is 
 their ruler and director. We must confess that we cannot 
 understand why it is that British writers are so hard on 
 the African when they treat of African morals, while at the 
 same time their own countrymen are grossly immoral. 
 
 There is the gravest aggravation of some of these English 
 cases of immorality, in the fact that too often the licentious 
 men have had wives actually living with them at the time of 
 their wrong-doing, who are made by them to suffer the 
 cruellest indignities. 
 
 Another case has occupied much public attention, but it 
 need only be briefly referred to in further illustration of our 
 argument. The Honourable Charles Stewart Parnell, the 
 Member for Cork, who was sometimes spoken of as the 
 * Uncrowned King of Ireland,' brought irremediable dis- 
 honour on his name, and misfortune for his cause, by failing 
 to appear in the divorce suit of 'O'Shea v. O'Shea and 
 Parnell,' and letting judgment go against him by default. 
 There were revelations of intrigues made at that trial which 
 would have been regarded as utterly disgraceful if they had 
 borne relation to the African, and yet there were many pre- 
 pared to condone the moral offences for the sake of the 
 talents of the offender. We are indebted to the 'Noncon- 
 formist conscience ' for creating a healthy public opinion 
 with regard to the official position of a convicted adulterer, 
 which Mr. Gladstone emphasized by his famous and 
 effective — though, as some people think, dictatorial — letter. 
 
 And to strengthen our case still more, and further prove 
 that Immorality wields her sceptre, and has an undisputed 
 sway over the Caucasian, two other cases of the greatest im- 
 portance have just been made public. The offences of 
 Sir Charles W. Dilke, Mr. Charles S. Parnell, and Lord 
 Connemara, dwindle into insignificance when compared with 
 the offencee which must now be mentioned. Two British 
 
 7—2 
 
loo THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA. 
 
 Members of Parliament, both of them well-known men, 
 have but recently (at least as known to the general public) 
 fallen victims to the conquering power of immoral passions. 
 One — the English Liberal Member, or, rather, the late 
 Member, for North Bucks, has just (May 6, 1891) been 
 sentenced to twelve months' imprisonment, he having 
 pleaded guilty to half a dozen criminal counts of prurient 
 immorality. But what seem to render his crimes more 
 heinous, shameful, and disgraceful in the opinion of all 
 right-thinking men, are the facts (i) that he has passed the 
 middle age of life ; (2) that he is a married man, and has 
 a true and loving wife ; (3) that he was at the time of his 
 iniquities a Member of the British House of Commons, and 
 also a Member of the London County Council ; (4) besides 
 these offices, he was a J.P., and Chairman of the Anglesea 
 Quarter Sessions, administering the very law which he 
 helped to legislate in the British Parliament ; (5) moreover, 
 he is a Captain in the Queen's Navy ; (6) he is the eldest 
 son and heir of a baronet occupying a high social position, 
 and more than blessed with this world's goods ; (7) and 
 the females whom he sought to entrap were not women of 
 twenty-one, or beyond that age, but girls of tender years, 
 girls in their teens, and aged under and about sixteen. 
 
 The London Daily Chronicle of May 7, 1891, comment- 
 ing on * Regina z\ Verney ' (tried in May, 1891), and on 
 British immorality in general, amongst other things, says : 
 ' It is even more painful to reflect upon the spread of vice 
 in the country. The heartless cynicism, which is ever quick 
 to sneer at homely virtue, may well feel reproved by the 
 spectacle of the widespread demoralization of which this 
 latest scandal is an example ; and there is hope in the fact, 
 which has now been demonstrated, that the law of the land 
 is still strong enough to reach one of the worst forms of 
 scoial crime.' 
 
IMMORALITY. loi 
 
 Lloyd's News of May lo, 1891, also, commenting on the 
 Verney case, and the widespread immorality existing in the 
 United Kingdom, says : ' His ' (Captain Verney's) ' was not 
 the crime of impetuous youth, nor even of mature man- 
 hood, whose mental balance had been disturbed by the 
 force of a great passion. There was not a touch of even 
 false sentiment to mitigate its utter baseness. It recalls in 
 its callous concupiscence the stinging words of Byron: 
 " Prurient, yet passionless, cold-studied lewdness." The 
 head and front of Captain Verney's offending in the eyes 
 of good men and women is, that he deliberately spread 
 his net for any girls that might be caught by guile or by 
 money. Behind innocent-looking advertisements, offering 
 fair prospects of employment to the daughters of the ordi- 
 nary newspaper reader, this man was lying in wait for his 
 prey. And he has evidently been pursuing this course for 
 years, all the while posing as a philanthropist, and even as 
 a social purist. What amount of success he has had with 
 the general seduction agency, which he and the woman 
 Rouillier set up, it is impossible to say ; but so cruel and 
 cunning a spider must have secured his share of human flies. 
 From time to time piteous stories have been told, and have 
 also been authenticated, of young English girls enticed 
 abroad to Brussels, Paris, Havre, or some other Continental 
 city, where they have speedily fallen a prey to the dealers 
 in human flesh; for a young girl without money, in a city 
 where hardly anyone speaks her language, is of all creatures 
 the most helpless. But here was a man who caused his 
 victims to be taken across the Channel, so that they might 
 be more helpless, and apparently more easily cast off.' 
 Lloyd's News continues : ' There are men of Captain 
 Verney's stamp who have never yet been detected, and his 
 fate will strike a wholesome sense of terror into their hearts.' 
 It is only a small section of the English people who 
 
I02 777^ LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA, 
 
 parade as social purists, and venture to attack their African 
 fellow-creatures, who are frail as they; and their proceedings 
 are sometimes unwise; but when a criminal like Captain 
 Verney is run down, and it is made plain that he has been 
 seeking to entrap any innocent girl that might be attracted 
 by his agent, then we all become social purists, and, though 
 we may be saddened at the spectacle of his humiliation, no 
 right-minded man or woman can demur to the righteous 
 retribution which has fallen upon him. His expulsion 
 from the House of Commons should render him incapable 
 of ever sitting again, or he may one day be seeking to prove 
 his innocence by 'writing a pamphlet,' as has recently been 
 done in behalf of the Honourable Sir Charles Wentworth 
 Dilke. 
 
 It may not be too much to mention here, that the 
 gallant gentleman, Captain Edmund Hope Verney, has 
 just (May 12, 1891) been expelled the British House of 
 Commons. And he richly deserved his expulsion. The 
 other — the Irish Conservative Member for East Belfast, 
 for whose arrest a warrant has been issued, has not yet 
 ventured, as Captain Verney did, to direct his steps home- 
 wards to Britain to stand his trial for the immoral crimes 
 of which he is accused, but continues living in ignoble and, 
 let us say, constrained exile, because he knows only too 
 well that the moment he sets foot on British soil he will be 
 promptly arrested. Surely if he believes himself innocent, 
 and the victim, as he alleges, of a political plot concocted 
 by his political opponents — the Gladstonian Liberals and 
 the Irish Nationalists — he would long ago have surrendered 
 his person, taken his trial, and purged his reputation from 
 the charge or charges of which he now stands accused ; but 
 the Honourable Member for East Belfast prefers doing 
 otherwise, and remains in virtual hiding on the Continent. 
 It is worthy of mention that the Member for East Belfast, 
 
IMMORALITY. 103 
 
 like Captain Vemey, was accustomed to pose as a social 
 purist; but, lo ! he is himself accused of worshipping at the 
 shrine of Immorality ! The Member for East Belfast is truly 
 a fine specimen of a legislator fitted to legislate for the moral 
 well-being of the Africans who are living under the British 
 flag! 
 
 Immorality, we had occasion to mention before, exists as 
 extensively in France as it does in Britain. It was the in- 
 direct, or it may be the direct, cause which led to the forced 
 banishment of the French General Boulanger. It was his 
 immoral nature which (though he was a married man) 
 caused him to be inveigled into the toils of more than one 
 woman other than his wife ; and this it was that really 
 brought on his exile and ruin and death. And it was a 
 herculean task for him to shake off the yoke of immorality 
 under which he had to toil even to the very end."^ 
 
 There are many who believe that Leon M. Gambetta^ 
 tribune of the French people, a man of singular ability 
 and of distinguished parts, once Minister of the Interior, 
 and afterwards French Premier and President of the 
 Council, was a very immoral man. The wound from the 
 pistol-shot, which prostrated Gambetta and terminated his 
 existence not many years ago, was, and is, by many 
 attributed not to mere accident. It is thought to have 
 been a self-inflicted wound, and his death was a suicide. 
 While his friend, but supposed mistress. Mademoiselle 
 Leonine Leon, is by many reported and believed to 
 have goaded him on to the fell deed by her alleged 
 misbehaviour. As this is a matter of uncertainty (in con- 
 sequence of the conflicting nature of the reports that have 
 been spread concerning the private character of Gambetta), 
 we venture to do no more than refer to a passing suspicion. 
 
 * Boulanger's suicidal death on the grave of the woman who 
 kept him is the final declaration of his shameless immorality. 
 
I04 THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA. 
 
 Kings and queens have their little weaknesses in the 
 matter of immorality, like other mortals. Immorality 
 caused the graceless Servian Milan to perform his un- 
 dignified escapades, which served to belittle him in the eyes 
 of Europe and of the world. And when Queen LiUua- 
 kalani, of the Hawaiian Islands, attempted recently to force 
 the recognition of her illicit son as her successor and heir- 
 apparent on the Hawaiian throne, that attempt, or proposal, 
 very nearly drove her subjects into open rebellion, which 
 would have aimed at the establishment of a republic. 
 At all events, the chocolate-coloured Sandwichers gave 
 their queen to understand that they would have none of 
 her 'full-blooded Kanaka' as her successor and their ruler. 
 Austro-Hungarian Crown Prince Rudolph, the pride and 
 hope of the Hapsburgs, became immoral, and because of 
 the Baroness Vetsera committed suicide in 1888. 
 
 Reference may also be made to the dismissal of Captain 
 Arthur Wybrow Baker from her Majesty's Service in 
 Trinidad, the causes for that dismissal being well known 
 to bear relation to other things as well as official untrust- 
 worthiness. Did he set the subject Afro-Trinidadians a 
 worthy example ? 
 
 Whatever immorality there may be in the West Indies, 
 the West India Committee is largely responsible for it: and 
 we are not alone in that belief; for the Trinidad Public 
 Ophiion of March 20, 1891 — a journal edited by a 
 Caucasian — commenting on the morals of the St. Lucian 
 Africans and the West India Committee, says : ' There is 
 little or no incentive to the people to lead moral lives ; and 
 in many cases the example set them by those to whom 
 they should look up (the example set the Trinidadian 
 Africans by this Baker, for instance) is a deplorable one. 
 To many people in England, in fact, everywhere but in the 
 West Indies, the West India Committee represents the sub- 
 
IMMORALITY. 105 
 
 Rmated wisdom and morality of the Caribbean Archi- 
 pelago. The members composing it should therefore, for 
 propriety's sake, if nothing else, be able to point to efforts 
 made and example shown for the moral elevation of the 
 masses. As the twig is bent, so will the tree be inclined ; 
 and if the people see before them constant instances of un- 
 chastity on the part of those to whom they naturally look up 
 for example, it is not surprising that they should follow suit.' 
 
 We are of opinion that the three countries where the 
 grossest immorality is to be met with are the United King- 
 dom, France, and the United States of North America. 
 London, Paris, and New York are the three cities in which 
 the rankest immorality exists. But of these three capitals 
 Paris and New York yield the palm in vice to London, 
 which leads the van in the immoral race, the Metropolis 
 of France and the Empire City being left far and away in 
 the rear. Prostitution, rampant and prolific, with daring 
 effrontery, stalks abroad unchallenged, greeting and elbow- 
 ing you at every turn, walk where you may, in the streets of 
 London, from the early morn of God's daylight to the hours 
 during which stark night is permitted to exercise her sway. 
 
 Who, we ask, were the unfortunate Whitechapel victims 
 of the East-end but loose, immoral women ? It was their 
 immoral nature which led them to their pitiable doom, and 
 caused them to fall easy and pliant victims to the mur- 
 derous knife of the Ripper-assassin. 
 
 We say that immorality prevails in London, as the capital 
 of the British Empire, to a greater extent than it does in 
 any other portions of the British Empire ; and the reader 
 may be reminded that, when the decision in the divorce 
 cause 9f 'O'Shea v. O'Shea' became known, the Irish 
 people, with an almost unanimous voice, gave it as their 
 conviction that it was London which had corrupted the 
 morals of Mr. Parnell their leader. 
 
io6 THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA. 
 
 Vicious immorality predominates in both the West-end 
 and the East-end of the British Metropolis more than it 
 does in the other parts of London ; but these other parts 
 are in a sufficiently degraded condition. We referred 
 briefly to the state of the East-end, and to the Whitechapel 
 murders as the outcomes of immorality, considering that a 
 brief reference would be sufficient. We shall now allow 
 the Britisher to give us his opinion of the immorality pre- 
 valent in his own country and in London, and shall quote 
 one of the daily newspapers published in London. The 
 London Daily Telegraph of May 14, 1891, under the 
 heading of ' The State of the West-end Streets,' tells us 
 that : * Mr. E. C. Keevil, a gentleman having business pre- 
 mises in Regent Street, attended (on May 13), in company 
 with Inspector Shannon, before Mr. Hannay (Police 
 Magistrate of Marlborough Street Court), to make a com- 
 plaint respecting the congregation of immoral women in 
 Regent Street and the neighbouring thoroughfares. Ad- 
 dressing the magistrate, Mr. Keevil said, " I desire, sir, to 
 address you, on behalf of my fellow-tradesmen, in support 
 of a complaint of one of the inspectors of the C Division, 
 with respect to the state of Regent Street, caused by the 
 number of prostitutes who frequent that and neighbouring 
 streets, and seriously cripple the carrying on of business. 
 I am not desired to come here as a purist, a philanthropist, 
 or anything of that kind, but merely as one seeking pro- 
 tection for his business. We ask your assistance to have 
 the present state of things remedied, and dealt with in the 
 way such things are in Glasgow, Edinburgh, and other 
 boroughs, where the police are under the control of the 
 municipal authorities. There the evil, which I know always 
 has existed and always will exist, is under decent control. 
 We only want it to be under such control here that foot- 
 passengers may not be openly molested, as they are now, if 
 
IMMORALITY, 107 
 
 they stop for an instant to look at a shop-window." — Mr. 
 Hannay : " I may say that you have my entire sympathy, 
 and I am here ready to punish all such women who are 
 brought before me. Your application should, however, be 
 made to the Commissioner of Police. There are laws, and 
 I am here to enforce them ; but I have no control in the 
 streets." — Mr. Keevil : "We went to a former Commis- 
 sioner, Colonel Henderson, and he said that the law was 
 imperfect, and that the state of things was not as much 
 under his control as he would have liked it to be." — "There 
 is the difficulty that private persons will very rarely come 
 forward to support complaints against women of the class 
 you refer to ; while it has occurred, unfortunately, that the 
 unsupported testimony of a policeman in charges of the 
 kind has been viewed with suspicion. I may say that I 
 always judge every case upon its merits ; and if I see no 
 reason to doubt the evidence of the policeman, I act upon 
 what he says. It is a matter that I would rather not discuss 
 in public, but I must say that our streets are really a 
 disgrace to us." — Mr. Keevil : " It is our belief, sir, that 
 shutting up the houses where these women were wont to 
 congregate is only making matters worse." — "Mr. Hannay: 
 "Now you are touching upon a delicate matter; and I 
 would rather not discuss it." — Mr. Keevil then withdrew. 
 A foreign woman, giving the name of was subse- 
 quently charged with annoying gentlemen outside the 
 London Stereoscopic Company's premises. — Inspector 
 Shannon handed to the magistrate a letter received by 
 Superintendent Hume from the manager of that company, 
 complaining of the customers being driven away by women. 
 Gentlemen were caught hold of and spoken to, it was 
 averred, while ladies would not stand beside women of the 
 class complained of. — Inspector Shannon said that he 
 had understood that the manager of the Stereoscopic 
 
io8 THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA. 
 
 Company intended to appear and support the charge, but 
 he was not present. — Mr. Hannay : "That is just the point. 
 People make complaints, but will not come to Court to 
 support them. Go down, and tell him that I am surprised 
 that he will not come half the length of Regent Street to 
 support his complaints." — Mr. Shannon : " But he will not 
 come, sir." — Mr. Hannay : " They leave the police to do 
 
 everything, and will not help themselves at all." — 
 
 was fined 40s.' 
 
 What with the often occurring seductions, what with the 
 legionary divorce causes annually heard, we surely have 
 abundant public proofs of the immoral natures of Britishers 
 and other Europeans in the United Kingdom. 
 
 We take it that it is more than sufficiently disgraceful and 
 shameful that Members of Governments, Members of Parlia- 
 ment, Lords, Baronets, Magistrates, arfd Officers in her 
 Britannic Majesty's Forces, should figure as respondents or 
 co-respondents in divorce petitions, and figure as prisoners 
 at the bar on criminal charges under the Criminal Law 
 Amendment Act ; while it is just as, or, may we say it ? more 
 disgraceful and shameful when Protestant clergymen or 
 ministers of religion, preachers of the Gospel and morality, 
 figure as respondents or co-respondents in divorce suits, as 
 well as when they are put on their trial and proved guilty of 
 immoral offences under the Criminal Law Amendment Act. 
 
 We say that British Protestant ministers of religion have 
 figured either as respondents or co-respondents in divorce 
 cases ; and as we do not, like Laird Clowes and James 
 Anthony Froude, allege anything against anyone without 
 substantiating it, we refer the reader — the sceptic or un- 
 beliei-ing reader — to a well-known case tried in March of 
 this year (1891), in which a British Protestant clergyman 
 figured as the respondent. That one example^ we hope and 
 trust, will suffice for all. When a clergyman, a British 
 
IMMORALITY. 109 
 
 lergyman and preacher of the Gospel, who is supposed to 
 be chaste and pure, stoops to violate either the Sixth or the 
 Ninth Commandment, and as a consequence figures either 
 as the respondent or as co-respondent, according to the tenor 
 of the case, in a Divorce Court, his example, already bane- 
 ful, is likely to become contagious to the benighted African, 
 who only too readily will follow suit. 
 
 We again say that British clergymen are even caught red- 
 handed in criminal adultery, and convicted of indecent 
 assaults under the Criminal Law Amendment Act. And as 
 we do not (as we have already said), like James Anthony 
 Froude and Laird Clowes, allege anything against anybody 
 without substantiating our charge, we refer the doubting or 
 unbelieving reader to the case (tried in June 24th, 189 1, 
 at the Berks Assizes) of a Protestant clergyman who was 
 indicted for such immoral offences. That one instance, too, 
 we trust, will suffice for all such.'" 
 
 When we see Immorality affecting not only Magistrates, 
 Members of the County Council, Officers in Her Britannic 
 Majesty's Forces, Members of Parliament, Members of 
 Government, Lords, Baronets, and also Ministers of the 
 Gospel and of religion, is there not cause for wonder that 
 the benighted African, if he happen to violate the Sixth or 
 the Ninth Commandment, should be so closely and unre- 
 mittingly run to earth and denounced by those very Cau- 
 casians who themselves violate both the Sixth and the Ninth 
 Commandments ? 
 
 ■^ As an outcome of clerical immorality the British Clergy 
 Discipline (Immorality) Bill, under the pilotage of His Grace the 
 Lord Archbishop of Canterbury, has been read a third time and 
 passed (March 20, 1891) the Lords in the Sixth Session oY the 
 Twelfth Parliament of Queen Victoria's reign, and there is 
 every reason to hope and believe that that Bill will pass the 
 * faithful Commons' this (Seventh) Session and become law. 
 
no THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA, 
 
 When those in high places sin, they must be held re- 
 sponsible for the sins of the lowly. When rulers — 
 Caucasian rulers — are immoral, there will surely be those 
 who are immoral amongst the subject Africans, though it is 
 never the great majority of them. Like master, like man. 
 We Africans, then, seeing how excessively rank Immorality 
 is amongst the Europeans, and with what undisputed sway 
 she holds her rule amongst all of European descent, tell the 
 Caucasians to practise what they preach, because example 
 produces more effect than precept. No white man is 
 authorized to tell his black brother that he has a mote in 
 his eye, while so big a beam abides in his own (the white 
 man's) eye."^ 
 
 Let the good example be set the subject African, living 
 under Caucasian rule, by his governors, and it will have the 
 desired effect ; and let Caucasians put a stop to their hypo- 
 critical cant in complaining of African immorality. 
 
 How comes it, we ask, that there are to-day lawyers, 
 doctors, clergymen, authors, engineers, artists, teachers, 
 scholars, merchants, and what not, of African blood ? We 
 say that the true and only answer is, that the descendant 
 of Ham has seen the examples set him by his rulers, has 
 followed and continues to follow them, and, as a conse- 
 quence, he is now to-day working out his own future, and is 
 fast entering into keen competition with his Caucasian rulers 
 in every kind of profession and occupation that the African 
 is not debarred from. No sane man will for a moment 
 entertain the thought that the British Africans, when they 
 were liberated in 1838, and the American Africans, when 
 they were liberated in 1863, were ever given a recompense 
 for being so forcibly, unjustly, and with such diabolical 
 cunningness and fell purpose, taken from their hearths and 
 homes in beloved Africa, and held in servile bondage. 
 •^ Matt. vii. 3-5. 
 
IMMORALITY. rii 
 
 No. It is the force of example alone which is inspiring the 
 freed men ; for the African, when the Gift of Enfranchise- 
 ment fell on his lap, had to toil on his way as a labourer up 
 the ladder of civilization and general progress, without 
 material and substantial aid; using his progressive and 
 ascending powers — the resultants of the forces of example 
 — to their present lofty pitch to the admiration of the world. 
 Yes, commendable and worthy example, we may say, ' gives 
 an impulse towards progress to the whole mass ' of Africans 
 all the world over. 
 
 Despite the fact that the Americans set their then African 
 slaves a bad example, the standard of morals to-day is very 
 high in Liberia, because the American Africans left behind 
 the chrysalides of all the wicked and corrupting examples 
 set them by the Yankees, to rot and stench in their own 
 land ; and as they were all innately pious, God-fearing men, 
 as well as men of the greatest intelligence, they were 
 enabled to easily civilize their aboriginal countrymen in 
 Liberian Africa, and reclaim them from evil ; the Liberian 
 moral standard is as high as that of any other country in the 
 world. 
 
 The standard of morals in Hayti, though high, yet falls 
 short of that of Liberia. The Frenchmen, when they were 
 forced to quit Hayti, and were driven into the sea, left 
 behind them the unhallowed legacy of immorality, which 
 pernicious legacy and example taxed all the energies of 
 Toussaint the Great, Dessalines, Christophe, Boyer, and 
 Petion to drive away. 
 
 But it is not only in the present age that immorality has 
 been a force and a power amongst Caucasians as well as 
 amongst Asiatics. Immorality has been the means of 
 changing the histories of peoples, and has altered the 
 geographical boundaries of countries. More : it has been 
 the chief cause of the effacement of more than one country 
 
1 1 2 THE L ON EST A R OF LIBERIA . 
 
 from off the earth in bygone days. Immorality, the chief 
 sin of Sodom and Gomorrah, brought down the anger of 
 Heaven on those cities; brimstone and fire rained on them, 
 and Sodom and Gomorrah were wiped off the face of the 
 earth, and can never be restored."^ 
 
 Unlawful fondness of Bathsheba, the wife of his officer 
 Urias, caused the Israelite King David to break not only 
 the Sixth and Ninth Commandments, but the Fifth as well. 
 After debauching Bathsheba, the licentious Israelite re- 
 solved to put his devoted officer Urias to death. The 
 king succeeded only too well in his dark design ; but im- 
 morality transformed the hitherto stainless David into a 
 murderer. His matchless wisdom availed his son and suc- 
 cessor, King Solomon, but little, for it did not prevent 
 Immorality from enveloping him in herunhallowed embraces. 
 The adulterous Solomon, because of his being the slave of 
 women — for he had, we are told, seven hundred wives and 
 three hundred concubines, making a grand total of one 
 thousand womenf — from being a devout believer in the 
 God of his fathers, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and David, 
 swerved from the path of rectitude and truth, became an 
 idolater, and fell to worshipping the idols of his women. 
 But his sins involved the loss of ten tribes of Israel to his 
 son and successor Rehoboam. 
 
 Immorality on the part of the lewd and licentious 
 Trojan, Paris, and his innamorata, the equally lewd and 
 licentious Helen of Sparta, King Menelaus' wife and queen, 
 brought Mycenean Agamemnon and his myriads of em- 
 battled squadrons of fierce and bloodthirsty troopers of Old 
 Greece (and in their train disaster and ruin) thundering for 
 a decade before the gates of the ill-fated city of the valiant 
 and mighty Trojans, which was finally taken, sacked, and 
 wiped out of existence. It also lost Antony the decisive 
 * Gen. xix. 24, 25. f 2 Kings xi. 1-4. 
 
IMMORALITY. 1 1 3 
 
 >attle of Actium, his great empire, and his possible chances 
 of winning another equally great. And, moreover, it caused 
 that brave and capable, but indolent and immoral, Marcus 
 Antonius, the Mark Antony of Shakespeare, to fall into 
 despair and to commit suicide. 
 
 Most of the British sovereigns have an unenviable and im- 
 moral reputation, beginning from the Red King, the Second 
 Norman William, and ending with the so-called 'First 
 Gentleman in Europe,' the Fourth Hanoverian German 
 George. Very few indeed are free from the charge of 
 immorality; the Third and Sixth Henrys, the Fifth and 
 Sixth Edwards, the two Marys, the Third William, Anne, 
 and the Third George, the Farmer, being the only excep- 
 tions, as, also, are Stephen, the Fourth Henry, and the First 
 Edward, the ' Greatest of the Plantagenets,' but these last 
 three are doubtful. 
 
 The immoral relations of the Second Henry with loose 
 women, especially the Fair Rosamond Clifford, caused his 
 wife, Queen Eleanor, to urge her sons to rebel against her 
 husband and their father.* The Lion-hearted Richard,! the 
 ' mirror of chivalry,' whom the great Sir Walter — the great 
 Scott of Abbotsford — immortaUzes in ' Ivanhoe,' and his 
 Lackland Brother John,| who was bearded at Runnymede 
 by his stubborn subjects, and from whose grasp Magna 
 Charta was wrested by sturdy and plucky Britishers, were 
 
 * Lingard's ' History of England,' vol. ii., chap, v., pp. 382, 
 383, 434-436, second edition ; 'Dictionary of (British) National 
 Biography,' vol. xxvi., p. 10; ibid.^ vol. xi., pp. 75,76; ibid.^ 
 vol. xxi., p. 139 et seq.; ' Student's Hume,' pp. 119-121. 
 
 t Lingard's ' History of England,' vol. ii., chap, v., p. 426 ; 
 ibid.^ chap, vi., p. 501 ; Morris's 'History of England,' p. 93; 
 * Encyclopaedia Britannica,' vol. xx., pp. 540, 541, ninth edition. 
 
 X Lingard's 'History of England,' vol. iii., chap, i., pp. 91-93 ; 
 Morris's ' History of England,' p. 99; ' Student's Hume,' p 144 ; 
 ' Dictionary of (British) National Biography,' vol. xxix., p. 416. 
 
 8 
 
!I4 THE LONE- STAR OF LIBERIA. 
 
 just as dissolute as the Red King, the Second Norman 
 WiUiam, and the First Henry.* Her licentious passion for 
 her paramour, Roger Mortimer, caused the disreputable 
 Queen Isabellat to wage unnatural and unjustifiable war on 
 her henpecked husband, taking him prisoner. And finally, 
 the same guilty passion was the cause of the brutal and 
 cowardly murder of the weakling Edward II., while he was 
 a close and defenceless prisoner at the Castle Berkeley. 
 
 The Third Edward, under whom the decisive and well- 
 fought battles of Calais and Poitiers added to the lustre of 
 British arms, in the winter of his life, and in the dotage of 
 old age, yielded to woman's influence, and allowed his 
 mistress, the imperious Alice Ferrers, to rule, or rather, to 
 misrule, his kingdom ;| just as the Second Henry of France, 
 wedded though he was to a Catherine de Medici, suffered 
 the fair but sinful Diana of Poitiers, his mistress, to control 
 the affairs of his kingdom, from the beginning of his reign to 
 the day of his death and the end of his reign. § The Fourth 
 Henry of France was an immoral man, and his excesses 
 
 ■'^ Morris's 'History of England,' p. 63; Lingard's 'History of 
 England,' vol. ii., chap, iii., pp. 207, 212, 213; Freeman's ' History 
 of the Norman Conquest of England,' vol. v., p. 155; 'Dic- 
 tionary of (British) National Biography/ vol. xxv., pp. 450, 451 ; 
 'Student's Hume,' p. loi. 
 
 t 'Student's Hume,' p. 170; Lingard's 'History of England,' 
 vol. iii., chap, iv., p. 449 ; ibid.^ vol. iv., chap, i., pp. 9-19 ; 
 
 * Dictionary of (British) National Biography,' vol. xxix., p. 65 
 et seq. 
 
 X Lingard's ' History of England,' vol. iv., chap, ii., p. 142; 
 ' Enyclopaedia Britannica,' vol. vii., p. 684, ninth edition ; ' Dic- 
 tionary of (British) National Biography,' vol. xvii., pp. 66-69. 
 
 § ' English Cyclopaedia of Biography,' vol iii., p. 350 ; 
 
 * Enyclopaedia Britannica,' vol. xi., p. 670, ninth edition; 
 
 * History of France— from the Origin of that Nation to the 
 Year 1702,' vol. i. ; William Tooke's 'Monarchy of France,' 
 
 p. yn- 
 
IMMORALITY. 115 
 
 hastened his death.* His early dissoluteness cut off tlie bril- 
 liant career in arms and administration of Henry V. of 
 England, and sent him to an early grave.! His unrestrained 
 indulgences brought the licentious and indolent Fourth 
 Edward to his death at a comparatively early age.| The 
 Third Richard, § like his rival Henry VII., was of a dis- 
 reputable nature, while the Eighth Henry was a royal Blue- 
 beard, who stopped at nothing to attain his ends. When 
 the Defender of the Faith, Henry VIII., married his 
 brother's widow, he might have had at least a particle of 
 genuine and lawful affection for her ; but when he tired of 
 her, and was captivated by the charms of the young and beau- 
 tiful, but cunning and ambitious Anne Boleyn, who would 
 not consent to be mistress but would only be his wife, the 
 Bluebeard sought a divorce from his Queen Catherine — the 
 wife who is admitted to have been ' without fear and with- 
 out reproach.' When, in 1527, the reigning Pope, Clement 
 VII., would not grant the prayer of his petition for a divorce 
 from his wife, the Eighth Henry illegally divorced the 
 stainless and devoted Catherine by a private scheme, and 
 contracted an ecclesiastically unlawful marriage with Anne 
 Boleyn. And when Clement remained as immovable as 
 the sphynx, and kept pronouncing against his divorce, and 
 declaring Henry's subsequent marriage with Anne null 
 and void, the Second Tudor supported the doctrines of 
 
 ■^ ' History of France — from the Origin of that Nation to the 
 Year 1702,' vol. ii., p. 714 ; Chambers's ' Encyclopaedia,' vol. v., 
 pp. 316, 317; 'Encyclopaedia Britannica,' vol. xi., p. 671, ninth 
 edition. 
 
 f Lingard's * History of England,' vol. iv., chap, iv., pp. 425, 
 426 et seq.j 'English Cyclopaedia of Biography,' vol. iii., p. 365. 
 
 X Lingard's ' History of England,' vol. v., chap, iii., p. 317; 
 Morris's 'History of England,' p. 171 ; ' Dictionary of (British) 
 National Biography,' vol. xvii., p. 82. 
 
 § ' English Cyclopaedia of Biography,' vol. v., p. 89. 
 
 8-2 
 
u6 THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA, 
 
 Luther, and proclaimed himself the head of the English 
 Church, though but six (that was in 152 1) years before he 
 arrayed himself against Luther, refuted his doctrines, and 
 earned the title of ' Defender of the Faith ' at the hand of 
 the Tenth Leo. When, however, Anne Boleyn's maid, 
 Jane Seymour, caught the fancy of the immoral 'Defender 
 of the Faith,' he, under the pretext of her supposed incon- 
 tinency, beheaded Anne, surnamed of Boleyn, who was never 
 his lawful wife, and married Jane Seymour the very next day. 
 After the death of Jane Seymour, Henry VIII. married, 
 as all the world knows, Catherine Howard, and he put her 
 to death on the plea that she had been unchaste before her 
 marriage with him ; and almost immediately after he had 
 beheaded Catherine Howard he married Anne of Cleves. 
 But after a brief period of cohabitation with his wife Anne 
 of Cleves, the passionate and licentious monarch divorced, 
 pensioned, and put aside his * Great Flanders Mare,' and 
 married Catherine Parr. The Eighth Henry was certainly 
 one of the very worst kings whom the British people have 
 ever had the misfortune to call their rulers. He was as 
 vicious and licentious as he was suspicious, tyrannical, and 
 cruel ; but licentiousness was, without doubt, his predomi- 
 nant passion, his chief and ruling vice. It was deeply- 
 rooted and ingrained, it was innate, and part and parcel of 
 his vicious nature. He had many mistresses, as well as 
 these wives, but the names of but few of these have been 
 preserved. Elizabeth Tailbois and Mary Boleyn are the 
 best known of a legion of them, the latter (Mary Boleyn) 
 being the elder sister of Anne Boleyn, and the sensual 
 king immediately repudiated her on seeing her fairer, 
 younger, and more beautiful sister Anne.''*" 
 
 * See 'Dictionary of (British) National Biography,' vol. xxvi., 
 pp. 76, 82-93 ; and, better still, Lingard's * History of England,' 
 vol. vi., chap, i., pp. 2, 3, 6; chap, ii., pp. 121-149; chap, iii., 
 pp. 150-157, 161-185, 168-295 ; chaps, iv. and v. 
 
IMMORALITY. ir; 
 
 We pass on, and come to James I., who was as immoral 
 as any of his predecessors, who encouraged vice in his court, 
 and was head instructor in the school of scandal in which 
 Buckingham and Somerset were apt and foremost pupils.* 
 Yes, in the reign of the ' British Solomon ' National immo- 
 rahty flourished in Britain as it did in the days of Elizabeth 
 and other sovereigns. James II. 's licentious passion for, 
 and his subsequent betrayal of the honour of, the Lord 
 General Churchill's (afterwards Duke of Marlborough) sister, 
 the ugly Lady Arabella,! were the real causes of the desertion 
 of that nobleman (who was the first soldier of his patron), 
 when the British monarch James 11. was in sore straits, and 
 his kingdom imperilled on its invasion by Orange William 
 the Dutchman. Had Churchill remained loyal to James, 
 and had not deserted him, we express a doubt whether the 
 Dutchman William of Orange would ever have ascended 
 the British throne ; but, as Churchill deserted, and as he 
 was James's right-hand man and first general, his example 
 was contagious.! James's forces, as the world knows, went 
 over to William's side, and the Fourth of the Stuarts had 
 himself to flee the kingdom, the Dutchman mounting the 
 British throne which he had abdicated. 
 
 The two First Georges were also as dissolute as their 
 predecessors ; for George L, when he came to mount the 
 British throne, brought in his train a bevy of his German 
 mistresses, who were so many burthens to the British tax- 
 payers ; while George II. was no better than his father, for 
 his lips were steeped in immorality, and he made it his 
 
 "^^ Lingard's ' History of England,' vol. ix., chap, iii., p. 321 ; 
 * Student's Hume,' p. 378. 
 
 t ' Dictionary of (British) National Biography,' vol. x., p. 307. 
 
 X Lingard's ' History of England,' vol. xiv., chap, ii., pp. 253, 
 254 ; * Dictionary of (British) National Biography,' vol. x., 
 p. 317 ; ' Encyclopaedia Britannica,' vol. xv., p. 553. 
 
ii8 THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA. 
 
 business to get as much money as possible out of the 
 British taxpayers' pockets for his German mistresses to 
 squander.* 
 
 Under every British king who was noted for his depravity 
 the court copied the example of the king, while the people 
 in their turn followed the baneful and corrupting example 
 set them by their superiors — the king and his court. The 
 last British king and queen whose laxity of morals have 
 come into unenviable prominence and attained notoriety 
 were the dissipated George IV.t and his disreputable queen 
 consort, Caroline of Brunswick ;| and these were certainly 
 more depraved than the two First Georges. But the 
 British sovereigns whom we deem to have been the most 
 dissolute, depraved, and licentious, were undoubtedly the 
 Merry Monarch, Charles II., and the 'Virgin' Queen Bess. 
 
 We now pass on to Charles II., the Merry Monarch, and 
 we must dwell at some length on his career. Charles II.,. 
 we may safely say, was not only the most depraved and 
 licentious British monarch, but his compeer or superior 
 in immorality amongst the European crowned heads has 
 never yet been found. Immorality has perhaps never 
 been more rife in the United Kingdom than it was in 
 the days of the Second Charles. Virtue was laughed 
 to scorn by the Cavaliers, while it was the belief of the 
 Merry Monarch that every woman had her price. Un- 
 restrained merriment ran wild, and indecency, gross and 
 
 ■'^ May's * Constitutional History,' vol. i., p. 7 ; Whitaker's 
 'Almanack,' p. 89; 'Encyclopaedia Britannica,' vol. x. ; 'Dic- 
 tionary of (British) National Biography,' vol. xxi., pp. 146, I47» 
 150, 153-156, 163,164, 170-172. 
 
 f Morris's 'History of England,' p, 479; 'Dictionary of 
 (British) National Biography,' vol. ix., pp. 151, 152 ; vol, xxi.^ 
 p. 204. 
 
 t Ibid. 
 
IMMORALITY. ii^ 
 
 unabashed, reigned triumphant in the land."**" The Pro- 
 tector Oliver and his round-headed Puritans, bigoted 
 and hypocritical though they were, sternly checked every- 
 thing calculated to demoralize the British people, but when 
 the great Protector Oliver and his son Richard were no 
 more, and dissensions reigned in the ranks of the divided 
 and leaderless Cromwellian army, and the dissolute Charles 
 had ascended the throne of his fathers, there came in the 
 train of Charles and the Cavaliers the reaction. For 'under 
 the government of men making profession of godliness, vice 
 had been compelled to wear the exterior garb of virtue ; but 
 the moment the restraint was removed it stalked forth with- 
 out disguise, and was everywhere received with welcome. 
 The Cavaliers, to celebrate their triumph, abandoned them- 
 themselves to ebriety and debauchery ; and the new 
 loyalists, that they might prove the sincerity of their con- 
 version, strove to excel the cavaliers in licentiousness. 
 Charles, who had not forgotten his former reception in 
 Scotland, gladly availed himself of the opportunity to 
 indulge his favourite propensities. That affectation of piety 
 and decorum which had marked the palace of the Protector 
 Oliver was soon exchanged for a perpetual round of pleasure 
 and revelry ; and the court of the British king, if inferior in 
 splendour, did not yield in refinement and voluptuousness 
 to that of his French contemporary, Louis XIV. Among 
 the females who sought to win his attentions (and this, we 
 are told, was the ambition of several) the first place, both 
 for beauty and influence, must be allotted to Barbara 
 Villiers, daughter of Viscount Grandison, and wife to a 
 gentleman of the name of Palmer. On the very day of the 
 king's arrival in the capital she established her dominion 
 over his heart and contrived to retain it for years, in defiance 
 
 * Morris's 'History of England,' pp. 344, 345; Lingard's 
 ' History of England— Reign of Charles II.' 
 
120 THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA. 
 
 of the inconstancy of his disposition and the intrigues of her 
 rivals. With her Charles generally spent several hours of the 
 day ; and even when the council had assembled to deliberate 
 in his presence, the truant monarch occasionally preferred 
 to while away his time in the bewitching company and con- 
 versation of his mistress.'"^ This Barbara Villiers, or Mrs. 
 Palmer, who went by the tide of Countess of Castlemain 
 (her husband, Palmer, being Earl of Castlemain), was after- 
 wards created Duchess of Cleveland in her own right. Such 
 was the licentiousness and bare-faced indecency prevalent 
 at the time, that though we presume Palmer was perfectly 
 cognisant of his wife's infidelity and adulterous intercourse 
 with the king, he took no steps to hinder his wife's 
 doings ; he did not try to divorce her, but, instead, basely 
 connived at her conduct, and allowed himself to be 
 raised to the Earldom of Castlemain, and to receive other 
 emoluments, as the price of his wife's shame. Lingard, 
 writing on the general depravity of the time of the Second 
 Charles, again says : 'The present proved the most tranquil 
 period of the king's reign, but it was disgraced by the ex- 
 travagance and licentiousness of the higher classes. The 
 gallants of the court shocked the more sober of the citizens 
 by their open contempt of the decencies of life, while 
 Charles laughed at their follies, and countenanced them by 
 example. At the same time that he renewed his visits and 
 attentions to the Duchess of Richmond, he robbed the 
 theatres of two celebrated actresses, known to the public by 
 the dignified appellations of Moll Davies and Nell Gwynne. 
 Davies had attained eminence as a dancer ; Gwynne 
 attracted admiration in the character and dress of a boy. 
 The former received a splendid establishment in Suffolk 
 Street, and bore the king a daughter, afterwards married 
 into the noble family of the Radclyffes. The latter became 
 * Lingard's ' History of England,' vol. xii., chap, ii., pp. 76, yj. 
 
IMMORALITY. 121 
 
 the mother of the first Duke of St. Albans. Charles never 
 allowed her to interfere in matters of state, but he appointed 
 her lady of the bedchamber to the queen, and assigned her 
 lodgings in the neighbourhood of the court. She was so 
 wild, and witty, and eccentric, that he found in her company 
 a perpetual source of amusement, a welcome relief from the 
 cares that weighed so heavily upon him at times in the sub- 
 sequent years of his reign. Habit, however, still preserved 
 to Castlemain the empire which she had formerly acquired. 
 She suppressed all appearances of jealousy, and sought her 
 revenge by allowing herself the same liberties in which her 
 paramour indulged. 
 
 "k ^ ^ ^ * * 
 
 ' From the commencement to the close of his reign he 
 was the slave of women ; but though he tolerated their 
 caprice, though he submitted to their intrigues, he was 
 neither jealous nor fastidious, freely allowing to them that 
 latitude of indulgence which he claimed for himself. His 
 example in this respect exercised the most pernicious influ- 
 ence on the morals of the higher classes of his subjects. 
 His court became a school of vice, in which the restraints of 
 decency were laughed to scorn, and the distinctions which 
 he lavished on his mistresses, with the bold front which he 
 enabled them to put on their infamy, held out an encourage- 
 ment to crime, and tended to sap in youthful breasts those 
 principles of modesty which are the best guardians of female 
 virtue. There may have been other periods of our history 
 in which immorality prevailed, but none in which it was 
 practised with more ostentation, or brought with it less 
 disgrace.'* 
 
 Such was Charles's dissoluteness, such his licentiousness, 
 that when Louis XIV. of France was desirous to wean off 
 
 •**• Lingard's ' History of England,' vol. xii., ch. iii., pp. 
 197, 198 ; vol. xiii., ch. vii., p. 381. 
 
122 THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA. 
 
 the Merry Monarch from the Triple Alliance, which was 
 on the point of completion by the contracting parties, 
 Britain, Holland and Sweden, the wily Sun-King, knowing 
 only too well the depravity of the British Charles and his 
 impressionable nature towards the fair sex — for he was the 
 slave of women — sent over to the British court one 
 Mademoiselle de Querouaille, better known to the Britishers 
 as Madame Carwell — a woman as beautiful and witty as 
 she was crafty and licentious — to carry out his matured 
 plans ; and it is a matter of common knowledge that his 
 sending over so beautiful and yet so licentious a woman 
 had the desired effect on the Merry Monarch. Charles was 
 captivated by her beauty and caught in the snares of the 
 temptress, and Louis, through her, succeeded only too well. 
 Madame Carwell reigned triumphant at the British court, 
 Charles adding her to the already large number of his 
 mistresses. He created her Duchess of Portsmouth. She 
 was the means of bringing about the secret Treaty of Dover 
 (May 22nd, 1670). ' Le Grand Monarque ' sent Charles's 
 own sister, the beautiful and accomplished, but unhappy 
 Henrietta, Duchess of Orleans, to carry out the terms of 
 -the alliance, but the way towards the accomplishment of 
 his scheme had been paved by Madame Carwell.* The 
 clauses of the Treaty are matters of history. By one of 
 them Charles undertook to publicly profess Catholicism ; 
 but the shameful terms of the Treaty were that Charles 
 should assist Louis with the might of his Three Kingdoms 
 in the subjugation of Holland, though the British Ambas- 
 sador, Sir William Temple, was at the very moment engaged 
 (while Charles and his sister, the Duchess of Orleans, were 
 arranging the preliminaries of the Dover Treaty) in getting 
 the terms of the Triple Alliance ratified by the Dutch 
 
 * Morris's 'History of England,' p. 334, and Lingard's 
 * History of England.' 
 
k 
 
 IMMORALITY. 123 
 
 Government. The Treaty of Dover further set forth that 
 Charles should give his active co-operation and assist Louis 
 in his claims to the Spanish throne ; while Louis, on his 
 part, engaged to assist him with 6,oco troops in the event 
 of the Merry Monarch finding himself embroiled in a revo- 
 lution and his throne in jeopardy, and, what was more 
 pleasing to his avarice and depraved nature, gave him an 
 annual pension of ;^*2oo,ooo, with which the Merry Monarch 
 was to maintain and regale his legion of mistresses. 
 
 The patient reader will have observed that we have more 
 or less confined ourselves, when dealing with British 
 immorality from the time of William IIL to the days of 
 George IV., to the actions of the different Sovereigns and 
 their courts, and that we have hardly insinuated that the 
 vice of immorality was national. But we may say that from 
 the depravity of each king and his court the reader can 
 form a fair opinion of the morals of the British people ; for 
 we take it that what is true for the king and his court also 
 holds true for the great majority of the people ; and this 
 was especially the case in the days of Charles IL, and of 
 the so-called 'Virgin Queen Elizabeth.' We know that then 
 the manners of these sovereigns and of their respective, 
 courts were assiduously copied by their subjects. 
 
 Immorality has, then, prevailed to an enormous extent in 
 Britain. We now direct our attention to France, to see 
 whether it has not had just as extensive and unenviable a 
 career in that country. We mentioned elsewhere that 
 though the French Henry II. had a loving wife in 
 Catherine de Medici, yet that did not prevent the fickle 
 monarch from indulging in the grossest way in his favourite 
 pleasures, for he had several mistresses, and many children 
 by them. But the imperious woman who ruled the French 
 people, with Henry II. as her medium, was his chief concu- 
 bine, Diana of Poitiers, whom he created Duchess of Valen- 
 
124 THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA. 
 
 tinois. Immorality, practised without any approach to 
 moderation, brought death prematurely to Henry IV., to 
 Louis XII., and to Louis XIII., all of them depraved and 
 loose men, quite devoid of all proper moral principles."^ 
 
 The Great Emperor of the West, Charlemagne himself 
 (Lecky tells us in his 'History of European Morals'),! 
 besides having two wives, indulged largely m concubines. 
 Madame de Montespan was Louis XIV. 's ruling mistress, 
 and through Louis she indirectly ruled France. In order 
 to stand high in the king's confidence and favour, French 
 noblemen had to ingratiate themselves with her. The 
 Fourteenth Louis was certainly not as depraved as the 
 British Charles II., but his great-grandson was the Merry 
 Monarch of France, while we are satisfied that the morals 
 of the Great Monarch were on a par with those of Elizabeth 
 of England. Many mistresses were owned by Louis XIV., 
 like the great majority of the French kings who went before 
 him. 
 
 Of all the French rulers, however, the Plfteenth Louis 
 was certainly the most licentious ; his standard of immo- 
 rality being a little less shameful than that of the Merry 
 Monarch, the British Charles II. Dubois and Duke Philip 
 of Orleans were leading lights in the school of shameless- 
 ness during Louis XIV. 's minority. When, shortly after the 
 king attained his majority, and the Regency of Orleans 
 terminated, the depraved Dubois died, the companion of 
 
 ■^ ' Encyclopcedia Britannica,' vol. ix., and 'English Cyclo- 
 paedia of Biography.' 
 
 t Vol. ii., p. 343. We would recommend for the reader's 
 perusal W. E. H. Lecky's 'History of European Morals,' from 
 Augustus to Charlemagne, in 2 vols. We think it a pity that 
 Mr. Lecky has not favoured the world with another ' History 
 of European Morals,' say from Charlemagne to George or 
 William IV. 
 
I 
 
 IMMORALITY. 125 
 
 his bosom in licentiousness and vice, Philip of Orleanp, 
 speedily followed him to the grave, he perishing through an 
 illness brought about by his dissolute and intemperate 
 habits ; and after the deaths of Dubois and Orleans the 
 conduct of the Duke de Bourbon, Louis' prime minister, 
 and his mistress, the Marquise de Prise, did not conduce to 
 raise the standard of French morals in the days of Louis XV. 
 Surrounded, then, as he was, by low and lack-moral men 
 and women, remembering the examples set him by Dubois, 
 Orleans, and, afterwards, Bourbon, adding to these disad- 
 vantages his own innate depraved nature, it was not to be 
 expected that when he found himself his own master he 
 could have been aught but a licentious man. He was 
 married, it is true, to one Marie Leczinski, but neither that 
 circumstance nor her piety in any way tended to check his 
 propensity to vice ; they did not prevent him from 
 plunging headlong into a career of debauchery and social 
 crimes." 
 
 History has preserved and transmitted to us the name 
 of Madame de Mailly as Louis' first mistress, while De 
 Chateauroux was another well-known mistress ; but it was 
 in the person of Jeanne Antoinette Poisson le Normant 
 d'Etoiles, better known as Madame la Marquise de Pompa- 
 dour, that immorality played an important part in French 
 history. She was educated to be a king's mistress, thus 
 testifying to the gross and universal licentiousness existing 
 at the time. She, after vainly trying her utmost to attract 
 Louis' notice, at last succeeded in meeting him at a ball 
 given in Paris. She was presented to the king, and subse- 
 quently deserted her husband for Louis. In 1745 the 
 licentious and ambitious woman and unfaithful wife became 
 the king's mistress, and had apartments fitted up for her at 
 
 * 'Encyclopaedia Britannica' and 'English Cyclopaedia of 
 Biography.' 
 
126 THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA. 
 
 Versailles near the court. It was De Pompadour who ruined 
 De Maurepas, who made Belle-Isle minister, and afterwards 
 made De Bernis, her favourite, the king's minister, under 
 her guidance. She did more than this. She allied herself 
 with Maria Theresa of Austro-Hungary against Frederick 
 the Great, that alliance originating the Seven Years' War. 
 She it was who was responsible for the loss of French North 
 America, for the losses of Grenada, Dominica, and Tobago 
 to France, as well as for the disastrous battles of Rosbach, 
 Dettingen, and Minden, in which the French arms were 
 utterly shattered, and their ranks demoralized, by the 
 triumphant and conquering allies in the Seven Years' War. 
 De Pompadour was the means of introducing the Due de 
 Choiseul to the French premiership, while it was with her 
 co-operation that De Choiseul made the humiliating Peace 
 of Paris, or Versailles, for France.* When Louis XV.'s 
 fickle and inconstant disposition began to swerve from her, 
 his unscrupulous and crafty mistress, De Pompadour, did 
 not think it beneath her to superintend the arrangements of 
 the king's debaucheries, and even minister to his sensual 
 wants in her efforts to remain in the favour of the truant 
 monarch ; and she succeeded but too well.t She it was who 
 made Clermont and Soubise commanders-in-chief, and at 
 the same time it may be said that no man came into office, 
 no man came into prominence and the king's favour, save 
 through her as intermediary. She was, as a consequence, 
 courted and flattered by all the depraved courtiers and 
 others. I De Pompadour, who terminated her career in 
 1764, may be termed the Mrs. Palmer, or Duchess of 
 Cleveland, of France, for the Duchess of Cleveland ruled 
 Britain through Charles II. as long as the Merry Monarch 
 
 * ' Encyclopaedia Britannica.' f Ibid. 
 
 X 'Encyclopaedia Britannica' and 'English Cyclopaedia of 
 Biography.' 
 
 I 
 
IMMORALITY. 127 
 
 lived ; while the Marquise de Pompadour, as long as she 
 lived, did the same in France through the Fifteenth Louis. 
 No one came into office, or was appointed to posts of trust, 
 save through Mrs. Palmer ; while Madame de Pompadour 
 likewise was supreme in France, she exercising her imperious 
 sway over the dissolute Louis, and, like Mrs. Palmer, 
 remaining in her paramour's favour up to the last. After 
 De Pompadour's death Louis XV. did not simply confine 
 himself to selecting the ladies of his court as his mistresses, 
 but plunged into more degrading habits, for he sought out 
 vulgar women as well with whom to satiate his sensual 
 appetite. The infamous Pare aux Cerfs, where many a 
 woman was ruined, had the licentious Louis as its originator. 
 It was arranged after the pattern of the harem of the 'Com- 
 mander of the Faithful.* Vast sums were squandered upon 
 the maintenance of this establishment, which fairly scanda- 
 lized Europe. But it was in 1770, just six years after the 
 death of De Pompadour, that the Archpriestess of the ' 
 College of Immorality, the Pare aux Cerfs Institution, came 
 upon the arena, who was none other than Du Barry. While 
 Marie Jeanne Gomard de Vaubernier, afterwards Countess 
 du Barry, was still in her teens she was an inmate of a 
 French brothel, where Count Jean du Barry, a dissipated 
 man in a dissipated age, met her. He was quite fascinated 
 with her, and made her his mistress. He introduced her to 
 the king's chamberlain, and he in turn presented her to 
 the founder of the Pare aux Cerfs.* 
 
 When the captivated Louis wished to have De Vauber- 
 nier — who was as vulgar as she was beautiful — titled, in 
 order that she might present herself at Court as his mistress- 
 in-chief, such was the licentiousness and barefaced indecency 
 prevalent at the time, that Count Guillaume, styled of 
 
 * 'Encyclopaedia Britannica' and 'English Cyclopaedia of 
 Biography.' 
 
128 THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA. 
 
 Barry, brother to Mademoiselle de Vaubernier's former 
 paramour, wishing to curry the favour of the licentious 
 Louis, gladly and unhesitatingly offered himself to supply 
 the title to the mistress of the immoral monarch, by marry- 
 ing De Vaubernier, which offer Louis accepted. Du Barry 
 married De Vaubernier, and she thus became Countess du 
 Barry."'^ 
 
 It was in 1770, we say, that the Countess du Barry was 
 fairly launched on the sea of courdy life. She was estab- 
 lished at Versailles as the king's chief mistress. Like De 
 Pompadour who went before her, Du Barry lost no time in 
 entering upon the field of politics, and became the willing 
 and pliant tool of the profligate courtiers. She was made 
 much of because of the strong influence she wielded over 
 the dissipated Louis. At the instigation of the intriguing 
 courtiers she drove the able and talented De Choiseul and 
 the Jansenists from office. Intriguers and office-seekers 
 who succeeded in pleasing her obtained office through her, 
 and became her passive tools. Du Barry made and unmade 
 ministers, and Chancellor Maupeon, Marshal Richelieu, 
 and other leading lights received their portfolios through 
 her as intermediary ; while many a French Parliament came 
 to grief because of her. It was while acting under her pro- 
 tection that Maupeon, the Chancellor, dissatisfied with its 
 proceedings, terminated the career of the then French 
 Parliament in 1771.+ 
 
 The profligate Louis, who during his whole lifetime had 
 walked in the ways of the ungodly, and was the slave of 
 women, died in 1774, an easy prey to a fell disease which 
 he had contracted, after a very long but very inglorious 
 reign. His grandson and successor, the Sixteenth Louis, 
 
 * 'Encyclopaedia Britannica' and 'English Cyclopasdia of 
 Biography.' 
 f 'English Cyclopaedia' and 'Encyclopaedia Britannica.' 
 
IMMORALITY. 129 
 
 was destined to reap the bitter fruits of the evils the 
 Fifteenth Louis had sown. When Louis XV. died he left 
 behind an impoverished Treasury and an impoverished 
 people ; but he also left behind a debauched nobility and 
 bourgeoisie, who were wealthy, tyrannical, and insolent at 
 the same time. When the sovereign People of France rose 
 in rebellion, they scattered to the winds Royalty, Nobility, 
 and all other sorts of oppressors, and becoming their own 
 masters, beheaded the Sixteenth Louis, who thus with his 
 life expiated the sins of his immoral grandsire, and the 
 beautiful Marie Antoinette, his consort, shared his terrible 
 fate. They did more. They beheaded most of the nobility ; 
 the guillotine, herself a daughter of the French Revolution, 
 was kept busy at her sanguinary work. That guillotine was 
 a dissatisfied Moloch, who kept demanding more victims. 
 Ever more it would have. The all-powerful and frenzied 
 populace of France sought out eligible victims for the all- 
 devouring Moloch ; and nineteen years after the demise of 
 the disreputable Louis XV., his mistress, the Countess du 
 Barry, was pounced upon by the blood-thirsty Revolu- 
 tionists. Short work was made in those days of dealing 
 with the accused. To be accused was virtually to be con- 
 demned ; and Du Barry was seized because she was accused ; 
 was condemned because she was accused. In 1793 
 Louis XV.'s last mistress-in-chief perished at the hands of 
 the Revolution, a victim and an expiatory offering thrown 
 into the jaws of the all-devouring Moloch — guillotine.* 
 
 Immorality has been proved, then, to have prevailed 
 both in Britain and in France to an outrageous extent. But, 
 we may ask, are these the only two countries on the Euro- 
 pean Continent in which immorality has been thus rank ? 
 The truth is that immorality has existed everywhere on the 
 European Continent ! W^here, indeed, has it not erected its 
 
 * ' English Cyclopaedia ' and ' Encyclopaedia Britannica.' 
 
 9 
 
I30 THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA. 
 
 unhallowed throne ? Do we turn to Russia and see whether 
 immorality has been an active force in that colossal country ? 
 Why, Peter, the first Emperor of Russia, and the so-called 
 * father of his country,' with all his greatness, led — certainly 
 at the commencement, if not to the end, of his reign — a life 
 of profligacy; while his queen, Catherine (who afterwards 
 reigned as Catherine I., Empress of Russia), was mistress 
 to several Russian generals, the last and best known of whom 
 was the Prince Menschikoff. It was in the house of that last- 
 named personage that the First Peter was introduced to 
 Catherine, whom he made his mistress, and then subse- 
 quently married. The conduct of Elizabeth, however, 
 Peter's elder daughter, threw that of the Great Peter himself 
 into the shade. Her court was pregnant with vice ; there 
 unbridled licentiousness careered wildly, while the morals 
 of her nephew and successor, Peter III., were as low as 
 those of Elizabeth. The Third Peter compelled his wife 
 Catherine (afterwards Catherine II., Empress of Russia) to 
 be his confidante in his numerous shameless amours with 
 the Russian women. He forced her to confer on his 
 principal mistress, the Countess Woronzoff, the distinguished 
 Order of St. Catherine. But his wife and queen, Catherine, 
 it is fair to say, surrounded as she was by a profligate court, 
 equalled Peter in licentiousness even during Peter's life, 
 and surpassed all other Russian sovereigns in immorality 
 after the demise of Peter. It was with the aid of the two 
 Orlofls, her disreputable paramours, that she succeeded 
 first in dethroning Peter, then crowning her polluted brow 
 with the imperial diadem of the Czars, and at last mounting 
 the throne as Catherine II., Empress of Russia.* 
 
 It was during her reign that Poland was completely par- 
 titioned and disappeared from the rank of independent 
 states. For the mere purpose of aiding the election of a 
 * ' Encyclopaedia Britannica.' 
 
IMMORALITY. 131 
 
 former lover of hers, Poniatowski, to the kingship of Poland, 
 Catherine hurled a Russian horde in battle array over the 
 Vistula.* 
 
 The standard of Catherine's morals was as low as that of 
 Elizabeth of England. Like Elizabeth, she encouraged 
 wholesale and systematic immorality amongst the male and 
 female courtiers and attendants by her example. Of course 
 the people caught the infection, and copied the examples 
 set them by their betters. Catherine made one favourite 
 lover after another minister ; dismissed one to-day and set 
 up another in his place to-morrow ad libitum. Her most 
 trusty and favoured, as well as her most crafty and un- 
 scrupulous, paramour was her minister Potemkin, who 
 remained in office from 1775 to 1791. And he, when he 
 saw that his mistress's eager passion was flagging (as De 
 Pompadour before, when in a like predicament, artfully out- 
 witted Louis XV.), had recourse to the contrivance of 
 ministering to the sensual desires of the depraved Catherine. 
 He got her fresh lovers, and he succeeded in retaining 
 power and office through these creatures till his death. 
 The great laxity of Catherine's morals caused the paternity 
 of all her children (presumably by Peter, when that unhappy 
 and eccentric monarch was alive) to be a matter of grave 
 doubt, the paternity of her eldest son, Paul, being treated 
 as a moot point, f 
 
 We do not propose here to enter into the history of the 
 morals of other European countries, because we judge that 
 in dealing, as we have done, with the morals of the British, 
 French, and Russians, all Europe has been fairly repre- 
 sented. What makes Russian morals still worse to-day than 
 they were a hundred years ago is the strange fact that the 
 Russian law does not sanction divorce. 
 
 Though the Caucasian has an immoral record in the past, 
 
 * ' En&yclopaedia Britannica,' vol. v., pp. 233-235. f Ibid. 
 
 9-2 
 
132 THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA. 
 
 though he is now wallowing in the mire of immorality, he 
 would fain take upon him to lecture the African on immo- 
 rality. 
 
 Did Clowes, and his unenviable mentor, Froude, and the 
 other calumniators of the African race, when treating of 
 African morals, bethink themselves of the divorce case of 
 Scott V. Scott and the Honourable Charles Lowther, which 
 was heard in November, 1882; of the divorce case of the 
 Honourable Wyndham Edward Campbell Stanhope v. the 
 Honourable Mrs. Camille Caroline Stanhope and Adye, 
 which was heard in May, 1883 ; of the divorce petition of 
 Sir Francis MacNaghten v. Lady MacNaghten and Thorn- 
 hill, which was tried in February, 1883 ; of the divorce 
 petition of the Lady St. Leonards v. the Right Honourable 
 Lord St. Leonards and another, which was tried in February, 
 1883; of the divorce petition of his Grace the Duke of 
 Marlborough v. Her Grace the Duchess of Marlborough and 
 another, which was tried in 1883 ; of the divorce petition of 
 the Baron Henry de Worms v. the Baroness Fanny de 
 Worms and the Baron Moritz von Leon, tried in July, 
 
 1886 ; of the divorce petition of the Lord Colin Campbell 
 V. Lady Colin Campbell, His Grace the Duke of Marl- 
 borough, Shaw, Butter, and Bird, tried in July, 1886; of 
 the cross-petition for divorce of the Lady Colin Campbell 
 V. Lord Colin Campbell and another, which was also tried 
 in July, 1886; of the Most Honourable the Marchioness of 
 Queensberry v. the Most Honourable the Marquis of 
 Queensberry and another, which was tried in January, 
 
 1887 ? Do the calumniators of the African race, when ex- 
 patiating on the morals of the African to his detriment, also 
 bethink themselves of the divorce petition of Crawford v. 
 Crawford and the Right Honourable Sir Charles Dilke, 
 Bart, which was tried in January, 1886; of the divorce 
 petition of the Right Honourable Lady Connemara v. the 
 
IMMORALITY. 133 
 
 Right Honourable Lord Connemara, G.C.I.E., ex-Governor- 
 General of Madras, and Hannah Moore, which was tried in 
 July, 1890? 
 
 With between 1,500 and 1,600 divorce petitions, almost 
 everyone based on moral unfaithfulness, which are annually 
 heard in the United Kingdom, and in which not only noble 
 lords and ladies, members of Government, members of 
 Parliament, governors, baronets, knights, and honourables, 
 but also parsons, figure as respondents and co-respondents, 
 can the Britisher dare to deny that immorality prevails, to 
 an enormous extent, in his country 1 With the immoral 
 offences committed under the Criminal Law Amend- 
 ment Act, for which one member of Parliament, the late 
 member for North Bucks, has been sentenced to twelve 
 months' imprisonment, and for which another member, the 
 member for East Belfast,* is living in ignoble exile, on 
 the European mainland, can the Britisher dare to deny 
 that immorality prevails, to an alarming extent, in his 
 country 1 With the bold front which immorality puts on 
 as it stalks abroad, and greets them in the streets at every 
 turn, not only in the small hours of the morning, but in the 
 broad glare of daylight, and in the Cimmerian darkness of 
 murky night, can the Britisher dare to deny that immorality 
 prevails, to the rankest extent, in his country'^ 
 
 Yet, with their standard of immorality at such a high 
 and unenviable pitch, the Caucasians — particularly the 
 Britishers, Frenchmen, or Americans — would fain lecture, 
 on the Sixth and Ninth Commandments, those Africans 
 who are certainly a great deal less unclean than them- 
 selves ! 
 
 Immorality has also been found the practice of great 
 men, great national heroes \ for even the immortal Lord 
 Viscount Nelson, the hero of Trafalgar, the Nile, and many 
 * Since expelled from Parliament. 
 
134 THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA, 
 
 other battles, and the great Robert Burns, the Scottish poet^ 
 have gone down before the power of this evil, and have 
 been found worshipping at this unhallowed shrine. It was 
 the Lady Emma Hamilton, sometime mistress to Captain 
 John Willet Payne, afterwards mistress to Sir Harry 
 Fetherstonhaugh ; afterwards mistress to the Honourable 
 Charles Greville ; then mistress to, and afterwards the 
 faithless wife of. Sir William Hamilton, once British Envoy 
 to the Neapolitan Court, "'^ who caused her paramour, the 
 great Lord Nelson, to refuse to recognise the Neapolitan 
 treaty of Uovo-Nuovo, concluded between Cardinal Ruffo- 
 and the insurgent Prince Francesco-Caraccioli ; and it was 
 this Lady Emma Hamilton who urged her lover Nelson to 
 have her enemy Caraccioli tried by court-martial, with his 
 (the Prince's) personal enemy, Count Thurn, as president. 
 Then Caraccioli was condemned to death. Though the 
 unfortunate Prince petitioned for a second, but a fair, trial 
 or for a free pardon ; though he petitioned that should 
 neither of these be granted, it was his desire to die a 
 soldier's death by being shot ; and though he was verging 
 toward three-score and ten, the Neapolitan authorities re- 
 fused all his requests, and resolved to carry out his death- 
 sentence by hanging, by his being drawn and quartered, 
 and by finally throwing his body into the sea, with a shot 
 of 250 pounds' weight tied to their victim's legs. The 
 preliminary proceedings and trial were unlawful ; the sub- 
 sequent condemnation was unjust ; and the final act, the 
 hanging, was not an execution but a judicial murder. And 
 for these the Lord Viscount Nelson and the Lady Emma 
 Hamilton were responsible.! 
 It is acts like these which are a sad blot on the great 
 
 * British 'Dictionary of National Biography,' vol. xxiv., pp. 
 148, 149- 
 f Southey's ' Life of Nelson/ vol. ii. 
 
IMMORALITY. 135 
 
 Nelson's reputation, and all these were brought about 
 because of his unhallowed passion for this Lady Emma 
 Hamilton, the wife of his friend, who urged Nelson on to 
 the doing of them.* 
 
 Was not the great Robert Burns one of the most illus- 
 trious of British poets ? does not he yield the palm, in the 
 poetical arts, only to Sir Walter Scott among the poets of 
 Caledonia? And was not he a keen worshipper at the 
 shrine of Asmodeus ? And did he not sing the praises of, 
 and address odes to, his Clarinda, and other mistresses?! 
 George Noel Gordon, sixth Lord Byron, certainly a very 
 celebrated British poet, was, as the world knows, a very 
 immoral man. | 
 
 Caucasians therefore, having an immoral past and an 
 immoral present, are not authorized to moralize over the 
 Africans, because they are to some extent polluted and 
 unclean. 
 
 Mr. Clowes, Mr. Froude, and others, are all acquainted 
 with the good old adage, * Charity begins at home.' Why 
 do not they then, instead of moralizing over the African, 
 moralize over their own far more degraded countrymen, 
 these Honourables, these Knights, these Baronets, these 
 Members of Parliaments, these Members of Government, 
 these Governors, these Dukes, these Marquises, these 
 
 * Southey's 'Life of Nelson,' vol. ii. Also 'Encyclopaedia 
 Britannica,' vol. xvii., p. 323; vol. xi., p. 421. 
 
 t " Encyclopaedia Britannica,' vol. iv., pp. 568-570 ; ' Dic- 
 tionary of National Biography,' vol. vii., pp. 427-434, 436. 
 
 X Macaulay's ' Essay on Moore's Life of Lord Byron,' pp. 
 143, 144 et seq.; 'Encyclopaedia Britannica,' vol. iv., pp. 606- 
 610; 'Dictionary of National Biography,' vol. viii., pp. 139, 
 140, 142-150, 153 ; Mrs. H. E. Beecher Stowe in Macmillaris 
 Magazine and the Atlantic Monthly for September, 1869, and 
 'Lady Byron Vindicated ; a History of the Byron Controversy, 
 1870. 
 
136 THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA. 
 
 other lords, these parsons, who figure as respondents 
 or co-respondents in divorce petitions in the Divorce 
 Courts? If there was no immorality there would be 
 no divorce petitions, and no need of Divorce Courts. 
 Whatever holds good for the British people on the score of 
 immorality, likewise holds true for the American white 
 people. We are, indeed, convinced that the white 
 Americans are more immoral than their British cousins. 
 To quote a contributor to Blackwood^ s Magazine for 
 May, 1 89 1, 'Such heinous crimes, as brought destruction 
 upon Sodom and Gomorrah, indescribable and awful 
 outrages upon women and girls,' are daily perpetrated 
 in the United States of North America by the white 
 Americans. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 SUPERSTITION IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 Wherever there is gross ignorance, there superstition will 
 be found.- It has its seat in the region of ignorance, and 
 exists in countries uncivilized and semi-civilized, though to 
 some extent also in countries civilized. 
 
 When the ' suttee ' immolated herself on the funeral- 
 pyre of her husband, in half-civilized Hindostan, in the 
 hope, and with the belief, that the doing of that act would 
 secure her salvation and eternal happiness, as well as wash 
 away the possible sins both of her husband and of his 
 ancestors, securing their admittance into the kingdom of 
 everlasting glory, we recognise superstition. When witches 
 were burnt to death throughout the world, in bygone cen- 
 turies, the then rulers who condemned them were ' super- 
 stitious.' James I., the * British Solomon,' wrote his 
 * Demonology,' a book bearing on witchcraft, in which he 
 ascribed the raising of storms and unpleasant winds, fell 
 diseases, and other evils to the witches; and the super- 
 stitious British Solomon went in great fear of them. So 
 great a hold had ' superstition ' on the minds of Britishers, 
 in the days of the British Solomon, that the statute i Jac. I., 
 cap. 12, was easily passed against witches, or sorceresses, 
 and their abettors. And that foolish and infamous statute 
 was not repealed till the reign of George II. The laws 
 
138 THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA. 
 
 bearing on witches, and their abettors, are set forth in 
 sections 2 and 3 of the statute i Jac. I., cap. 12. In the 
 words of a learned historian : ' With great parade of learn- 
 ing, he' (James I.) ' demonstrated the existence of witches, 
 and the mischiefs of witchcraft, against the objections of 
 Scot and Wierns; he even discovered a satisfactory solution 
 of that obscure but interesting question, " Why the devil 
 did worke more with auncient women than others." But 
 ancient women had no reason to congratulate themselves 
 on the sagacity of their sovereign. Witchcraft at his solici- 
 tation was made a capital offence ; and from the commence- 
 ment of his reign there scarcely passed a year in which some 
 aged female or other was not condemned to expiate on the 
 gallows her imaginary communications with the evil spirit' 
 The Asiatic fakir, who practises severe austerities, and 
 either condemns himself to a standing posture all the days 
 of his life, with a stick under his armpits to support him, or 
 lacerates his body with knives or with scourges, is deemed 
 ' superstitious ' by all Christians. The man who wears an 
 amulet as a charm and preventive against diseases, mis- 
 chiefs, and other evils, appended to his neck or attached to 
 his waist, is 'superstitious,' though that superstitious custom 
 is common to most of the countries of Asia, and especially 
 where Mahommedanism prevails. The same custom, how- 
 ever, is to be met with even amongst Europeans and those 
 of European descent, the Spaniards, and Spanish Americans, 
 the Portuguese and Brazilians more particularly. Those 
 Englishmen who ascribed the cause of the loathsome 
 eruptions, which appeared on the face of the Bolingbroke 
 Henry, to his execution of Archbishop Scrope of York, 
 could not have been other than * superstitious ' ; while the 
 old custom of touching for the King's-evil, which originated 
 with the Confessor and sank into desuetude in the days 
 when Anne was queen, may truly be termed 'superstitious/ 
 
SUPERSTITION IN NINETEENTH CENTURY. 139 
 
 But it was in ancient times that superstition played its most 
 important part, when heathenism was most rife. Then 
 men and women and children were butchered in the most 
 barbarous manner, and sacrificed as victims to appease 
 the anger or gratify the whim of a jumble of gods. In 
 those times there was a universal belief in omens ; and we 
 know that when the great Julius, on landing in Africa, in 
 his march against Cato Uticensis and the Numidian Juba, 
 suddenly fell down, that incident was deemed an unlucky omen 
 by his Romans, who were seized with consternation, which 
 when the first and greatest of the Romans saw, he not only 
 dispelled, but turned to his advantage, by wisely exclaiming, 
 ' It is now, O Africa, that I take possession of thee !' A 
 superstitious custom, which prevented the German Ario- 
 vistus (whose very name exercised unwholesome dread 
 amongst the ranks of Caesar's Romans) from fighting before 
 the advent of the new moon, as Caesar tells us in his first 
 book of the Commentaries on the Gallic War, enabled that 
 renowned general with the greater facility to shatter the 
 German arms of Ariovistus. It was a superstitious custom, 
 hundreds of years before the birth of the great Julius, which 
 caused the stern and fighting Spartans to refuse to help the 
 Athenians against the Persians at Marathon before the 
 advent of the full moon. Superstition is gradually dis- 
 appearing from the modern world with the advance ot 
 civilization, but it will be a long time yet before it finally 
 disappears ; for a belief in ghosts still exists even in the 
 civilized world as it has existed in bygone ages. 
 
 In the Middle Ages witchcraft, alchemy, and astrology 
 were universally believed in, just as there can be found men 
 even in our own times, even in this nineteenth century, 
 who implicitly believe in such things. Men who thirsted 
 after knowledge, and excelled their countrymen in scholarly 
 attainments, in the middle and earlier ages, were looked 
 
I40 THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA. 
 
 upon with awe, and had the notoriety of being leagued in 
 secret compact with the Arch-enemy of mankind, who sup- 
 plied them with the desired knowledge at the price of their 
 souls, given over to him when they paid the debt of nature. 
 Witchcraft was believed in, even by eminent men in Britain 
 and other countries, in the days of Elizabeth and James I. 
 And these sovereigns believed in it, as did also Louis XV. 
 and others, but that belief is mostly confined to-day to the 
 more ignorant classes of the people. 
 
 In the olden days old women were generally, but not 
 exclusively, the victims of the absurd and superstitious 
 belief in witchcraft. Even young girls were either hung, 
 drowned, or perished by fire ; because we know that when 
 Joan of Arc appeared before the gates of Orleans, at the 
 head of the French soldiery, so great and widespread was 
 the superstition in the ranks of the demoralized British 
 soldiers that, panic-stricken, they raised the siege without 
 even striking a blow. And when they got her into their power, 
 in the year following their disgrace, after subjecting her to a 
 year's imprisonment, the superstitious English wreaked their 
 vengeance on the young ' Maid of Orleans ' by burning her 
 at the stake, on the groundless charge that she was a witch, 
 in league with Satan. "^ 
 
 Elizabeth, like most of her predecessors and successors, 
 James I. foremost amongst these latter, was superstitious; 
 she put implicit faith, we are told, in the utterances of the 
 astrologers whom she consulted. The Hindoo devotee 
 who, even in this nineteenth century of our era, takes an 
 annual plunge in the Hooghly, in the hope that his act 
 will wash away and purge him from his sins, and secure 
 for him and for his descendants, down to the fourth or 
 
 * Morris's ' History of England,' p. 263. There is good 
 reason, however, for thinking this account of the Maid of 
 Orleans is legendary, not historical. 
 
SUPERSTITION IN NINETEENTH CENTURY. 141 
 
 ifth generation, salvation and unending happiness in the 
 next world, and who also believes that his plunge will 
 cleanse the souls of his ancestors, and enable them to 
 receive the glorious beatitude of the hereafter, is surely 
 'superstitious.' All Christians regard those Indians as 
 superstitious who look upon the Ganges as a sacred river; 
 just as they also apply the term ' superstition ' to the fast 
 from sunrise to sunset, and the ridiculously mysterious 
 rites, performed by the fanatical Mahommedan Indians at 
 their Mahradan, or Hosein festival, during which goats are 
 sacrificed. But while the term ' superstitious ' may safely 
 be applied to the Hindoo worshippers of Brahma, Vishnu, 
 and Siva, we may also apply the term to the veneration 
 paid by the Asiatic Indians to the cow and the goat. 
 
 The excessive reverence and divine honour paid to the 
 Brahmin priests by the Hindoos are by us Christians held 
 to be superstitious and an absurdity. We ridicule, or at 
 least make light of, the Indian custom of child-marriage, 
 and the law against the re-marriage of widows. The 
 British, unlike the French, being in the habit of interfering 
 with the customs of their subjects, abolished the supersti- 
 tious suttee-custom, in 1829, when Lord William Bentinck 
 was Governor-General of India. But that legislation was 
 accomplished only after a great struggle on the part of the 
 Hindoos, who agitated and declaimed against what they 
 termed the profane act of the Britishers. We say that the 
 suttee was certainly a custom worth putting a stop to, and 
 we hold the British fully justified in removing one of the 
 many relics of Indian barbarism. Nevertheless, it is a fact 
 that the British do not sufficiently respect the scruples of 
 their subjects. It is otherwise with the French. But we 
 are quite prepared to admit that the suttee-custom would, 
 in all probability, have been put down by the French if 
 they had been in possession of the peninsula of Hindostan. 
 
142 THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA. 
 
 The fact that the British made light of the rehgious 
 scruples of their Indian Sepoys is supposed to have caused 
 the famous Indian Mutiny of 1857-58. When, in 1856, 
 Lord Palmerston's Government resolved to introduce the 
 Minie rifle, which necessitated the use of greased cartridges 
 among the Indian Sepoys, as they have done with such 
 good result among the British army, both at home and 
 elsewhere abroad, these Sepoys murmured, because they 
 suspected and feared that the grease of the cartridge 
 which was used for the Minie rifle was made of the fat of 
 ox and pig. Now, the British Government, although they 
 know right well that the Hindoo held ox-fat in the greatest 
 abhorrence, because he believed that he would lose caste if he 
 were to touch it, though they also knew that the Mahom- 
 medan equally abhorred the fat of the pig, holding the 
 swine, after the fashion of the Jews, as an unclean animal, 
 yet did not respect their scruples, nor did they take any 
 precaution against exasperating the Sepoys, and driving 
 them into active mutiny. They (the British Government) 
 failed to allay the storm which they had conjured up, for 
 the Indian Sepoys, from deep murmurings, burst into the 
 now historical open Mutiny, which lasted twelve months, 
 terminating only after thousands of lives had been lost and 
 millions of money had been spent. Though the British 
 Government were greatly to blame, yet we cannot help 
 ascribing the Indian Mutiny to the superstition of the 
 Sepoys, for their objection to the use of the greased car- 
 tridge, on the ground that it was made of the fat of ox 
 and pig, could be nothing but superstition. 
 
 Those Hindoos, and particularly the Brahmins, who 
 never leave India, on the ground that they would lose 
 caste were they to do so, are by us deemed to be super- 
 stitious ; while the same Hindoos, like their forefathers 
 before them, only eat mutton of animal food, the Mahom- 
 
IV 567 
 
 SUPERSTITION IN NINETEENTH CENTURY. 143 
 
 medan doing the reverse, for he eats everything in the 
 shape of animal food, mutton and pork being barred ; 
 while we Christians, who eat everything in the shape of 
 animal food, deem both Hindoos and Mahommedans 
 superstitious — the one for eating one thing and rejecting all 
 others, the other for eating everything but mutton and pork. 
 But it is not only the Asiatic who is superstitious, for the 
 Malay is also superstitious; while the American, or Red 
 Indian, who believes in the Manitow, and takes delight in 
 ghost-dancing, is also superstitious. The Caucasians, who 
 pose as civilizers, are themselves also superstitious ; that it 
 is our business to prove ; and that we propose to do in the 
 current pages. 
 
 Superstition exists in Europe to-day as it did in the days 
 of the dead past. 
 
 The Balkan peasant of the Greek Orthodox Faith, who 
 rubs himself all over with garlic during Holy or Passion 
 Week, and other Fast-days, in the hope of keeping His 
 Satanic Majesty at a distance, and, according to the 
 peasant's belief, so that he may not have a chance of 
 tempting him to swerve from the right path and commit 
 mischief, must be called superstitious. 
 
 The Britishers who consult Gipsy fortune-tellers as to 
 their prospects, and allow themselves to be defrauded of 
 their money, are surely superstitious. And those French- 
 men and Germans, those Italians and Spaniards, who allow 
 themselves to be inveigled and swindled of their last penny 
 by the cunning fortune-telling Bohemians, Zigeuner, Zingari, 
 or Gitanos, are also superstitious. 
 
 We call that person superstitious (not to say a hypocrite) 
 who commits crimes in the course of his life, and yet prac- 
 tises rigid and excessive austerities ; who will not work a 
 horse on a Sunday, and objects to train, tram, omnibus, 
 and carriage being used on a Sunday. Just as we term 
 
144 THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA. 
 
 the women superstitious who will not thread a needle and 
 do a little sewing, or other harmless things, for her hus- 
 band or brother, on a Sunday, and objects to every sort of 
 Music, save Sacred Music, on a Sunday. The Britisher 
 to-day is, in some respects, as superstitious as his forefathers 
 were before him in the buried past. 
 
 Wright, writing in 1852, tells us that there is a circle of 
 stones in the county of Cornwall called the * Dance Maine,^ 
 or the dance of stones, which the Cornish peasantry allege 
 is a representation of a party of young damsels who, they 
 said, were turned into stones because they happened to 
 dance on the Sabbath. That circle of stones is therefore 
 regarded by the Cornish peasantry with superstitious fear 
 and reverence commingled. Wright also tells us that the 
 superstitious Oxonian peasant, with charming simplicity 
 and stolid belief, gravely avers that the party of soldiers 
 who came to destroy Long Compton were changed into 
 the Rollrich stones in Oxfordshire. ■*" 
 
 Wright testifies to British superstition in 1852, it is true, 
 but it is nevertheless true that it is in this nineteenth cen- 
 tury that he writes ; and we believe that the same super- 
 stition exists (in 1891) both in Cornwall and in Oxfordshire 
 as it did in 1852, the year in which Wright wrote his book. 
 It may truly be said that superstition exists to just as great 
 an extent amongst Britishers as it does amongst other 
 Caucasians. The British Lowen Pike, writing in 1876, 
 that is, fifteen years ago, and twenty-four years after Wright, 
 expresses the hope that the 'half-believers in witchcraft 
 who are still amongst us (Britishers) may dwindle in 
 numbers generation after generation.'! 
 
 * Wright's ' The Celt, the Roman, and the Saxon,' chap ii., 
 p. 62. 
 
 t Lowen Pike's ' History of Crime in England,' vol. ii., chap. 
 xiii., p. 592. 
 
SUPERSTITION IN NINETEENTH CENTURY, 145 
 
 Sir Walter Scott, one of the greatest of British bards, and 
 Caledonia's first poet, testifies to the superstition of the age 
 in which he lived — and he flourished in the eighteenth and 
 in the earlier part of the nineteenth centuries, that is to 
 say, from 1771 to i832^and particularly to the super- 
 stition prevalent amongst his British countrymen of those 
 days, by writing his ' Letters on Demonology and Witch- 
 craft' 
 
 Because Robert Burns saw how superstitious his Scottish 
 fellow-countrymen — his * brither Scots ' — were in his life- 
 time (and Burns flourished from 1759 to 1796), he immor- 
 talized superstition in his 'Address to the Deil,' and in 
 ' The Deil's awa' wi' th' Exciseman.' And does not the 
 English Samuel Rogers, who lived from 1763 to 1855, for 
 a like reason immortalize it by addressing an * Ode to 
 Superstition,' thereby reflecting on the crude notions and 
 absurd beliefs of the Englishmen of his day? 
 
 The celebrated but eccentric novelist, Charles Dickens, 
 who flourished from 18 12 to 1870, also testifies to the 
 superstition of Britishers by writing his ' Wonderful Ghost 
 Story.' 
 
 Hanovero-German George II. of Great Britain and 
 Ireland, like many of those who went before him, 're- 
 mained to the day of his death an implicit believer in ... . 
 ghosts, witches and vampires.'* And the British Macaulay, 
 in his ' Essay on Ranke's History of the Popes,' assures us 
 that Samuel Johnson, 'incredulous on all other points, was 
 a ready believer in apparitions. He would not believe in 
 Ossian ; but he was willing to believe in the second sight. 
 He would not believe in the earthquake of Lisbon ; but he 
 was willing to believe in the Cock Lane ghost.' t 
 
 The Caucasian, who to-day btlieves in the so-called 
 
 * 'Dictionary of National Biography,' vol. xxi., p. 171. 
 t * Macaulay's Essays,' p. 551. 
 
 10 
 
146 THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA. 
 
 ' evil-eye,' and its imaginary harmful powers, is decidedly 
 superstitious ; and there are very many Caucasians who 
 labour under that delusion. The belief in the ' evil-eye ' 
 is as rife to-day as it was in the days of yore. 
 
 When the British landlady absolutely refuses to allow her 
 bed, or the beds of her lodgers, to be turned over on Sun- 
 days, under the absurd belief that mischief and disaster, 
 grim and terrible, will befall her, and her kith and kin, if 
 that act be done on the Lord's Day, she is a superstitious 
 woman ; and we also apply the term ' superstitious ' to the 
 British burglar, who arms himself with some mystic and 
 questionable talisman, in the hope that it may serve as a 
 charm against his being caught, red-handed, whilst bur- 
 glariously storming and looting some wealthy mansion. 
 
 The belief in the banshee, or fairy, which ignorant Irish- 
 men suppose attaches itself to a particular house, and 
 presents itself to view at the approaching death of one of 
 the inmates of that house, is gross superstition ; while the 
 canny Highland crofters, and other Highland men of 
 Caledonia, ' stern and wild,' who believe in the second 
 sight, and, like the ignorant Irishman, believe that an elf 
 or fairy attaches itself to a certain house, and shows itself 
 at the impending death of one of the members of that 
 family, are superstitious. 
 
 More. There are Highlanders to-day who believe that, 
 if the presentation of a tuft of the brown heather to their 
 guest on his immediate appearance at their threshold be 
 omitted, ill-luck and mischief will follow that omission and 
 short-coming, while these same canny Highlanders have the 
 belief that their aged relatives — the female ones in a greater 
 degree — possess the gift of prophecy. 
 
 We say that all these superstitions, as above detailed, 
 do exist nowadays in the United Kingdom of Great Britain 
 and Ireland, and in other parts of the Caucasian world. 
 
SUPERSTITION IN NINETEENTH CENTURY. 147 
 
 We have shown that superstition existed amongst Cau- 
 casians in the days of Burns, Scott, Rogers, Wright, and 
 Dickens. But it is nevertheless our duty to produce, as 
 evidences that superstition is still rife in Britain and France, 
 what the Caucasian actually says of himself, in the year of 
 grace 1891. 
 
 We shall quote Caucasian newspapers, and, if we prove 
 that superstition exists both in Britain and in France, we 
 should like to be credited with having virtually proved that 
 superstition exists, not only in Europe, but also all the 
 Caucasian world over. We may fairly urge this, because 
 Britain and France are the pioneers and leaders of civiliza- 
 tion — at least in the opinion of the great majority of the 
 human race ; and in the forefront rank of nations. If we 
 should be able to prove that temples of superstition exist in 
 the breasts of Britishers and Frenchmen, and that the 
 British and French peoples have their Mumbo Jumbo, 
 it may surely be taken fur granted, that whatever is true for 
 the British and French peoples, on the score of super- 
 stition, is also true for all other Caucasian peoples, who are 
 less enlightened than they. 
 
 When we tell the reader that we have the authority of 
 Lord Macaulay for saying, that the only true history of a 
 country is to be found in its newspapers, he will understand 
 why we are so concerned about quoting the newspapers. 
 But we should not like it to be forgotten that we have 
 already proved, more or less, that superstition existed, and 
 does exist, amongst Caucasians. 
 
 What we have now to do is to produce more proofs of 
 the fact that superstition exists in this nineteenth century, 
 and even in this year of grace 1891. We must allow the 
 Caucasian to speak for himself and for his people. Lloyd's 
 News., a British Liberal Unionist newspaper, of April 26, 
 1891, says: 'During the week there has been considerable ex- 
 
148 THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA. 
 
 citement at Deptford through the rumour that a ghost was to 
 be seen at night time by the door under the portico of St. 
 Paul's Church. Thousands of persons have assembled out- 
 side, and a special force of police had to be called out. 
 The other night a man climbed over the railings, and ascer- 
 tained that the scare was occasioned by some bills that had 
 been posted on the church door, which were visible from 
 the gate when the moonlight shone upon them, and dis- 
 appeared when a cloud passed over the moon. Upon the 
 removal of the bills no more was seen of the ghost.' 
 
 Just imagine the good people of Deptford believing in 
 Junabaes ! In Deptford there are Her Britannic Majesty's 
 Naval Victualling Yard and Naval Dock Yard; there are 
 several educational and benevolent institutions, the Royal 
 Naval School included among the former, whilst the number 
 of churches in Deptford is legion ; and yet, with all these 
 evidences of civilization in its midst, Deptford is super- 
 stitious. 
 
 What, in our humble opinion, makes Deptford's ofTence 
 still more heinous, is the fact that it is a suburb and part 
 and parcel of the British Metropolis. And do we not know 
 that London is the capital and centre of the United King- 
 dom, the capital and centre of the British Empire, which 
 embraces 12,000,000 square miles, and contains over 
 350,000,000 of inhabitants, the capital and centre of the 
 greatest and largest Empire the world has ever seen ? 
 Does not London share with Paris the capitalship and 
 centreship of civilization ? And we might almost say that 
 London is the capital of the world. And yet in that 
 colossal and leviathan London there is this gross superstitio 
 — a belief in his Weird and Ghostly Majesty King Mumbc 
 Jumbo. 
 
 The Star, a British Gladstonian Liberal newspaper, ol 
 April 28, 1891, says: 'Mr. Drury Wake, the chairman 
 
SUPERSTITION IN NINETEENTH CENTURY. 149 
 
 of the Northampton County Petty Sessions, whose death 
 has just been reported, was a direct descendant of the 
 famous Hereward Le Wake, and an uncle of the present 
 Sir Hereward Wake, of Courteen Hall, Northampton. His 
 mother, the Dowager Lady Wake, was a sister of the late 
 Archbishop Tait, who was a frequent preacher at the pretty 
 little church at Ritsford, in which village this branch of the 
 Wake family have resided for many years. 
 
 'Both Mr. Drury and Colonel Baldwin Wake married 
 the two only daughters of the late Mr. Henry O. Nethercote, 
 the genial Liberal squire of Moulton, who was an intimate 
 friend of Earl Spencer, and an eloquent speaker on behalf 
 of the Liberal cause. 
 
 *This death in the Wake family closes a somewhat 
 romantic story. Many years ago, when the brothers Wake 
 wooed the squire's two daughters, Baldwin was a captain in 
 the Hussars, and a very popular gentleman in the village. 
 The night before his marriage he took a dose of medicine 
 to induce sleep, which succeeded only too well, and he 
 slept so long that his marriage had to be postponed for 
 a day. 
 
 * Seven years ago Colonel Baldwin Wake discussed with 
 the squire a question which brought ill-feeling. The unfor- 
 tunate Colonel went to his room after the discussion, and 
 by way of inducing sleep, from the want of which he greatly 
 suffered, took an overdose of a mixture, from which he died 
 during the night. Within the space of a year the squire 
 himself was dead, a servant committed suicide in the lake, 
 other deaths occurred, and popular superstition and village 
 gossip were much exercised.^ 
 
 We can readily believe that Northampton has superstition 
 in its midst. If there is superstition in London, no one 
 must wonder that Northamptonians are also superstitious. 
 London is the chief city of the United Kingdom, and is sup- 
 
150 THE LONE- STAR OF LIBERIA. 
 
 posed to be greatly enlightened, and quite the most civilized 
 portion of the United Kingdom ; and yet Londoners are 
 superstitious : we must expect, therefore, that Northamp- 
 tonshire, a county and country province of the United 
 Kingdom, is less enlightened and less civilized than 
 London, and that Northamptonians are more superstitious 
 than Londoners. Where there is the greater ignorance, 
 there the greater superstition will be found. 
 
 Northampton has educational and benevolent establish- 
 ments like Deptford ; it has Government, Grammar, and 
 Bluecoat Schools, School-boards, and Hospitals, as well as 
 Churches and Friendly Hospitals, It has more. For we 
 are told that Northampton has flour and paper mills, 
 breweries, foundries, churches, makings, town-hall, corn- 
 exchange, curryings. Government works, and is noted for 
 its lace, boots and shoes, and various manufactures. Yet 
 superstition, meet offspring of ignorance, is an institution 
 among the good people of Northamptonshire. That 
 Squire Nethercote perished within a year after the death 
 of his son-in-law, Colonel Baldwin "Wake, was nothing 
 supernatural ; nor can we understand why the Northamp- 
 tonians should be so superstitious because, forsooth, as 
 the Star tells us, a servant committed suicide in one of the 
 lakes ! 
 
 The Daily Telegraph, a British semi-Conservative News- 
 paper, of April 30, 1891, says: 'The churchyard of the 
 Greyfriars was, previous to the Reformation, the most 
 fashionable cemetery in London, no fewer than four British 
 Queens having found sepulture there. The ghost of one 
 of these female Sovereigns, Isabella, the disreputable con- 
 sort of Edward IL, was long supposed to haunt the 
 cloisters of the (Christ's) hospital ; but the phantom seems 
 of late years to have been laid in the Red Sea, together 
 with that of Nell Cook, whose apparition no longer terrifies 
 
SUPERSTITION IN NINETEENTH CENTURY. 151 
 
 small boys who venture on Friday nights into the dark entry 
 of the Close of Canterbury Cathedral.' 
 
 We do not share the views of the Daily Telegraph when it 
 says that 'the phantom seems of late years to have been laid 
 in the Red Sea, together with that of Nell Cook,' because we 
 are convinced that the same belief in, and dread of, ghosts 
 or phantoms exists to-day amongst Londoners and other 
 Britishers. A Huntingdonshire coroner's jury, which sat at 
 Warboys, to inquire into the circumstances connected with 
 the death of a young inebriated British tailor (named 
 Andrews), who, on being pursued by the indignant hus- 
 band of the married woman he had indecently assaulted, 
 when he was returning homewards from the athletic sports 
 held at Ramsay, fell into a reservoir, and after experiencing 
 an undesirable douche^ committed suicide by throwing him- 
 self in front of a passing train, returned a verdict to the 
 effect that the said Andrews had committed suicide ' at the 
 instigation of the Devil' We find the Daily Telegraph of 
 April 6, 1 89 1, commenting on the silly verdict given by 
 these superstitious Huntingdonshire jurymen only a few 
 days before, expresses the opinion that, 'To declare the 
 inebriated tailor, who threw himself, or accidentally fell, 
 across the rails, and was cut to pieces by a passing train, 
 was moved to the commission of the rash act by the direct 
 " instigation of the Devil " argues an acquaintance on the 
 part of the Huntingdonshire coroner's jury with the ordi- 
 nary course of procedure of the Enemy of Mankind so 
 familiar as to be, to say the least, remarkable. We are 
 bound, however, in justice, to remember that Huntingdon- 
 shire is a very ancient county, in which, possibly, many old- 
 world superstitions may yet linger : and in districts where 
 mediseval traditions and folk-lore still obtain, it may with 
 tolerable confidence be assumed that the Gothic Satan — 
 horns, hoofs, tail and all — continues to play a conspicuous 
 
152 THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA. 
 
 part in them. A fourth part of this fertile shire was 
 formerly, according to old Fuller, Abbey land, belonging 
 to monks and friars. 
 
 * The town to which the hapless tailor repaired was once 
 known as " Ramsey the Rich," and in the palmy days of 
 British monachism the income of its abbey, which had only 
 sixty monks to maintain, amounted to no less than ;£^7,ooo 
 a year. Now, Lucifer, we all know, was never tired of 
 plaguing the monks. He set traps for them, he tempted 
 them, he did his evil best to delude and beguile those holy 
 men ; although now and again the foul Fiend was caught 
 in his own trap, as was notably the case with that malicious 
 Demon who strove to interrupt the studies of the good 
 St. Dominic. That excellent saint was sitting up very late 
 one night, writing, by the light of a single candle stuck in a 
 lump of clay, a sociable folio . . . when his cheerful task 
 was sought to be thwarted by the Fiend, who made divers 
 but ineffectual attempts to blow out the holy man's candle. 
 St. Dominic, indeed, gained so complete a victory over the 
 emissary from the nether regions as to force him to go 
 humbly on his knees and hold the candle, while his sancti- 
 fied opponent went on merrily penning his advocacy . . . 
 until the socketless candle, burning down to the fag-end, 
 began to grill the Devil's fingers, causing him to howl 
 dismally ; for Satan, we know from Milton, can feel and 
 has felt pain. This may have been the kind of Demon 
 who, in the thinking of coroners' juries in Huntingdonshire, 
 goes up and down "instigating" tipsy tailors to throw 
 themselves on the permanent way ; and, for aught we can 
 tell, the Warboys and Ramsey Devil may be the selfsame 
 demon who strove to annoy St. Dominic, and got so soundly 
 trounced for his pains. For Beelzebub, it is notorious, is 
 ubiquitous. " Where are you damned ?" Satan is asked in 
 the Elizabethan play. " Everywhere," is the reply ; and 
 
 I 
 
SUPERSTITION IN NINETEENTH CENTURY. 153 
 
 the Mephisto who was the perdition of Faust may be 
 identical with the Fiend who, as the eccentric coroner's 
 jury think, roams about the pleasant county of Huntingdon, 
 "instigating" intoxicated youths to do desperate deeds. 
 Only, in the lamentable case of the wretched young tailor, 
 Andrews, the worthy jurymen do not appear to have given 
 the Devil his due. He is credited with one act of instiga- 
 tion, whereas, if the strange hypothesis of the Huntingdon- 
 shire sages be a correct one, he must have been guilty of 
 three distinct and consecutive suggestions of a diabolical 
 character. First, he must have instigated Andrews to 
 attend the agricultural sports at Ramsey, with the full 
 knowledge and cognizance that the tailor would be led by 
 the delirious excitement of wrestling, leaping, running, or 
 football, to drink too much beer. Next, Andrews being 
 fuddled, the Devil must have " instigated " him to assault 
 the married female ; and his final act of instigation must 
 have been to whisper in the drunken fugitive's ear, " Throw 
 yourself in front of the train and get smashed !" 
 
 * In one respect the Fiend seems to be open to the 
 reproach of having committed a slight error of judgment. 
 Why did he allow the flying tailor to fall into the reservoir? 
 "Too much water," had poor Ophelia, for she was drowned ; 
 but Andrews was dragged, or managed to scramble, out of 
 the reservoir. One would have thought that the abundant 
 " douche " would at least have partially sobered him. 
 Perhaps Mephisto, feeling sure of his prey, had momentarily 
 flown away a few thousands of miles to see if there was 
 anything or anybody requiring his friendly offices — say in 
 the interior of Africa, or in Burmah, or in the State of 
 Louisiana — and that, returning to Huntingdonshire, although 
 drenched, still drunk, and still dashing across country, he 
 addressed himself to his final act of instigation, and saw 
 his victim comfortably under the wheels of the loco- 
 
154 THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA. 
 
 motive. It may be finally asked, by some inveterate 
 sceptics, how the coroner's jury arrived at the know- 
 ledge that the miserable Andrews was instigated by the 
 Devil at all? The reply to such a question might be a 
 sufficiently simple one, "They are'" (answers the Daily 
 Telegraphy correctly and wisely) ' " a very old-fashioned 
 people down in Huntingdonshire; and implicit biilief in 
 a personal and indefatigably prompting and suggesting 
 Fiend is an extremely antique belief." ' That '■ belief,' we 
 say, is a superstitious one. 
 
 The Daily Telegraph for June 29, 189 1, also says, 
 'There are probably vast numbers of foolish people 
 (amongst Britishers), and not a few cultured and intelligent 
 ones (not leaving out numerous clergymen, and a still 
 larger number of ladies), who believe in astrology as firmly 
 as the Chaldaeans, the Assyrians, and the Greeks did, and 
 as many Oriental nations continue to do to this day. 
 
 * Fashionable (British) society is just now infested by a 
 number of female adventuresses, who, by means of various 
 "subtle devices," are openly and insolently carrying on 
 their trade as fortune-tellers for hire and gain. Let the 
 police come down like a wolf on the fold on the well- 
 dressed, well-installed, well-puffed, and largely patronized 
 fortune-tellers of the West-end, and bring the7n to the bar 
 of justice.' 
 
 The Daily Telegraph for October 7, 1891, good- 
 humouredly asserts that * New Kent Road affords a magni- 
 ficent chance at this moment for a Mahatma. Hundreds 
 of people in the neighbourhood are firmly convinced that a 
 house in that busy thoroughfare is occupied by a ghostly 
 inhabitant. Like the mysterious individuals of whom a 
 great deal has been heard lately, the spirit is extremely 
 chary of showing itself. Crowds assemble in front of the 
 house, knock at the door, and ring the bell, in the hope of 
 
SUPERSTITION IN NINETEENTH CENTURY. 155 
 
 awakening the ghost to a sense of its public responsibilities, 
 but without any result, except that of driving fanatic the 
 good citizen who has the misfortune to live on the premises. 
 Some weeks ago a young man was fined twenty shillings for 
 creating a disturbance at the house. This does not seem 
 to have had the desired effect, for now a dame named — — 
 has been summoned before the Lambeth magistrate for a 
 similar offence. A police-officer said there were about two: 
 hundred people assembled in front of the " haunted hous;e " 
 making a great noise, prominent among them being the 
 accused, who appeared to be in a state of great excitement, 
 and was demanding wildly to see the ghost. Mr. Re- 
 fined her forty shillings — a tidy sum to pay for not seeing a; 
 disembodied spirit. It is refreshing to find that the in- 
 habitants of New Kent Road remain genuinely unaffected 
 by the materialistic tendencies of the age.' 
 
 Superstition, then, exists throughout the United King- 
 dom ; yet it would seem that neither W. Laird Clowes nor 
 James Anthony Froude pay due heed to //. It has been 
 shown to exist not only in the Metropolis of the British. 
 Empire, but also in the provinces — Northamptonshire and 
 Huntingdonshire affording striking examples. 
 
 We also apply the term 'superstitious' to those of the British 
 people who believe in the so-called ' spiritualistic seances,' 
 at which the 'spiritualistic' mediums give out that they 
 have the power to summon the dead to appear, as well 
 as absent living persons. The belief in such things is 
 certainly to be classed * superstition.' And it appears that 
 this kind of superstition exists not only in Europe and in 
 America, but in other parts of the habitable globe, where 
 there are to be found these so-called spiritualists. 
 
 We are of opinion that the term ' superstitious ' should 
 be applied to all those Britishers and Yankees who are 
 members of the Theosophical Society, which was founded* 
 
156 THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA. 
 
 a few years ago, by Madame H. P. Blavatsky, who is re- 
 garded by many as nothing less than a fraud. Madame 
 Blavatsky gave out that she had the power of performing 
 miracles. But this same Madame Blavatsky is confidently 
 asserted by some to have been of doubtful moral character. 
 What is historically certain is that she deserted her own 
 husband. Not much confidence can be placed in the ex- 
 travagant pretensions of such a woman, when she claims 
 to be inspired and to have the power of working miracles. 
 'Truth is stranger than fiction,' they say, yet she could 
 reckon among her dupes eminent scholars and authors — 
 like Mrs. Annie Besant, the friend and collaborator of 
 Charles Bradlaugh, and 'pretty, piquant-looking,' little 
 Mrs. Annie Wolf of New York, who writes under the nom 
 de plume of Emily — who implicitly believed in Blavatsky's 
 prophetic and miraculous powers. 
 
 The gift of prophecy was given to holy men like Isaiah, 
 Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, and the minor prophets, by 
 Jehovah; and the same Almighty Being gave the power 
 of performing miracles to such holy men as Saints Peter, 
 Paul and John; but we certainly cannot think that God 
 ever did, or ever would give, the prophetic or the miraculous 
 power to such a person as Madame Blavatsky, whose 
 historical record will not bear investigation. What is the 
 world coming to, when an impostor like Madame Blavatsky 
 can so easily find believers ? 
 
 We now pass on to consider Superstition in France. 
 Wright, in his work, published 1852, says : 'In France, as 
 in England, and, indeed, in most countries, they (the 
 legends) are usually connected in the popular belief with 
 fairies or with demons, and in England with Robin Hood. 
 In France this latter personage is replaced by Gargantua, a 
 name made generally celebrated by the extraordinary 
 romance of Rabelais. 
 
SUPERSTITION IN NINETEENTH CENTURY. 157 
 
 'The prohibition to worship stones, occurring so fre- 
 quently in the earlier Christian ecclesiastical laws and 
 ordinances, relates doubtless to these Druidical monuments, 
 and was often the cause of their destruction. Traces of 
 this worship still remain. In some instances people passed 
 through the Druidical monuments for trial, or for purifica- 
 tion, or as a mode of defensive charm. It is still a practice 
 among the peasantry at Columbiers, in France, for young 
 girls who want husbands to climb upon the cromlech called 
 the Pierre-levee^ place there a piece of money, and then 
 jump down. At Guerande, with the same object, they 
 depose in the crevices of a Celtic monument bits of rose- 
 coloured wool tied with tinsel. The people of Croisic 
 dance round a menhir. It is the popular belief in Anjou 
 that the fairies, as they descended the mountains, spinning 
 by the way, brought down the Druidical stones in their 
 aprons, and placed them as they are now found.'* 
 
 These superstitious customs and beliefs, which existed in 
 France thirty-nine years ago, still obtain to-day. Indeed, 
 many a French damsel who is in need of that precious 
 article, a husband, is in the habit of first partaking of a 
 salted egg — water to allay thirst not being permitted to 
 the fair candidate for matrimonial honours — and then 
 retiring to bed in silence, without speaking to anyone, on 
 every 24th of June, that is, on St. John the Baptist's Day. 
 
 A Correspondent of the Daily Graphic^ a British Conser- 
 vative organ, in a letter published on the 15th of April, 
 189 1, says concerning a * Haunted House,' at Nice : 'Some 
 jtime ago Nice was in a ferment. A house in Le Port, at 
 
 le foot of the quarries, in a terrace that has not the faintest 
 look of the uncanny, was said to be haunted. Crowds 
 often gathered outside it, though, I believe, the "experiences" 
 
 * *The Celt, the Roman, and the Saxon,' chap, ii., p. 63, 
 by T. Wright. 
 
15B THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA. 
 
 were strictly confined to those within. Sometimes there 
 were two thousand " encumbering" the road, as the inhabi- 
 tants put it. Sometimes there were three thousand ! 
 Mounted police were employed to prevent a hopeless 
 block. Arriving at Nice the other day, the first person 
 I asked, "Where is the haunted house?" said, "Why, to be 
 sure, it is just at the corner of the harbour." I found that 
 •every cabman knew his way there. My " cocher " said : 
 " You want to take views. No portraits of ghosts by daylight, 
 ter Besides, he's not there now." "Where is he?" I 
 asked. " Who knows ?" said cabby. " What was the ex- 
 planation of the occurrences ?" I inquired, for I fancied my 
 man might be a sceptic. But he was no doubter at all. 
 He averred that explanation there was none ; and he 
 laughed, shrugged his shoulders, looked sheepish and 
 mischievous by turns. He seemed anxious to guard 
 against possible disappointment, for he repeated the 
 assurance that I had not a chance of seeing the ghost by 
 day ; but the house could be photographed. 
 
 'The ghost's conflict in this house was, to say the least, 
 peculiar. Darkness would descend upon everything, and 
 then the inmates would be beaten ! No assailants were 
 ever visible, and it was not the darkness which " could be 
 felt," but blows — blows, too, which left bruises. The 
 excitement caused by the recurrence of these mysterious 
 assaults led to an organized inquiry by the police, but no 
 explanation was ever satisfactorily established. Once twelve 
 policemen searched the premises from roof to basement, 
 while twelve other men of the force watched the house 
 from the outside. No one left the house which was so 
 carefully guarded, and inside nothing rewarded the search 
 till the twelve men had examined everything, and were 
 congregated at the foot of the stairs, on the point of leaving 
 theplace, when suddenly an ink-jar fell among them. They 
 
SUPERSTITION IN NINETEENTH CENTURY. 159 
 
 thought by the sound that it came from the very top of the 
 house ; and attached to the jar was a paper bearing the 
 words, " Try as you will, you'll never catch me," or some- 
 thing to that effect. 
 
 ' The police having utterly failed to unravel the mystery, 
 and the nightly blows and unexplained darkness recurring, 
 some of the bravest and strongest young men banded them- 
 selves together to investigate the matter. They prepared 
 to sit up a night in the haunted house, and provided them- 
 selves with many lamps, and with cards to while away the 
 vacant hours. Suddenly all the lamps throughout the house 
 were extinguished, and blows were rained upon the hardy 
 youths without their being able to guess whence they were 
 assaulted, or who were the assailants. No one was any the 
 wiser for this experiment, except the doughty champions, 
 who were certainly sadder and sorer, if wiser, men next 
 morning. 
 
 ' Of course the usual explanations — coiners, illicit still, 
 burglars' place of meeting — were offered to account for the 
 mystery, but the premises do not lend themselves to any 
 of these theories. One thing seems clear : there is now no 
 ghost at the place, which is the factory of a marble-worker. 
 But the manner of his passing is as little understood as was 
 the manner of his coming ; and it is not one ghost in a 
 hundred that sets a city, the civic fathers, and their police 
 all agog.' 
 
 Comment on this quotation is surely needless. 
 
 The Paris correspondent of the Daily Telegraphy writing 
 to that journal, on the 2nd of June, 1891, also testifies to 
 French superstition when he says : * There has been great 
 excitement in the neighbourhood of Saleix, situated in the 
 ■ Department of the Ariege, and the country people have 
 been trooping to the spot to contemplate a girl who pro- 
 fessed to have seen visions. She was asked by her visitors 
 
i6o THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA. 
 
 a variety of questions about the future; to which she 
 appears to have replied to their entire satisfaction, for every 
 day they arrived in increasing numbers. The small cottage 
 which she inhabits with her parents was literally besieged, 
 and at last the Maire, alarmed at the formidable propor- 
 tions which this pilgrimage was assuming, called on the 
 gendarmerie to interfere. The people were induced to 
 return to their homes without more ado, and since their 
 departure the girl gives out that she has not been favoured 
 with any more visions.' 
 
 Superstition, then, having been proved to be prevalent 
 amongst both the French and British people, and these two 
 nations having been shown to be the leaders of modern 
 civilization and progress, it may be taken for granted that 
 superstition obtains to some extent amongst other and less 
 civilized Caucasians. 
 
 The St. Stephens Review of May 2, 1891, writing on the 
 general incompetency and demoralization of the Portuguese, 
 one of the most backward people in Europe, is of opinion 
 that ' At home the " Portugee" is an ignorant, superstitious, 
 unenlightened being.' 
 
 Lloyd's News of August 23, 1891, testifies to German 
 superstition in this wise: 'The "army grub" or worm, a 
 caterpillar which marches in procession of many thousands 
 at a time, has created alarm in the Hurz district. There is 
 a superstition in Germany that the appearance of this insect 
 forebodes war, failure of the crops and famine.' 
 
 The Yankees, too, are just as superstitious as the British, 
 French, and other peoples. Dalziel's Agency, telegraphing 
 from New York, under the date of June 2, 1891, says: 
 ' The New York Tribune publishes the following remarkable 
 story : * Two years ago a woman, whose name could not be 
 learned, one Monday presented herself at the Manhattan 
 Eye and Ear Hospital for treatment. She was found to 
 
 1 
 
SUPERSTITION IN NINETEENTH CENTURY. 16 1 
 
 be suffering with a bad case of nasal catarrh, and was placed 
 under the care of Dr. Johnson. The patient received due 
 attentfon, and went her way. Dr. Johnson died suddenly 
 two days later. Six months passed before this patient 
 went to the hospital again to be treated for the same 
 trouble. The " cabinet" in which such patients are received, 
 examined, and receive their treatment, was then in charge 
 of Dr. Pond. That gentleman did everything possible for 
 the patient, and she went home. Dr. Pond died within 
 two days. His death was ascribed by the attending physi- 
 cian to the now common cause of "heart failure," though 
 he had not been subject to trouble with that organ. The 
 second death after attendance upon this patient caused a 
 good deal of comment among the medical and nursing 
 staffs of the hospital. 
 
 ' The patient remained away, however, until last Wednes- 
 day, when, finding her old trouble again making her life 
 miserable, she once more applied for relief. She said to 
 the clerk that she feared the doctors might have some 
 hesitation in attending to her case, as her previous visits 
 had been followed by the deaths of Drs. Johnson and Pond. 
 Her surmise was wrong, for she was promptly attended to 
 by Dr. David Phillips, who had finally succeeded to Dr. 
 Pond's department, and who had been made acquainted 
 with the grim joke about the fatal patient, the woman being 
 fully identified to him as the traditional individual. 
 
 ' Dr. Phillips was dead the next morning. He went home 
 after treating the patient, and dined with a itw friends. He 
 then made some professional visits. When he returned 
 home from these, he complained of feeling ill, and went 
 directly to bed. He did not make his appearance at the 
 usual time in the morning, and his mother, who went to 
 awaken him, saw him apparently in a sound and peaceful 
 sleep. She did not disturb him, thinking a long sleep 
 
 II 
 
i62 THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA. 
 
 would do him good. No effort was made to arouse him 
 until luncheon-time, when the family discovered, to their 
 horror, that he was dead. A physician was called. When 
 he arrived, and had examined the body, he gave it as his 
 opinion that Dr. Phillips had died in his sleep of heart 
 failure several hours previously. 
 
 *Dr. Phillips was regarded by his associates as an excellent 
 throat and nose specialist, and a good general physician. 
 He had great ability in diagnosis, and was always consulted 
 when complicated cases came to the hospital. The officers 
 of the hospital are reticent about the case. They admit 
 that there is an extraordinary degree of excitement among 
 members of the medical profession ; and the staff of the 
 Manhattan Hospital is being watched, with the expectation 
 that another funeral may shortly take place, with one of its 
 members as a subject.' 
 
 With all these superstitions prevailing among the Cauca- 
 sians, which he is either ignorant of, or is aware of yet has 
 overlooked, Mr. Laird Clowes, instead of attending to 
 matters nearer home, which might so well interest him, pre- 
 fers to attend to matters which do not specially concern him, 
 and might well have been left alone until he had delivered 
 the Caucasian world from its superstitions. Laird Clowes, 
 on pages 112 to 114 of 'Black America,' says: 'Nor 
 will I say much concerning the degrading superstitions and 
 superstitious practices of the great mass of ignorant blacks. 
 Two years ago the Herald, a respectable paper in Boston, 
 published an article, five and a half columns long, the object 
 of which was to demonstrate that Voodooism existed to an 
 alarming extent among the African people of Boston and 
 New England generally. Here are a couple of extracts : 
 
 ' " No people are so prone, by nature and force of circum- 
 stances, to superstition as the blacks. Devout and easily 
 excited, they are apt to accept, blindly and without reason- 
 
SUPERSTITION IN NINETEENTH CENTURY. 163 
 
 ing, the traditions of their fathers ; and even among those 
 of reasonable education there are traces of idolatrous creeds 
 and customs, which have always characterized the West 
 India Negroes. Voodooism, of which much has been 
 hinted, a little written, but almost nothing known— one of 
 the blackest, cruellest, and most heathenish forms of idolatry 
 the world has ever seen — exists to-day to an alarming ex- 
 tent right here in Puritan New England." 
 
 * " Perhaps the fact that the Negroes have always regarded 
 themselves as a wronged people impels them to cultivate 
 a revengeful spirit, and the prevailing object of their so- 
 called spells is in the direction of workings harm to their 
 enemies. They pay more attention to vengeance than to 
 the cure of diseases, although claiming wonderful power 
 from their herbs and decoctions. The prevailing sentiment, 
 if it may be so termed, of Voodooism, aside from idolatry, 
 is revenge, and in their hatreds these people are implacable. 
 No punishment is too horrible to be visited upon their 
 enemies." 
 
 ' Most white Bostonians believed,' continues Laird Clowes, 
 * that the article was full of exaggerations, but, to the 
 general surprise, the Negroes practically admitted the im- 
 peachment. 
 
 * Here is part of a resolution which was passed in July, 
 1889, by the Coloured National League, sitting at Boston : 
 
 ' " Whereas the Boston Herald has lately shown that the 
 degrading superstition of Voodooism, as well as its practice, 
 exists here in Boston, to some extent, among a few illiterate 
 and ignorant persons of our race ; and whereas the senti- 
 ment among the better class of coloured people is that no 
 one should be swifter to condemn any kind of foolish 
 race superstition or disreputable practice than the coloured 
 people themselves ; and whereas it should everywhere be 
 the aim and desire of the coloured p^jople to welcome r.ny 
 
 II — 2 
 
I64 THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA. 
 
 information that may show the need of greater race en- 
 lightenment, or that shall stir us up to more earnest efforts 
 for the general elevation of our people ; be it resolved that 
 the League places itself on record as being both anxious 
 and willing to join hands with the Herald, or anyone else, 
 in condemning, discountenancing, and stamping out Voodoo- 
 ism or any other ' ism ' hurtful to the physical, moral, or 
 spiritual elevation of the coloured people ; and that the 
 League calls upon good coloured people everywhere to set 
 their face like a flint against every kind of evil superstition, 
 habit, practice, custom, or belief, whose tendency, if en- 
 couraged, might be to degrade, belittle, or harm the coloured 
 people in public estimation." ' 
 
 We are not prepared to deny that there might have been 
 some sort of superstition amongst a few of the ignorant and 
 illiterate American Africans of Boston some years ago, but 
 this much we do say, that we certainly deny in toto Laird 
 Clowes's statement that ' the great mass of the ignorant 
 blacks ' in America are superstitious, as we also give a 
 general denial to the statement, as made by the Boston 
 Herald, that ' no people are so prone (to superstition) by 
 nature and force of circumstances as the blacks.' Nor is 
 the statement, as made by the Boston Herald, and quoted 
 by Laird Clowes, that ' even among those of reasonable 
 education there are traces of the idolatrous creeds and 
 customs which have always characterized the West Indian 
 Negroes,' anything approaching to the truth. Neither the 
 Boston Herald nor Laird Clowes attempt to support this 
 accusation by any trustworthy evidence. It is one thing to 
 affirm that some American Africans of ' reasonable educa- 
 tion ' have ' traces of the idolatrous creeds and customs ' 
 in their midst, but it is another and a very different thing 
 to prove that they are in the generally demoralized condi- 
 tion which Laird Clowes and the Boston Herald allege they 
 
 I 
 
I 
 
 SUPERSTITION IN NINETEENTH CENTURY. 165 
 
 are ? Such a statement as we have given from the Boston 
 Herald^ that 'idolatrous creeds and customs . . . have 
 always characterized the West Indian Negroes,' can be only 
 an opinion on which no authority rests. It is not given to 
 the Caucasian to determine absolutely what are the charac- 
 teristics of the Ethiopian races; such judgments are not 
 within their right. They are better employed in determining 
 the peculiarities of their own race. We Africans know our- 
 selves better than Caucasians can ever hope to know us ; 
 and we take this opportunity of firmly declaring that 
 * idolatrous creeds and customs ' have never characterized 
 the West Indian Africans. 
 
 We turn the argument against our traducers. Caucasians 
 know themselves better than we Africans can ever hope to 
 know them ; and we have quoted the statements of 
 Caucasian authors and editors in order to prove that 
 Caucasians are superstitious, in what is, unquestionably, a 
 most demoralizing way. 
 
 Mr. Laird Clowes proceeds to tell us that American 
 Africans, as represented by the 'Coloured National League' 
 of Boston, ' to the general surprise,' ' practically admitted 
 the impeachment.' What sort of impeachment did the 
 'Coloured National League' of Boston admit 'to the general 
 surprise'? That which the National League admitted in 
 July, 1889, was this: they admitted that 'the supersthion 
 of Voodooism, as well as its practice, exists (in 1889) here 
 in Boston to some extent,' but they carefully added, ' among 
 a few illiterate and ignorant persons of our race.' That is 
 all that they admitted. They did not admit, and very pro- 
 perly and correctly they did not admit, that ' the great mass 
 of ignorant blacks ' were superstitious, because that state- 
 ment, as made by Laird Clowes, was, and is, the reverse of 
 the truth. Nay more, the ' Coloured National League ' of 
 Boston never admitted — and very rightly they did not — that 
 
l66 THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA, 
 
 *no people are so prone by nature and force of circum- 
 stances to superstition as the blacks '; nor did they admit 
 that * even among those of reasonable education there are 
 traces of idolatrous creeds and customs which have always 
 characterized the West Indian Negroes ' — for two very good 
 reasons : (i) because amongst American Africans of 'reason- 
 able education' idolatry and superstition do not exist, though 
 it may be that ' a few illiterate and ignorant persons of our 
 race ' in America are superstitious : they are none of them 
 idolatrous ; (2) because their African countrymen in the 
 West Indies have never been characterized by ' idolatrous 
 creeds and customs.' 
 
 Men of more than ' reasonable education ' amongst 
 Caucasians have been unenviably distinguished for their 
 superstitions. In Britain, for instance, almost all the British 
 Kings, from Wessex Egbert (as well as his predecessors) to . 
 the First German George, were superstitious ; and in France 
 almost all the French Kings before and from Frankish Clovis 
 to the Bourbon Louis XV. were superstitious. Did not 
 James I. of England and Ireland, and VI. of Scotland, the 
 British Solomon, himself write his ' Demonology,' in which 
 he professed his belief in witchcraft ? and did he not cause 
 his Parliament to pass a law against supposed witches and 
 their abettors ? That unjust and disgraceful law was actually 
 enforced year after year, and was not repealed till the reign 
 of the second Hanoverian George."^ 
 
 Sir Matthew Hale, a man of the greatest eminence and 
 erudition, and a voluminous author, who lived from 1609 to 
 1676, and who was Lord Chief Justice of England during 
 the maladministration of Britain by the Merry Monarch, 
 openly professed himself in court as a believer, like Coke 
 and Bacon, in witches and witchcraft, and when any unfor- 
 tunate old women were standing their trial before him on 
 
 *■ * Encyclopaedia Britannica,' vol. vii., p. 63, ninth edition. 
 
SUPERSTITION IN NINETEENTH CENTURY. 167 
 
 the charge of being witches, he was accustomed to bully 
 the jury into returning a verdict of ' guilty.' And these 
 wretched old women were condemned to perish either on 
 the gibbet or in the fire."*^ 
 
 Even in this nineteenth century we have shown super- 
 stition to be found amongst Caucasians ' of reasonable 
 education,' in London, Northamptonshire, Huntingdonshire, 
 Cornwall, and Oxford, as well as among the people of Nice 
 and New York. 
 
 As long as there are men of enlightenment and progress 
 amongst us Africans, to organize our ranks and weed out 
 unsound matter from our midst, the African race all the 
 world over need never despair. Because of its manly 
 resolution and outspokenness, in calling on illiterate Africans 
 to abandon their superstitions, we congratulate and commend 
 the * National League of Boston.' 
 
 The Boston Herald^ as quoted by Mr. Laird Clowes, also 
 tells us that : ' Perhaps the fact that the Negroes have 
 always regarded themselves as a wronged people impels 
 them to cultivate a revengeful spirit.' 
 
 What, we think, the Boston Herald should have said is 
 not that ' the Negroes have always regarded themselves as a 
 wronged people,' but that * the Africans were and are still 
 a wronged people.' Does the Boston Herald, and does 
 Mr. Clowes, forget how many myriads of unsuspecting 
 Africans were pitilessly kidnapped by the white man, taken 
 from their native home, and compelled to cross the ocean, 
 and endure the horrors of the Middle Passage — during which 
 many committed suicide, and many more perished from 
 brutal and inhuman treatment — experienced at the hands of 
 their oppressors ? Are not the Africans a cruelly, shame- 
 
 •* 'English Cyclopaedia of Biography,' vol. iii., p. 256; 
 Encyclopaedia Britannica,' vol. xxiv., pp. 621, 622; ibid., vol. xi., 
 p. 382; 'Dictionary of National Biography,' vol. xxiv., p. 19. 
 
i68 THE LONE'STAR OF LIBERIA, 
 
 fully wronged people ? Does the Boston Herald^ and does 
 the Commissioner of the Tijnes, want to forget the injustice, 
 the cruelties, the unpardonable, unimaginable horrors atten- 
 dant on African Slavery all the long years during which the 
 white man forcibly held the black man in abject thraldom ? 
 Were the Africans not a wronged people? They are a 
 wronged people to-day even as they were in the past. 
 When the British Government of to-day deliberately passes 
 over deserving and capable British Africans in order that 
 the scum and refuse of the population of the British Isles 
 may be provided with Colonial Government posts and other 
 official advantages, must not Africans be considered still a 
 wronged people ? Does not the Government which with- 
 holds the franchise from the African inhabitants of Cape 
 Colony, Natal, Gold Coast, Jamaica, Trinidad, British 
 Honduras, and other places, wrong the Africans ? 
 
 The Australian Africans have also their grievances in 
 that — though New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, 
 South Australia, etc., are self-governing Colonies — the 
 black aborigines do not enjoy the franchise; the alien 
 colonists exercise the franchise, and are thus enabled to 
 lord it over the proper inhabitants of the land. When the 
 Yankees almost daily lynch the Africans and succeed in 
 evading justice, must not the American Africans be spoken 
 of as a wronged people ? 
 
 In the South, as well as in other parts of the United 
 States, the Africans, because they are deprived of the rights 
 conferred upon them by the Constitution, can be none 
 other than a wronged people. When the authorities of the 
 United States fail to mete out justice to their African 
 fellow-countrymen in the judicial courts, by refusing to give 
 them a fair trial, or by failing to punish those of the white 
 people in the States who oppress them, what must they 
 (the Africans) be considered but a wronged people, and an 
 
SUPERSTITION IN NINETEENTH CENTURY. 169 
 
 mhappy people ? The acts of injustice and the outrages 
 committed upon them in America are notorious : they are 
 a crying shame in a land which arrogates to itself the 
 dignified name of ' Civilized ' America ! 
 
 There are many parts of the United States in which 
 Africans are practically prevented from earning an honest 
 dollar. 
 
 Some Africans had replaced some white miners who were 
 on strike at the latter end of January of last year (1891), at 
 the Carbon Hill Coal Mines, in Walker County, near 
 Birmingham, Alabama, and this was made the reason why 
 they (the Africans) r/ere fiendishly massacred in their sleep 
 by a Yankee mob. That outrage was barbarous, it was 
 brutal ; and yet the perpetrators of that fiendish massacre 
 were not even so much as arrested ; they continue to 
 roam at large, unchallenged by the judicial executive, as 
 if they had its approval. This is one of the many 
 instances of the wrongs that are heaped upon the devoted 
 heads of the unhappy Africans. 
 
 When honest Africans had been hired to replace the 
 Cumberland mountaineers, who had given up work in the 
 earlier part of last year (1891), a party of these moun- 
 taineers, well armed and equipped, marched to Tanbark 
 Camp in the Cumberland mountains, where the Africans 
 were at work, shot six of them dead, and wounded ten 
 others. That is another instance of the wrongs heaped 
 upon our unhappy people. And what makes the cup of 
 misery the more bitter and the more galling, is the fact that 
 the law takes no action in a matter where the African is 
 the injured party, thereby exposing itself to the reproach of 
 being an abettor of criminals and evil-doers. 
 
 With all these proofs before him, there is surely no 
 man, unless he be an inveterate African-hater, like James 
 Anthony Froude, who is evidently suffering from negro- 
 
I70 THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA, 
 
 phobia ; or unless he be a dullard, and not in full possession 
 of his reasoning faculties, who will hesitate to admit that 
 the Africans were, and are to-day, a cruelly wronged people. 
 No, not even Laird Clowes will dare to deny that the 
 Africans were, and are, a wronged people ; for his book 
 ' Black America ' is, from beginning to end, replete with 
 evidences of that fact. 
 
 Would Caucasian nations have needed to grant Africans 
 Enfranchisement if they had not been a wronged people 
 when in bondage ? We Africans owe our Emancipation to 
 the sympathies of the noble members of the great Caucasian 
 nations throughout the world, to the force of Caucasian 
 public opinion, to the will of the sympathetic and sovereign 
 people; but we owe nothing to hard-hearted Caucasian 
 Governments ; the Governments have simply been forced 
 to do what the people willed. 
 
 The Boston Herald says that ' perhaps the fact that the 
 Africans have always regarded themselves as a wronged 
 l)eople impels them to cultivate a revengeful spirit.' The 
 first part of this sentence we have dealt with ; now the latter 
 part of it claims our attention. If the allegation that 
 some of the American Africans 'cultivate a revengeful spirit' 
 be true, then we certainly condemn the cherishing of such 
 a spirit. All good and true Christians abhor those who 
 'cultivate a revengeful spirit.' Yet if any Yankee has, or 
 ever will have, cause to dread the vengeance of the African, 
 he will only have himself to blame. The white man 
 brought the black man against his will to America ; and if 
 the white man, with part of the money which he has 
 amassed at the expense of the tears and groans of the black 
 man in the days of slavery, will not send the black man 
 away back to Africa, will continue to force him to remain 
 in the United States, and will continue to oppress him 
 there ; then, if the black man should ever rise against his 
 
SUPERSTITION IN NINETEENTH CENTURY. 171 
 
 oppressors, the Yankee will have only himself to blame. 
 He who ' sows the wind ' must not wonder if, one day, he 
 has to 'reap the whirlwind.' 
 
 How many people are there, nowadays, who do not 
 believe that revenge is literally a feast for the gods ! The 
 good old maxim, 'An eye for an eye, a tooth for a 
 tooth,' is still carried out in its entirety, in spite of the 
 fact that those who do believe in retaliation are avowed 
 Christians, and stand in the front rank of modern 
 nations. 
 
 The French, because their arms were shattered in the 
 Seven Years' War, and they were humiliated by the Treaty 
 of Paris, which brought the war to a close, and deprived 
 France of Canada, Nova Scotia, Cape Breton, Senegal, 
 Dominica, St. Vincent, and Tobago, took their revenge 
 when the American Colonists unfurled the standard of 
 Independence ; they threw their lot into the scale against 
 the Britishers, and spent their treasure and ammunition, 
 and even their blood, on behalf of the Colonists. 
 
 The Spaniards, because Havanna, Manilla, and much 
 treasure and some ships were wrested from their grasp 
 by plucky Britishers, in a spirit of revenge, joined the 
 French against them, when the Britishers were warring with 
 their American Colonists. 
 
 We may mention here, also, that when the Federal 
 Republicans of the North crushed the Democrat Con- 
 federates of the South, they did not hang Jefferson Davis, 
 the whilom President of the Southern Confederacy; they 
 did not hang Robert E. Lee, the whilom commander-in- 
 chief of the same Confederacy ; but after the Irish 
 Rebellion of '98 was nipped in the bud at Vinegar Hill, 
 the Englishmen barbarously butchered their own Irish 
 countrymen, slew the noble and brave Lord Edward Fitz- 
 gerald and hanged gallant Robert Emmett and Wolfe Tone 
 
172 THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA. 
 
 and others in revenge, because they dared to battle for 
 independence. The victorious Englishmen did not show 
 the mercy to their vanquished Irish countrymen which the 
 victorious Republicans of the North showed towards the 
 vanquished South. And to-day, though Irishmen fight 
 shoulder to shoulder with Englishmen, both by land and by 
 sea, and even fought in the memorable battle of Waterloo, 
 where the British commander-in-chief was an Irishman, the 
 best of feelings cannot be said to exist between the majority 
 of Irishmen and the ruling English. The barbarities per- 
 petrated by Englishmen after Vinegar Hill have left an 
 open sore in the breasts of the majority of Irish people. A 
 rankling feeling, a feeling of animosity, still sadly exists. 
 The majority of Irishmen in Ireland sing not ' God save 
 the Queen !' but the bold and defiant refrains of ' God 
 save Ireland !' and 'The Wearing of the Green.' Because 
 of Vinegar Hill, and the atrocities attendant on that battle, 
 the friendship of the United States of North America 
 towards England is not as warm as it ought to be, because 
 Irishmen, more or less, dominate the feeling and policy of the 
 United States, and the Irish Americans have not forgotten 
 how Englishmen butchered Irishmen during and after the 
 Rebellion. It is truly said that ' blood is thicker than water.' 
 Ireland has been, and for a long time shall be^ the 
 ' Achilles-heel of England.' Who has not heard of the 
 Clan-na-Gael, an association of Irishmen which originated, 
 and still exists, in America ? Who of the Fenian Brother- 
 hood ? Boyd's third edition of 'Wheaton's International 
 Law,' pp. 586, 587, teaches us that 'England has on several 
 occasions received annoyance from the formation of hostile 
 Irish organizations in America. The first society for this 
 purpose appeared in 1848, and was styled the "Irish 
 Republican Union." .... This was succeeded in 1855 by 
 another, named "The Massachusetts Irish Emigrant Aid 
 
 I 
 
SUPERSTITION IN NINETEENTH CENTURY. 173 
 
 Society," whose chief function appears to have been the 
 establishment of secret societies in various parts of the 
 States. But both the head society and its secret branches 
 remained in obscurity and insignificance until 1863, when 
 they came forth at Chicago as "The Fenian Brotherhood." 
 At the second congress of the Brotherhood, in 1865, the 
 President of the society declared that they were "virtually 
 at war " with England ; and, to give a greater air of reality 
 to this announcement, bonds were issued, " redeemable six 
 months after the acknowledgment of the independence of 
 the Irish nation," the bonds being payable "on presenta- 
 tion at the treasury of the Irish Republic." .... About this 
 time the Canadian Government called out a few companies 
 of militia to resist the threatened invasion of Canada by 
 the Fenians, and if the language of the Brotherhood de- 
 served any attention, precautions were highly necessary. 
 Colonel Roberts, one of the ringleaders, promised " to have 
 the green flag supported by the greatest army of Irishmen 
 upon which the sun ever shone." General Sweeney talked 
 of the large amount of arms and war material they had 
 purchased, and threw out mysterious hints respecting a 
 certain territory they were about to conquer, " from which 
 we can not only emancipate Ireland, but also annihilate 
 England." These and other threats were announced at 
 public meetings, and though the project was absurd on the 
 face of it, it was nevertheless a hostile organization against 
 a State at peace with the Union. Matters became more 
 serious towards the middle of the year. About 800 or 900 
 armed men actually crossed into Canada, and drove back 
 a small number of volunteers. They retreated before 
 another Canadian detachment, and on recrossing the frontier 
 were arrested and disarmed by the United States forces. 
 About sixty-five were made prisoners in Canada, and placed 
 in the common gaol. The most remarkable event in con- 
 
174 THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA. 
 
 nection with this raid was that, on the 23rd July, the House 
 of Representatives resolved to "request the President of 
 the United States to urge upon the Canadian authorities, 
 and also the British Government, the release of the Fenian 
 prisoners recently captured in Canada," and, further, that 
 the prosecutions against those taken in America should be 
 abandoned. In pursuance of this, the prosecutions against 
 them were dropped in America, and some of the ringleaders 
 released, after a day's detention, in bonds of $5,000. In 
 October, ihe Government decided to return some of the 
 arms taken from the Fenians, and the remainder were re- 
 turned the following year. In November, 1868, the Fenian 
 leader, O'Neill, marched in review through Philadelphia 
 with three regiments in Fenian uniform, numbering, as re- 
 ported, 3,000 men. In 1870 two expeditions crossed into 
 Canada, but being repulsed, fled across the frontier, and 
 were again disarmed, and their leaders imprisoned by the 
 Union troops. Some of the leaders were fined and im- 
 prisoned, but were released two or three months after.' 
 
 Did not the Honourable Member for North Roscommon, 
 Mr. James J. O'Kelly, in the early eighties, 'go to the 
 Soudan for the purpose of joining the Mahdi's troops'* 
 and measuring arms with the 'brutal Saxons'? 
 
 Because Sir Henry Arthur Blake, K.C.M.G., now 
 Governor of Jamaica, in January, 1882, was 'one of the 
 five special resident magistrates selected by Government 
 to concert and carry out measures for the pacification of a 
 large portion of Ireland,' on his nomination to the governor- 
 ship of Queensland, in November, 1888, by Downing Castle, 
 the Queenslanders, principally Irishmen, laid their veto on 
 it, and 'Coercionist' Lord Knutsford was, with humiliation, 
 forced to give in to the Queenslanders. 
 
 Because ex-President Stephen Grover Cleveland, when 
 
 * ' Men and Women of the Time for 1891,' p. 677. 
 
SUPERSTITION IN NINETEENTH CENTURY. 175 
 
 in office, was suspected of being favourable towards Great 
 Britain, he was beaten at the National Political Campaign 
 of 1888, mainly through the preponderance of the Irish 
 electoral votes, which went solid for his rival, Republican 
 Benjamin Harrison ; and, in revenge, no doubt, Democrat 
 Cleveland gave British Ambassador Lord Sackville, on the 
 30th of October, 1888, ' the sack ' and his passport. 
 
 That ' burning,' debateable, and, we may say, everlasting 
 question of the Behring Sea, is now on the tapis. Let the 
 Republicans yield an inch to Britain, and the Irish votes 
 will go solid for the Democrats ! Erin — yes, Erin ! — is the 
 * Achilles-heel ' of Albion, and holds the fort in the United 
 States and in the United Kingdom ! 
 
 The British, because the Spaniards made war on them 
 while they were engaged in fratricidal conflict with their 
 rebellious kinsmen in America, in revenge assisted the 
 Spanish-American Colonies in every possible way, con- 
 sistent with economy, when they were struggling to throw 
 off the galling yoke of Spain. The same Britishers, because 
 Frenchmen helped America to gain her independence, 
 when Hayti rose against the French and drove them into 
 the sea, revenged themselves on Frenchmen by giving the 
 Haytians their sympathy and countenance, which excited 
 the exceeding wrath of Frenchmen. 
 
 When the Yankees, not many months ago, rushed on to 
 the shameful massacre of the Sioux Indian chief, Sitting 
 Bull, and his ghost-dancing warriors, what was their war- 
 cry? Was it not the revengeful slogan of 'Remember 
 Custer!' ? And the reason why the Yankees did rush on to 
 the massacre of the inadequately armed Sioux Indians with 
 the revengeful slogan of ' Remember Custer !' was this : 
 General Custer met his death, many years ago, in battle 
 with these very Sioux Indians, who successfully resisted him 
 when he had ridden with his Yankee soldiers to effect the 
 
176 THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA. 
 
 extermination of the ghost-dancing warriors of Sitting Bull. 
 When, between the latter part of the year 1890 and the 
 earlier part of last (1891) year, the Yankees marched 
 against the Red Americans, their * prevailing sentiment 
 was revenge'; they showed how 'implacable' are 'their 
 hatreds.' Again, Frenchmen, though they have always been 
 in the front. rank of civilization, and are professed Chris- 
 tians, nevertheless maintain the Revanche spirit towards the 
 Germans. How the warlike Gaul is burning to wrest Alsace- 
 Lorraine from the grasp of the not less warlike Teuton is 
 matter of common knowledge ! Frenchmen are leaving no 
 stone unturned in their supreme effort to carry out success- 
 fully a Reva7iche war with the Teutons. They are trying 
 their ' level best,' they are straining every nerve, to secure 
 the alliance of Russia, and the co-operation of the Muscovite 
 hordes of the White Czar, against the Germans, Austrians, 
 and Italians in the war that cannot be very long delayed. 
 
 But to return to superstition. The Boston Herald does 
 not seem to be aware of the fact that there was, and that 
 there is, superstition amongst the whites in America, even 
 in ' Puritan New England.' 
 
 In the olden days, how many old women, victims of 
 gross superstition, and narrow-minded, sour-faced ' Puritan 
 New Englanders,' were bound to, and perished at, the stake 
 on the charge of being witches ! The ' Puritan New 
 Englander ' to-day is as superstitious as his ancestors 
 were who went before him.* 
 
 Laird Clowes brings his reference to African superstition 
 to a close with these words : ' I may add that, not perhaps 
 at Boston, but certainly in the South, and especially in 
 Louisiana, Voodooism exists to-day.' 
 
 •^ See D. G. Brinton's ' Myths of the New World ' ; Ban- 
 croft's ' History of the Colonization of the United States,' 
 vol. iii. ; Hutchinson's 'History of Massachusetts Bay.' 
 
HI 
 
 TERSTITION IN NINETEENTH CENTURY. 177 
 
 Granted that the so-called ' Voodooism,' or, more" pro- 
 perly, a harmless superstition, does exist in the Southern 
 States of America amongst a very few of the illiterate 
 American Africans, others of the African race, who know 
 better than to be superstitious, have an apology forth- 
 coming for those of their race who may be superstitious. 
 It must be remembered that the American African received 
 his freedom only on January i, 1863 — that is, but twenty- 
 nine years ago. His civilization and Christianity began 
 only with Emancipation, not in any proper sense before : 
 those of the American Africans who may to-day be super- 
 stitious can only be a few ignorant men and women from 
 among those Africans who actually experienced the yoke of 
 servitude. The American whites are really responsible for 
 any forms of superstition that may still lurk among a 
 handful of Africans in America, because there was neither 
 civilization nor Christianity for the African under the 
 Slavery regime in the United States. It is Emancipation 
 that has poured into the lap of the African Civilization 
 and Christianity ; and these powerful forces cause the 
 African to seek after knowledge, and make great progress 
 in Education. The Superstitions which the ancestors of 
 every people have had amongst them disappear before 
 Education, even as the chaff drives before the wind. 
 
 But does not Mr. Clowes himself tell us (on page 116 of 
 his ' Black America ') that ' educationally the coloured man 
 has undoubtedly made great progress since his emancipation? 
 In the slavery days ignorance was imposed by law upon 
 the slave.' He says that the American African is super- 
 stitious ; but he also tells us that, educationally, the African 
 has undoubtedly made great progress since his glorious 
 emancipation. And we fully believe that the superstition 
 which does at all exist amongst the African Yankees will 
 flee from their midst altogether, through the great and rapid 
 
 12 
 
178 THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA. 
 
 progress which the Yankee Africans are making in educa- 
 tion and civih'zation. 
 
 With a few more words we conclude this chapter. 
 
 Though the Roman Emperor Claudius and his lieu- 
 tenants, Aulus Plautius and Vespasian, brought Civilization 
 with the Roman soldiers into Britain ;* though Fagan and 
 Dervan, in the second century, brought Christianity into 
 Britain, it is on record that the Britons retrograded and 
 relapsed into barbarism and the idolatrous superstitions and 
 practices of their ancestors ; so much so that, when the 
 Angles and Jutes, with the sovereign tribe of Saxons, landed 
 in A.D. 449, England — degenerated and demoralized — fell 
 an easy prey before the onslaught of these marauding 
 hordes.f Matters continued in that low state until a.d. 596 
 o^ 597> when Benedictine Austin, or Augustine, brought 
 his forty tonsured monks into Britain. These men re- 
 claimed the degenerate Britishers from heathendom and 
 superstition.! We Africans, then, can always hopefully 
 rejoice, and can find our consolation in the fact that, if 
 there be superstition amongst our people — a people who 
 have not yet had sixty years of Civilization and Christianity 
 — (these beginning with the Emancipation of the British 
 African in August, 1838, and with the Emancipation of the 
 American African in January, 1863), we are not so bad as 
 the Britishers. Though the Britisher has had more than 
 nineteen centuries of Civilization and over seventeen cen- 
 turies of Christianity, he is still superstitious ; and that he 
 is so we have proved by referring to the writings of Sir 
 Walter Scott, Robert Burns, Samuel Rogers, and Charles 
 Dickens. We have done more. We have produced quota- 
 tions from the works of Thomas Wright and Lowen Pike, 
 
 * Lingard, vol. i., chap, i., pp. 1-68. 
 t Ibid.^ vol. i., chap, ii., pp. 103-105. 
 \ Jbid.y vol. i., chap, ii., pp. 108, 109 et seq. 
 
 I 
 
SUPERSTITION IN NINETEENTH CENTUR Y, lyc) 
 
 and from the Daily Telegraphy the Stai% the Daily Graphic, 
 and Lloyd's News^ tending to show that the Caucasian is 
 as superstitious to-day as his ancestors were before him, and 
 had better see to the 'beam in his own eye' before he 
 shows himself to be so vigorous over extracting ' the mote ' 
 of superstition oat of his African brother's eye."^ 
 
 ■^ If the reader would like to have a more extensive know- 
 ledge of Caucasian superstition, we would refer him to J. F. 
 Campbell's 'Tales of the Western Highlands'; J. Grimm's 
 'Teutonic Mythology'; Sir George W. Cox's 'Introduction to 
 Mythology and Folklore'; H. Long's 'Custom and Myth,' also 
 ' Myth, Ritual and Religion' ; Maclnnes and Nutt's ' Folklore 
 and Hero Tales from Argyleshire ' ; J. Brand's ' Popular An- 
 tiquities '; W. Gregor's 'Folklore of the North-East of Scot- 
 land ' ; J. Napier's ' Folklore of the West of Scotland ' ; J. G. 
 Dolzell's 'Darker Superstitions of Scotland,' 'Fireside Stories 
 of Ireland,' and 'Legendary Fictions of the Irish Celts'; T. 
 Crofton Croker's 'Fairy Legends and Traditions of Ireland'; 
 G. L. Gomme's ' Manners and Customs, Superstitions and 
 Traditions'; Miss C. S. Burne's 'Shropshire Folklore'; W. 
 Henderson's 'Folklore of the Northern Counties'; Lowen 
 Pike's 'History of Crime in England,' vol. ii., pp. 131-139; 
 Stephen's ' History of the Criminal Law,' vol. ii., chap. xxv. ; 
 Lecky's ' History of Rationalism in Europe,' vol. i., chap. i. ; 
 and last, not least, we would advise him to look up the 
 'Encyclopaedia Britannica,' ninth edition, vol. ii., pp. 'j/^ifCt seq.j 
 vol. vii., pp. 60-64; 293, 294; vol. ix., pp. 357, 358 ; vol. xv., 
 pp. 199^/ seq.j vol. xvii., pp. 135-158; vol. xxii., pp. 404-407; 
 vol. xxiv., pp. 619-623. 
 
 12 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 UNDER CAUCASIAN RULE. 
 
 We do not propose here to dwell on the way in which the 
 American Africans are defrauded of their votes by their 
 white fellow-citizens, because the facts are sufficiently noto- 
 rious. But we join our protest with that of Mr. Clowes, 
 who has the courage to admit, in his third chapter of 
 ' Black America,' that the trickeries practised on them (the 
 American Africans) are infamous, cruel, and shameful. 
 Laird Clowes, however, makes a great mistake when he 
 quotes Mr. A. M. E. Church, of Vicksburg, an American 
 African clergyman, as writing in the year 1866 : 'We will 
 say . . . that the mass of Negroes would do themselves and 
 their country more good if the ballot were out of their 
 reach.' 
 
 The clergyman of Vicksburg's mere statement of opinion 
 is of little or no importance. Does not Mr. Clowes know 
 that the great majority of Irishmen, the Nationalists, 
 have been agitating for Home Rule during many long 
 years ; and, at the same time, the small minority of Irish- 
 men, the Conservative Orangemen, have been almost 
 throughout, and they are even now, persistently opposing 
 their countrymen in the demand for Home Rule ? 
 
 Is it not a known fact that, at the present time as in the 
 past, certain Irishmen are put up on the floor of the British 
 
UNDER CAUCASIAN RULE. • \%i 
 
 [ouse of Commons, and elsewhere, to denounce their 
 brother Irishmen ? 
 
 Do not Conservative and Liberal Unionist Scotsmen and 
 Welshmen continually oppose the demand for Home Rule 
 in Scotland and Wales, which is made by their countrymen, 
 the Gladstonian Liberal Scotsmen and Welshmen ? 
 
 When the Indian Hindoos, not many months ago, peti- 
 tioned the British Home Government for a Constitution, 
 did not the Indian Mahommedans immediately afterwards 
 send a counter-petition to the British Parliament against 
 the granting of a Constitution to India ? We are of opinion, 
 then, that the Rev. A. M. E. Church's opposition to the 
 granting of the ballot and the -franchise to his American- 
 African countrymen and kinsmen is on a par with the 
 opposition manifested by the Irish Conservative Orange- 
 men, by the Conservative and Liberal-Unionist Scotsmen and 
 Welshmen, to the granting of Home Rule to Ireland, Scot- 
 land, and Wales respectively. And this same opposition is 
 also on a level with that displayed by the Indian Mahom- 
 medans to the conferring of a Constitution on India. Mr. 
 Church's assertion that ' the mass of Negroes would do 
 themselves and their country more good if the ballot were 
 out of their reach' is nothing unusual from a political 
 point of view. The clergyman of Vicksburg, however, ought 
 not to interfere in politics ; he should stick to his pulpit 
 and to proper pulpit topics. Mr. Clowes, on page 88 
 of his book, has the following excerpt from Mr. James 
 Anthony Froude's 'English in the West Indies': 'One do^s 
 not grudge the black man his property, his freedom, his 
 opportunity of advancing himself; one would wish him as 
 free and prosperous as the fates and his own exertions can 
 make him, with more and more means of raising himself to 
 the white man's level. But left to himself, and without the 
 white man to lead him, he can never reach it. . . . We 
 
1 82 THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA. 
 
 have a population] to deal with the majority of whom are 
 of an inferior race. Inferior I am obliged to call them, 
 because, as ytt, they have shown no capacity to rise above 
 the condition of their ancestors, except under European laws, 
 European education, and European authority to keep them 
 from war upon one another. . . . Give them independence, 
 and in a few generations they will peel off such civilization 
 as they have as easily and as willingly as their coats and 
 trouser?.' 
 
 The first part of this quotation which claims our notice 
 is, that the African, if 'left to himself, and without the 
 white man to lead him, can never reach it,' />., 'the 
 white man's level.' That is what Mr. Froude and Mr. 
 Clowes believe ; but their belief is not soundly based. We 
 have proved, in our Second Chapter, that the Haytian, 
 though left to himself, has not only not ' retrograded and 
 reverted,' but ' has raised himself to the white man's level ' ; 
 and to that chapter reference should be made. The 
 Liberian also, though left to himself, 'has raised himself 
 to the white man's level.' Liberia is as prosperous to-day 
 as it m'ght be were it under a white man's Government. 
 We will allow the white man to have his say on this 
 subject. 
 
 The American Colonization Society, writing in the 
 African Repository for April, 1890, says: *The present 
 condition of Liberia is evidenced : 
 
 ''First. — By the increased agricultural industry of the 
 settlers ; their extending cultivation of coffee, cocoa, and 
 sugar, which is placing them in a condition not only of 
 comfort, but of independence. 
 
 ' Second. — By the growing commerce of the Republic, 
 which is laying under cultivation all available products, 
 spontaneous and cultivated. 
 
 ' Third. — By the earnestness with which the people are 
 
UNDER CAUCASIAN RULE. 183 
 
 turning their attention to the interior, and pushing their 
 settlements and agricultural labours to the healthy and 
 fertile highlands in that direction. 
 
 '•Fourth. — By the development among the Aborigines, 
 especially the Kroo tribe, in imitation of, and through the 
 teaching of, the settlers, of the knowledge and practice of 
 civilized arts, mechanical and agricultural ; also, their in- 
 telligence and their capital for the conduct of foreign trade. 
 They have begun to ship their own products directly to 
 Europe, and import thence merchandise suited to their 
 localities. 
 
 ^ Fifth. — The erection by the settlers of schools and 
 churches, by their own means, for the benefit of themselves 
 and the Aborigines, without any prompting or pecuniary 
 aid from the United States. Chief among the educational 
 agencies recently established by the Liberians, is the Ricke's 
 Institute, founded by the liberality of a Negro immigrant 
 from Virginia, and supported by the Baptists, with no aid 
 from America. It is conducted by three ministers, one 
 educated at Liberia College ; one at Shaw University, 
 Raleigh, N.C. ; and the other brought up in Liberia, with- 
 out any special school-training. A Mahommedan convert, 
 from the interior, has been employed to teach Arabic and 
 the vernacular languages.' 
 
 The Liberians are more than ever awake to their privi- 
 leges and duties on that Continent. Their influence upon 
 the natives is everywhere increasing ; and instead of the 
 settlers relapsing into barbarism, as it is sometimes asserted, 
 they are making effective inroads upon the physical, in- 
 tellectual, and moral wilderness. 
 
 The re-captive Congoes, who were captured in slave- 
 ships by United States men-of-war and landed in Liberia 
 thirty years ago, have learned the arts of civilization, em- 
 braced Christianity, and become capable citizens, filling 
 
1 84 THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA. 
 
 important offices in the Republic. Some of these people 
 have been recently introduced into the Congo Free State, 
 under the auspices of the authorities there, as elements of 
 civilization, owing to their knowledge of agriculture and 
 the trades.' 
 
 The American Colonization Society goes further in its 
 eulogy of Liberia and the Liberians, and writes in the 
 African Reposito?y for April, 1891, that 'The action of 
 the Legislature of Liberia, at its last session, regarding 
 foreign affairs, was greatly in advance of anything in the 
 past. 
 
 ' The grant to an English company of the sole right to 
 collect, manufacture, and export India-rubber, in and from 
 that Republic, promises greatly to promote its industrial 
 and financial interests. For this monopoly, ;^2o,ooo 
 sterling, as a first instalment, was received on the 12th of 
 June by the Government at Monrovia. 
 
 'The legislature has also granted to the same company 
 the right to establish a bank under charter from the Govern- 
 ment, and to construct telegraphs and one or more railroads 
 from the coast to the interior. 
 
 'The educational advantages of the Republic are in- 
 creasing. The Methodist Episcopal Seminary at Monrovia 
 has been reopened, and the Episcopalians have not only 
 enlarged their school facilities at Cape Palmas and at Cape 
 Mount, but they are preparing to open a boarding-school on 
 the St. Paul's river. The Ricke's Institute, an indigenous 
 school established by the Baptists, is growing in influence 
 and importance. It now contains over forty pupils, some of 
 whom are Aborigines, mostly of the Bassa tribe. 
 
 ' The facts are that the Government of Liberia attracts 
 the social, commercial, and poHtical economy of several 
 millions of Africans, that for leagues about its settlements 
 the kings and chiefs are friendly and even subordinate, and 
 
UNDER CAUCASIAN RULE. 185 
 
 that its people have advanced in civilization and are success- 
 fully working out their destiny according to nineteenth 
 century lights.' 
 
 No one out of Liberia is better qualified to speak of the 
 condition of the Liberians than the American Colonization 
 Society, and that society in every way testifies to the fact 
 that the Liberian — an African — ' has raised himself to the 
 white man's level . . . without the white man to lead him.' 
 For it further says that the ' Liberian people have advanced 
 in civilization, and are successfully working out their destiny 
 according to nineteenth century lights.' And yet, with all 
 this progress standing to her credit, Liberia is (June, 1891) 
 hardly forty-four years old as an independent Country. 
 
 Mr. Clowes quotes Mr. Froude as saying : ' We have a 
 population to deal with the majority of whom are an 
 inferior race. Inferior I am obliged to call them, because 
 as yet they have shown no capacity to rise above the con- 
 dition of their ancestors, except under European laws, 
 European education, and European authority to keep 
 them from war upon one another. . . . Give them inde- 
 pendence, and in a few generations they will peel off such 
 civilization as they have as easily as their coats and 
 trousers.' 
 
 We have shown, in the case of Liberia in this chapter, 
 and in the case of Hayti in the second chapter, that the 
 African is not an inferior race, and that far from the inde- 
 pendent African ' retrograding and reverting,' or * peeling 
 off such civilization as he has,' he is, in the words of the 
 Caucasian Yankee, 'advancing in civilization, and is success- 
 fully working out his destiny according to nineteenth century 
 lights.' 
 
 We must say a few words, however, in answer to Mr. 
 Froude's statement that the Africans 'as yet have shown no 
 capacity to rise above the condition of their ancestors, 
 
i86 THE LONE^STAR OF LIBERIA. 
 
 except under European laws, European education, and 
 European authority to keep them from war upon one 
 another. . . .' 
 
 Are the Independent People of Liberia waging war upon 
 one another?"^ Is Hayti not at the present moment (June, 
 1891) quite peaceful and quiet ?t And are the Liberians 
 and the Haytians each living 'under Eurojean laws, Euro- 
 pean education, and European authority,' as Mr. Froude 
 says they must do in order to keep from war ? 
 
 But we have to ask this question : Did the Briton show 
 any capacity to rise above the condition of his ancestors, 
 and keep himself from warring upon his brother Briton, 
 before the arrival of the Roman and his legions ? Was it 
 not Roman laws, Roman education, and Roman authority 
 that kept the Britons from waging fierce war upon one 
 another ? 
 
 When the Roman eagle took its final departure at the 
 head of the Roman legions, in a.d. 426, leaving Inde- 
 pendence in the lap of the Britons, how did the Britons 
 behave themselves ? Did they not wage even fierce and 
 unnatural war upon one another ? Did not the partisans 
 of Ambrosius and Vortigern cleave each other's skulls, and 
 even drink each other's blood, and eat each other's flesh, 
 like so many cannibals ? The independent Britons, deprived 
 of Roman laws, education, and authority, degenerated, and 
 fell to slitting each other's throats ; and, as division is always 
 a source of weakness, the Pict-Scot savage was successful 
 in his attacks upon them. The spear of the Saxons, Jutes, 
 and Angles restored peace to the Britons for a time ; but 
 
 ■^ The Chief Magistrate of Liberia, His Excellency J. J. 
 Cheeseman, is a national^ not a party, President, having been 
 elected by the unanimous voice of his countrymen. 
 
 f The same remark may be applied to General L. M. Fk. 
 Hippolyte, President of Hayti. 
 
UNDER CAUCASIAN RULE. 187 
 
 then these Saxons (as the combined Saxons, Angles, Jutes, 
 and Britons were called) fell to fighting amongst themselves, 
 until the Danes, or Norsemen, succeeded in keeping them 
 quiet. The Normans, in their turn, failed to keep England 
 peaceful, for civil war broke out in the reign of the Red 
 King, and there were civil wars in the reigns of Henry I., 
 Stephen, Henry II., John, Henry HI., Edward II., 
 Richard II., Henry IV. One would think that Mr. Froude 
 and Mr. Clowes have never heard of Jack Cade's Rebellion 
 and Seven Oaks. Are not the Twelve Battles fought during 
 the Civil Wars of the Roses a matter of well-known 
 history ? 
 
 The reigns of Henry VII., Henry VIII., Edward VI., 
 Mary L, Elizabeth, and James I., each experienced civil 
 war. Twenty Battles were fought in the Civil War between 
 Charles I. and the Parliamentarians, when Cavaliers and 
 Roundheaded Puritans smote each other, the last, the 
 decisive battle, handing Charles over to his subjects, who 
 subsequently beheaded him. 
 
 We have mentioned civil wars in England, but the sister 
 kingdoms of Ireland and Scotland were each also subjected 
 to the baneful influence of civil war. The children of Cale- 
 donia, ' stern and wild,' and the children of unhappy and 
 distracted Erin, were almost continually levying w^ar upon 
 one another. 
 
 The British people had civil wars under Charles IL, 
 James II., William III. and Mary II. , George I., and 
 George II. In brief, it was only the battle of Vinegar 
 Hill, fought in 1798, in the reign of the Third George, that 
 put an end to Civil War amongst the British people. At 
 Vinegar Hill Englishmen and Scotsmen were marshalled in 
 battle array against their Irish countrymen, whom they then 
 defeated. That conflict put an end to the story of fratricidal 
 strife in Great Britain. From the time of that battle, fought 
 
i88 THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA, 
 
 in 1798, to the present time Britain has enjoyed only ninety- 
 three years of freedom from fratricidal war. 
 
 It required Roman laws, Roman education, and Roman 
 authority to keep the Gauls from war upon one another. 
 The Romans civilized the Gauls ; and, when the time- 
 honoured but then effeminate Roman Empire was tottering 
 and crumbling to pieces, after its long career of dominion 
 and glory, the conquering Franks poured their irresistible 
 legions from Germany into the heart of the Gallic country, 
 gave the death-blow to the Empire of the countrymen of 
 Caesar and Cicero, brought Roman Gaul into subjection, 
 gave their name to the country, and imposed Frankish laws, 
 Frankish education, and Frankish authority on the necks 
 of their subjects. But France, too, has had a long career 
 of fratricidal strifes, the last civil war amongst Frenchmen, 
 that between the Government and its adherents and the 
 Social-Commune, only terminating in 187 1, after the troops 
 of Marshal Duke MacMahon of Magenta had marched to 
 the slaughter of those of Eudes, Duval, Cluseret, Bergeret, 
 Wetzel, Onolowitz, Dombrowski, Wroblowski, Cecilia, and 
 sundry other ' Generals ' of the Reds. 
 
 Would Germany be now one of the leading countries of 
 the world if it had not had the beneficial effects of Roman 
 civilization and Roman supervision ? Yet Germany has had 
 a long spell of civil wars, for there was a time when Teuton 
 smote brother-Teuton, as arrayed against each other in the 
 field. 
 
 The last Civil War in Germany ended at the decisive 
 battle of Koniggratz,4 or Sadowa, on July 3, 1866, when 
 Protestant and Hohenzollern Prussia, under Prince Frede- 
 rick Charles, humiliated Catholic and Hapsburg Austria, 
 under General Benedek, thereby giving the deathblow to 
 the Germanic Confederation of 18 15, and laying the 
 foundation of United Germany under the headship of the 
 
UNDER CAUCASIAN RULE. 189 
 
 Brandenburg conqueror, while mortified and crestfallen 
 Austria was forced to consent to pay a war indemnity of 
 20,000 thalers, recognise the severance of the erewhile 
 Germanic Confederation, and consent to a new formation 
 of Germany in which she should bear no part ; and to 
 complete her cup of sorrow, the Fatherland of Franz Josef 
 was forced to resign all claims to Schleswig-Holstein, for 
 which she had fought and bled, in conjunction with the 
 Hohenzollern, in the Danish campaign of 1864, in favour 
 of Prussia, and to behold with streaming eyes, and bleeding 
 from many wounds, Hanovei, Hesse-Cassel, Hesse-Nassau 
 and Frankfort pounced upon as spoils of war, and in the pride 
 of victory, by her successful rival, the eagle of Hohenzollern. 
 Austria-Hungary has also had her civil wars ; the last ter- 
 minating in 1848, during which Austria and Hungary were 
 arrayed against each other. Russia, Italy, and Turkey have 
 each had their civil wars. Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, 
 and Holland have also had their civil wars. The Spaniards 
 never would have been able to rise above the condition of 
 their ancestors except under Roman laws, Roman education, 
 and Roman authority. The Visigoths, who gave the finish- 
 ing blow to the moribund Roman Empire in Spain, con- 
 tinued the work of civilization which the Romans had 
 begun, but did the Visigoths and their subjects refrain from 
 tearing one another to pieces ? When the Moors (/>., the 
 descendants of Asiatics and Africans) landed in the dawn 
 of the eighth century, they were able, within the short space 
 of less than three years, to thoroughly subdue the divided 
 and faction-torn Iberian Peninsula, and impose their yoke 
 upon the necks of the Spaniards. Nor did the Moors quit 
 Spain till the seventeenth century. The story of Portugal 
 is almost identical with that of Spain.* 
 
 ■^ The last Civil and Carlist War in Spain terminated only in 
 1876, for which vide ' Encyclopaedia Britannica,' vol. xxii., p. 346. 
 
I90 THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA. 
 
 The dying Roman Empire, which had introduced civiliza- 
 tion into Lusitania, being weak and fc;eble, easily yielded to 
 the onslaught of the warlike Moors after these latter had 
 fairly overrun Spain. But when the Moors were unfortu- 
 nately divided amongst themselves, and were warring upon 
 one another, the Visigoths were able to reduce them into 
 complete subjection, and Portugal became their prize. 
 
 It was Roman laws and Roman authority that raised the 
 Switzer from the condition of a savage to that of a civiUzed 
 being. The Austro-Germans, and afterwards Frenchmen, 
 continued to carry out the work of civilization which the 
 Roman had begun in Switzerland, and they helped to make 
 the Swiss what they are at the present day. Yet the 
 Switzer has had civil wars in his country and amongst his 
 countrymen. It was but recently that Switzerland treated 
 the world to an exhibition of civil war on a small scale in 
 the Ticino Rebellion. The Hellenes, or Greeks, after con- 
 quering the aboriginal inhabitants of Hellas, imposed, with 
 their yoke, their civilization and institutions on the pliant 
 necks of the Pelasgians, while they gave their name to the 
 country and its inhabitants. 
 
 Greece was, indeed, the home of literature and the arts ; 
 her civilization, already at a high standard, receiving a 
 greater impetus when it came into contact with the civiliza- 
 tion of the Romans, when the rule of the countrymen of 
 Caesar and Cicero was supreme at Athens. The reastm 
 why the Greeks fell such an easy prey to the omnipotent 
 Romans was their being divided among themselves, and 
 carrying on war upon one another. 
 
 The Turks, too, who put an end to the tottering Graeco- 
 Latin Empire, which had succeeded that of the purely- 
 Rornan-Latin in Greece, contributed to the advancement 
 and progress of the Greeks until Navarino and Greek 
 Independence died away with the rule of the Osmanlis. 
 
UNDER CAUCASIAN RULE. 
 
 But what two nations are there that can boast of in- 
 digenous civilization? The civiUzation of every nation, 
 ahnost without exception, has been imported. What country- 
 is there which has never known any civil wars ? 
 
 Civil war has shown its many hideous heads in all the 
 different countries of Asia and Europe. It was not only in 
 those countries which have been already mentioned that 
 the baneful curse of suicidal war has been experienced, for 
 the two Americas with their Indian Isles have suffered 
 under similar experiences. 
 
 The Yankee inhabitants of the United States were in the 
 habit of boasting before their great and now historic internal 
 war that their country, unlike other countries, was greatly 
 favoured and peculiarly blessed by Heaven, because of a 
 total absence of civil wars in their Fatherland. But in 
 April, 1861, did not the world see the Yankees of the 
 South pitted against the Yankees of the North ? And were 
 not the former finally crushed in May, 1865 ? That great 
 suicidal struggle had the question of Africo- American 
 slavery as its fotts et origo ; and it scattered Yankee vaunting 
 to the winds. That American civil war was the greatest of 
 modern times, since upwards of a million men are said to 
 have perished ia the struggle. 
 
 But where, in any of the two Americas, has civil war not 
 shown its hideous head ? What shall we say of the 
 periodical convulsions into which they are thrown, which 
 agitate Mexico, Costa-Rica, Honduras, Guatemala, San 
 Salvador, Nicaragua, Columbia, Venezuela, Peru, Bolivia, 
 and Ecuador ? Do not all these historical cases of internal 
 struggle testify to the fact that the Americas are still enslaved 
 by the hydra-monster of Civil War, whose baneful influence 
 they are unable to shake off? 
 
 Chili and Argentina, the greatest of South American 
 Republics (and, with Mexico and Brazil, the greatest of 
 
192 THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA. 
 
 Americo-Latin Republics in the Americas), cannot boast 
 that they have had no civil wars. The latter — Argentina — 
 has but recently treated the world to a display of civil war, 
 when the descendant of one conquistador made the 
 descendant of another conquistador bite the dust. And 
 Civil War is now, as we write, being carried on with the 
 greatest vigour and animosity between the Government of 
 Balmaceda and his opponents of the Congressional party in 
 Chili.* 
 
 The statement, then, which Mr. James Anthony Eroude 
 makes in his 'English in the West Indies,' and which Mr. 
 W. Laird Clowes slavishly quotes, to the effect that we 
 Africans are an inferior race, ' because, as yet, they ' (the 
 Africans) * have shown no capacity to rise above the con- 
 dition of their ancestors, except under European laws, 
 European education, and European authority to keep them 
 from war upon one another,' seems to us, and surely it will 
 to the unbiased reader, to be, on the face of it, foolish and 
 ridiculous. Scarcely any nation under the sun has had 
 indigenous civilization ; and almost every nation under the 
 sun has had experience of civil war in the past, and even in 
 this century there are countries whose peoples periodically 
 wage fierce civil and suicidal war upon one another. 
 
 On page 202 of ' Black America,' W. Laird Clowes 
 writes : * In no British colony, for example, is there any 
 reason why a capable Negro should not raise himself to 
 high position and honour. In no British colony, on the 
 other hand, does the Negro govern. And I think it may 
 also be said that in every British colony in which he is 
 
 * Decisive and sanguinary Placilla, on the 27th August, 1891, 
 terminated fratricidal strife in Chili ; Congressional General 
 Canto, fresh from the slaughter of his opponents at Concon, 
 crushing and slaying the Balmacedist Generals Orozimbo 
 Barboza and Josd Miguel Alcdrreca on that field. 
 
UNDER CAUCASIAN RULE. 193 
 
 be found, the Negro is a fairly happy and contenteci 
 person.' 
 
 Mr. Clowes does not seem to be aware that there is one 
 reason, and that it is the head and chief of all reasons, 
 why the African ' cannot raise himself to high post and 
 honour in any British colony.' The truth is, that fat and 
 lucrative berths in the Colonies, whether in British Africa 
 or in the British West Indies, are sedulously kept for the 
 Europeans ; though too often these Europeans are incom- 
 petent and incapable. They are, sadly too often, the 
 refuse and the failures, the bankrupts, the spendthrifts, 
 and the scum of the British population; while deserving 
 and capable Africans are uniformly and systematically kept 
 in the background. Let the African work as he may, he 
 reaps none of the harvest of his work by securing official 
 positions in a British colony. 
 
 In our own island home of Trinidad we have known 
 intelligent youths of African blood who have been com- 
 pelled to leave school or college much earlier than they 
 wished, because of their parents' inability to provide a 
 suitable pittance to maintain them any longer. And the 
 moment they are out of school, these young men, as a 
 matter of course, always make it their business to apply 
 for some appointment in the Civil Service of the Colony. 
 But do they succeed ? No, they seek quite fruitlessly ; 
 though the very moment the white boys, often of shallow 
 and mediocre ability, get out of school, and no matter 
 whether they come from the higher or the lower classes, 
 they are made welcome to every remunerative post at the 
 disposal of the Government, and promotion for them is as 
 rapid as they could desire. It is the same cry all the British 
 Empire over where the African abides. The African is 
 resolutely kept in the background. 
 
 In this way, then, is the x^frican ' stopped short,' and 
 
 13 
 
194 THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA. 
 
 prevented from occupying * high position and honour ' in 
 the Civil Service. It is not a matter for wonder if the 
 Gallic King Brennus's old but expressive saying of Vce 
 victis! ('Woe to the vanquished!'), or the familiar poetic 
 
 words, 
 
 ' The good old rule, the simple plan, 
 That they should take who have the power. 
 And they should keep who can,' 
 
 should be forcibly called to the African's mind. 
 
 What African, we say, who has the welfare of his race 
 at heart, indulges in the delusive hope that every talented 
 countryman of his — being, as he is, a member of an un- 
 fortunate and subject (but not degraded and down-trodden) 
 race — will always get his abilities recognised by the Govern- 
 ment of a ruling race like the Caucasian ? No ; the African 
 who has the welfare of his race at heart will counsel his re- 
 liant, self-respecting brethren to depart from the land where 
 the Caucasian rules, and go to the land of his African fore- 
 fathers, the land where the African rules. He will advise 
 all his countrymen who are living under Caucasian rule to 
 go to that land of liberty, the Republic of Liberia, 'The 
 Lone-Star of Liberia.' If the degenerate Saxons held no 
 honoured positions in England when they were smarting 
 under the iron rule of their Norman lords and masters, 
 that is no reason why those Africans who remain under 
 British and Yankee rule should not hold positions of trust 
 and honour, when they deserve them, in the Colonial Civil 
 Service. Do not the European possessions in Africa and 
 in the West Indies annually send forth their thousands of 
 young Africans, who betake themselves to the various 
 European centres of learning as students of law, medicine, 
 theology, engineering, etc., etc., etc. ? 
 
 The African indulges in a vain hope, indeed, who believes 
 that his dark-skinned face will be given the preference when 
 
UNDER CAUCASIAN RULE. 195 
 
 he competes for any Government appointment under the 
 Caucasian flag if there happens to be a pale-faced can- 
 didate in the field. 
 
 It is true that, now and again, the abilities of the African 
 do receive official recognition, and Africans are occasionally- 
 entrusted with posts of honour and trust; and yet, even 
 then, those Africans are seldom, if ever, promoted. 
 
 One may find a black United States' Minister to Hayti ; 
 a black Chief Justice in Barbadoes ; a black Magistrate in 
 Trinidad ; a black Chief Magistrate in Gambia ; two or 
 three black Magistrates in the Gold Coast, and perhaps 
 one or two black Magistrates in Sierra Leone and Lagos, 
 as well as one or two law and medical officials of Colonial 
 Governments ; yet these Africans are never promoted — 
 they are 'stopped short.' And we are of opinion that the 
 few appointments which British Africans hold in British 
 West Africa are due more to the fact that the West African 
 climate pervading British territory in that sphere is more 
 or less unsuitable to the constitution of Britishers than 
 from a wish to loyalize Goldcoasters, Sierra Leoneans, 
 Lagians, and Gambians, and make them more and more 
 amenable to British rule. But are the authorities blind to 
 the fact that they have Frenchmen and Germans for neigh- 
 bours in Africa? What with the contiguity of the Liberian 
 Republic to the British possessions of the Gold Coast, 
 Lagos, Sierra Leone, and Gambia — what if the African 
 inhabitants of these possessions were to suddenly unfurl 
 the flag of independence, and join the promising Republic 
 of Liberia, their neighbour ? We should not be sorry to 
 see European West and Central Africa joining the Liberian 
 flag, and we firmly believe and prophesy that it is the 
 destiny of all West, and Central, and other Africans to 
 become Liberians ! ! ! 
 
 Mr. Clowes tells us that * in no British colony does the 
 
 13—2 
 
196 THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA. 
 
 Negro govern.' We all know that to be so ; but the asser- 
 tion of the truth of that fact only declares it to be the more 
 shameful. 
 
 But Mr. Clowes again tells us that ' in every British 
 colony in which he is to be found the Negro is a fairly 
 happy and contented person.' If getting educated, ac- 
 quiring a profession, learning a trade, and building up 
 wealth, and gaining through these things social inde- 
 pendence, make up the sum-total of happiness, then many 
 an African may be said to be ' fairly happy and contented ' 
 under the British flag. Africans living under the rule of 
 the British are not contented ; they would like to have their 
 abilities recognised. They are longing to enjoy the fran- 
 chise, and to be members of colonial parliaments and 
 governments, and to hold positions of trust and honour 
 wherever Africans are to be found, and especially where 
 they predominate numerically. But what, we ask, does 
 Mr. Clowes know of the ' fair happiness and contentedness ' 
 of the Africans in the British colonies? 
 
 Is it not singular, as well as anomalous, that the 
 Bermudas and Bahamas, small West Indian Isles, with 
 literally a handful of inhabitants, as well as the Leeward 
 Islands, though to a limited extent, enjoy the franchise and 
 send representatives to their respective legislatures, while 
 the great Colony of Jamaica has hardly any representation ; 
 while the great Colonies of Trinidad and Tobago, British 
 Honduras, and the Windward Group of Islands have no 
 franchise and no representation ? 
 
 Is it not singular, and an anomaly, that the Bermudas 
 Islands, with 16,000 inhabitants, who are for the most part 
 Africans, send thirty-six elected members to their House of 
 Assembly; that the Bahamas, with 48,000 inhabitants, 
 mostly Africans, send 29 elected members to their Repre- 
 sentative Assembly; that the Leeward, with 120,000 in- 
 
UNDER CAUCASIAN RULE. -197 
 
 habitants, mostly Africans, send but 10 elected members to 
 their General Legislative Council ; while British Honduras, 
 with a population of 28,000, Africans for the most part 
 — unlike the Bermudas, with 16,000 people — is a Crown 
 Colony; while the Windward Islands, with a population of 
 96,000, Africans for the most part — unlike the Bahamas, 
 with merely 48,000 people — are taxed, but are unrepre- 
 sented ; while Barbadoes, with 172,000 inhabitants, mostly 
 Africans, sends 24 elected members to its House of 
 Assembly; the Bermudas Islands, with 16,000 inhabitants, 
 sending 36 elected members to their House of Assembly ; 
 and the Bahamas, with 48,000 people, sending 29 elected 
 members to their Representative Assembly : while the 
 United Colony of Trinidad and Tobago, with an estimated 
 population of 205,000, mostly Africans, has the franchise 
 and representation withheld from it, and is, in fact, 
 governed, or, rather, misgoverned, as a Crown Colony? 
 Is it not singular, and an anomaly, that British Guiana, with 
 282,000 inhabitants, mostly Africans, except that it sends 
 6 or 7 representatives to the Legislature, is practically a 
 Crown Colony, while the Bermudas, Bahamas, the Leeward 
 Islands, and Barbadoes, colonies of fewer inhabitants, and of 
 less progressive character, are more adequately represented? 
 Is it not also singular, and anomalous, that Mauritius, with 
 373,000 inhabitants, mostly Africans, sends only 2 repre- 
 sentatives to the Council, and but 10 elected members to 
 the Legislative Council, while Jamaica, with 581,000 people, 
 mostly Africans, sends only 9 representatives to its Legisla- 
 tive Council ? But ' truth is stranger than fiction,' they say. 
 It can thus be seen, therefore, that in every British colony 
 where Africans preponderate to any great extent, that colony 
 either has not received a Constitution, or the Constitution 
 which that colony has is very limited and curtailed in its 
 provisions. 
 
198 THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA. 
 
 There is every reason to expect that, on some future 
 day, the Bahamas and Barbadoes (the latter with the greater 
 probability and certainty) will be deprived of their Con- 
 stitution by the Imperial Parliament, because of the rapid 
 increase of Africans in those two colonies since Emanci- 
 pation. Assuming, of course, that the Africans remain in 
 Barbadoes and the Bahamas, and do not migrate to their 
 Fatherland, Africa, as we earnestly hope they will do. 
 
 The original Jamaican Constitution, which had existed 
 for 200 years (and which was 'Representative), was done 
 away with in December, 1866. It consisted of a Governor, 
 a Privy Council, a Legislative Council, a Legislative 
 Assembly of 47 Representative Members, and a paid body, 
 which went by the name of the Executive Committee, and 
 were the responsible Ministers of the Crown in Jamaica 
 
 On the initiation of the Jamaican Assembly on the 20 th 
 December, 1866 — and the resolution was unanimously con- 
 firmed on the 22nd December in the same year by the 
 superior body, the Legislative Council, and assented to by 
 the then Governor on the 23rd December, 1866 — the 
 British Crown was invited to grant another Constitution to 
 Jamaica, a Constitution suitable to the altered condition of 
 the colony. A motion of this sort, coming, as it did, 
 immediately after the Jamaican-African Gordon Rising of 
 1865, cannot but bring home the fact to the mind of the 
 average individual, that the British authorities were filled 
 with alarm on account of the Africans in Jamaica, and 
 brought pressure to bear on the legislative bodies of 
 Jamaica. And there are those who maintain, and we are 
 with them, that Her Britannic Majesty's Earl Derby's Third 
 Government actually interfered with and suspended* the 
 
 * Who knows what part that curse of civilization, Secret 
 Sfervice Money, played in Jamaica during Lord Derby's Third 
 Administration } 
 
UNDER CA UCA SI AN RULE. 199 
 
 Constitutional Government then existing in Jamaica in 
 1866. At the same time Lord Derby's Government con- 
 trived to secure the allegiance of the wavering in Jamaica, 
 for there were not a few malcontents who had not un- 
 naturally taken umbrage because of that unjust and arbi- 
 trary measure. And why should we not suppose that the 
 Jamaican whites, remembering that it was not the first time 
 that a part of the Jamaican Africans had risen in arms (some 
 Jamaican Maroon slaves having risen in 1795'''' and 1832),! 
 and not unmindful of the fact that the Africans were increasing 
 to an alarming extent since Emancipation, were seized with 
 panic, and gladly advocated the change in the Constitution ? 
 There was also the proximity of Jamaica to Hayti. Might 
 not the Jamaican-Africans wish to follow Hayti's example, 
 and make a bold effort to secure Independence? Agitated 
 with feelings of personal safety and self-interest, this party 
 did not hesitate (they commanding a majority in the Jamaican 
 Legislature) to surrender the Constitution which had ex- 
 isted for 200 years ? 
 
 As far back as 1830 — that is to say, eight years before 
 the generality of Africans thought that the justifiable and 
 legitimate Act of Emancipation would have been granted 
 them — the elective franchise was being exercised by such 
 of the Africo-Jamaicans as were enjoying the blessings of 
 freedom and citizenhood. When Emancipation or En- 
 franchisement, and in its train full and unqualified Citizen- 
 ship, came in August, 1838, the Jamaican Africans were 
 enabled, we are told, speedily to send some representatives 
 
 * 'English Cyclopaedia of Geography,' vol. iii., p. 321. From 
 1655 * the slaves' (to quote the * Encyclopaedia Britannica,' vol. 
 xiii., p. 550) ' called Maroons . . . who had fled to the mountains, 
 continued formidable. Down to the end of the eighteenth 
 century the disaffection of the Maroons caused much trouble.' 
 
 t 'Encyclopaedia Britannica,' vol. xiii., p. 551. 
 
200 THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA. 
 
 of their own race to the Legislative Council or Upper 
 House, and many more of their prominent men to the 
 Legislative Assembly or Lower House of Jamaica. 
 
 Jamaica, at the present day, is under the baneful in- 
 fluence of a semi-Crown Colony system of Government ; 
 Jamaica sending, as it does, but 9 representatives to the 
 Legislative Council, is but inadequately represented when 
 its 581,000 inhabitants are considered. 
 
 The administration of justice as it is in Jamaica and 
 Trinidad, can only be one-sided and corrupt under the 
 degenerating and deteriorating influence of Crown Colony 
 Government and its concomitant red-tapism. 
 
 Were the Jamaican Governmental Administration also 
 composed of sound materials, would the bungling Jamaican 
 Director of Public Works, Valentine Graeme Bell (who, like 
 his prototype of Trinidad, the blundering and extravagant 
 Director Tanner of Public Works) have been allowed to 
 sell and hand over the Jamaican Government Railway to 
 an American Company? The British Government of 
 Jamaica, when it handed its Railway over to the Yankees, 
 sold its birthright for a mess of pottage. Only under a 
 Crown Colony Government could such a mistake have been 
 committed. 
 
 The Queenslanders, in November, 1888, would have none 
 of Governor Sir Henry A. Blake on account of his previous 
 bad record as a member of the Royal Irish Constabulary, 
 he having been engaged in batoning his Irish countrymen 
 because they differed from him in politics ; and also as a 
 Resident Magistrate, he having oppressed the Irish people. 
 The Queenslanders petitioned Lord Knutsford to keep his 
 enfant terrible at home, and then the authorities at Downing 
 Street thought that the next best thing for them to do was 
 to seek out a colony on which to foist \\i€\T protege. Jamaica 
 was the colony they fixed upon, and the man who was not 
 
UNDER CAUCASIAN RULE. 201 
 
 thought good enough for the Queenslanders was saddled 
 on Jamaica, and appointed her Governor in the very next 
 month, in December, 1888. The Jamaican- Africans offered 
 no protest when the rejected of Queensland was foisted 
 upon them. The countrymen of George William Gordon, 
 the hero-martyr of 1865, might have done so, but they 
 would have been simply bringing punishment and disability 
 on their own heads ; but when Queensland gave a veto to 
 Blake's being appointed her Governor, the Home Govern- 
 ment never seriously thought of enforcing obedience to its 
 mandate. They, no doubt, bethought themselves of the 
 lesson which the American colonies taught their fathers in 
 the days when the obstinate German, the Third George, 
 was King. They wisely refrained from annoying the 
 Queenslanders. It is very probable that had the Jamaican- 
 Africans, like the Queenslanders, protested, and been pre- 
 pared to back up their protest by force, against the appoint- 
 ment of Sir Henry Arthur Blake as their Governor, a few 
 British ships-of-war would have been promptly sent by Lord 
 Salisbury's Government to Kingston and Port Royal, to 
 help to keep the ' fairly happy and contented ' Africans quiet, 
 or, rather, ' suppress ' them. 
 
 Absenteeism on the part of the sugar-lords (the same 
 sort of absenteeism on the part of the British Crown and 
 the landlords which is felt in Ireland, and which is respon- 
 sible for much of the misery prevalent in the Emerald Isle, 
 and for the constant and unremitting agitation which dis- 
 tracts that unfortunate kingdom, and is lashing the Irish 
 people into disloyalty, as well as forcing them to migrate 
 from their native land to the United States) is rampant in 
 the West Indian Colonies, Trinidad, and Jamaica especially. 
 This absenteeism, which paralyzes and cripples the progress 
 of the colonies, is also ruining their people. 
 
 Is it not an injustice and an anomaly that the sugar — 
 
202 THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA. 
 
 the mainstay and chief staple of the colony — the sugar 
 which is grown in Trinidad, and is worked and manu- 
 factured by the labour, the exertion, and the skill of 
 Trinidadian Africans for British sugar-lords, is sold at ijd. 
 and 2d. per pound in the British Isles, while the prices in 
 Trinidad for Trinidadian sugar do not fetch a halfpenny 
 less than 4d. and 6d. per pound ? 
 
 As a matter of course, and as the result of the crooked 
 policy of blundering red-tapism, that amount of sugar 
 which many a poor man in the British Isles is able to 
 buy and consume, the poor Trinidadian African is dis- 
 qualified from procuring in Trinidad, though if he 
 were living in Britain he could procure it with the greatest 
 facility. 
 
 The British judges in Trinidad are now engaged in 
 stirring up class against class, the poor against the rich, 
 and all for the sake of winning a transient popularity ; and 
 we do not hesitate to say that the authorities at Downing 
 Street made a grievous mistake when they sent Sir John 
 Gorrie and his ' learned ' brothers, Justices Cook and Lumb, 
 to Trinidad. 
 
 Perjury prevails to an alarming extent in Trinidad, for 
 many an indigent rascal and fortune-hunter looks upon the 
 Trinidadian Law Courts as the best and surest places in 
 which to make his fortune; and, relying on the fact that 
 others before him have succeeded in the nefarious traffic, 
 the perjurer, we say, does not hesitate to urge his spurious 
 and fictitious claims against some wealthy men whom he 
 has never seen, or has never spoken to in his life ; or, if 
 he brings an action against some wealthy man with whoni 
 he has transacted business, the chances are ten to one that 
 he has no real claim whatever upon him. 
 
 The young brigade of briefless lawyers deliberately help 
 
UNDER CAUCASIAN RULE. 203 
 
 to complicate the position in Trinidad ; because these (the 
 ) oung, not the old lawyers), being themselves indigent and 
 out of work, take upon themselves the role of barrators, 
 and are encouragers of litigation. There are several that 
 we know of who, instead of helping to mitigate the evil, 
 are simply a disgrace to the noble and honourable pro- 
 fession. And, as if to complicate matters still more. Sir 
 John Gorrie, the Chief Justice of Trinidad, and the 
 Attorney-General, the Hon. S. H. Gatty, Q.C., who began 
 their feuds in Antigua (as if the world was not large enough 
 for these two men !), have been sent to Trinidad, as to 
 a better and fairer battling-ground. Such disagreements 
 serve — when the Chief Justice and the First Law Officer 
 of the Crown fall to loggerheads — but to create a judicial 
 deadlock. As a consequence of such disagreements, 
 the Attorney-General is generally conspicuous by his 
 absence from the Law Courts when matters are brought 
 forward which require his attention as Counsel for the 
 Crown. 
 
 The administrators and expounders of the law should set 
 a good example to the inhabitants of the colony by ceasing 
 their bickerings, and concerning themselves with the business 
 of the people; those high in office, especially those who 
 administer the law, should be above reproach, and not 
 indulge in party bickerings. But what will not happen 
 under Crown Colony Government ? 
 
 Also we may mention here that the same tyranny on the 
 part of the judges, which stifles public opinion and gags 
 the public press in Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, and 
 elsewhere in the West Indies, is paramount in British 
 Guiana. Mr. Louis de Souza,"^ a Barrister-at-Law, of Lin- 
 
 * This brilliant African claimed descent from no less a house 
 than that of Royal Braganza. 
 
204 THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA. 
 
 coin's Inn, who was a distinguished African, had the moral 
 courage to resist judicial tyranny, and beard the British 
 Guiana judges in their own den ; but he fell a victim to 
 their resentment because of his just notions of liberty, and 
 was by the Georgetown judges committed to the George- 
 town Gaol for an alleged Contempt of Court, where he 
 forfeited his life through no fault of his own. His imprison- 
 ment raised him a great many sympathizers — many more 
 sympathizers than he had had when he first began his 
 struggle with the judges ; while his death, though it came 
 as a surprise to his fellow-men because of its suddenness, 
 made De Souza, already a hero, a glorious martyr. 
 
 Of the many white men of doubtful adaptation who have 
 been foisted upon Trinidad, John Edward Tanner, the 
 Director of Public Works ; Stephen Herbert Gatty, Q.C, 
 the Attorney-General ; Samuel Leonard Crane, the Surgeon- 
 General ; John Cook, the first Puisne Judge ; Henry W. 
 Chantrell, the Auditor-General ; Charles B. Hamilton, the 
 Receiver-General ; George Workman Dickson, the Assistant 
 Director of Public Works ; David Wilson, the Commis- 
 sioner of the Northern Province and Sub-Intendant of 
 Crown Lands; and William Robinson, K.C.M.G., the 
 Governor and Commander-in-chief of Trinidad and 
 Tobago, stand in prominence. 
 
 Trinidadians have an insufficiency of hospitals, an in- 
 sufficiency of wards, nurses, and attendants, while the 
 small and inadequate Port-of Spain and San Fernando 
 Hospitals are the only two benevolent institutions of the 
 kind in the Island Colony worthy of note. Supposing 
 there be a deficit in the Treasury of the Crown Colony 
 of Trinidad which prevents the William Robinson Adminis- 
 tration from meeting the needs of the inhabitants, and 
 supplying them with more and better hospitals, more and 
 
UNDER CAUCASIAN RULE. 205 
 
 better surgeons and physicians, more and better wards, 
 more and better nurses and attendants, there is an alter- 
 native or a remedy forthcoming. And this is the remedy : 
 let the British Secretary of State, the Right Honourable 
 Lord Knutsford, reduce the salary of the Governor and 
 Commander-in-chief of Trinidad and Tobago (who— will 
 it be believed by him who is not au courant on the subject ? 
 — receives ^5,000 per annum as salary for misruling 
 Trinidad and Tobago, with 205,000 inhabitants ; that is 
 to say, he — the Governor — receives half as great a salary 
 as his Excellency the President of the United States of 
 North America, General Benjamin Harrison, receives 
 annually for ruling 63,000,000 Yankees; that is to say, 
 again, receives nearly half as much salary as the Vice- 
 President, the Secretary of State, the Secretary of the 
 Treasury, the Secretary for War, the Secretary of the Navy, 
 the Secretary for the Interior, the Secretary for Agriculture, 
 the Postmaster-General, and the Attorney-General of the 
 United States of North America). We suggest allowing his 
 Excellency Sir William Robinson''' ;^2,ooo yearly, instead 
 of ;£5,ooo ; and let the British Secretary of State for the 
 Colonies reduce the salary of the Chief Justice of Trinidad 
 and Tobago (who receives ;^i,8oo per annum ; that is, 
 only ;£^2oo less than the Chief Justice of the Supreme 
 Court of the United States of North America does), and 
 allow Sir John Gorrie ;£"i,ooo instead of the ;^i,8oo he 
 receives annually ; let the British Secretary of State reduce 
 the salary of the Attorney-General, and allow him ^^700 
 instead oi £^\,ooo\ let him reduce the salary of the first 
 
 * Sir William Robinson has since been promoted to Hong 
 Kong, having been swept away from Trinidad by Sir Frederick 
 Napier Broome, K.C.M.G. We wish the Chinese of Hong 
 Kong joy of their gift of a Governor. 
 
2o6 THE LONE'STAR OF LIBERIA, 
 
 Puisne Judge, and allow him ;^9oo instead of the ;^i,ooo 
 he is receiving annually ; let him reduce the salary of the 
 second Puisne Judge, and allow him ;£^9oo instead of the 
 ;^i,ooo he now receives ; let him reduce the emolument 
 of the Director of Public Works, and allow him £^^oq 
 instead of the ;£'i,5oo he is now annually receiving ; let him 
 reduce the emolument of the Surgeon-General, and allow 
 him ;^6oo instead of the ;^i,ooo he now receives ; let him 
 reduce the emolument of the Receiver-General, and allow 
 him ;£^6oo instead of the ;£^7oo he now receives; let him 
 reduce the salary of the Assistant Director of Public Works, 
 and allow him ;£"6oo instead of the ^800 he now receives : 
 let him reduce the income of the Commissioner of the 
 Northern Province, and allow him ;^7oo instead of the 
 ;^8oo he receives ; let him reduce the allowance of the 
 Auditor-General, and give him;£'7oo in lieu of the ;£^8oo 
 he is now receiving. In brief, let Downing Street reduce 
 the salaries of the officials of the Civil and Judicial estab- 
 lishments, and, with the joint proceeds of these reductions, 
 enlarge and improve the existing hospitals and wards ; build 
 more hospitals ; employ a more numerous staff of efficient 
 nurses and attendants ; get a more numerous staff of com- 
 petent medical men, weeding out those who are not com- 
 petent, in the behalf of the Trinidadian /^^/<?. 
 
 But we fear that there is not the slightest likelihood of 
 that being done, though the plan is feasible enough. It is 
 the same cry all over the British Colonies where Africans 
 are in a majority; and yet Laird Clowes would have us 
 believe that ' in every British colony in which he is to be 
 found the African is a fairly happy and contented person.' 
 
 After the Trinidadian people had sent a numerously- 
 signed petition to the British Secretary of State for the 
 Colonies (as the outcome of an enthusiastic mass-meeting 
 
UNDER CA UCA SI AN RULE. 207 
 
 previously held in the Queen's Park, in the capital of the 
 Island-Colony of Trinidad, in 1886), Trinidadians of all 
 shades of opinion were cajoled into believing that Respon- 
 sible Government, even on a moderate basis, would be 
 granted them, when a Royal Commission of ten men was 
 appointed to inquire into the fitness of the people for the 
 elective franchise. That Commission, which had for its 
 chairman the Attorney-General, the Hon. S. H. Gatty, Q.C., 
 sat for some months, during which time many witnesses 
 were examined as to the fitness of the inhabitants for a 
 Constitution. 
 
 On the conclusion of their labours in the examination 
 of witnesses (who were almost unanimously in favour 
 of the granting of Responsible Government to Trini- 
 dad), and immediately before closing their last Ses- 
 sion and drawing up and sending their Report to the 
 Secretary of State, the Chairman put it to the vote of the 
 Members of the Royal Commission, whether they were of 
 opinion that the inhabitants of Trinidad were fit and ripe 
 for Responsible Government. On a division it was found 
 that seven were for and three Members (the chairman in- 
 cluded) were against the granting of a Constitution or 
 Responsible Government to Trinidad. Those of our 
 readers who are unacquainted with the fact — and we fear 
 there are only too many — will find it strange perhaps when 
 we tell them that the British Secretary of State abode by 
 the decision, or vote, of the minority^ the small minority 
 of the three as against that of the majority of the Members 
 of the Commission, and absolutely refused the Franchise 
 and Representation to Trinidad and the Trinidadians. 
 
 It is but fair to say, we think, that that Commission, which 
 was dignified by and rejoiced in the name of Royal, was 
 but a farce and a mockery from beginning to end. The 
 witnesses whom the Commission examined, and who after a 
 
2o8 THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA. 
 
 severe cross-examination proved the fitness of Trinidad ians 
 for self-government, were set aside, and the mere opinion of 
 three men, neither of whom had or has any real interest in 
 the Island-Colony, was allowed to prevail. Their seven 
 colleagues, who were, and are, almost to a man, bred and 
 born in the colony, and have, or had, their interests in the 
 colony, had their voice altogether ignored. 
 
 We make bold to say that though the British Secretary 
 of State appointed a Royal Commission to inquire into the 
 fitness of the Crown Colony of Trinidad for Home Rule, 
 he never intended that the Constitution should be conferred 
 on the Trinidadians. And why ? Because of the great 
 numerical preponderance of the African inhabitants over 
 those of British blood in Trinidad. But on what ground 
 or grounds do we base this statement, our readers may 
 wish to ask? Only just recently {i.e.^ in the earlier part of 
 the year, 1891) Lord Knutsford, replying to a British 
 Hondurian petition praying for a modicum of Responsible 
 Government, made answer that the British Parliament never 
 ntended that the colony in which the British inhabitants 
 were greatly in a minority and were outnumbered by the 
 people of a different race or nationality, should enjoy 
 Responsible Government ; that that was the case with the 
 Colony of British Honduras, the number of the African 
 inhabitants greatly preponderating over the British in that 
 Peninsula-Colony. 
 
 Now, if the authorities at Downing Street refused British 
 Honduras with 28,000 inhabitants Responsible Government, 
 is there any right-thinking man who will say that the British 
 Parliament will ever grant Home Rule to the united colony 
 of Trinidad and Tobago, which has 205,000 people, and 
 where the Africans greatly preponderate numerically, and 
 in inteUigence too, over those of British descent? 
 
 When the British Colonial Secretary of State, therefore, 
 
UNDER CA UCA SI AN RULE. 209 
 
 ^pointed a Royal Commission to inquire into the fit- 
 ness of Trinidadians for Responsible Government, well 
 knowing that the British Parliament, or, rather, a British 
 majority-party, would never consent to grant Trinidad 
 a Constitution, because of the overwhelming majority of 
 the Africans over the white inhabitants, he grossly insulted 
 Trinidadians — Trinidadian Africans particularly — since he 
 caused them to hope, and then disappointed them, in abso- 
 lutely refusing to grant them what he had from the first 
 {i.e., from the receipt of the Trinidadian petition and his 
 appointment of the Royal Commission) made up his mind 
 not to grant them, viz., Home Rule or Responsible Govern- 
 ment, which are, in fact, identical terms. 
 
 Again, was it not a British Conservative ministry, the 
 Third Conservative Ministry of Earl Derby, which brought 
 its authority to bear upon the Jamaicans, and pulled the 
 Jamaican Constitution to pieces? Was it probable that a 
 British Conservative Ministry like the present Second Con- 
 servative Ministry of the Marquis of Salisbury, which generally 
 carries out the traditions and principles of former British 
 Conservative Ministries, would have granted Trinidad (when 
 it petitioned for Home Rule) the same Constitution which a 
 previous Conservative Administration destroyed in Jamaica 
 in 1866, inasmuch as there were in Jamaica, in 1866, as 
 many Africans (the Africans in Jamaica being now more 
 than twice as numerous as they were in 1866) as there 
 are now (189 1) Africans in Trinidad and Tobago? Like 
 Jamaica, like Trinidad and Tobago. 
 
 The above, then, are the grounds on which we say that 
 the British Colonial Secretary of State, when he appointed 
 the Royal Commission to inquire into the fitness of the 
 Crown Colony of Trinidad for a Responsible Constitution 
 never intended that Home Rule should be granted to the 
 Trinidadians. 
 
 14 
 
2IO THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA. 
 
 What does the British Colonial Secretary of State do to 
 meet, as he supposes, the needs of the Trinidadians ? He 
 appoints Louis Ant. A. de Verteuil, M.D., C.M.G., to 
 represent Port-of-Spain, Jean Valleton de Boissiere, M.D., 
 10 represent St. Anna and Diego-martin, Thomas Alex. 
 Finlayson to represent Savana Grande, Mayaro, and 
 Cedros, George Townsend Fenwick to represent Arima, 
 Blanchisseuse, and Toco, George Fitt to represent Chagnan, 
 Couva, and Montserrat, Charles Leotaud to represent 
 Naparima, Eugene Cipriani to represent San Fernando, 
 William Gordon-Gordon to share the seat in the representa- 
 tion of Port-of-Spain with De Verteuil, John Bell-Smyth to 
 represent Tucarigua, John MacKillop to represent Tobago. 
 How would the Australasians or the British North Americans 
 have received and borne such a farce, such an insult? 
 Canada and Newfoundland would have joined the United 
 States of North America quickly enough, and the Austra- 
 lians would have established an Independent Republic. 
 The men Lord Knutsford appointed to seats in the Legis- 
 lative Council are all whites, and, it is needless to say, they 
 do not represent the Trinidadian Africans in any way, 
 because they have not been so elected by the Africans. 
 They have all been foisted upon the Colony by the British 
 Colonial Secretary of a British Government. 
 
 Trinidadians, however, still fondly indulge in the vain 
 and chimerical delusion that on their assuming office the 
 Gladstonian Liberals will be graciously pleased to grant 
 them ' Home Rule.' That remains to be seen. But we 
 firmly believe that no faith ought to be put in either a 
 Conservative Ministry dominated over by Lord Salisbury, 
 or in a Gladstonian Liberal Ministry under the leadership of 
 Mr. Gladstone. We should have more confidence in the 
 Irish Parliamentary Party, if there were any probability of 
 their coming into office, inasmuch as they are passionately 
 
UNDER CA UCA SI AN RULE. 211 
 
 longing to have Home Rule themselves, and they would 
 not be indifferent to the claims of Trinidad and Tobago for 
 the same Home Rule. 
 
 That Crown Colony Government, hateful as it is, shall 
 continue dominant in Trinidad and Tobago rather than that 
 the white colonial or Europo-Creole inhabitants should enjoy 
 the Elective Franchise and Responsible Government, and 
 the sweets of power should be handed over to Messrs. 
 Rostant, Damian, Lange, Guppy, Goodwille and their party, 
 to the total exclusion of Trinidadians of the Ethiopian 
 race from being participators and beneficiaries. 
 
 But has Laird Clowes heard of the Reform and Home 
 Rule Movement in Trinidad ? If the African ' in every 
 British colony in which he is to be found is a fairly happy and 
 a contented person,' would he sign and send a petition to the 
 British Home Government praying that the old rotten 
 Crown Colony Government of Trinidad should be done 
 away with ? 
 
 We, unlike Laird Clowes, know that ' in every British 
 colony in which ' they are to be ' found ' the Africans are ' a 
 fairly unhappy and discontented people.' Nevertheless, 
 those Africans who have the welfare of their race at heart, 
 can render thanks to the Almighty for founding Liberia, 
 the Light and Hope of Africa and Africans, to which all 
 ' fairly unhappy and discontented ' Africans living under the 
 Caucasian flag can resort. 
 
 Africans mainly compose the Police force of Barbados, 
 Trinidad and Tobago, and British Guiana ; the Jamaican 
 Constabulary, which is modelled on the semi-military systetn 
 of the Royal Irish Constabulary — a force which Sir Henry 
 Arthur Blake, the Governor of Jamaica, knows, without 
 doubt, only too well how to wield — is mainly composed of 
 Africans ; Africans form the strength and bulwark of the 
 Jamaican Volunteer Militia ; of the Volunteer Corps in 
 
 14—2 
 
212 THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA, 
 
 British Guiana, and Trinidad and Tobago, and yet in none 
 of these organizations can the African be a Commissioned 
 Officer, every place being usurped by the pale-faced 
 Britisher. In the American Army and Navy, as well as in 
 the American Militia and Police, Africans may be found, 
 but, like their kinsmen living under the British flag, they 
 may never be more than privates or non-commissioned 
 officers. 
 
 Many of the Officers of the Royal Irish Constabulary 
 who have batoned and broken the heads of many a fellow- 
 countryman, and whom the majority of Irishmen are 
 incensed against and dislike, have been thought good 
 enough to be foisted upon the Jamaicans and Trini- 
 dadians by the authorities at Downing Street. When their 
 own countrymen detest the men composing the Royal Irish 
 Constabulary because of their cruel ill-treatment of brother- 
 Irishmen, is it likely that the Officers of the Royal Irish 
 Constabulary will ever entertain kindly feelings towards 
 the dark-skinned Africans in Jamaica and Trinidad and 
 Tobago ? 
 
 It has been shown, then, that in every British West 
 Indian Colony in which he is to be found the African is 
 the reverse of * a fairly happy and contented person,' but we 
 now turn to other parts, and fresh fields and pastures new 
 — to Africa, where Africans do most abound, and to those 
 parts of Africa where the British hold sway. We ask, are 
 the Africans' prospects and condition brighter in British 
 Africa than in the British West Indies, or in the United 
 States of North America? We say not, and maintain that 
 they are on a par, as we shall presently endeavour to 
 show. 
 
 The Gambia with 15,000, Sierra Leone with 62,000, 
 Lagos with 100,000, and the Gold Coast with 1,472,000 
 progressive and intelligent inhabitants — the great majority 
 
UNDER CA UCA SI AN RULE. 2 1 3 
 
 whom are Africans born and bred and by descent — do 
 not enjoy Representation, and have not Responsible 
 Government, while all the British North American 
 Provinces and Australasian Colonies, with illiterate and 
 superstitious men largely in the ascendant, make use of 
 and enjoy both, 
 
 The Cape Colony, with 1,430,000 inhabitants, most of 
 whom are Africans, although it has Responsible Govern- 
 ment, and sends 22 Representatives to its Legislative 
 Council, and has a House of Assembly of 76 elected 
 Members, refuses the Franchise and full and unqualified 
 Citizenship (in their own country, too !) to the Africans, 
 while we positively aver that we are aware that the rulers of 
 the Colony of Natal (which boasts of an estimated popu- 
 lation of 5,300,000, the large majority of whom are Africans) 
 deny the African the franchise and representation, although 
 Responsible Government now obtains in Natal, that Colony 
 sending 23 Representatives to its Legislative Council. 
 
 We shall mention one more leading British Colony in 
 Africa, and that is Mauritius, which we had occasion to 
 refer to previously. We say that with a population of 
 373,000, mostly Africans, Mauritius is permitted to send 
 only 2 Representative Members to the Council of Govern 
 ment, and 10 to the Legislative Council, which is an in- 
 adequate representation. Yet, though the Mauritian people 
 are inadequately represented, their Constitution is pre- 
 ferable to that of Jamaica, or to having none at all, as in the 
 cases of Trinidad and Tobago, Gold Coast, Lagos, etc. 
 Because we believe in the maxim that half a loaf is better 
 than no bread. 
 
 The African is relegated to the background, though he 
 does all the heavy work of the British Colonial Forces in 
 Africa as in the British West Indies. There is the Police 
 Force of Mauritius : there are the armed and mounted 
 
214 THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA. 
 
 Police and Volunteer Forces of Natal ; there is the West 
 India Regiment (composed of Africans from the Sergeant- 
 Major to the private) stationed in the Gambia, Sierra 
 Leone, and Lagos ; there are the armed Constabulary Force, 
 and part of the West India Regiment, in the Gold Coast ; 
 there are thirty Volunteer Corps, the Cape Police, and 
 Cape Mounted Rifle Forces of the Cape Colony, and though 
 the African predominates numerically in every one of these 
 organizations, yet in none of these does the African hold 
 a responsible position, or, in other words, in none is he a 
 commissioned officer. 
 
 If Africans, like Caucasians, are sufficiently intelligent 
 and talented to become proficients in the medical, legal, 
 theological, engineering, and surveying professions, it stands 
 to reason that they (the Africans) ought to be qualified for 
 the posts of commissioners of police, army commissioned 
 officers, magistrates, and judges, and, aye. Governors under 
 the British and American flags. 
 
 But is it only the African Ethiopian in Africa, in the 
 Americas (including the West Indies and elsewhere) who is 
 labouring under disabilities imposed upon him by red-tape ? 
 By no means. The Australian Ethiopian, unlike his African 
 cousin, is rapidly disappearing before the march of the 
 White Man and 'Civilization,' and that inevitable con- 
 comitant of * Civilization,' the Fire-Water, particularly the 
 eau-de-vie^ the constitution of the Australian being de- 
 cidedly weaker than that of the African Ethiopian in every 
 way. 
 
 It was expected that the reaction following on their 
 sudden liberation would have exercised a disastrous and 
 fatal influence on the African Ethiopians. A greater 
 mistake was never made, for, on the contrary, Africans have 
 increased and multiplied in an astonishing manner, and are 
 marching shoulder to shoulder with Caucasians and Civiliza- 
 
UNDER CA UCA SI AN RULE. 2 1 5 
 
 tion, just as the rest of Europeans formerly did with their 
 Roman civilizers. Not so the Australian African, however, 
 for, as we said before, he is fast disappearing, like the 
 American and West Indian, before the progressive march of 
 Civilization. The Australasian Ethiopian in Oceania is 
 dwindling in number, while the African throughout the world 
 is increasing in number. There are not perhaps 60,000 
 Australian Africans, while they are extinct in Tasmania ; 
 there are only about 8,000 in New South Wales, and 7,000 
 in Victoria ; but it is in Queensland that the greatest 
 number are found. In none of the Australasian Colonies are 
 they electors, or liable for election ; and they are not allowed 
 in any way to interfere in politics, nor do they have full 
 citizenship. We sincerely pity and mourn over the mis- 
 fortunes of the poor ' black fellows.' 
 
 At one of the sittings of the Australasian Federation 
 Convention in Sydney in the spring of this year (1891), a 
 resolution was unanimously passed by the Australasian 
 delegates of the Convention never to allow the Australasian 
 Aborigines or Africans to have anything to do with politics ; 
 they were not to be allowed to exercise their full citizen- 
 ship.* 
 
 With all these facts before him, as related throughout this 
 chapter, will any reasonable and conscientious man say that 
 ' in every British colony in which he is to be found the 
 African is a fairly happy and contented person ' ? 
 
 The 'British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society' — an 
 institution which was founded in 1839, with illustrious 
 Thomas Clarkson as its first President — exists for two 
 avowed objects; viz. (i), the universal extinction of slavery 
 and the slave trade, and (2) the protection of the rights 
 
 * The most persistent opponent of the privileges the Austra- 
 lasian Aborigines are entitled to is Sir George Grey, K.C.B., to 
 whom we owe no thanks. 
 
2i6 THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA. 
 
 and interests of the enfranchised population in the British 
 possessions, and of all persons captured as slaves. It has, 
 however, done but comparatively little service since its 
 foundation, for both slavery and the slave trade exist at 
 the present moment in Turkey, Persia, the Belgian Congo 
 Free State, in the British South Africa Company's Terri- 
 tories, the British East Africa Company's Territories, 
 as well as in Zanzibar and Pemba, the British Royal 
 Niger Company's Territories, and in many other places in 
 Africa, more especially in Portuguese Africa. Africans in 
 every part of the British Empire are still labouring — and 
 very probably, as long as they remain under the British 
 flag, will always labour — under disabilities, notwithstanding 
 the so-called 'protection of the rights and interests of the 
 enfranchised population in the British possessions, and of 
 all persons captured as slaves,' by this society.* 
 
 Does or did this society ever protect 'the rights and 
 interests of the enfranchised population ' in Trinidad 1 It 
 does not, and never did ; while we venture to say that it 
 never heard of the agitation for Responsible Government 
 by the Trinidadians, and the manner in which Lord Knuts- 
 ford insulted them. 
 
 We may safely say here again that Mr. Clowes, when 
 he gives out that the African ' in every British colony in 
 which he is to be found is a fairly happy and contented 
 person,' argues on his ignorance of material facts. The 
 St. Lucian African, far from being ' a fairly happy and con- 
 tented person,' is nearly always falling to loggerheads with 
 the Administrator and Colonial Secretary, the Treasurer 
 and the Chief Justice of Lucia. The African in St. 
 Vincent, Grenada, and all the British Colonies has some 
 
 * We personally decline with thanks the ' protection ' of the 
 ' British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society,' or any other 
 'philanthropic ' society. 
 
UNDER CAUCASIAN RULE. 217 
 
 grievance or other, and is consequently far from being *a 
 fairly happy and contented person.' Laird Clowes tells us, 
 on pages 156 and 157 in his 'Black America,' that the New 
 York Tribune says ' with truth '—what is ' truth ' and what 
 is not ' truth ' the reader will see for himself — that ' there 
 may be one faith, one baptism, and one Name under 
 Heaven whereby men may be saved, but in South Carolina 
 there must be a white man's church, high-toned and very 
 respectable, and a place somewhere outside where the 
 Negroes may herd together without disturbing the pious 
 meditations of their superiors. Simon of Cyrene, who 
 carried the cross, was a Negro, but that passage in the 
 Gospels can be bracketed, if need be, and not read in the 
 white churches of Charleston during Holy Week. The 
 Ethiopian eunuch baptized by Philip could not have had 
 a white skin, but that chapter can be omitted in the 
 liturgical order of second lessons. The white saints will 
 kindly consent to pray every Sunday for all sorts and con- 
 ditions of men, provided " the niggers " are taught to remain 
 in their own place, and not to intrude where they are not 
 wanted. They will live and die in the faith and com- 
 munion of their white fathers and white grandfathers, with 
 no Negroes on the sacred premises, except possibly the 
 coloured sexton, who must not under any circumstances 
 be a communicant, but merely a sweep. What arrange- 
 ments will be made for their benefit in the next world they 
 cannot tell, but they may at least indulge the pious hope 
 that there will be a separate " nigger heaven " — an adjunct, 
 like their own coloured convention, to the white man's 
 paradise — a separate missionary jurisdiction, with swarthy 
 angels and combination Negro melodies.' 
 
 That there is ' one faith, one baptism, and one Name 
 under Heaven whereby men may be saved ' ; that Cyrenean 
 Simon, who carried his Saviour's Cross, was an African ; 
 
2i8 THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA. 
 
 that the Ethiopian eunuch hailing from the distant realms 
 of Queen Candace, who was baptized by Philip, was an 
 African, are the only ' truths ' which obtain in that article 
 of the Neiii York Tribune^ which is in every respect coarse 
 and brutal ; it displays the narrow-mindedness of the writer, 
 while its quotations reflect that of Laird Clowes. The 
 article is, on the whole, so puerile and farcical that it hardly 
 deserves consideration. 
 
 The fact that Simon the Cyrenean carried the Saviour's 
 Cross reflects great honour on the African Race ; for while 
 Asiatics and Caucasians were persecuting the world's 
 Saviour, the African, who was present from being a sym- 
 pathizer and mourner, was forced to take upon himself the 
 task of carrying the cross ; and from being an imposed 
 burden, it became a pleasant duty and an undying honour 
 to African Simon, and through him to the whole Ethiopian 
 race. How many millions of Christians of all shades of 
 complexion have wished they had been in the Cyrenean's 
 place ! The Asiatics, in the persons of the Jews, perse- 
 cuted the Lord Jesus Christ, Himself a Jew; and the 
 Caucasians, in the persons of the Roman Pilate and his 
 soldiers, rendered them active assistance, joining with the 
 Jews in the crucifixion of our Lord; but the part which 
 the African, in the person of Cyrenean Simon, took in that 
 painful drama did not consist in persecuting, or helping to 
 persecute, but it consisted in succouring his Saviour when 
 He was unable to carry His Cross, in alleviating His pains 
 when He was too weak to bear, and could hardly even 
 walk. And is it because of Simon's achievements, and 
 because Simon was an African and a ' blameless Ethio- 
 pian,' that the sapient New York Tribune would have all 
 references to him omitted ' in the white churches of Charles- 
 ton during Holy Week ' ? 
 
 But that was not the only triumph which Africa ex- 
 
UNDER CAUCASIAN RULE. 219 
 
 perienced in connection with our Lord; for Africa must 
 be congratulated on the fact that, when the Infant Jesus, 
 the future Saviour of the world, was being sought out for 
 slaughter by the tyrant King of Judaea, Idumsean Herod, 
 and could not be kept safe in His own country, Asian 
 Palestine, Africa gave Him and His saintly relatives, Joseph 
 and Mary, a home and a shelter in that time of need. 
 They remained in safety in Africa until the cloud had dis- 
 appeared from the horizon, and they could return to their 
 own land. 
 
 The Neui York Tribune, goes on thus : ' the Ethiopian 
 eunuch baptized by Philip could not have had a white skin, 
 but that chapter can be omitted in the liturgical order of 
 second lessons.' The New York Tribune and Mr. W. Laird 
 Clowes are evidently suffering from Africophobia, and they 
 are, at the same time, very vain on account of the colour of 
 their skin. Caucasians, however, while they are not un- 
 mindful of the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ was not an 
 African, indulge in the delusion that He was a white man, 
 seemingly forgetting that Our Saviour was an Asiatic of the 
 Semitic Race. Yes, we say that Our Saviour, though He 
 was not a descendant of Ham, was not a descendant of 
 Japheth either, but a descendant of Shem ; and we affirm 
 that the descendants of Shem are nearer the Hamitic than 
 the descendants of Japheth. 
 
 St. Peter, the First Head of the Christian Church, and 
 the other Apostles and the Jews were not Africans it is 
 true, but neither were they Caucasians ; they were all of the 
 Semitic Race. Whence arises, then, the Caucasian vanity 
 for his white skin ? 
 
 After telling us that ' there may be one faith, one baptism, 
 and one name under Heaven whereby men may be saved,' 
 the New York Tribune, as quoted by Laird Clowes, adds : 
 'What arrangements will be made for their benefit in the 
 
220 THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA. 
 
 next world they cannot tell, but they may at least indulge 
 the pious hope that there will be a separate "nigger heaven" 
 — an adjunct, like their own coloured convention, to the 
 white man's paradise — a separate missionary jurisdiction, 
 with swarthy angels and combination Negro melodies.' 
 
 We say that if there be one faith, one baptism, and one 
 church, there can only be one God, and, therefore, one 
 Heaven, not two. Yet, even supposing that the Africans in 
 Heaven will be ' swarthy angels,' and not ' white angels,' 
 neither the Neiv York Tribune^ Laird Clowes, nor any other 
 man is able to prove that the King of Heaven is Himself 
 white. What is in a colour of skin ? Is not black as good 
 as white ? Is not black the favourite colour princes and 
 peoples wear ? 
 
 * What arrangements will be made for their benefit in the 
 next world they cannot tell, but they may at least indulge 
 the pious hope that there will be a separate "nigger heaven'' 
 — an adjunct to the white man's paradise,' are the New 
 York Tribune's words. We tell the Neiv York Tribune that 
 the same * arrangements will be made for our benefit in the 
 next world ' as for the Caucasians and all other peoples, and 
 that there shall and must be one Heaven for all ruled over 
 by one King, one God ; while it is not given to the 
 Caucasian, nor to any race other than the Ethiopian, to fix 
 what place the African shall occupy or shall not occupy in 
 Heaven. And it seems to us that the statement that ' there 
 will be a separate "nigger heaven" — an adjunct to the 
 white man's paradise,' is, to say the least, absurd on the face 
 of it, and a cruel and shameful taunt. 
 
 ' Dogma and Descent, potential twin, 
 Which erst could rein submissive millions in. 
 Are now spent forces on the eddying surge 
 Of Thought enfranchised. Agencies emerge 
 Unhampered by the incubus of dread 
 Which cramped men's hearts and clogged their onward tread. 
 
UNDER CAUCASIAN RULE. 
 
 Dynasty, Prescription ! spectral in these days. 
 When Science points to Thought its surest ways, 
 And men, who scorn obedience when not free, 
 Demand the logic of Authority ! 
 The day of manhood to the world is here, 
 And ancient homage waxes faint and drear. 
 
 22] 
 
 Vision of rapture I See Salvation's plan 
 
 — 'Tis serving God through ceaseless toil for man !'^ 
 
 ■^ The above quoted lines were written by our late esteemed 
 and distinguished countryman, John Jacob Thomas, author of 
 The Creole Grammar,' and * Froudacity-PVoudacity,' in a reply 
 to Mr. James Anthony Froude's ' The English in the West 
 Indies.' Mr. Thomas coined it from the historian of Henry the 
 Eighth's cognomen, Froudacity being synonymous with men- 
 dacity. Hence, an Africo-American, a West Indo-African, or 
 other African would term the assertions made by W. Laird 
 Clowes and other calumniators of the mighty and wonderful 
 Ethiopian race, /;(7z^<^<^a(?/^j". 
 
J 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 AFPICA GOVERNED BY THE AFRICANS. 
 
 We said, in the first chapter, that we did not propose 
 entering on a discussion respecting the excesses said to 
 have been committed by the white American Republican 
 Liberal leaders and their American African following during 
 the Reconstruction period in the Southern States of the 
 Yankee Union, because we are convinced that all the 
 particulars to hand which have been furnished to Laird 
 Clowes, a Conservative, have been furnished dy Conse7-vative 
 Democrats^ and are all one-sided. All such particulars are 
 greatly magnified by Laird Clowes, and we are satisfied that 
 if any excesses were committed by the Republicans of the 
 North during the Reconstruction in the South, those 
 excesses could only have been committed by the white 
 Republicans, and the responsibility, therefore, would lie on 
 them only. 
 
 These are the reasons, and these only, which actuate us, 
 and prevent us from entering on a discussion of the doings 
 of that period in the South; but when Laird Clowes, 
 writing on * Reconstruction in Mississippi,' proceeds to 
 quote the Southern Conservative Democrat, Ethelbert 
 Barksdale, of Mississippi, as ' employing the language of 
 a Northern statesman and Union soldier, that " in the whole 
 historic period of the world the Ethiopian race had never 
 
AFRICA GOVERNED BY THE AFRICANS. 223 
 
 established or maintained a Government for themselves," ' 
 the situation is, as a matter of course, altered, and facts 
 known to many must be put in the scale as material 
 evidences, and brought to bear as such against the mis- 
 statements of the ' Northern statesman and Union soldier,' 
 of Ethelbert Barksdale, of Mississippi, and \V. Laird Clowes, 
 with a view to showing that, on the contrary, the African 
 Race has had Governments, capable Governments, of its 
 own from time immemorial, as it has them now. 
 
 We have already had occasion to point out that Mr. 
 Clowes's knowledge of Africans and their affairs is very 
 limited, and by endorsing the statement of Ethelbert Barks- 
 dale, of Mississippi, he brings into greater prominence his 
 ignorance of African history. For the African race, we are 
 happy to be able to say, can boast that ancient Ethiopia, 
 now modern Nubia, had a Government of her own, com- 
 posed exclusively of African Ethiopians. It is a matter of 
 common knowledge that the ancient Ethiopians imparted 
 their religious arts, civilization, and form of Government to 
 the Semitic Egyptians. * Ethiopia boasted of having enjoyed 
 the best of Governments under Azerch, Arnen, and 
 Piankhi-Meiamen ; while from the nign of the latter King, 
 and for several generations, Ethiopia domineered over 
 Egypt.f Kashta, Shabak, Sabacus, Tuhraka, Urdamen, 
 Nouat-Meiamen, Arkamen, are also celebrated Ethiopian 
 Kings under whom Ethiopia flourished because they were 
 capable governors.^ Queen Candace, and King Zoskales, 
 and other Ethiopian sovereigns who succeeded them, ruled 
 
 * Niebuhr's ' Lectures on Ancient History,' vol. i., pp. 59, 68, 
 yz, 126, 137 ; ' Encyclopaedia Britannica,' vol. i., p. 65 ; vol. vii., 
 pp. 742, 743, 737, 740, 741 ; vol. viii., pp. 611-613 ; ' Herodotus,' 
 vol. i., book iii. ; Smith's ' Dictionary of the Bible,' vol. i., pp. 
 248, 588, 589. 
 
 t Ibid. % I did. 
 
224 THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA. 
 
 their subjects wisely, causing Ethiopia to flourish. All these 
 sovereigns were aboriginal or indigenous Ethiopians, and 
 they were independent, owning no foreigner as their lord. 
 These Ethiopians not only established but maintained a 
 Government for themselves."^ 
 
 Abyssinia, a State which was closely allied to the ancient 
 and formidable State of Ethiopia, had an independent 
 Government of her own. Auxum, its ancient capital, was 
 its most flourishing town and the seat of its Government. 
 It was in the sixth century, near about 552, when King 
 Caleb, or Elesbaan, directed the destinies of the State, that 
 the Abyssinian power attained the zenith of its early great- 
 ness, and wrested Yemen, in Arabia, from the grasp of the 
 Arabians, after inflicting on this latter nation calamitous 
 defeats.t And from about 1255, when Icon Amlac was 
 Emperor, till the sixteenth century, the Abyssinians had 
 capable and stable Governments of their own, and, conse- 
 quently, Abyssinia was in a flourishing condition. J All these 
 capable governors were indigenous Abyssinians.§ The 
 Emperor, or King, Theodore, who reigned from 1855 to 
 1868, and who revived the ancient greatness of Abyssinia, 
 must be treated as belonging to the Hamitic race, and 
 everybody knows that Abyssinia enjoyed a good and stable 
 Government under him till 1863, when he got into compli- 
 cations with the British, was defeated by them, lost his 
 
 * Niebuhr's ' Lectures on Ancient History,' vol. i., pp. 59, 68, 
 72, 126, 137 ; ' Encyclopasdia Britannica,' vol. i., p. 65 ; vol. vii., 
 pp. 742, 743, 737, 740, 741 ; vol. viii., pp. 611-613 ; ' Herodotus,' 
 vol. i., book ill. ; Smith's ' Dictionary of the Bible,' vol. i., pp. 
 248, 588, 589. 
 
 t ' Encyclopaedia Britannica,' vol i., pp. 64, ct scg.; 'English 
 Cyclopaedia of Geography,' vol. i., p. 47 ; and vide Job Ludolf's 
 ' Historia Ethiopia,' and Lacroze's ' History of Abyssinian 
 Christianity.' 
 
 + Ibid. ' § Ibid 
 
AFRICA GOVERNED BY THE AFRICANS. 225 
 
 irone, and perished in 1868."^ A Britisher thus eulogizes 
 His Imperial Majesty, the Emperor Theodore of Abyssinia : 
 ' The late King Theodore of Abyssinia, of whom we are not 
 perhaps disposed to take the most favourable view, was a 
 ruler of no ordinary ability. After his accession to power 
 he began to inaugurate a series of reforms which, it has 
 been said, had he lived in another country, or had suitable 
 advisers at his side, would have gained him a reputation 
 equal to that of Peter or Frederick the Great.'t 
 
 Who is there who has not heard of the greatness of 
 ancient Egypt in politics, arts, literature, etc. ? And can 
 anyone disprove that the ancient Egyptians were of the 
 Ethiopian Race ?| The whole world knows that the 
 Babylonian and Assyrian were mighty Empires, whose 
 people were of the Ethiopian Race.§ 
 
 We Africans also claim consanguinity with the Cartha- 
 ginians, and were not the Carthaginians distinguished 
 governors? There are a few who maintain, as we had 
 occasion to point out before, that the Carthaginians were 
 of the Semitic race, and could not have belonged to the 
 Ethiopian race. With that question we have dealt in our 
 Second Chapter, No doubt the Carthaginians differed from 
 the Ethiopians or Nubians,*who perhaps, in their turn, differed 
 
 ■^ 'Encyclopaedia Britannica,' vol. i., p. 64, et seq.; 'English 
 Cyclopedia of Geography,' vol. i., p. 47 ; and vide Job Ludolf's 
 'Historia Ethiopica,' and Lacroze's 'History of Abyssinian 
 Christianity.' 
 
 -|- British Workman. 
 
 X Smith's ' Dictionary of the Bible,' vol. i., pp. 588, 589, 741- 
 744; ibid.^ vol. ii., pp. 389-391, 868,869; ' Herodotus,' vol. i., 
 books ii. and iii. ; Volney's ' Travels,' vol. i., chap. iii. ; Cata- 
 fago's 'Arabic and English Dictionary'; Dr. Hartmann's 
 ' Encyclopasdic Work on Nigritia,' 1876. 
 
 § Smith's 'Dictionary of the Bible,' vol. i., p. 127, et seq.; 
 pp. 149-154, et seq.; ibid.., vol. ii., p. 546, et seq. 
 
 15 
 
226 THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA. 
 
 from the Abyssinians, but all these three African nations 
 were Ethiopians, and boasted of a common ancestor in 
 Ham. Do not the Teutons and Celts differ from the Graeco- 
 Latins and Slavs, though these all claim a common ancestor 
 in Japheth? 
 
 Africans, like Afro-Canadian Samuel Kinggold Ward and 
 Americo-African G. W. Williams, however, do not stand 
 alone in claiming the Carthaginians as having belonged to 
 their race. The majority of Caucasian writers who refer to the 
 Carthaginians and their history support the Africans in their 
 claim. Mommsen does in his ' History of Rome.' Mrs. 
 Harriett Beecher-Stowe, the celebrated novelist, and writer of 
 many able works, also supports that claim. For, writing on 
 page 78, chapter xvi., in 'Uncle Tom's Cabin' (her best 
 known work), she says of Uncle Tom, a typical African, 
 and the hero of her work, that ' Tom, in his well-brushed 
 broadcloth suit, smooth beaver, glossy boots, faultless 
 wristbands and collar, with his grave, good-natured black 
 face, looked respectable enough to be a bishop of Carthage^ 
 as men of his colour were in other ages.' We take Mrs. 
 Harriett Beecher-Stowe to mean, then, that the Cartha- 
 ginians were not only Africans, but that they were Ethio- 
 pians also. 
 
 As Mrs. Beecher-Stowe, who is still alive, has never 
 thought fit to alter the statement she made thirty years ago, 
 we must conclude that she firmly believes that her state- 
 ment is the correct one, and the judgment of so eminent a 
 writer must receive due weight and consideration. 
 
 What unusual interest is awakened in the breast of the 
 average African when reading about Carthage and her 
 struggles, and her three Punic wars with Rome ! What 
 deep and joyous emotion fills him as he reads of the 
 successes of the Hamilcars, Hannibals, Hasdrubals, Maher- 
 bals, Hannos, Himilcos, Magos, Sapphos, and Giscos ! He 
 
AFRICA GOVERNED BY THE AFRICANS. 227 
 
 takes exultant pride in their victories in Africa, Spain, Italy, 
 Sardinia, Sicily, and Corsica. The African sorrows with the 
 Carthaginians when he reads that they suffered defeats and 
 experienced disasters. He grieves when the great, the 
 glorious, the ancient Carthage was sacked and reduced to 
 ashes. Do the sentiment and opinion of the African count 
 for nothing? Are they not on a level with those of the 
 Caucasian ? 
 
 Now, to speak of the Carthaginian Government. We all 
 know that Carthage boasted of a Constitution which was 
 remarkable for its stability and firmness ; one that made the 
 people happy and contented and prosperous. The great 
 Aristotle, in his ' Politics,' praises the Constitution of the 
 Carthaginians, because few revolutions were known to 
 have ever taken place in Carthage before its declining years. 
 Carthage was wealthy and prosperous everybody knows ; 
 but how, we ask, could her wealth and prosperity have 
 been attained save under a good Constitution and an able 
 Government? 
 
 Carthage, too, like Ethiopia and Abyssinia,, gave birth 
 to a number of great men. But the five great chieftains 
 and governors who overtopped the rest, and threw them all 
 into the shade, were Hamilcar Barca, the hero of Ercte and 
 Eryx (who was second only to his son, Hannibal the Great, 
 in renown and ability, in the field and in the cabinet) ; his 
 son-in-law Hasdrubal ; and his three sons, ' the lion's 
 broods,' the Brothers Barcidae, viz. : Hannibal the Great (a 
 man who takes his place with Napoleon the Great, and 
 Caius Julius Caesar, and Alexander the Great), Hasdrubal, 
 and Mago. We do not propose to enter into the details of 
 their achievements, because they are sufficiently known to 
 the average reader. The reader will have observed that we 
 have elected to confer the surname of ' the Great ' on 
 Hannibal, the greatest of the Carthaginians, and Toussaint- 
 
 JK — 2 
 
228 THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA. 
 
 L'Ouverture, the Liberator, and greatest of the Haytians ; 
 but we did not do this without good reasons, and hold our- 
 selves justified in so doing. They are admitted by all 
 writers who deal with the subjects to have been celebrities. 
 Livy, Plutarch, Niebuhr, Mommsen, Church, Ward and 
 others, eulogizing Hannibal the Great ; while Caucasians 
 like Samuel Whitchurch, Wordsworth, Whittier, Wendell 
 Phillips, Lamartine, Metral, Dr. Beard, Sir Spencer St. 
 John, Armistead, Rainsford, Schoelcher, Gragnon-Lacoste, 
 Dubroca, and Haytians like Isaac Toussaint-L'Ouverture* 
 St. Remy, B. Ardouin, T. Madion, A. Firmin and others, 
 with Liberian Professor Blyden and Afro- American Colonel 
 Williams eulogize Toussaint-L'Ouverture the Great. We 
 see no reason, then, for withholding the surname of ' the 
 Great ' from Hannibal Barca the Carthaginian, and 
 Toussaint-L'Ouverture the Haytian, who were both African 
 and Ethiopians. If we Africans do not recognise the 
 abilities of and honour our countrymen, who will recognise 
 and honour them? If we Africans do not perpetuate 
 the greatest of the Carthaginians by christening Hannibal 
 the Great, if we Africans do not perpetuate the greatest of 
 the Haytians by chr stening Toussaint-L'Ouverture the Great^ 
 who will do this for them, the children of the ' Land of the 
 Mighty Dead'? Will the Caucasians do it for us? No 
 Caucasian writer has as yet conferred the surname of ' the 
 Great ' on Hannibal Barca or Toussaint-L'Ouverture, the 
 greatest Africans who have ever Uved. 
 
 Leaving Carthage and the Carthaginians we turn to 
 modern times. And, we ask, have not the Moors estab- 
 lished, and do they not now maintain, a Government for 
 themselves? Did not the Moors, in 710 and 711 of our 
 era, burst into Spain and Portugal and overrun that joinr 
 Peninsula, reducing the Iberian and the Lusitanian provinces 
 to subjection ? 
 
AFRICA GOVERNED BY THE AFRICANS. 229 
 
 Would the Great Napoleon have been able to bring all 
 Europe, save Britain and Russia, to his feet if he had not 
 had a strong Government at home ? Would the British 
 Wellington have been able to gain the battle of Waterloo if 
 his Government at home had not been a strong one ? 
 Would the Yankee Washington have been able to drive 
 the Britishers into the sea, and wrest Independence from 
 the impotent grasp of stubborn George the Third, the 
 German King of Britain, if his Government had been a 
 weak one ? And we say that the Moors never would have 
 reduced the Spaniard and the Portuguese to submission if 
 they had not had a strong Government at home in Morocco. 
 They did not quit Spain and Portugal until the dawn of the 
 seventeenth century. 
 
 But who were, and who are, the Moors save the descend- 
 ants of Africans and Asiatics? The Moors, we say, have 
 not only established, but they maintain, a Government for 
 themselves, though the Britishers, Frenchmen, and Spaniards 
 are doing their best to partition Morocco, just as the 
 Italians are doing their utmost to grasp Abyssinia, which 
 enjoys and maintains a Government of her own and is inde- 
 pendent. Morocco and Abyssinia, however, still continue 
 to flourish. 
 
 The State and Kingdom of Ashantee was not in the past 
 what it is to-day. It is true that Ashantee possesses a 
 Native and Independent Government of her own ; but fifty 
 years or so ago a better, more capable, and more progres- 
 sive Government sat at Coomassie. It is on record* that 
 King Osai Tutu, who flourished in the early part of the 
 eighteenth century, was the real founder of the great 
 Ashantee Empire ; the countries lying on the east and 
 west of his Kingdom yielding to his powerful arms. His 
 successor on the Royal Ashantee throne, Osai Apoko, made 
 
 * ' Encyclopaedia Britannica,' vol. ii., p. 681. 
 
230 THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA, 
 
 further acquisitions of territory to the already vast Ashantee 
 Empire. No sane man will for a moment suppose that 
 kings or military leaders will venture to go on distant 
 expeditions of conquest, and stay away months, perhaps 
 years, together from their dominions, unless they leave a 
 firm Government behind them at home, which can command 
 respect and enforce obedience to the laws of the land. No 
 man in his senses, we say, can turn his arms abroad if his 
 Government be weak at home. And Kings and Emperors 
 like Osai Tutu and 0$^i Apoko, renowned Ashanteans, 
 never would have ventured on warlike expeditions on their 
 own initiation, as they did, and have left their throne 
 tottering behind them at Coomassie. Judging by these 
 facts and these results, the unbiased man is bound to admit 
 that Ashantee must have enjoyed an excellent and firm 
 Government under Osai Tutu and Osai Apoko, the cele- 
 brated Ashantean Kings. 
 
 Also, so organized, capable, and orderly a Government 
 had the Ashantees under King Osai Tutu Quanima, 'a most 
 capable and indefatigable man, who directed the destinies 
 of his country from the year 1800 to the year 1824, that 
 they were able with their well-disciplined soldiers not only 
 to meet and cope with, but also to inflict a crushing and 
 paralyzing defeat on, the British General Sir Charles 
 MacCarthy and his army at Essomaco, off the banks of 
 the Adoomansoo, in 1824,"^ that is, only nine years after the 
 historic Waterloo, when the Frank went down before the 
 Britisher, and when Britain's name was as formidable as it is 
 at present. 
 
 We now pass on to Dahomey, and say that this country 
 is not now what it formerly was. The Dahomans are but a 
 
 * ' Encyclopaedia Britannica,' vol. ii., p. 681 ; Spencer 
 Walpole's ' History of England,' vol. ii., chap, vii., pp. 148-150 ; 
 * Annual Register for 1824,' pp. 206-208 ; ibid, for 1826, p. 223. 
 
r 
 
 AFRICA GOVERNED BY THE AFRICANS, 231 
 
 wreck of their former selves. When King Guadjor Trudo, 
 a man of talent and energy, wielded the destinies of 
 Dahomey, the Dahomans had a Government to boast of. 
 And when he died in 1732, Trudo left Dahomey in a 
 flourishing condition, with peace at home and victories 
 abroad."^ 
 
 Gezo, who ascended the Dahoman throne about the year 
 1 81 8, and presided over the destinies of Dahomey for forty 
 years, raised the Dahoman power to its highest pitch. 
 King Gezo, the most capable governor that the Dahomans 
 have ever had, died in 1858 full of years and honour, and a 
 glory to the African Race and to Dahomey, t He was as 
 renowned a Dahoman as Osai Tutu Quanima was an 
 Ashantean. 
 
 From Dahomey we pass on to Sokoto ; and this country 
 also has had a Government of her own. It was Sultan 
 Othman dan Fodio who founded the Empire of Sokoto ; and 
 his son, Sultan Bello, who reigned from 181 9 to 1832, 
 raised the Sokoto Empire to its greatest height. J 
 
 Again, West Africa also boasts of the States of Gandu and 
 Bornu, the power of the latter dating back from the ninth 
 century. § 
 
 Passing on to South Africa we come to Zululand, which 
 was the Metropolitan State of the Great South African 
 Empire of the Zulu Kaffirs. The early history of Zululand 
 and Southern Africa, like the early history of Carthage, 
 Ethiopia, Abyssinia, Morocco, Ashantee, Dahomey, Sokoto, 
 Bornu, Gandu, Sahara, Senegambia, Sierra Leone, Soudan, 
 Congo, Wadai, Darfur, Mozambique, Zanzibar, Sofala, 
 Madagascar, and Africa generally, is very largely unknown, 
 
 * ' Gazetteer of the World,' vol. ii., p. 799. 
 f ' Encyclopaedia Britannica,' vol. vi., p. 766. 
 X Ibid., vol. xxii., p. 248. 
 § Ibid., vol.'iv., pp. 61, 62. 
 
232 THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA. 
 
 much of it is buried in oblivion. And, unfortunately, the 
 little that we know of Africa and Africans is derived from 
 those opponents, if not enemies, of Africans, the Caucasians. 
 We are informed, however, that in 1780 Sanzangakona 
 directed the destinies of the Zulus with the greatest ability, 
 and with honour to himself and his African and Zulu 
 countrymen."^ And after Sanzangakona's demise, his illus- 
 trious son King Ishaka, or Chaka, at the beginning of the 
 nineteenth century, brought the Zulu, the South African, 
 Empire to the zenith of its greatness, for he conquered all 
 the States of South-Eastern Africa, stretching from the River 
 Limpopo to the Cape Colony, and comprised Natal, British 
 Basutoland, a large portion of the Orange Free State, and 
 the Transvaal Republic.t Chaka, or Ishaka, the great 
 founder of African dominion in South Africa, died in 1828. | 
 His brothers, Mhlangana, Dingaan, and Panda, who suc- 
 ceeded him and one another, though able, were greatly 
 inferior to Ishaka in administrative ability and in military 
 talent.§ With the accession of King Cetewayo, the son of 
 Panda, Zululand was bidding fair to rise again from the 
 condition in which his uncles Mhlangana and Dingaan, and 
 his father Panda, had thrown it, to the condition at which 
 his mighty uncle Chaka had left it.y But the days of Zulu 
 Independence were numbered, and the Zulu Kingdom suc- 
 cumbed before the attack of her powerful enemies the 
 British and the Boer.1I 
 
 We do not propose to treat here of the Liberian 
 Republic. We reserve it for the next chapter, where it 
 can be dealt with at greater length. 
 
 From Africa we pass on to the Independent Americo- 
 Ethiopian Republic of Hayti, and of it we must say a few 
 words. Everybody knows how the Haytians rose in insur- 
 
 * ' Encyclopaedia Britannica,' vol. xxiv., pp. 828, 829. 
 
 t Ibid X Ibid. § Ibid II Ibid IT Ibid. 
 
m 
 
 AFRICA GOVERNED BY THE AFRICANS. 233 
 
 ection in August, 1791, under their leaders Jean Fran9ois 
 and Biasson, and defied the might of France. Everybody 
 knows also that when Toussaint the Great put himself at 
 the head of the army of his Haytian countrymen in 1793, 
 within a comparatively short space of time he became the 
 Liberator of San Domingo. How he was treacherously 
 seized by perfidious Frenchmen ; how he was conveyed to 
 France a close prisoner, and how he perished, almost of 
 starvation, in 1803, in a cold Alpine dungeon, are matters 
 of history. The Government of Toussaint the Great was 
 firm, wise, and progressive, and under Toussaint the Great 
 the Haytians were prosperous, thriving, and wealthy. 
 ' Under his government the Island was restored to more 
 than its former prosperity.' The indefatigable Emperor 
 Jacques I. (Dessalines) continued the struggle for Haytian 
 Independence, and the Frenchmen, after suffering punish- 
 ment at his hands, yielded to his conquering arms. After 
 he drove Frenchmen from his country, the Island of San 
 Domingo, Britishers and Spaniards tried hard to reduce 
 the Haytians under their yoke, but they were prevented 
 by the might of Dessalines, and were driven into the sea. 
 Who is there who does not know that Hayti flourished 
 under the Imperial Government of Jacques I. ? Hayti was 
 also happy and contented under the Emperor Henri I. 
 (Christophe), and under Presidents Petion, Boyer (who 
 governed Hayti or San Domingo for thirty-one or more 
 years), Boisrond Canal, Geffrard Solomon, the Emperor 
 Faustin I. (Soulouque), Salmave, while we have proved 
 that Hayti is now flourishing, having a capable, wise, 
 and vigorous Government, under the headship of the 
 President, General L. M. F. Hippolyte. When, therefore, 
 the Times Commissioner deliberately quotes Ethelbert 
 Barksdale, who in his turn quotes 'the language of a 
 Northern statesmen and Union soldier,' that ' " in the 
 
234 THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA, 
 
 whole historic period of the world the Ethiopian race had 
 never established or maintained a Government for them- 
 selves,'" not only Laird Clowes, but the other gentleman 
 referred to, say not only what is erroneous and misleading, 
 but they display a sad ignorance of African history. 
 
 Laird Clowes, on pages 158, 159, of his ' Black America,' 
 quotes James Anthony Froude, who writes in ' The English 
 in the West Indies ' : 
 
 ' There is a saying in Hayti that the white man has no 
 rights which the blacks are bound to recognise. . . . They 
 can own no freehold property, and exist only on tolerance. 
 They are called "white trash." Black Dukes and Mar- 
 quises drive over them in the street, and swear at them. 
 . . . Englishmen move about Jacmel as if they were 
 ashamed of themselves among their dusky lords and 
 masters. The presence of the European in any form is 
 barely tolerated.' 
 
 Apart from the fact that the statement that 'there is a 
 saying in Hayti that the white man has no rights which 
 the blacks are bound to recognise,' and that ' they can own 
 no freehold property, and exist only on tolerance,' as made 
 by James Anthony Froude and by W. Laird Clowes, is 
 questionable, and will not bear investigation ; it is, pro- 
 bably, the reverse of the truth. If that be as they are 
 trying to make out, then we say that there is nothing 
 strange or peculiar about foreigners not being allowed to 
 own freehold property in the^ country of the Haytians. It 
 is not unusual; it is not unique. Were not foreigners 
 incapacitated from holding landed property in the British 
 Isles until so late as the year 1870? It was the Naturaliza- 
 tion Act of 1870, the 33rd and 34th Statute of the Reign 
 of Victoria, chapter xiv., which removed many of the dis- 
 abilities that aliens were labouring under in Britain. Even 
 now it is still impossible for an alien to own a British ship, 
 
AFRICA GOVERNED BY THE AFRICANS. 235 
 
 while he cannot hold shares, or be trustee of shares, in a 
 British ship."^ 
 
 What could be more singular, more unjust, and more 
 severe and arbitrary than that on the death of every 
 foreigner who had any property in France, that property 
 was confiscated to the French crown, in accordance with 
 the provisions of the Droit d^Aubaine? But that is now 
 done away with, to the credit of Frenchmen. All foreigners 
 were labouring under disabilities in Germany, Austro- 
 Hungary, Italy^ Russia, Denmark, Holland, Spain, and in 
 other countries of Europe, and in the United States of 
 North America, before i860 or thereabout, and were for- 
 bidden to hold landed property therein, or, if they did, were 
 confiscated to the State in which the property was situate. 
 
 Boyd's Third Edition of Wheaton's ' International Law,' 
 pp. 132, 133, says: *It is only of late years that the right 
 of holding lands on the same conditions as subjects has 
 been conceded to foreigners by most countries. In Belgium 
 this was effected by the law of the 27th of April, 1865. 
 Russia! conceded the privilege in i860. Some of the Swiss 
 cantons do not even now permit foreigners to hold real 
 property without the express permission of the Cantonal 
 Government, unless there be a treaty to that effect. Austria, 
 the Netherlands, and Sweden only accord the right on con- 
 dition of reciprocity in the foreigner's country. The con- 
 stitution of the German Empire provides that every person 
 belonging to one of the confederated States is to be treated 
 
 ■^ 33 and 34 Vic, c. 14 ; Underhill's ' Trusts,' p. 361. 
 
 t But Lloyd's News for November 15th, 1891, says that 'The 
 local [Warsaw] press announces that a law will shortly be 
 levelled at foreign colonization of the Russian steppes, making 
 the acquisition of farms and holdings by alien settlers illegal in 
 future, and compelling such settlers as have already acquired 
 grants of land to become Russian subjects within three years.' 
 
236 THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA. 
 
 in every other of the confederated States as a born native, 
 and to be permitted to acquire real estate. But, as regards 
 other countries, the laws of Bavaria, Prussia, Saxony, and 
 Wurtemburg exact for their own subjects, when abroad, the 
 same rights they extend to foreigners in their own dominions. 
 In Italy, Denmark, and Greece aliens are under no disa- 
 bilities in this respect. The ownership of land in the 
 United States is regulated by the laws of each individual 
 State of the Union. Some of the States impose no re- 
 strictions on foreigners ; others require residence and an 
 oath of allegiance ; in others a declaration of an intention 
 to become a naturalized citizen of the United States is 
 necessary. Feudal principles were maintained so long in 
 Britain, that until the year 1870 an alien was incapable of 
 holding land for more than twenty-one years ; that is, he 
 could not purchase a freehold. This, however, was remedied 
 by the Naturalization Act, 1870 (33 and 34 Vic, c. 14), 
 which relieved aliens of most of their disabilities, and, as 
 regards land, placed them on the same footing as [British] 
 subjects.' The French, however, were the first to break 
 through ancient prejudices in respect of foreigners, and to 
 set the example of a more liberal and enlightened legis- 
 lation, by removing many of the disabilities aliens were 
 labouring under in France prior to 1791.^ The British 
 formed a treaty with the Yankees in the years the Natural- 
 ization Acts (33 and 34 Vic, c 14, and 35 and 36 Vic, 
 c. 39), 1870 and 1872, were passed, permitting the Yankees, 
 if they felt so inclined, to hold property and have other 
 rights in the British Isles and their dependencies, whilst 
 the Yankees, in their turn, were to concede the same 
 privileges to British subjects. Yet it is strange that no 
 Canadian can own a Yankee ship as a British subject; 
 only if he (the Canadian) consents to become a Yankee, 
 * Lord Chief Justice Cockburn's / Nationality,' pp. 152-160. 
 
AFRICA GOVERNED BY THE AFRICANS. 237 
 
 under the protection of the Stars and Stripes, will he be 
 qualified to own a Yankee ship. What is more severe than 
 that the captain of every vessel, on arriving in the British 
 Isles, is bound to furnish a list of all his passengers who 
 are foreigners ; and non-compliance with, and infringement 
 of, this rule is visited with a heavy fine ? 
 
 Even amongst themselves Britishers are unjust and 
 severe. 
 
 What can be more unjust or more severe in this nineteenth 
 century than that, whilst Englishmen and Scotsmen have 
 each a volunteer force, Irishmen can have none in Ireland, 
 though they can be volunteers in Scotland, England, and 
 the British colonies? Not even the above can be more 
 unjust or more severe than the law that, whilst no Pro- 
 testant, orthodox Greek, Jew, Mahommedan, Agnostic, 
 Idolater, Atheist, is debarred from the office of Lord 
 Chancellor of England, and from the Lord- Lieutenancy 
 of Ireland, a Catholic is disqualified from holding either 
 of these offices ; and this condition of things is aggravated 
 by the fact that the majority of Irishmen are Catholics. 
 
 To return to the Haytians. We say that it is not a fact 
 that whites ' can own no freehold property,' and that ' they 
 exist only on tolerance' in Hayti, Froude tells us, and 
 Clowes quotes his words, that ' Haytian Dukes and Mar- 
 quises drive over them' (the whites) 'in the street, and 
 swear at them.' This we also deny. We are again told 
 that ' Englishmen move about Jacmel as if they were 
 ashamed of themselves among their dusky lords and 
 masters.' We should like to know why the ' Englishmen 
 who move about Jacmel' should comport themselves 'as 
 if they were ashamed of themselves.' If life is hard for 
 the Caucasian (the Britisher) to bear amongst the Haytians, 
 why does he not take his departure thence ? Why should 
 he remain in a place that is irksome to him ? Why does 
 
238 THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA. 
 
 the Englishman continue living ' among his dusky lords 
 and masters/ as Froude contemptuously calls the noble 
 Haytians, when he 'moves about Jacmel as if he were 
 ashamed of himself? 
 
 When Britishers, Caucasians, take up their abode in 
 Hayti, it must or it ought to be with the full consciousness 
 that they are to yield full allegiance to the majesty of the 
 Constitution and Laws of the Haytians, and if they violate 
 or transgress they will have to put up with the consequences 
 which their infringement entails ; they must expect that 
 swift and effectual punishment will be meted out to them 
 by the Haytians, as it would were they in their own country 
 or dwelling amongst any other civilized people. 
 
 Laird Clowes, on pages 114, 115, and 116, referring to 
 the criminality of the United States, states that the 
 American African is many times more prone to criminality 
 than his white countryman. Of course, as usual, Laird 
 Clowes makes a statement which he does not prove. We 
 all know that there are, and are sure to be, criminals every- 
 where, amongst every people. Where there are more 
 Africans than Caucasians in the United States, there will 
 be more African than Caucasian criminals, and where there 
 are more Caucasians than Africans there will be more 
 Caucasian than African criminals. 
 
 Whilst Mr. W. Laird Clowes, in one' part of his book, 
 speaks disparagingly of the ' material position ' of the 
 Africo-American, he admits, in another part of his ' Black 
 America,' that ' there is no doubt that they are gradually 
 acquiring property, and, in a few cases, accumulating capital. 
 It was recently declared that coloured people owned a 
 million acres of land in Texas alone, paying taxes there on 
 twenty million dollars' worth of property, and there were in 
 the State twenty-five coloured lawyers, one hundred coloured 
 merchants, five thousand coloured mechanics, and fifteen 
 
AFRICA GOVERNED BY THE AFRICANS. 239 
 
 newspapers conducted by coloured people.' Add to all 
 this, that there are not half as many Africans in Texas 
 as there are White Americans, and the fact that only 
 twenty-eight years have elapsed since the American African 
 received his Emancipation. Laird Clowes should be con- 
 sistent, and not eccentric, for while he runs the African 
 down to earth in one page, he eulogizes him in another. 
 
 This is how Laird Clowes eulogizes the Africo-American, 
 by quoting a journal which shows that : ' Georgia's coloured 
 people are making a good record for thrift and industry. 
 In 1879 their property was valued at $5,128,398, but in 
 1887 the valuation was $8,939,479, showing a gain of 72J 
 per cent, during the nine years. In the same time the 
 valuation of white men's property had risen from 
 $229,777,150 to $332,565,442, a gain of only 44-6 per 
 cent, approximately. These figures simply prove what 
 the intelligent representatives of the Negro race have said 
 about the progress made, and they go to illustrate anew that 
 the Negroes are working out their own future. The richest 
 coloured woman in the South, Mrs. Amanda Ewas, who has 
 a snug fortune of $400,000, lives in Atlanta.' 
 
 By Clowes's own showing this is the hopeful result of only 
 some twenty-eight years of freedom. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 REPATRIATION AND LIBERIA. 
 
 We now enter on our last chapter, and in it we propose to 
 solve the African Race Problem in the United States. 
 
 Like the Africans, the Honourable Professor Edward 
 Wilmot Blyden, LL.D., ex-Liberian Minister to the Court 
 of St. James's ; the Right Reverend Bishop H. M. Turner, 
 of Atlanta, Georgia ; Dr. H. M. Tupper, of Shaw University, 
 Raleigh, North Carolina ; the Rev. Mr. T. S. Lee, of Charles 
 ton, and other of our countrymen and kinsmen, we counsel 
 emigration from America and immigration into Africa. 
 
 Yes, and like Laird Clowes we say there must be another 
 exodus from Egypt, another restoration of the captive 
 tribes. But what part of Africa shall the expatriated 
 African go to ? Shall it be to a country in Africa where 
 the Caucasian rules, as Laird Clowes suggests ? We think 
 not, for the same Race Problem which is puzzling and 
 agitating the United States would soon perplex and agitate 
 that country where the 10,500,000 of American Africans 
 are transported. There would be greater race jealousies 
 than ever in that particular country. There are even now 
 race jealousies between the Caucasian and the African, 
 though they are not a great deal talked of and commented 
 on out of the pale where they exist, which is wherever the 
 
REPATRIATION AND LIBERIA. 241 
 
 Caucasian rules, whether it be in Africa, in the West Indies, 
 or in the Americas. 
 
 Laird Clowes lays down three conditions which must be 
 offered to the expatriated African in order to accomplish 
 his removal, and he suggests that — 
 
 (i) The emigrating African must be offered a country in 
 which he may pursue high aims, enjoy a prospect of 
 improved political, social, and financial status^ and find 
 climate and employment suited to his needs. 
 
 (2) He must not govern, but be governed. At the same 
 time he must not be oppressed, either physically or morally, 
 and there must be no restraint upon his improvement and 
 advancement. 
 
 (3) His emigration must be assisted, either by those who 
 owe him a debt, or by those who will benefit by his migra- 
 tion, or by both. 
 
 Whilst agreeing with every one of Laird Clowes's pro- 
 positions, believing them to be sound and reasonable, we 
 must take exception to one part of the second condition 
 which he lays down, viz., that ' He (the expatriated African) 
 must not govern, but be governed,' because that statement, 
 to say the least, is absurd and ridiculous, being based on 
 Ignorance and Prejudice. 
 
 We say, in our turn, and with emphasis, that the ex- 
 patriated African must not be governed, hut must govern. 
 He must be independent, as his forefathers, ' the Mighty 
 Dead,' were before him, otherwise the Race Question, which 
 is now preying on the vitals of the United States of North 
 America, would prey on the vitals of the particular country 
 where our expatriated African should be sent. And have we 
 not proved that the African Ethiopian, indigenously civilized, 
 was able to govern ? Have we not proved that the African 
 States of Assyria or Babylon, Canaan and Phoenicia, in Asia 
 have flourished ? Have we not proved and shown that the 
 
 16 
 
242 THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA. 
 
 indigenously civilized African Negro States of Carthage, 
 Ethiopia, Abyssinia, Sokoto, Gandu, Bornu, Zululand, and 
 others have flourished and have been mighty empires? 
 And are not Liberia, Hayti, Morocco, and Abyssinia all 
 independent African States that are flourishing and pro- 
 gressing ? Therefore do we say that we Africans must 
 govern ourselves, and not be governed. 
 
 Laird Clowes suggests that the expatriated African in the 
 United States should be sent to the Congo Free State as 
 * the country in which he may pursue high aims, enjoy a 
 prospect of improved political, social, and financial status, 
 and find climate and employment suited to his needs.' 
 That is his ' Ideal Solution.' But we say that no man could 
 have made a greater blunder, no man could have failed 
 more lamentably in solving, or rather in trying to solve, 
 the African Race Problem in America than Laird Clowes 
 does in suggesting emigration by the Africo- Americans into 
 the Congo Free State. An ' Ideal Solution ' indeed ! Laird 
 Clowes has not only failed, but blundered, in his scheme 
 for solving the Race Problem in the Land of the Yankees ; 
 and this we shall endeavour to show, taking care to give 
 reasons for our ' Ideal Solution ' of the difficulty. 
 
 Our ' Ideal Solution ' will be, we are confident, nothing 
 unsound, nothing that can be likened to the fruit of the 
 tree which grows by the banks of the Dead Sea : it will be 
 nothing illusoiry, nothing incapable of realization, as is 
 Laird Clowes's solution. 
 
 We now propose to show how Laird Clowes has failed 
 and blundered. Their transportation from the United 
 States would free the Caucasian Yankees from the incubus 
 of the Americo-Africans, it is true ; but it is not less true 
 that the transplantation and repatriation of the 10,500,000 
 of Africo- Americans into Africa, into the Congo Free State, 
 would give rise to another Race Problem in the latter 
 
REPATRIATION AND LIBERIA, 243 
 
 country. We ask, Are not the rulers of the Congo Free 
 State, King Leopold II. and his Belgians, all Caucasians, 
 all white men ? Would that circumstance not, then, occa- 
 sion a Race Problem in the Congo Free State ? 
 
 Yet this is not Laird Clowes's only mistake ; he has com- 
 mitted other and greater blunders by suggesting that the 
 Africans in the United States should make the Congo Free 
 State their home. 
 
 We ask, Is it not a well-known fact that the official 
 language of the Congo Free State is the official language 
 of Belgium, and that is the language of the French, and 
 is not Flemish also an official language in the Congo Free 
 State as it is an official and the national language of Belgium ? 
 Can the Americo-Africans speak the French or the Flemish 
 language ? If there are those who do, how many do ? 
 
 Laird Clowes, we are aware, is a Britisher, and, like the 
 great majority of his countrymen, he cannot be said to be 
 very politic and judicious. Is it not the prayer and the 
 boast of every Britisher, and his Yankee cousin, that the 
 Anglo-Saxon tongue shall and must become, in no distant 
 time, the prevailing cosmopolitan tongue ? We ourselves 
 believe it must be so. 
 
 Yet Laird Clowes and Henry Morton Stanley, of Yam- 
 buya and Manyuema unenviable notoriety, forsooth ! would 
 send, if they could, the Americo-Africans into the Congo 
 Free State, that they might discard the Anglo-Saxon tongue 
 and adopt the French language instead. 
 
 We ask. Is it not also a well-known fact that the Consti- 
 tution of the Congo Free State, while it agrees with that of 
 Belgium, which is modelled on that of France, differs from 
 the Constitution of the United States of North America — 
 the very Constitution which the Afro -Americans are 
 used to? 
 
 We ask again, Is it of no moment that the headship of 
 
 16 — 2 
 
244 THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA. 
 
 the Congo Free State is filled by a King who is the King 
 of the Belgians also? And are not the 10,500,000 Americo- 
 Africans in the United States of North America all repub- 
 licans to a man ? Why should we not also ask, Is it not a 
 well-known fact that the Belgian rulers of the Congo Free 
 State brutally ill-treat the Congoes, and hold them in a 
 condition of servitude ? Is it false to say that the Congo 
 Free State is at a standstill and non-progressive under the 
 sickly and incompetent Belgian Administration sitting at 
 Boma? 
 
 So much so that Belgian Leopold and his Janssen 
 Administration of the Congo Free State, tormented by the 
 zymotic disease of incompetency and incapability, sent 
 envoys in 1884 and 1889 to the United States of North 
 America, praying that they might be allowed to take as 
 many Africans as were willing to go, and whose services 
 they were able to pay for, to the Congo Free State, to act 
 as an antiseptic, and a panacea for the Belgian maladies 
 in their maladministration of the Congo Free State ? 
 
 Surely Laird Clowes cannot be serious when he proposes 
 to send the Americo-Africans to the Congo Free State, a 
 State where the rulers are whites ; a State where the official 
 language is French ; a State where the Constitution (in- 
 cluding the Laws) is Belgic French, and the Chief Magis- 
 trate a King ; a State where the African is ill-treated and 
 slavery exists ; a State which, because its rulers are in- 
 competent and incapable, is at a standstill and non- 
 progressive. 
 
 Would Laird Clowes have the Americo-Africans killed 
 by inches or killed outright ? 
 
 Were the Africans in the American Union to leave the 
 United States for the Congo Free State, they would be 
 quitting the frying-pan to get into the fire. 
 
 These are, then. Laird Clowes's blunders. 
 
REPATRIATION AND LIBERIA. 
 
 With the Congo Free State backward and in every way 
 unsuitable for the Africc-American, where must he betake 
 himself, since he is oppressed in the United States ? As he 
 must necessarily be independent, so as to steer clear of all 
 Race Problems, where must he go to ? 
 
 Though Africa is almost partitioned, and under the so- 
 called sphere of influence of Britain, France, Germany, 
 Italy, Spain, and Portugal, yet there is room for not only 
 the Americo-Africans, the West In do- Africans, but for all 
 other African expatriates, in that very continent. 
 
 We propose to send all Africans who are living out of 
 Africa, and who are willing to go, to the Independent 
 Republic of Liberia. This is the country all Africans 
 except the Haytians should go to. We have shown why the 
 Africo-American should not be sent to the Congo Free 
 State. Now we propose to show why the returning exile 
 should march into Liberia. 
 
 The expatriated African must not be sent to that part 
 of Africa where the Caucasian rules, for then there would 
 arise a Race Problem of higher dimensions and of a more 
 virulent type than is perplexing the United States of North 
 America, and that is undesirable. 
 
 The expatriated African must not be sent to some country 
 in Africa where the aboriginal inhabitants are not only inde- 
 pendent, but have never come into contact with Cauca- 
 sian civilization, and particularly where the white man 
 has not been seen ; for the returning exile would have an 
 uphill work in his attempt to subdue the African aborigines, 
 and that is also undesirable. 
 
 It is also undesirable that the expatriated and civilized 
 African (civilized under Caucasian influence) should have 
 an independent country of his own other than Liberia, for 
 the obvious reason that division, no matter in what form, is 
 always weakness. 
 
246 THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA. 
 
 Did not the Magyars easily conquer Hungary, because 
 Hungary and Europe were divided amongst themselves ? 
 These same now dwell in and possess the land they conquered 
 centuries ago. Did not the Turkish Mussulmans easily 
 crush and pull to pieces the moribund Eastern Roman- 
 Greek Empire ? And what was it that accelerated the 
 success of the conquering Osmanli Crescent ? Was it not 
 the fact that Europe was divided against itself, and so was 
 impotent to help the Greeks? And are not the Turks, 
 though, like the Magyars, an Asiatic race, still in Europe ? 
 
 The Moors pounced upon Hispania and Lusitania in 
 710; and because the rest of Europe was hopelessly 
 divided, and because dissension and bickerings reigned 
 supreme among the Spaniards and the Portuguese, their 
 subjugation by the omnipotent Moors was not a hard task, 
 but was easily accomplished, the turbulent and fratricidal 
 Spaniards and Portuguese experiencing violent shocks and 
 disastrous defeats at the hands of the conquering Moors 
 when they took the field and joined battle with their 
 enemies. 
 
 We repeat again that every sort of division is weakening 
 to a nation, and is to be deprecated. 
 
 The African race is already, unfortunately, too widely 
 scattered apart, and we Africans must concentrate, as much 
 as possible, those of our race who are able and willing to be 
 concentrated. All Africans, therefore, who have the welfare 
 of their race at heart rejoice and seek consolation in the 
 fact, that the Mexicans and Argentines protested, in 1889 
 or thereabout, against the projected settlement of the 
 Africans in America in their respective countries. The 
 protest by the Mexicans and Argentines threw cold water 
 on the American African Colonization Scheme, and for 
 this we sincerely thank the Mexicans and Argentines. 
 
 The Americo- Africans would, forsooth! quit the United 
 
 I 
 
REP A TRIA TION AND LIBERIA . 247 
 
 States of North America, and settle in Mexico or Argentina, 
 leaving their Africa and their Liberia neglected. Is Liberia 
 our Liberia, the Pride and Hope of Africa, and of true- 
 born and true-hearted Africans, such a scarecrow that Mexico 
 or Argentina should be preferred ? We are glad, we say 
 again, that the Mexicans and Argentines absolutely refused 
 to receive the Africo-Americans in their respective countries. 
 May they do so again if another opportunity presents itself! 
 Division is weakness, we say. Christianity, though the 
 true religion, and though professed by the great majority of 
 civilized humanity, is despised and ridiculed by the believers 
 in the Law of Moses, by Islamism, by Hindooism, by 
 Brahminism, by Buddhism, by Atheism — and why ? Be- 
 cause these latter, these non-Christians (though they fail to 
 see how hopelessly divided and faction-torn they are 
 amongst themselves), with truth, with emphasis, and with 
 the pointed finger of scorn, say to one another : * See how 
 these Christians love one another ! See how they are 
 always ready to tear one another to pieces, and they, for- 
 sooth ! would fain preach to us on our ways and forms of 
 worship !' 
 
 The fact that the Christian Religion is divided and split 
 up into three great branches — Catholicity, Greek Orthodoxy, 
 and Protestantism — without the shadow of a doubt places 
 it at a disadvantage when it has to deal with non-Christians, 
 and prevents us Christians from reclaiming and converting 
 the heathen, the non-Christian, from his evil ways and 
 practices. 
 
 In bygone ages Protestants fought Catholics and Catholics 
 Protestants, while the enmity and jealousy between these 
 last two, and also between Catholicism and the Greek 
 Orthodox Church, still flicker, their traces being evident 
 enough amongst Caucasians. But we Africans, a truly 
 sensible and non-bigoted race, never had, have not, and 
 
248 THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA. 
 
 never shall have, such religious enmities and jealousies as 
 have existed, still obtain, and, we fear, will always obtain, 
 amongst Caucasians up to the consummation of the world. 
 
 So much for religious divisions. 
 
 To turn to secular divisions — to return to the point which 
 we have left — we assert that it is undesirable that the civil- 
 ized and subject African should have any independent 
 country of his own, either in or out of Africa, other than 
 Liberia. Some day the Liberians and the new would-be 
 independent Africans may fall to fighting one another, and 
 the object of the fighting may be the headship of the whole 
 or part of Africa. 
 
 The world and Europe saw, in 1866, the Hohenzollern 
 German hurling his marshalled hosts at the embattled 
 squadrons of his cousin, the Hapsburg German ; but it was 
 the crushing and decisive defeat at Sadowa which gave the 
 headship of Germany to the Prussian Hohenzollern, driving 
 away the crestfallen Austro-Hungarian Hapsburg from the 
 leadership and membership of the Germanic Confederation. 
 
 Liberia must never have to measure arms with, and rush 
 to the contest with, a kindred and civilized country that 
 may be its neighbour in Africa, speaking the same language 
 with the Liberians. 
 
 Did not Britishers and Yankees, though cousins, carry 
 on war one against the other in 1812-1814? When 
 Napoleon the Great issued his Berlin and Milan decrees 
 against Britishers, and all Europe except Britain and Russia 
 lay humbled at his feet, and slavishly obeyed the French- 
 man's behest, did the Americans in any way help their 
 British cousins in their need? Instead, they obeyed the order 
 of Napoleon, and gave battle to the British in 1812-1814. 
 
 The Yankees in 1846 snatched the ' Oregon country,' 
 and in 187 1 wrung millions of dollars from their British 
 cousins because of the * Alabama' and ' Florida.' 
 
RE PA TRIA TION A ND LIBERIA . 249 
 
 Even now Britishers and Yankees are not as friendly as 
 they ought to be. Jonathan envies his cousin of Britain 
 the possession of British North America, the Dominion of 
 Canada portion particularly, and is longingly looking 
 forward to the day when he will be able to wrest it, by a 
 coup de main or otherwise, from the tenacious grasp of his 
 British cousin, John Bull. 
 
 Do not Britishers also envy the Yankees their possession 
 of Alaska ? Are not Britishers and Yankees always wrangling 
 over the pearl fishery off Alaska ? When will the ' burning ' 
 Behring Sea question be solved ? 
 
 We maintain that the unity, the federation, of the Anglo- 
 Saxon Race is as far-off as ever, the claims of Britain 
 and the United States being hopelessly irreconcilable? 
 Are not Frenchmen more or less jealous of the French- 
 speaking Belgian Leopold for having the headship of the 
 Congo Free State. 
 
 Again, take Spanish America, in a first instance. Did 
 not Argentina and Uruguay, although professing the same 
 religion, although having a common derivation and the 
 same nationality, although speaking the same language with 
 her (Paraguay), with the co-operation and under the leader- 
 ship of Lusitanian Brazil, wage fierce and long-continued 
 war from 1865 to 1872 with her, and finally, and as the 
 outcome of the humiliating and disastrous defeats she 
 experienced at their hands, strip Paraguay of an enormous 
 slice of territory and impose upon her a heavy national 
 debt as war indemnity ? 
 
 In a second instance, did not Chili, although professing 
 the same religion, although boasting a common origin and 
 the same nationality, although speaking a common language 
 with her sister-neighbours, declare war upon Peru and 
 Bolivia on April 5, 1872, and, after the infliction of sundry 
 and paralyzing defeats on the Peruvian and Bolivian 
 
250 THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA. 
 
 soldados, and in the pride of victory, tear huge slices of 
 territory from their grasp, Bolivia losing her only seaport, 
 Antofagasta, in 1884 to her conqueror, exultant Chili, the 
 land which boasts of having given birth to Juan San Martin 
 de Jose, the comrade and brother-in-arms of the British 
 Cochrane, Scottish Dundonald, who, next to his country- 
 man, the British Nelson, was the greatest admiral who ever 
 saw the light ; while the equally crestfallen and equally 
 unfortunate Peru was forced to relinquish absolutely, on the 
 20th of October, 1883, the rich province of Tarapaca, as 
 well as to conditionally yield fertile Tacna and mellifluous 
 Arica to her Chilian conquistadores ? 
 
 In a third instance, did not San Salvador and Guatemala, 
 although speaking the same language, although having the 
 same origin and a common ancestry, although professing the 
 same religion, war upon each other, the Salvadorian and the 
 Guatemalan rushing to the shock of the contest and meeting 
 each other in deadly embraces in fair and open field in 
 1890-1891 ? 
 
 But these are not the only instances. The Columbian 
 Confederation — which the Libertador, Venezuelan Simon 
 Bolivar, founded in 18 19, and which formerly consisted of 
 Columbia, Venezuela, and Ecuador — was dissolved in 
 1829-1830 ; but what has been the outcome of the untying of 
 that knot, of that separation or dissolution ? Their separa- 
 tion or dissolution from one another, we say, has caused 
 the so-called Republics of Venezuela, Colombia, and 
 Ecuador to sink considerably in the estimation of civilized 
 humanity. They all three are periodically subject to 
 revolutionary changes and internecine, and therefore 
 suicidal, strifes. 
 
 Because the Government of each has been and is incom- 
 petent and extravagant, the three Republics have been and are 
 mismanaged and misgoverned, their commerce has suffered 
 
REP A TRIA TION AND LIBERIA . 251 
 
 and is suffering, heavy debts have been and are being con- 
 tracted, their population has thinned and is thinning, their 
 armies teem with ' generals,' who outnumber the soldados, 
 and who (the * generals ') delight to fight with their tongues 
 only, and whose swords, having never been unsheathed, 
 are, as a consequence, quite innocent of blood. 
 
 And, to make matters worse, those three so-called Repub- 
 lics, Venezuela, Colombia, and Ecuador, have been for 
 years wrangling with one another as to their respective 
 boundaries, i.e., to the east of Colombia, the west of 
 Venezuela and the north of Ecuador, and south of Colombia. 
 Such are the fruits of disunion and separation or division on 
 the part of kindred and sisterly States. 
 
 More. Were Colombia and Ecuador united with Venez- 
 uela, I.e., were they members of the Colombian Confedera- 
 tion which existed in 1 829-1 830, would Britain continue 
 bullying, if not harassing, Venezuela, with respect to the 
 Britannico-Venezuelan Guinese boundary debateable ? 
 
 We trow not ; for Venezuela, as a member of the Colom- 
 bian Confederation, would have had Colombia and Ecuador 
 at her back as allies and as sharers in the national interest 
 and danger, and in the defence of the common Fatherland. 
 And does not Punton fait la force against all outsiders and 
 oppressors ? The Colombian and the Ecuadorian would 
 have been a par nobile fratrum to the Venezuelan. But 
 disunion or division or separation is, as a rule, weakness. 
 
 Honest and well-meaning men like the American Coloni- 
 zation Society and Liberian Professor Blyden will sometimes 
 say things which on second thoughts they would not say. 
 
 Liberian Blyden, in his book ' Christianity, Islam, and 
 the Ethiopian Race,' would scatter the Africo- Americans in 
 different parts of Africa. And in his pamphlet, ' The Return 
 of the Exiles and the West African Church,' p. 23, he says : 
 ' Imagine the result of one hundred thousand Africans from 
 
252 THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA, 
 
 America settled in the Yoruba country, with their know- 
 ledge of, and practice in, the use not only of the implements 
 of peace, but of the implements of war.' To us such a 
 proposal or imagination seems unwise. Because Caucasians 
 are scattered, Liberian Blyden would further scatter the 
 already widely-scattered Ethiopians, forgetful of the fact that 
 in his ' Christianity, Islam, and the Ethiopian Race,' p. 429, 
 he tells the Yankees ' not to wait until they have trained 
 the Africo- Americans to their ideal — in their peculiar modes 
 of thifiking. They cafinot make them Anglo-Saxons. They 
 never will make them so in spirit a?id possibilities, if I inter- 
 pret the providence of God aright.' And, despite this, he 
 would scatter the English-speaking Africans ; is it because 
 the Anglo-Saxons are scattered? But the Anglo-Saxons 
 are now studying concentration. Witness the Imperial and 
 Colonial Institute and Imperial Federation. What we think 
 a distinguished and talented man like Liberian Blyden 
 ' should imagine,' or rather work for, is the unity and con- 
 centration of the Ethiopian race — at least, the English- 
 speaking portion of it. If a brilliant man like Liberian 
 Dr. Blyden cannot be a Guiseppe Garibaldi, he can be a 
 Camillo Benso di Cavour or a Guiseppe Mazzini. We do 
 not want a man who will scatter, but one who will unite, the 
 already scattered race. Let a talented man like Liberian 
 Blyden unite the Ethiopian race in Liberia. The American 
 Colonization Society, in its seventy-fourth annual report 
 (January, 1891), page 11, says : * It appears to us that the 
 most comprehensive, far-reaching, and productive plan for 
 bringing that vast continent within the operation of civiliza- 
 tion and under the influence of Christianity would be to 
 scatter and to settle four millions, or about one-half of the 
 African population of this country, in the land of their 
 fathers. Place a million in Liberia, a million in the Niger 
 districts and Yorubaland, which latter country seems now 
 
REPA TRIA TION AND LIBERIA. 253 
 
 open to receive them, a million on the Congo, and a million 
 in East Africa.' 
 
 With all due respect and deference to the organization 
 which has done, and is doing, the Ethiopian race such 
 yeoman services, we must beg leave to hurl our unqualified 
 protest against that proposition of the American Coloniza- 
 tion Society. 
 
 Members of the American Colonization Society and 
 Liberian Dr. Blyden, are you unaware that the present ten- 
 dency of the European and Yankee world is towards con- 
 centration? Have you never heard of General Count 
 Ignatieff and Panslavism ? Have you never heard of 
 M. Delyannis and Panhellenism ? Have you never heard 
 of British Imperial Federation, Australasian Federation, and 
 — tell it not in Oath and proclaim it not in the streets of 
 Ascalon! — Anglo-Saxon Confederation, which would in- 
 clude the United States? British Imperial Federation, 
 like Panslavism and Panhellenism, is both possible and 
 probable. But while it is possible, Anglo-Saxon Confedera- 
 tion is improbable. Two kings, or, rather, queens, of 
 Brentford, like Colombia and Britannia, cannot sit on the 
 same throne. Were Britain and America, however, united, 
 what European power would dare draw the sword without 
 the Anglo-Saxon's consent ? 
 
 But Lord North has prevented what might and could 
 have been, to the exceeding joy of Frenchmen, Russians, 
 and other rivals of Britishers. 
 
 Members of the American Colonization Society and 
 Liberian Blyden, are you forgetful of the fact that Germany, 
 like the United Kingdom and France, is now united ? Are 
 you unaware that united and regenerated Italy is the work 
 of Guiseppe Garibaldi, Camillo Benso di Cavour, and last, 
 not least, Guiseppe Mazzini ? We ask you, Could not 
 Russia and Austro-Hungary pour their legions, and snatch 
 
254 THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA. 
 
 portions of Africa like other European nations ? You will 
 agree with us that they could do so if they chose. Surely, 
 if Italy, Spain, Portugal, and Belgium can be in Africa, 
 mighty empires like the Russian and Austro-Hungarian 
 could be there too if they chose. But these modern 
 Augustuses are wise in their generation ; they know that 
 division is weakness, and are engaged in the work of con- 
 centration and consolidation. 
 
 We would ask the xA.merican Colonization Society and 
 Dr. Blyden, Would Texas have been so easily annexed in 
 1845 by President Polk, the defeats of Palo Alto, Resaca 
 de la Palma, and Buena Vista inflicted on the countrymen 
 of Iturbide, Santa Annae, and Porfirio Diaz by Yankee 
 Taylor so crushing and humiliating, the State of California 
 and territories of Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico so coolly 
 ceded by the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848) to the 
 United States by Mexico, were the Spanish-speaking states 
 of Central and South America united and allied with the 
 latter country (Mexico) } Their selfish and insatiable greed 
 for the sweets of power will one day, we fear as much, 
 enable the earth-eating Yankees to easily swallow up all the 
 Spanish American republics. If Spanish America were 
 joined to Spain, that power would be more powerful than 
 it is. 
 
 The Yankees could easily carry their arms into the bosom 
 of our Africa if they felt so inclined ; but the dread of the 
 weakness of division and the power of unity rather than the 
 Monroe doctrine prevent them from ' rushing ' and bleeding 
 our sorrow-stricken and unhappy Africa to death. 
 
 Have the American Colonization Society forgotten with 
 what determination for four consecutive years their sires of 
 the North fought their sires of the South ? And wherefore? 
 Was it merely because of Africo-American slavery ? or was 
 it rather that the North wished to retie the ' untied ' states, 
 
REPATRIATION AND LIBERIA. 255 
 
 to save and maintain the Union? That pseudo-philan- 
 thropist Yankee, Abraham Lincohi, writing on August 22, 
 1862, said: 'My paramount object is to save the Union, 
 and not either to save or destroy slavery. If I could save 
 the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it ; if I 
 could save it by freeing all the slaves, I woiild do it ; and 
 if I could do it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I 
 would also do that.' But Abraham Lincoln saved the Union, 
 not wheft he freed the slaves, but when he armed them, as the 
 seceding white soldiers of the South learnt to their cost. 
 
 We would urge upon the American Colonization Society 
 and Liberian Professor Blyden"^ the necessity of occupying 
 themselves only with colonizing Liberia with African ex- 
 patriates. From Liberia missionaries and other civilizers 
 of Liberian nationality can pour into the heart of Africa. 
 
 These are, then, our reasons for saying that there should 
 not be two or more independent civilized Ethiopian States 
 in Africa or elsewhere, and in that all true-hearted Africans, 
 we are sure, will agree with us. 
 
 Liberia and Hayti will never draw the sword against one 
 another. Hayti, being small, cannot contain as great a 
 number of people as Liberia, but may some day need 
 Liberia's assistance ; and we are sanguine that the friend- 
 ship of Liberia and Hayti for one another will endure till 
 the end of time. 
 
 The Republic of Liberia is the country we suggest should 
 be offered as a home to all the Africo-Americans. And 
 Liberia, the Land of the Free, the Light of Africa, has her 
 arms ever open and ever ready to welcome all Africans 
 who are willing to become citizens of her Repubhc, and 
 
 ■*^ If Dr. E. W. Blyden and the American Colonization Society 
 should persist in their endeavours to send the Americo-Africans 
 to anywhere else than Liberia, then it would be our business to 
 oppose them most energetically. 
 
256 THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA. 
 
 to submit to her authority. There are twenty millions or 
 more of Africans— the Haytians do not come under con- 
 sideration because they are independent — who are expatri- 
 ates, living under Caucasian rule, who, should they wish to 
 be independent, ought to betake themselves to Liberia and 
 there find a home. And should the hundreds of millions 
 of African natives on the African Continent who are living 
 under Caucasian rule also desire independence, they also 
 should join the Liberians. 
 
 Liberia must become a mighty nation, and she must 
 astonish the world. She must march and grow as fast as 
 the United States of North America have done. She must 
 crush and expel all oppressors of the Africans in Africa. 
 Were the Liberian nation a mighty one, would the perpe- 
 trators of the Yambuya and other Stanley horrors in Africa 
 have gone unpunished, and continued roaming at large? 
 Justice, ' even-handed Justice,' retributive Nemesis, would 
 surely have overtaken them. 
 
 Was it not the duty of the British Government to have 
 tried Stanley and his filibustering companions ? They did 
 not, and their conduct in this matter was suspicious. Very 
 likely the British Government was directly interested in 
 Stanley's expedition ; at any rate, Stanley and his free- 
 booters have escaped in this world the severe punishment 
 which is their due. 
 
 That the Liberian Republic is the only suitable Father- 
 land for the Americo-Africans and for all other Africans 
 can be exemplified and attested. The Liberian Constitution 
 is modelled on that of the United States, which is a Consti- 
 tution copied not only by the Liberians, but also by Mexico, 
 Chili, Argentina, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, 
 Bolivia, Paraguay, Uruguay, Nicaragua, Honduras, San 
 Salvador, Guatemala, and Costa Rica also, this fact testifying 
 to its excellency and wholesomeness. 
 
 I 
 
REPATRIATION AND LIBERIA. 257 
 
 't is that Constitution, then, that the Americo-Africans 
 are used to in Liberia ; but in Liberia there is no mob rule, 
 no lynch law ; there are no lynchings, no oppressions. 
 Justice, ' even-handed Justice,' prevails and is paramount in 
 Liberia. 
 
 No Race Problem can possibly exist in Liberia, because no 
 man who is not of African descent can be a Liberian citizen. 
 
 The Liberian rulers are not whites, as in the United 
 States and the British Colonies ; they are blacks. 
 
 The official language is not French, as is the case in the 
 Congo Free State, bat English, the language which the 
 Africo- American uses daily and exclusively, and has as his 
 adopted mother-tongue. 
 
 Unlike the Congo Free State, Liberia is progressing. 
 The Chief Magistrate is a Liberian, but the Chief of the 
 Congo Free State is a foreigner. 
 
 These are the advantages she possesses over the Congo 
 Free State, and these show that she is in every way the 
 suitable and indeed, the only, country for the Africans 
 from the United States of North America. 
 
 Liberia rejoices in having three distinct and separate 
 powers of Governmental Administration, viz., the Executive, 
 the Legislative, and the Judicial. 
 
 The Executive power is vested in the President, Vice- 
 President, Secretary of State, Secretary of Treasury, 
 Attorney-General, Postmaster-General, etc. ; the Legislative 
 power is vested in the House of Senators and the House 
 of Representatives ; and the Judicial authority is vested in 
 a Supreme Court and in several inferior courts, with a Chief 
 Justice, certain other judges, and divers magistrates. 
 
 Liberia has in her all the elements of progress, and, 
 embracing as it does at least 150,000 square miles of 
 territory, Liberia has room enough to accommodate the 
 entire body of expatriated Africans. 
 
 17 
 
V 
 
 258 THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA. 
 
 The Liberians have counties, townships, chartered cities, 
 mayors, aldermen, public libraries and librarians, churches 
 and clergymen, coroners, colleges and schools, professors 
 and teachers, lawyers and medical men, stores and mer- 
 chants, warehouses, wharves, custom-houses, lighthouses, 
 forts, a body of regular soldiers, militia, and police. 
 
 Among the important towns and ports of Liberia there are 
 Monrovia, the capital, chief port and seat of government 
 Harper, New Georgia, Caldwell, Kentucky, Millsburg, Mar- 
 shall, Edina or Buchanan, Greenville, Robertsport, Grand 
 Bassa, Cresson, Trade Town, Bexley, Readsville, Sesters 
 River, Lexington, Cestos, Sasstown and Louisiana. 
 
 But are these the only evidences of Liberian civilization 
 and progress ? Far from it. Liberia produces and trades 
 in cocoa, coffee, cotton, indigo, ivory, dye-woods (including 
 cam-woods), gold, tortoiseshell, hides, iron, copper, rubber, 
 the teeth of the sea-horse, palm-oil, cattle, goats, swine, 
 fowls, ducks, sheep, the sugar-cane, rice, Indian corn, Guinea 
 corn, millet, gums, wax, ground-nuts, ginger, pepper, arrow- 
 root, palm - kernels, yams, bananas, cassava, pineapples, 
 oranges, limes, cocoanuts, tamarinds, and other things. 
 
 The Liberian Constitution, we might have mentioned 
 before, while it tolerates all religions and forms of worship, 
 neither has, nor would allow, any Established Church ; and 
 this the Constitution of the United States also disallows. 
 The Liberian Constitution, modelled, as it is, on the Ameri- 
 can, is better than the British Constitution for a newly- 
 formed country. 
 
 In Liberia there is no such thing as an Ireland, or a 
 Scotland, or a Wales, clamouring for Home Rule, as is the 
 case in Britain. 
 
 The Chief Magistrate of the Liberians is not bound tO; 
 belong to a particular branch of Christianity, as is the case j 
 with the British Sovereign. 
 
REP A TRIA TION AND LIBERIA . 2 59 
 
 There is no such thing as a politico-established religion 
 in Liberia, as is the case with Britain. The Protestant 
 Dissenters and the Catholics long to see the Anglican 
 State Church and the Scottish Presbyterian State Church 
 pulled to pieces and destroyed, as was the Irish State 
 Church ; and they are repeatedly assaulting these Churches, 
 continually pecking at their crest. The Protestant Dis- 
 senters have formed the English Liberation Society 
 with that as its object. The Liberian Constitution does 
 not present such an incongruity or such an injustice as 
 that, whilst a Protestant, or Orthodox Greek, or even a 
 Jew, a Mussulman, an Agnostic, an idolater, or an unbe- 
 liever, may fill any post in Her Britannic Majesty's service, 
 the British Catholic has two positions from which he 
 is absolutely debarred ; they are (i) the Viceroyalty of 
 Ireland and (2) the Lord Chancellorship of England. But 
 every post in the service of the Sovereign People of 
 Liberia is open to all Christians ahke, though to none but 
 Christians. 
 
 Another weak point in the British Constitution is that 
 every Member of Parliament, no matter of what religion he 
 professes to be, no matter what denomination he belongs 
 to, no matter whether he believes in any religion or in none, 
 is allowed to legislate, if he can command a majority in 
 some constituency, for the politico-established Episcopal 
 Church of England. But such an absurdity does not exist 
 in Liberia, the Liberians happily having no established 
 church, and wishing for none. 
 
 It may not be amiss to add here that the days when 
 Protestant Henry VIII. burnt, or beheaded, or other- 
 wise persecuted. Catholics ; the days when Catholic 
 Mary I. burnt, or beheaded, or otherwise persecuted, 
 Protestants ; the days when the Atheistic Protestant 
 Elizabeth burnt, or beheaded, or otherwise persecuted, 
 
 17 — 2 
 
26o THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA. 
 
 Catholics and Protestant Nonconformists or Dissenters ; 
 the days when James I., Charles L, and Charles II. perse- 
 cuted those who differed from them in religious opinions, 
 will never be known in Liberia. 
 
 The Puritans of New England, because they were perse- 
 cuted in the Mother Country, fled to America, but when the 
 Quakers, who were inferior to them in numbers, for the 
 same reason followed the Puritans into the New England 
 States of America, the Puritans burnt or otherwise perse- 
 cuted the members of the Society of Friends. The Liberians 
 are never likely to make so grave a mistake. 
 
 Liberia, as we said before, is in every way a fitting place 
 for the Africo-American. It is the country to which 
 the American Government ought to send its Africans ; and 
 the Liberians would be only too happy to receive and 
 welcome them. How Liberia is progressing, and how 
 vastly superior she is to the Congo Free State, we have 
 fully shown. And we add to all this that no slavery exists 
 in Liberia, though it exists in a very virulent form in the 
 Congo Free State. 
 
 This is the way in which we look at our Liberia ; but do 
 others see our Liberia with the same eyes } Do the enemies, 
 or rather (let us be generous) the opponents, of the Africans 
 see our Liberia in the same light and with the same eyes as 
 we do ? Let us see how Laird Clowes looks at the 
 Liberians. 
 
 Writing on pages i6o and i6i of his 'Black America,' 
 this gentleman gives it as his opinion that ' Not only in 
 St. Domingo has the experiment of Negro self-government 
 been tried under pseudo-civilized conditions, it has been 
 tried also in Liberia, and with almost equally bad results. 
 To-day in Liberia whites are treated by the blacks much as 
 blacks are treated by whites in the South. A Negro 
 State has never yet shown itself worthy to rank on terms of 
 
REPATRIATION AND LIBERIA. 261 
 
 equality with a white one, and there are no symptoms that 
 it will ever reach that level. Diplomatic intercourse with 
 such States cannot be carried on under ordinary conditions, 
 neither can commercial transactions. Black rule means 
 anarchy, and it invariably brings to the front the fact that 
 the Negro hates the white as much as the white hates him, 
 and is even more ready than the white is to play the tyrant 
 and the oppressor. Life for a white in every existing Negro 
 state is well-nigh unendurable.' 
 
 Laird Clowes's arguments are founded on his ignorance of 
 facts. We have fairly shown that he has been contending 
 against the African in his ' Black America ' with the weapons 
 of Ignorance and Prejudice. To take his statements piece 
 by piece. Laird Clowes, in the first place, says that * Not 
 only in St. Domingo has the experiment of African self- 
 government been tried under pseudo-civilized conditions.' 
 But have we not proved that the Republic of Hayti or St. 
 Domingo is flourishing? It would be needless to enter 
 again on this discussion. At the same time, was Toussaint- 
 L'Ouverture the Great, the Father of his Country and of 
 the Haytian Constitution, a pseudo-civilized President and 
 Commander-in-chief? Not the Royal Toussaint the Great, 
 surely ! Friends and enemies, countrymen and foreigners, 
 and even James Anthony Froude and Sir Spencer St. John,* 
 testify to the greatness of Toussaint-L'Ouverture. Laird 
 Clowes would have us believe that the Liberator of St. 
 Domingo was a pseudo-civilized man. A great Captain and 
 Governor like Toussaint surely knew how to choose his 
 ministers; and DessaHnes and Christophe, his two first 
 lieutenants and advisers, we all know were great men. 
 Laird Clowes makes a great mistake when he imagines that 
 his intelligent readers are gullible believers of what un- 
 founded things he may be pleased to write. The statement 
 '•'■ Also see chap, vi., p. 227. 
 
262 THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA 
 
 that ' the experiment of Negro self-government has been 
 tried under pseudo-civilized conditions ' is false from the 
 beginning to the end. 
 
 In the second place, he says : ' It {i.e., the experiment of 
 African self-government) has been tried also in Liberia, and 
 with almost equally bad results. To-day in Liberia whites 
 are treated by the blacks much as blacks are treated by 
 whites in the South.' Of course, Laird Clowes in this 
 makes a mere unsupported statement. He does not attempt 
 to support his statement by evidence, because there is none 
 that can be offered. The first settlers who went to Liberia 
 were great men. When the American Colonization Society 
 generously called upon the African freedmen in the United 
 States of North America (in 1822) to return to the land of 
 their fathers, the liberated Americo-Africans did not shrink 
 from the undertaking. No ; they responded loyally and cheer- 
 fully to the generous call of the Africo- Americans. They 
 (the first settlers) were a pious, God-fearing band ; they were 
 few in number, a mere handful, but they had stout hearts, 
 and every one of them was a host in himself. Their task in 
 the land of their fathers, in Liberia, was not an easy one ; it 
 was arduous and Herculean. But what will not stout hearts 
 accomplish ? The founders of the Liberian nation, because 
 they were brave, did not shirk their duty, but worked and 
 fought like Trojans ; and because they were heroes they 
 conquered. 
 
 Liberia is flourishing, is progressing. The American 
 Colonization Society attest that Liberia is progressing, 
 and keeping pace with nineteenth -century civilization. 
 That society is not composed of one man, but of scores 
 of intelligent white Americans. And can a mere assertion 
 of Laird Clowes counterbalance the evidence of that 
 society? Liberia has only had (1891) forty-four years of 
 Independence, yet she is progressing. But what was the 
 
REPA TRIA TION AND LIBERIA. 263 
 
 condition of England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, France, 
 Germany, Austro-Hungary, Russia, Spain, Norway and 
 Sweden, Denmark, Holland, Portugal, Switzerland, when 
 each of these countries had forty-four years of Inde- 
 pendence or self-government? What that condition was 
 the student of European History knows only too well. 
 
 But are the American Colonization Society the only 
 persons who thus bear testimony to the progress of 
 Liberia, and eulogize the Liberians? Brookes's 'General 
 Gazetteer ' also testifies to the capabilities of the Liberians 
 for self-government, and to the condition of Liberia 
 generally. It says : 
 
 ' The greater part of the early settlers from America 
 were men of decided piety, and their just, humane, and 
 benevolent policy has given them an astonishing influence 
 over the native tribes. In 1827 this sable community had 
 risen completely above the pressure of urgent necessities. 
 Monrovia was rapidly increasing in accommodation and 
 increasing in magnitude, and several fresh towns were 
 already springing up. The soil is extremely fertile ; the 
 natives of the country, without tools, without skill, and 
 with little labour, raising more grain and vegetables than j/ 
 they can consume, and often more than they can sell. 
 Cattle, swine, fowls, ducks, goats, and sheep thrive without 
 feeding, and require no other care than to keep them from 
 straying. Cotton, coffee, indigo, and sugar-cane are all the 
 spontaneous growth of the forests, and may be cultivated 
 at pleasure to any extent by such as are disposed. The 
 same may be said of rice, Indian corn, Guinea corn, millet, 
 and too many species of fruits and vegetables to be 
 enumerated. Add to all this that winter is here unknown ; 
 the hills and plains are covered with perpetual verdure, 
 and Nature is constantly pouring her treasures, all the year 
 round, into the laps of the industrious. The trade and 
 
264 THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA, 
 
 commerce extend to the coast, to the interior parts of the 
 continent, and to foreign vessels, and are already valuable, 
 and fast increasing. The chief exports are rice, palm-oil, 
 ivory, tortoiseshell, dye-woods, gold, hides, wax, and a 
 small (?) amount of coffee. The imports consist of the pro- 
 ducts and manufactures of the four quarters of the world. 
 The harbour is seldom clear of European and American 
 shipping, and the bustle and thronging of the streets show 
 something already of the activity of the smaller seaports of 
 the United States. Mechanics of nearly every trade are 
 carrying on their various occupations, and not a child 
 or youth in the colony but is provided with an appro- 
 priate school. The piety of the first settlers has continued 
 to spread, and the standard of morals consequently remains 
 high. The Sabbath is carefully regarded, and Sunday- 
 schools have been established for the benefit of the native 
 children. The cheerful abodes of civilization and happi- 
 ness ; the flourishing settlements ; the sound of Christian 
 instruction, and scenes of Christian worship, which are 
 heard and seen in this land of brooding pagan darkness ; 
 a thousand contented freemen united in founding a Christian 
 Empire, happy themselves, and the instrument of happiness 
 to others, while they refresh the hearts, cannot fail to en- 
 courage the brightest anticipations of Christian philan- 
 thropists.' 
 
 The Rev. W. Moister, a British clergyman of the Wes- 
 leyan persuasion, who has had a long residence among 
 the African people of the west and south, and is, therefore, 
 a competent and duly-qualified person to speak with some 
 authority ot Liberia and its people, also eulogizes the 
 Liberians in this wise : 
 
 ' The majority of the early settlers were men of steady, 
 industrious habits and decided piety belonging to different 
 Christian denominations, and they set about the cultivation 
 
REPA TRIA TION AND LIBERIA. 265 
 
 of the ground, and the preparation of homes for themselves 
 and their families in their adopted country, in a manner 
 which augured well for the success of the enterprise. Their 
 just, humane, and benevolent policy was, moreover, said to 
 have given them astonishing influence over the native tribes, 
 and the settlement was commenced under favourable and 
 promising circumstances. 
 
 * Although thus commenced by emigrants from America, 
 Liberia was not an American Colony, properly speaking, 
 but a small Republic or Commonwealth, after the model 
 of the United States, and entirely independent of the 
 parent country politically, although receiving important 
 moral and material aid from it in different ways when 
 necessary. 
 
 ' Accordingly, a Constitution and Laws were framed for 
 the Government of the settlement, provision being made 
 for the selection of a President, Members of the House of 
 Representatives, and other public functionaries. Of course, 
 the difficulties connected with the founding of this infant 
 nation were neither few nor small, and some errors may 
 have been made at an early period of the undertaking; 
 but, notwithstanding every drawback, in all fairness it must 
 be said that the enterprise succeeded better than could 
 have been expected, all things being considered. As the 
 number of settlers increased, townships were laid out, farms 
 cultivated, towns and villages planned, and buildings erected 
 in some of them which were very creditable to a rising 
 community. 
 
 * The soil of Liberia is reported to be extremely fertile, 
 and well adapted to the growth of all kinds of tropical 
 produce. Cotton, coffee, indigo, and the sugar-cane thrive 
 well, and rice, Indian corn, Guinea corn, millet, and various 
 kinds of fruits and vegetables, are cultivated with ease and 
 success. Cattle, sheep, goats, swine, fowls, and ducks are 
 
266 THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA. 
 
 said to thrive with little feeding, and to require no other 
 care than to keep them from straying. 
 
 ' Much zeal and perseverance have been displayed in all 
 these Christian agencies, and the result is seen in the 
 parsonages, places of worship, colleges, and school buildings 
 which have been erected in most of the towns and villages 
 in the settlement,, and in the improved morals of the people, 
 which will compare favourably with those of many other 
 Christian countries, and which augur well for the future 
 prosperity of Liberia.'* 
 
 Yet Laird Clowes would have his readers believe that 
 'the experiment of Negro self-government has been tried 
 in Liberia with ahiiost equally bad results' But the autho- 
 rities just quoted evidently do not share Laird Clowes's 
 opinions and sentiments. Nobler feelings and better 
 passions towards their fellow-men actuate them ; the truth 
 of what they personally know guides them in their utter- 
 ances. Like the good Mussulman, Abou ben Adhem, and 
 the good Christian, the unfortunate American John Brown, 
 they love their fellow-men. 
 
 But what can Laird Clowes mean when he says : ' To-day 
 in Liberia whites are treated by the blacks much as blacks 
 are treated by whites in the South ' ? Can he mean that 
 whites in Liberia are lynched by Liberians ? Can he mean 
 that whites are refased a hearing, a fair hearing, in the 
 Liberian Courts of Justice ? Can he mean that the persons 
 and property of whites are not protected by Liberian law ? 
 He cannot surely mean either of these things. Supposing 
 it were even as Laird Clowes gives out, that the whites are 
 maltreated in Liberia, have the European and American 
 Ministers and Consuls-General in Liberia made any protest 
 against the maltreatment of the whites by the Liberians ? 
 
 * 'Africa : Past and Present,' by an Old Resident, pp. 222, 
 223, 225. 
 
REPATRIATION AND LIBERIA. 267 
 
 If Clowes were true in his accusation, would these officials 
 not have lodged some protest with the Liberian Govern- 
 ment ? They have not done so ; and we must therefore 
 take it for granted that the whites are not maltreated by 
 the Liberian citizens, or unprotected by the Liberian 
 Government. Affairs are not in that strained relation, and 
 we must again ask. What does Laird Clowes mean by 
 saying that * to-day, in Liberia, whites are treated by the 
 blacks much as blacks are treated by whites in the South ' ? 
 To that statement we attach one, and only one meaning. 
 In plain words, Mr. Clowes would have his readers under- 
 stand that the Liberian Constitutional Government abso- 
 lutely refuses to confer citizenship on the white man in 
 Liberia. That is how we take his words. We must admit 
 — but it is familiar knowledge — that the Liberian Constitu- 
 tion confers citizenship on none save those of African 
 descent ; and for this policy the Liberians are certainly to 
 be commended and congratulated. If citizenship were 
 conferred on the white man, why, Liberia would simply 
 be swamped by the white men, and this would endanger 
 the safety and independence of the Liberian Republic. 
 The Liberians protect the property and persons of the 
 whites, and give them a fair and impartial hearing in their 
 Courts of Justice. In Liberia white men are not lynched ; 
 but the Africans in the United States of North America, 
 and particularly in the Sunny South, suffer all these mal- 
 treatments and are unprotected by the American law. The 
 condition of the white in Liberia is far better than the con- 
 dition of the black is in the United States. The African 
 in the United States is regarded by the white man as an 
 alien, and has no civic rights ; and must the African in 
 Liberia good-naturedly confer citizenship on the Caucasian ? 
 The British inhabitants of Cape Colony and Natal have a 
 Constitution, but in neither of these do the African in- 
 
268 THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA, 
 
 habitants possess civic rights. And must Liberia be the 
 white man's milch cow and have citizenship conferred on 
 him ? The aboriginal inhabitants of Australia, though the 
 natural owners of the soil, have no political rights, while 
 the descendants of the convict-settlers lord it over them. 
 Yet must Liberia, forsooth, bestow on the white man the 
 rights of a Liberian citizen ? The Liberians will be fooHsh 
 indeed if they ever confer citizenship on the white man. 
 Should they ever do so, they would be simply sharpening a 
 sword for their own heads, and planting the seed of a Race 
 Problem which would threaten the very existence of the 
 Liberian Republic. But they have too much good sense to 
 make such a fatal mistake. 
 
 In the third place, Laird Clowes gravely tells us that 
 ' A Negro State has never yet shown itself worthy to rank 
 on terms of equality with a white one, and there are no 
 symptoms that it will ever reach that level.' Is Mr. Clowes 
 aware, or is he forgetful of the fact, that such Hamitic or 
 African States as Canaan, Phoenicia, Carthage, Assyria, 
 Babylon, Ethiopia, Abyssinia, Morocco, Ashantee, Daho- 
 mey, Sokoto, Gandu, Bornu, Zululand and others, have 
 flourished! Was not Canaan the equal of its white con- 
 temporaries? The Phoenician Empire was at least equal 
 to its white contemporaries, when her ships, her navy, 
 scoured every sea. 
 
 Did not Carthage, when in the height of her power, give 
 laws to Spain and Portugal, and hold Sardinia, Sicily, Cor- 
 sica, and the Balearic Islands in subjection ? Were not the 
 Carthaginians the equals of the Romans, and were they not 
 the mightiest antagonists the Romans ever encountered? 
 Was not the Assyrian or Babylonian Empire of the 
 Nabuchadonosors one of the greatest that ever existed in the 
 world? Yet Laird Clowes tells us that an African State 
 has never yet shown itself worthy to rank on terms of 
 
REP A TRIA TION AND LIBERIA . 269 
 
 equality with a white one ! Ethiopia (modern Nubia) and 
 Abyssinia have been mighty Empires, and have not these 
 in their prime, and in the summit of their glory, been each 
 the equal of their white contemporaries ? 
 
 Did not Morocco, when in the zenith of her power, dictate 
 laws to the Spaniards and Portuguese ? This State, when in 
 its prime, equalled the best European States then in existence. 
 Morocco, like Abyssinia, even now takes rank with many 
 white States. Have not Ashantee, Dahomey, Madagascar, 
 Sokoto, Gandu, Bornu, Zululand, and other African States, 
 as we had occasion to point out, made their mark in this 
 world's history ? Liberia and Hayti, though they do not 
 rank with Britain, France, Germany, Russia, Austro- 
 Hungary, Italy, United States of North America, and Spain, 
 and other Caucasian Countries, on terms of equality, are 
 certainly on a level with Roumania, Greece, Bulgaria, 
 Switzerland, Servia, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, 
 Bolivia, and Uruguay ; while Paraguay, Montenegro, Hon- 
 duras, San Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, 
 Transvaal, Congo Free State of Belgian Leopold, Zulu 
 Republic, Monaco, Andorra, San Marino, Liechtenstein, 
 and Luxemburg are each immeasurably inferior to the 
 respective allied kindred States of Liberia and Hayti. 
 
 In the fourth place, Mr. Clowes goes on to say that 
 * Diplomatic intercourse with such (African) States cannot 
 be carried on under ordinary conditions ; neither can com- 
 mercial transactions.' This is, again, an argumentum ad 
 ignorantiam. 
 
 Is Mr. Clowes aware that the principal countries of 
 Europe and the Americas receive Ministers and Consuls- 
 General and Consuls from Liberia and Hayti, while these 
 latter receive in their turn diplomatic and commercial repre- 
 sentatives from the Americas and Europe ? It is common 
 knowledge that whilst Britain is represented in Hayti in th e 
 
270 THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA. 
 
 person of Mr. James N. E. Zohrab, the Consul-General and 
 Minister, Monsieur P. E. Latortue represents Hayti in like 
 manner in Britain; Hannibal Price, Esq., does the same 
 duty for her in the United States of North America, and 
 Mr. Frederic Douglass is the Yankee Minister to Hayti. 
 It is also common knowledge that whilst Liberia is repre- 
 sented by her Minister in the United States, the Yankees 
 are represented in Liberia by the Rev. Mr. Ezekiel Ezra 
 Smith, Consul-General and Minister-Resident. And while 
 Sir James Shaw Hay represents British interests in Liberia, 
 Mr. Henry Hayman discharges similar functions in Britain. 
 That being so, is there anyone who will deny that the state- 
 ment that ' Diplomatic intercourse with such (Negro) States 
 cannot be carried on under ordinary conditions ; neither 
 can commercia transactions,' as made by Laird Clowes, is 
 as foohsh as it is untrue, and evidently based on ignorance 
 and prejudice ? 
 
 In the fifth place, Laird Clowes asserts that ' Black 
 rule means anarchy, and it invariably brings to the front 
 the fact that the Negro hates the white as much as the 
 white hates him, and is even more ready than the white is 
 to play the tyrant and the oppressor. Life for a white in 
 every existing Negro State is well-nigh unendurable.' Does 
 anarchy, then, reign in Liberia ? Does anarchy reign, then, 
 in Hayti ? But has Europe never experienced anarchy ? 
 Have the Americas never experienced anarchy ? Mr 
 Clowes says that ' The Negro hates the white as much as 
 the white hates him, and is even more ready than the white 
 is to play the tyrant and the oppressor.' The opinion of 
 an African is surely equal to that of a Caucasian ; and, 
 believing our say to be as good as /«>, we give an emphatic 
 and entire denial to the allegations of Laird Clowes. Al- 
 though he may hate the African, the African does not hate 
 even the Commissioner of the Times. Though the Yankee 
 
REP A TRIA TION AND LIBERIA . 271 
 
 plays the tyrant and the oppressor to the Africans in the 
 United States, the Liberians and Haytians do not retaliate. 
 How could our Liberians and Haytians retaliate ? If the 
 Liberians and Haytians did play the tyrant and oppressor, 
 would the Europeans and American Powers take no action 
 in the matter? 
 
 There are Britishers and other Caucasians in Liberia and 
 Hayti, as all the world knows. Are they tyrannized over 
 and oppressed, and do they remain passive ? Surely Britain, 
 the Power who is bullying small States like Portugal in 
 South Africa, and Venezuela in South America on the 
 Guianese Boundary Question, would not hesitate to bully, if 
 not to bombard, the Liberians and Haytians if the Britishers 
 in Liberia and Hayti were maltreated ! But, as Britain 
 takes no steps against the Liberians and Haytians, our 
 knowledge of the world assures us that the ill-treatment of 
 Caucasians in Liberia and Hayti is a dream of Laird 
 Clowes. A more affable and hospitable people than the 
 Liberian and the Haytian does not exist on this our earth. 
 ' Life for a white in every existing Negro State is well-nigh 
 unendurable ' indeed ! But. would the British Indiarubber 
 States Company (Limited) have been formed ' for the pur- 
 pose of acquiring and working a concession from the 
 Government of the Republic of Liberia, for the sole right 
 of collecting and exporting indiarubber and guttapercha 
 from the said Republic for the European and American 
 markets,' if 'life for a white in every existing Negro State 
 was well-nigh unendurable,' and ' black rule meant anarchy '? 
 There are many Europeans and Americans both in Liberia 
 and in Hayti who are happy and contented. 
 
 Laird Clowes wanted to show, but he did not show, that 
 ' a fringe of Negro States on the southern and south- 
 eastern borders of the (American) Union would be a per- 
 petual danger to the whole Federation ;' but he failed, we 
 
272 THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA. 
 
 say. Instead of making that his business, he directed an 
 angry tirade and rigmarole against the Liberians and 
 Haytians and Africans' in general, and said that ' Not only 
 in St. Domingo has the experiment of Negro self-Govern- 
 ment been tried under pseudo-civilized conditions. It has 
 been tried also in Liberia, and with almost equally bad 
 results,' etc. But we have taken pains to refute every one 
 of his calumnies. There must not be ' a fringe of Negro 
 States on the southern and south-eastern borders of the 
 (American) Union ' is Laird Clowes's suggestion. And in 
 that he has our support. The Africo- Americans ought on 
 no account to remain ; and in order to effectively solve 
 the Race Problem, we counsel Repatriation to Africa and 
 Independence in Liberia. Liberia is in every way a fitting 
 Fatherland for the African in the United States. The 
 founders of the Liberian Republic originally came from 
 America, and returned to the land of their ancestors. Why 
 should not the Africans in the United States of North 
 America follow their example ? Were the first President of 
 the Liberians, Joseph Jenkins Roberts, to rise from his 
 grave, he would express surprise at the progress the Liberians 
 have made and are making. 
 
 Laird Clowes, after libelling the Liberians on pages i6o 
 and i6i of his ' Black America,' thus writes on page 183 in 
 the same book : ' Jefferson, who died nearly forty years 
 before Emancipation became an accomplished fact, did not 
 omit to prepare, so far as lay in his power, for the evil he 
 saw approaching. With Henry Clay and others he founded 
 the African Colonization Society, which established on the 
 West Coast of Africa the Negro Republic of Liberia, and 
 between 1820 and i860 sent thither about 10,000 free 
 coloured people. It may at once be admitted that the 
 Colony has not been a conspicuous success, for the 
 American immigrants and their descendants now hardly 
 
REP A TRIA TION AND LIBERIA . 27 3 
 
 number 5,000 souls, and according to Mr. Charles H. J. 
 Taylor, a late American Minister to the Republic, the place 
 is to-day "a land of snakes, centipedes, fever, miasma, 
 poverty, superstition, and death.'" 
 
 The Colonization Society, which with philanthropic gene- 
 rosity sent the captive Africans from the land of the Yankees 
 to build up the Liberian Nation in Africa, was, and is, 
 not called the African^ but the A??iericap, Society, inasmuch 
 as the society originated in America. It is a slight error 
 Laird Clowes makes, we admit, but it is still a mistake. A 
 more fitting name for that organization would, however, be 
 the Liberian Repatriaticn and Colonizaimi Society. We 
 would humbly recommend it to the American Colonization 
 Society for adoption. 
 
 He gives us to understand that Jefferson, * with Henry 
 Clay and others, founded the African (American) Coloniza- 
 tion Society.' The real founder of the American Coloniza- 
 tion Society was Henry Clay himself. He was the founder, 
 and not Jefferson. Clay did not merely support Jefferson, 
 but was the organizer of the American Colonization Society. 
 Henry Clay was not, however, a philanthropist and aboli- 
 tionist of the William Wilberforce type. His philanthropy 
 and abolition were not of the right sort. While he was for 
 abolishing slavery in all the States of the American Union 
 lying to the north of latitude -^d" 30', he advocated the cause 
 of slavery in Missouri and the Slave States. He was for 
 perpetuating slavery in California, if that State so desired, 
 while he was for abolishing slavery in Columbia, and for 
 leaving the States of New Mexico to their discretion. 
 
 Despite the eccentricity of Henry Clay, no one will deny 
 that he has rendered the Africans a service by helping to 
 send them to Liberia. Would that every white American 
 would contribute to send the American African to the land 
 of his forefathers — to Liberia ! It is the debt every white 
 
 18 
 
274 THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA. 
 
 American owes the African in the United States, and one 
 which he must some day discharge. The American 
 Colonization Society, it is true, yearly sends expatriates to 
 repatriation, Independence, and Liberia ; but we think the 
 American Government could easily spare a few millions of 
 dollars for the American Africans, with which they might be 
 sent in a body to Africa, to Liberia. 
 
 Laird Clowes tells us that ' it may at once be admitted 
 that the Colony (of Liberia) has not been a conspicuous 
 success, for the American immigrants and their descendants 
 now hardly number 5,000 souls.' Well^ we do not ' at once 
 admit ' that Liberia has not been a conspicuous success^ but we 
 firmly declare that Liberia has been a conspicuous success. 
 The Africaft Repository for April, 1891, the organ of the 
 American Colonization Society, says with authority : 
 ' Emigration to Liberia every year under the auspices of 
 the American Colonization Society has been uninterrupted 
 for the past seventy years. Those now reported make the 
 number sent since the civil war to be 4,201, and a total 
 from the beginning of 16,209, exclusive of 4,722 recaptured 
 Africans, which it induced and enabled the Government of 
 the United States to settle in Liberia, making a grand total 
 of 21,921 persons to whom the Society has given homes in 
 Africa,' thereby showing that Liberia is being gradually 
 reinforced. 
 
 Mr. Clowes, again, says : ' According to Mr. Charles H. J. 
 Taylor, a late American Minister to the Republic of Liberia, 
 the place is to-day " a land of snakes, centipedes, fever, 
 miasma, poverty, superstition, and death." ' That was what 
 Mr. Charles H. J. Taylor, said ; but there are others who 
 have spread even worse reports than that of Liberia. 
 
 The Hon. and Rev. Ezekiel Ezra Smith, who is not the 
 
 late nor a late American Minister, but is the present (1891) 
 
 , Minister-Resident and Consul-General of the United States 
 
REPA TRIA TION AND LIBERIA. 275 
 
 to Liberia, writing from Monrovia, April i, 1891, thus bears 
 witness to the condition or state of Liberia : ' Since I wrote 
 . . . last I have seen much of Liberia. I have visited Cape 
 Palmas, met with the different churches, and seen something 
 of the operation of the institutions there. I had the pleasure 
 to meet Bishops Ferguson and Taylor, and the leading men 
 generally. I was much delighted while conversing with 
 Bishop Ferguson to ascertain the high hopes he entertained 
 for Liberia's future prosperity. The Bishop is doing effec- 
 tive work. The emigrants last settled at Cape Palmas are 
 doing well. The bullock and cart are considerably employed 
 at this point. 
 
 ^From Cape Palmas I went to Sinoe, the home of Hon. 
 Z. B. Roberts, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, 
 Hon. James J. Ross, ex- Attorney-General, ex- Senator Fuller, 
 and other gentlemen of influence, who, notwithstanding their 
 positions as officials of the Government, have farms. The 
 emigrants located at Sinoe in 1888 are moving on more and 
 more successfully. 
 
 * I next had the pleasure to spend a few days at Grand 
 Bassa, which comprises Lower and Upper Buchanan and 
 Edina. Grand Bassa surpasses either of the towns or settle- 
 ments above mentioned in point of commercial transactions. 
 While there I met some of the emigrants who came in 
 May, 1889. They appear to be doing well, and seem 
 contented. 
 
 'On the 15th ultimo, in company with Hon. C. T. O. 
 King, Hon. H. A. Williams (Mayor of Monrovia), Colonel 
 A. D. Williams, Judge Dennis, and a number of other 
 gentlemen, I embarked for Grand Cape Mount on a small 
 sailing craft. We encountered a most tempestuous voyage, 
 arriving at Cape Mount on the morning of the 17th, being 
 quite wet and much fatigued. Hon. C. T. O. King, myself, 
 and others of the party called out to the settlement where 
 
 18- 2 
 
2/6 777/^ LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA. 
 
 the emigrants were located. After visiting each individual 
 house and looking at their beautiful promising farms, 
 a meeting of all the new-comers was held at the school- 
 house. Oh yes ; they have built themselves a school-house 
 in the centre of the settlement. At the meeting short 
 speeches were made by Mr. King and myself. Afterwards 
 remarks by different persons of the emigrants were made. 
 Each one expressed himself contented. Their farms, con- 
 sisting of coffee, cassava, potatoes, yams, eddoes, cocoa, 
 plantains, bananas, ginger, rice, etc., are as pretty as any 
 I have seen in the country. They have evidently, con- 
 sidering the surroundings, done remarkably well. I also 
 visited the Protestant Episcopal Mission at Cape Mount, 
 and observed somewhat of its workings. I think it is doing 
 a great, yea, a good work. Cape Mount is, indeed, a fine 
 portion of this country.' 
 
 This is what the Hon. and Rev. Ezekiel Ezra Smith 
 says. He is the present United States Minister-Resident and 
 Consul-General to Liberia. He is on the spot, and writes on 
 the spot. He does not say that Liberia is ' a land of snakes, 
 centipedes, fever, miasma, poverty, superstition, and death,' 
 as Mr. Charles H. J. Taylor does, but, on the contrary, he 
 eulogizes it. We certainly prefer the statement of the pre- 
 sent United States Minister in Liberia to that of the Minister 
 of long ago. Yet we are sure that at no time was Liberia 
 'a land of snakes, centipedes, fever, miasma, poverty, 
 superstition, and death ' in the sense he means, not even 
 at the time when he (Mr. Charles H. J. Taylor) was 
 American Minister to Liberia. Liberia was never so un- 
 ortunate as to be subjected to miasma. The sanitary 
 regulations were always rigid, and as rigidly enforced. If 
 there be snakes in Liberia, there are snakes all over the 
 Americas, Australasia, and the West Indies. There are 
 snakes in Asia, particularly in the East Indies, the home 
 
REPA TRIA TION AND LIBERIA. 277 
 
 of the cobra di capello. If there be centipedes in Liberia, 
 there are centipedes all the world over. If there be fever 
 in Liberia, there is fever all the world over, and always will 
 be. Liberia has never experienced such a fell disease as 
 the ' Black Death,' which ravaged not only Asia, but the 
 whole of Europe, laying low at least one -third of the 
 population in every state it visited in the time of the Third 
 Edward, the Prince who humbled the pride of France at 
 Cre^y. 
 
 Liberia has never experienced such a calamity as the 
 Great Plague which made its appearance in Britain in the 
 reign of the Merry Monarch, carrying away between 300,000 
 and 500,000 Britishers to the mansion-house of Hades. 
 But a few years ago cholera, a fell disease, struck down 
 Frenchmen, Spaniards, and Italians, and they perished 
 by the hundred. Thousands of Trinidadians perished 
 by the cholera of 1854; but Liberia has never ex- 
 perienced cholera — never has had a miasma of any sort. 
 If there be poverty in Liberia, there is poverty all the 
 world over, and always will be. London, the largest, most 
 populous, and richest City and Metropolis in the world, 
 contains the greatest number of poor persons that ever 
 congregated in any one country in proportion to its popu- 
 lation. Liberia cannot be poor, for Liberia is one of the 
 chosen spots — perhaps the best and richest spot — in Africa. 
 And was not Africa always rich ? Is it not rich now ? Are 
 not the Europeans vying with one another as to whom the 
 greatest part of Africa should fall ? Why? Because Africa 
 is rich. When H. M. Stanley and his band of buccaneer- 
 ing freebooters rushed into the heart of Africa, was it not 
 to plunder the Africans, and obtain the wealth of the 
 African natives ? They were seeking for wealth, for ivory, 
 for gold. Africa is a rich country, and Liberia is one of 
 the richest countries in Africa. Who are the Anarchists and 
 
278 THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA. 
 
 Socialists? Are they not an organization of poor, hard-up 
 men who wish to wring out money from the tenacious grasp 
 of the wealthy ? Where in Europe or in America are there 
 not Socialists? There are Anarchists and Socialists in 
 Britain, Anarchists and Socialists in France,* Anarchists 
 and Socialists in Germany, Nihilists in Russia, Socialists 
 and Anarchists in Austro-Hungary, Socialists and Anarchists 
 in Italy, and, indeed, all Europe over ; there are Socialists 
 and Anarchists in the United States of North America. But 
 there are no; Socialists, no Nihilists, no Anarchists, in 
 Liberia? And why? Because Liberia is a rich countr}', 
 and has wonderful resources. There wealth is more pro- 
 portionately divided than it is in any other country. Liberia 
 has gold, ivory, copper, iron, and what not. 
 
 We are, again, informed by Mr. Charles H. J. Taylor, 
 through Laird Clowes, that Liberia is ' a land of superstition 
 and death.' No comments from us are necessary here in 
 relation to superstition, for we have dealt with the subject 
 at length. But the Liberians as a nation are not super- 
 stitious. In the fourth Chapter we prove that not only the 
 Europeans and the Americans, but also the Asiatics, are 
 superstitious. 
 
 Mr. Taylor alleges that there is death in Liberia; but 
 does he forget the fact that death is everywhere, and that 
 all men must die? Liberia, far from being 'a land of 
 snakes, centipedes, fever, miasma, poverty, superstition, 
 and death,' we assert and maintain, is one of the loveliest 
 and grandest spots in God's earth. 
 
 Liberia is the Fatherland which the American Africans 
 must seek. Can it be possible that there are not more 
 than 1,000,000 of them who wish to move away from the 
 land of oppression, and repatriate themselves in the land 
 
 * The French Anarchists are at this moment keeping the 
 Minister of the Interior and Prefect of Police fully employed. 
 
REPATRIATION AND LIBERIA. 279 
 
 of their fathers — in dear Liberia? The Africans are 
 oppressed in the United States, and cannot the 10,500,000 
 of them agitate for Repatriation and Liberia ? March some 
 day they must ; and they must march from the Land of 
 Goshen — from Babylon. But it must be to Africa — it must 
 be to Liberia. 
 
 Laird Clowes advocates emigration to the Congo Free 
 State by the American Africans ; but we point out that 
 Liberia is altogether more desirable, and a more fitting 
 Fatherland. Laird Clowes, again, suggests that 'for the 
 half-breed of the South another haven must be sought' 
 (than the Congo Free State). ' He is no more the friend 
 of the black than he is of the white. Neither desires his 
 company. But in the West Indies, or in some parts of 
 South and Central America, he might, no doubt, discover 
 a land in which his existence would be a not unpleasant 
 one.' How comes Laird Clowes to know that the mixed- 
 blooded African 'is no more the friend of the black than 
 he is of the white ' ? We say that he is ' the friend of the 
 black,' and in many instances even of the American white. 
 The half-blooded African * is not the friend of the black ' ! 
 
 Is Mr. Clowes aware that there are half-blooded Africans 
 in Liberia as there are in Hayti ? Is Mr. Clowes aware 
 that the mixed-blooded Africans in Liberia and in Hayti 
 enjoy not only full citizenship and live on terms of friend- 
 ship and brotherly love with their full-blooded African 
 countrymen, but that they have, in many instances, risen 
 to the Presidential Chair, both of Liberia and Hayti ? Is 
 Laird Clowes aware that the great Petion, the Haytian, was 
 not a full, but a mixed-blooded African? We say that 
 the full-blooded and half-blooded Africans must move and 
 march together, for they are one people, and have one 
 common destiny. They must live together. When Tous- 
 saint the Great was bravely battling for the Independence 
 
28o THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA. 
 
 of his Haytian Fatherland, he had half-blooded Haytians, 
 his countrymen, in his Army. So had Dessalines and 
 others. And must the half-blooded Africans betake them- 
 selves to the West Indies ? If so, to what part ? Every 
 part of the West Indies is unsuited to the African, whether 
 he be full-blooded or half-blooded. Or must the half- 
 blooded African go to South or Central America, as Laird 
 Clowes suggests ? Neither South nor Central America, no 
 matter what part, is a fitting place for the African. We 
 should suggest Liberia as a fitting and the only Fatherland 
 for the half-blooded African. There he will enjoy peace and 
 happiness. There he will be a citizen, and not a semi-slave, 
 as he almost always is in the United States. Every office will 
 be open to him. His progress cannot be retarded in Liberia. 
 All Africans, whether they be half or whole blooded, are to 
 march to Liberia, the Land of the Free, the Light of Africa, 
 in preference to the Congo Free State, or any other State. 
 
 The Puritans, because they were persecuted at home by 
 the Second Stuart, and despaired of their country, directed 
 their steps to America, and founded the United States ; 
 and will the persecuted Africans of the United States 
 remain therein ? Charles I. prevented John Hampden and 
 Oliver Cromwell, Independents or Puritans, from migrating 
 to America; but the former remained to perish fighting 
 valiantly against the King at Chalgrove Field ; while the 
 latter, Oliver Cromwell, lived to sign the death-warrant of 
 the King, who was beheaded at Whitehall. We believe, 
 like the Rev. Mr. Lee, that the Africans must march out of 
 the United States. We believe it must be to Africa. We 
 believe they must be independent. And we indulge in the 
 dream that they will betake themselves to the Independent 
 Republic of Liberia. 
 
 The Turks, because they were persecuted at home in 
 Central Asia, and were unwilling to live as the subjects of 
 
REPA TRIA TION AND LIBERIA. 281 
 
 the Mongols, fled from Central Asia, with their wives and 
 children and whatever they possessed, and marched into 
 Europe, conquered a part of it, and are still there. And 
 will the Africans in the United States of North America, 
 oppressed and lynched as they are, and deprived of their 
 rights by the Yankees, continue to live in America? 
 
 In 1840 the Boers, because they were dissatisfied with 
 the British Colonial Government at the Cape Colony, 
 quitted that Colony, and entrenched themselves in Natal, 
 where the jealous Britishers followed them. Nothing 
 daunted by the annexation of their new home. Natal, by 
 the Britishers, they quitted Natal and founded the Trans- 
 vaal. Britishers again followed them there in 1877. For 
 three years the Boers bore the uninviting attentions of 
 Britishers, but in 1880 they rose in rebellion, took the field, 
 and the Britishers, though they were always better armed 
 and numerically at least equal to the Boers, suffered signal 
 defeats. But it was the decisive battle of Amajuba that 
 shed the greatest lustre on the arms of the Boers, and 
 secured to them Independence and the possession of the 
 Transvaal, while the beaten Britishers returned home 
 crestfallen from Amajuba, leaving their commander-in-chief, 
 and the flower of the youth of England, Ireland, and Scot- 
 land on the field of battle. The courage of the Boers was 
 a noble one. They disliked British rule; they preferred 
 freedom and independence. 
 
 The Africans in the United States are not citizens, but 
 subjects. Formerly they were a nation of slaves, now they 
 are a nation of servants. They are not protected by the 
 American law. Will they remain in that land ? Time, no 
 doubt, will show. There are those who say that we are preach- 
 ing removal from the United States to a people who have no 
 money. We say that there are two things that the African in 
 the United States must do or have. First, he must have tlie 
 
282 THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA. 
 
 will to quit the United States ; and surely the Africans, who 
 are ill-treated, unprotected, and enjoy no rights whatever, 
 ought to be only too willing to quit the United States. If 
 he has the will, then, secondly, the African must organize 
 his ranks, agitate for removal, and bring the Yankee to his 
 senses. Then only, we are sure, but only then, will he 
 receive the money that the American owes him. We 
 are afraid the Africans in America are too apathetic and 
 indifferent to their birthright in Africa, in Liberia. The 
 apathy and indifference of the expatriated African are con- 
 strued by the whites as laziness ; but we think they are the 
 reactions from slavery, and not laziness. So long as they 
 continue apathetic and indifferent, so long will their con- 
 duct be construed into laziness. Sir Edwin Arnold gives it 
 as his opinion that ' the Africo- Americans are as merry as 
 crickets, lazy as pigs.'" 
 
 The apathy and indifference of the Africans are also con- 
 strued into inferiority by the whites. Africa is fast being 
 partitioned by the European Powers. And the Africans of 
 the United States, who are as a rule poor, thanks to slavery, 
 dare not go and claim the land of their ancestors. In 
 Africa they can become rich with rapid strides. But it 
 must be to Liberia that they go. In the words of the Hon. 
 Henry W. Grimes, ex- Attorney-General of Liberia, who 
 writes in the earlier part of this year (1891), 'Liberia has 
 in her all the elements of progress. I will go further, and 
 say that I believe she will progress ; but just at present I 
 must confess that those on whom she should be able to 
 depend for aid in her work are strangely indifferent to her 
 needs. The cry has been sent out across the water to the 
 sons of Ham, who are " learned in the wisdom of the 
 Egyptians," " Come over and help us !" but they heed it 
 not. Here and there one comes ; some fear to get sick 
 
 * Letter to the Daily Telegraph, 1889. 
 
REPA TRIA riON AND LIBERIA. 283 
 
 and die, as if disease and death were not everywhere ; others 
 say, " How can we leave the good things of this land to go 
 to savage Africa ?" And so,' continues Mr. Grimes, * we 
 stand on the threshold, waiting and watching for help to go 
 up and possess the land. Thank God, the help is coming ! 
 Every year one or two more are drawn to us from the mass 
 around, and they are useful allies. With their help we will 
 yet go forward, triumphing and to triumph, for the promise 
 is sure : Ethiopia must stretch forth her hands to God. 
 Africa must be won for Christ ; and if our brethren here in 
 the United States are as careless of their birthright as was 
 Esau, then the blessing will go with it to him who appre- 
 ciates it, and he, in the long, dark night, will wrestle with 
 God, and, prevailing, will get the blessing at dawn.' 
 
 Suppose that all the 10,500,000 of Africo-Americans, 
 being intent on returning to the land of their ancestors, had 
 marshalled their ranks and petitioned the Yankee Govern- 
 ment for a subsidy to enable them to do so, and had the 
 prayer of their petition refused, we do not doubt that the 
 money could be raised otherwise. 
 
 The Independents, in the time of the First Charles, left 
 England for America in ship after ship. They did so because 
 life was too hard for them to bear under the iron rule, or, 
 rather, the misrule, of the despotic Charles. Charles's 
 Government did not aid them in any way. It did not pay 
 their passage, or allow them money for their use, and to 
 start with in America. On the contrary, wrathful that its 
 opponents should escape from its power, the Government of 
 the First Charles prohibited eight ships of the Puritan Icono- 
 clasts from quitting the Thames. But it is not likely that 
 the American Government would stop and detain any ship 
 laden with expatriated Africans who were homeward bound 
 to their Africa. On the contrary, the American Govern- 
 ment would feel it a relief if the Africans were to suddenly 
 
284 THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA. 
 
 leave. For there would be no more Race Problems to 
 confront. No doubt the American Government would like 
 to see the Race Problem settled. But they cannot make up 
 their minds to grant the Africans a subsidy to enable them 
 to return to Africa. The Democrats of the United States 
 indulge in tall talk about sending the Africans from the 
 United States to the land of their ancestors when they are 
 out of office, but they shirk the work when they are in office. 
 It is not likely that a Republican Government, like the 
 present American Administration, will ever send the Africo- 
 Americans to Africa, and solve the burning Race Question 
 in the United States. 
 
 The Independents, we were saying, betook themselves to 
 America merely as British Colonists, and proposed to remain 
 British subjects. But, were the American Africans to leave 
 the United States for Africa, it would not be to be as mere 
 colonists, and to remain subject to the Caucasian, and to 
 live under the aegis of the Second Belgian Leopold and his 
 successors in the Congo Free State, as Laird Clowes with 
 unpardonable simplicity suggests, where they or their 
 descendants might have to do battle with the Belgians for 
 the exclusive Independence of their Congro Free State, as 
 the descendants of the Puritans or Independents did with 
 the Britishers ; but they would simply be leaving America 
 and oppression behind them once and for ever, and 
 marching into Africa, into Liberia, not as mere colonists, 
 not as subjects, we say, but as fully-qualified, independent 
 citizens. 
 
 The Africo- Americans should be able to raise money by the 
 same means as the English Puritans who settled in America 
 did more than two hundred years ago. 
 
 Where did the Turks, who fled before the Mongols and 
 oppression from Central Asia, into Europe, find capital to 
 facilitate their passage to the European Continent? The 
 
REPA TRIA TION AND LIBERIA. 285 
 
 Turks were practically as poor as the Puritans were, and as 
 the Africans in the United States are now. But the Turks, 
 like the Puritans, though poor, preferred liberty to oppres- 
 sion; and their thirst for liberty sustained them on their 
 journey. The Turks had to fight with the Byzantine 
 Greeks for a shelter and a home ; but were the expatriated 
 Africans in the United States to quit America, it would not 
 be to contend with anyone for a home and shelter. Their 
 task would be easier and their path smoother than were 
 those of the Turks. They need only sail to Africa, and 
 there find a shelter ; they need only march to Liberia, and 
 there find not only a home, but Liberty, Independence, and 
 her daughter, Citizenship. 
 
 Dare not the Africo-Americans, with more opportunities 
 and greater facilities, try to do what the Caucasians, in the 
 persons of the New England Independents, and what the 
 Asiatics, in the persons of the Turks, achieved ? Is it 
 possible that our oppressed brethren and countrymen in 
 the United States cannot find means wherewith to quit 
 America and find a home in Africa, the land of our 
 ancestors ? 
 
 ' Where there is a will there is a way,' they say. The 
 countrymen of Moses and descendants of Jacob, the 
 Israelites, because their brethren and co-religionists in 
 Russia and Poland are being persecuted and oppressed In- 
 the Gentiles, have formed the Anglo-Jewish Association, 
 the Syrian Colonization Society, and other organizations, to 
 enable those of their Russian and Polish brethren who wisli 
 it to return to the Holy Land. Toiling Hebrews of the 
 East-End, poor though they be, are contributing a penny a 
 week per man to the fund of one of the Jewish Colonization 
 Societies.* 
 
 A penny a week seems next to nothing. But somethin-^ 
 * Lloyd's News^ 1891. 
 
286 THE LONE -STAR OF LIBERIA, 
 
 is surely bettter than nothing ; and do not little things grow 
 into mighty mountains ? But have the Africans in the 
 United States any similar organizations to enable them to 
 return to their Africa ? Have they even one organization 
 for such a purpose ? It is the boast of every African that 
 he is the Caucasian's equal, if not his superior, while the 
 Asiatic and the Red Man, being immensely his inferiors, 
 bow down before the African in token of their inferiority. 
 And dare not the African act as he ought ? 
 
 The fire which burnt, and continues burning, in the 
 breasts of the Haytians ; the fire which burnt, and con- 
 tinues burning, in the breasts of the Liberians ; and the fire 
 which burnt in the breasts of our African forefathers 
 generally, the Americo-African, we fear, is very low just at 
 present. The Haytians wanted Liberty and Independence. 
 They fought for and got both. Their enemies were as 
 implacable as they were indefatigable. The Haytians had 
 the will, and they found out the way. They wrung both 
 Liberty and Independence from the feeble grasp of the 
 Gaul, driving the defeated Frenchman into the sea. 
 
 The founders of Liberia, preferring Liberty and Inde- 
 pendence in ' savage Africa ' to Oppression and Non- 
 Possession of Civil Rights in the 'civilized' United States, 
 quitted America, sailed to the land of their forefathers, and 
 founded the Republic of Liberia, the Land of the Free. 
 What do we Africans not owe to these first settlers, the 
 colonizers, the founders of Liberia ? They did not wait for 
 the American Government to help them, to furnish them 
 with fabulous sums. When the ' American Colonization 
 Society,' with characteristic benevolence, offered them a 
 home on the West Coast of Africa, they (the then 
 American, and future Liberian Africans) cheerfully, gladly, 
 and readily answered to the call, and went to Africa. Their 
 task in the land of their ancestors was not an easy one ; it 
 
REP A TRIA TION AND LIBERIA. 287 
 
 was uphill work for them. Did not the encounters they had 
 in 1835, 1857, 1875, 1876, and other periods during their 
 colonizing march, with the native Africans, make their task 
 arduous ? But they surmounted all difficulties ; having 
 the ivill^ they found out the way. The descendants of those 
 stout and stubborn men are enjoying the legacy their fathers 
 left them. 
 
 The names of such men as Joseph Jenkin Roberts, 
 Hilary Leage, Stephen Allen Benson, Daniel B. Warner, 
 James Spriggs Payne, Charles H. Hanlon, A. W. Gardner, 
 G. W. Gibson, A. J. Russell, who were Liberians of dis- 
 tinction, must be handed down to posterity as a band of 
 heroes. What debt do we Africans, who hunger after 
 Independence, not owe that sturdy band of heroes ? We 
 must follow in the path which they have made. 
 
 Cannot the leading Africans in the United States see the 
 false position in which they stand ? 
 
 The American Government, not wishing to send Americans 
 to Liberia and Hayti to represent them diplomatically 
 and commercially, send two Republican Africo-Americans 
 — as much as to say that the Liberians and Haytians are 
 not fit persons to have white American Ministers, Consuls- 
 General, and Consuls amongst them. 
 
 Comment by us is unnecessary. The leaders of the 
 Africans in the United States, however, should see the false 
 position they stand in. No American Government, be it 
 Republican or be it Democrat, will send black men to 
 represent the American people in Britain, in France, in 
 Germany, in Russia, in Austro-Hungary, in Italy, or in 
 other Caucasian country, either diplomatically or com- 
 mercially. The black Ministers and Consuls-General of 
 the United States to Liberia have never been transferred 
 to any Caucasian countries. The American Africans, 
 Messrs. E. D. Bassett, J. U. Langston, J. E. W. Thomp- 
 
288 THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA. 
 
 son, who have been Ministers of the United States in 
 Hayti, have not been promoted or sent to Europe to repre- 
 sent the United States there. It is a useless thing for any 
 leading Africo-American to hope that he will ever be sent 
 to Europe as United States Minister. 
 
 It is foolish for any Africo-American to hope that some 
 day he will be elected to the Presidentship of the United 
 States. He shall never sit in the chair of Washington, 
 Jefferson and Madison. It is foolish for any African in the 
 United States of North America to cherish the delusion that 
 some day he will be given a seat in President Harrison's 
 Cabinet, or in President Cleveland's Cabinet, or in the 
 Cabinet of any other and future American President. 
 
 It is foolish for any African in the United States to 
 cherish the delusion that he will be made the Chief Justice 
 or a Judge of the United States. • And the Africans persist 
 in remaining in the United States. We doubt not that if 
 the leading men pf the African race in the United States 
 were in Liberia, they would now be filling posts of dis- 
 tinction in that African Republic. But they prefer remain- 
 ing in America, hoping against hope that one day they will 
 be called to the chief offices of the American Republic. If 
 this is not infatuation, what is ? 
 
 But the Africo- Americans are not the only Africans we 
 should earnestly counsel to join the Liberian Republic ; 
 we should also advise the British Africans to join Liberia. 
 We should like to see the British Africans of Africa, and 
 the British Africans of the West Indies, Canada, and else- 
 where on the American Continent, and throughout the 
 British world, members and citizens of the Liberian 
 Republic. 
 
 But our reasons for counselling Emigration from the 
 British Colonies are suf^ciently set forth in our fifth 
 Chapter, and consequently we do not propose to recapitu- 
 
REP A TRIA TION AND LIBERIA . 289 
 
 late them here. The British Africans, as a race, enjoy no 
 civil rights in the British Possessions. 
 
 Where could the Africo-British go so well as to Liberia ? 
 and go those must who are patriotic, and have the welfare 
 of their race at heart. 
 
 The British Colonies in Africa, America, and the West 
 Indies send forth yearly their hundreds of white and black 
 young men to Europe to study medicine. The moment 
 these get duly qualified to practise as medical men, they, 
 of course, make it their business to return to the Colonies 
 from which they came ; and when there they immediately 
 apply for Government appointments in the medical depart- 
 ment. Would anyone believe that every white medical 
 man, the moment he applies, is invariably appointed to the 
 post applied for, while the black medical man who also applies 
 has his application refused? Even if the black medical 
 man be received in the service of Colonial Governments at 
 all, it can only be as a supernumerary. But in Liberia 
 things are done otherwise. In Liberia there can be no 
 jealousies, no heart-burning. And why ? For the simple 
 reason that the black man, not the white, rules there. 
 Almost every Government office in Liberia is elective. 
 Liberia, we say, is the Mother of the African Race. She 
 is the Hope of Africans. She is the nucleus, the centre 
 Country, the rallying standard, round which all Africans 
 must gather, her Lone-Star serving as a beacon. 
 
 The British Government does not reward merit. Mr. 
 Mitchell Maxwell Phillip, now deceased, found himself 
 Solicitor-General of the British Colony of Trinidad. He 
 served the Colony long and usefully. He hoped against 
 hope that his services would have been rewarded by pro- 
 motion to the Attorney-Generalship, or some other post in 
 or out of the Colony. But he died in 1888 only a Solicitor- 
 General. The post of Attorney-General of Trinidad before 
 
 19 
 
290 THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA. 
 
 his death was vacant, but Downing Street sent a British 
 gentleman to occupy the post instead. And when Mr. 
 Maxwell Phillip died in 1888, it was hoped that some 
 talented Trinidadian African barrister (and there are many 
 such in Trinidad) would have succeeded him in the 
 Solicitor-Generalship. But Downing Street gave it to a 
 white man instead. It would be useless for us to relate 
 how the authorities at Downing Street treat the British 
 subjects of African Race. There are a few judges, magis- 
 trates, medical and law officers of the British Crown of 
 African Race, we do admit, but these never meet with 
 promotion. Does there live the judge, or magistrate, or any 
 other functionary of the British Colonial Government of 
 the African Race who indulges in the fond delusion that 
 he will be appointed the Governor of any British Colony, 
 or be appointed to any similar function ? Does the British 
 African live who cherishes the fond delusion that he will 
 ()e made a Chief Justice of one of the Colonies of the 
 Dominion of Canada or Australia ? We may mention here 
 that one, and only one, British African has ever been 
 knighted by the British Sovereign, and that one African is 
 the Chief Justice of Barbadoes, and he is only a Knight 
 Bachelor. He is the first British subject of African blood 
 who has ever been knighted ; but we fear much that he will 
 be the last. 
 
 Does the African subject of the British Empire desire 
 Home Rule? There is Liberia ; she enjoys hidependence. 
 
 The British African does not live who dreams that he 
 will be admitted a Member of the House of Lords or the 
 House of Commons ; but in Liberia he can be a Senator or 
 a Member of the House of Representatives. 
 
 The British African does not live who imagines that he 
 will be made a Member of Her Britannic Majesty's Govern- 
 ment; but in Liberia he can be appointed a Member of 
 
REPATRIATION AND LIBERIA. 291 
 
 the President's Government. No British African can be 
 so infatuated as even to dream that he will be made King 
 of Great Britain and Ireland and Emperor of India ; but he 
 can be elected Liberian President. 
 
 Of course we expect much opposition, not only from our 
 British Africans, but from our American Africans as well, 
 for proposing that both the British and the American 
 Africans should go to Liberia. We are confident, however, 
 that time and posterity will justify us in advising that all 
 Africans living under Caucasian rule should throw in their 
 lot with the Liberian Republic. If the British and American 
 Africans dislike the idea of going to Liberia, it remains to 
 be seen whether their descendants will dislike it. They 
 will certainly not thank their fathers for failing to leave 
 them a mighty country as a legacy. 
 
 There are many briefless but talented African lawyers in 
 the over-lawyered British Colonies who are almost on the 
 point of starvation ; but Liberia is a fine field for them, and 
 would prove a land of plenty. Liberia needs talent ; and 
 why should not the British as well as the American Africans 
 go to Liberia ? Surely half a loaf is better than no bread, 
 and there is more than sufficient for all in Liberia. 
 
 The African doctors in the British Colonies should do 
 the same, or if they are supernumeraries in Hospitals, we 
 express the opinion that it is better to practise on one's own 
 account in Liberia than be a supernumerary in the Hospital 
 of a British Colony. The British Colonies, generally where 
 the Africans preponderate, are not only over-lawyered, but 
 over-doctored as well, while Liberia needs the services of all 
 these talented Africans. 
 
 The British Crown does not offer any incentive to its 
 African subjects' ambition. Not in the least. To use the 
 words of a man in close touch with Lord Salisbury's 
 present Government (Sir John Gorst, Under-Secretary of 
 
 19 — 2 
 
292 THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA. 
 
 State for India) : ' Governments ' {i.e.^ Caucasian Govern- 
 ments, British particularly) ' had always discouraged inde- 
 pendent and original talent, and had always preferred docile 
 mediocrity. This was not a new policy. It was as old as 
 the days of Tarquinius Superbus, and examples of its prac- 
 tice were to be found in the more recent times of Cete- 
 wayo, Arabi, and Zebehr. In this he' (Sir John Gorst) 
 ' thought Governments were very likely right.'"^ 
 
 We see no reason, then, why the British African should 
 hesitate in joining Liberia. Perhaps he will urge as a reason 
 for his hesitancy the fact that the Liberian is based on the 
 American Constitution, and that he is no admirer of Yankee 
 institutions. Let us once and for all dispel all such preju- 
 dices, and try to convince him who would be convinced. 
 
 We shall endeavour to do so in this way. Is it not a well- 
 known, though hard-to-be-admitted, fact that the United 
 Kingdom and her dependencies, if not the rest of the world, 
 are slowly but surely being Yankeeized — socially, politically, 
 and in a literary point of view ? Words such as cefitre, 
 labour^ honour^ te?iour^ civilise^ programme^ favour^ etc., and 
 those derived from them, are now being spelt by many ot 
 the British people, their colonists and subjects, particularly 
 chose with Liberal and Radical tendencies, as center, labor, 
 honor, tenor, favor, civilize, program, etc. — all Americanism?. 
 
 Because America has never had any and has no Estab- 
 lished Church, the British Parliament, under the able 
 leadership of Liberal Mr. Gladstone, disestablished and dis- 
 endowed the Irish State Church in 1869; and for the same 
 reason the State Church in England, Scotland, and Wales 
 is being threatened with extinction. 
 
 Because the American Supreme Court claims and exer- 
 cises, and has always claimed and exercised, the right to 
 
 * Sir John Gorst's speech in the House of Commons on the 
 Manipur Question, 1891. 
 
REPA TRIA TION A ND L IB ERTA . 293 
 
 determine questions of disputed elections, the British Par- 
 liament assigned and transferred that right (which the 
 House of Commons had claimed and exercised from 1604 
 to 1868) by 31 and 32 Vict., chap. 125, the Parliamentary 
 Elections Act, to the Court of Common Pleas, which is 
 now exercised by the Queen's Bench Division of the High 
 Court. "^ 
 
 Because America has a Federal Constitution, and every 
 State composing the American Union is autonomous, 
 Liberals, Radicals, and Nationalists would federate the 
 United Kingdom by giving first Ireland, secondly Scotland, 
 and thirdly Wales, a measure of Home Rule or autonomy. 
 Is not the Constitution of all the Spanish American Re- 
 publics, with Germany, Austro-Hungary, Norway and 
 Sweden, and Switzerland, more or less based on the 
 Yankee ? Is not the British Dom.inion of Canada federated ? 
 In other words, is not its Constitution or Government 
 modelled on the American ? And what, we ask, would 
 Australasian Federation be like ? 
 
 Because the Yankees pay, and have always paid, their 
 Senators and Representatives, the Canadians are now pay- 
 ing their Senators and Commons, the Australasians and 
 others of the British race pay the members of their Legis- 
 lative Council and Assembly. And do not the states of the 
 earth, as a rule, after the Yankee fashion, pay their legis- 
 lators ? And will not the honourable member for the 
 Wansbeck Division of Northumberland, Liberal Mr. Charles 
 Fenwick, bring in a Bill for the Payment of Members of 
 Parliament in the House of Commons in the seventh 
 Session of the twelfth Parliament of the British Victoria ? 
 
 Because American women more or less enjoy the fran- 
 
 ■* Taswell-Langmead's ' English Constitutional History,' 
 p. 356, fourth edition ; Anson's ' Law and Custom of the Con- 
 stitution,' Part I., p. 149. 
 
294 THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA. 
 
 chise, Conservative Lord Denman will in the House of 
 Lords, in the present (seventh) Session of British Victoria's 
 twelfth Parliament, bring in his Women's Franchise Bill. 
 
 Because the legal professions are amalgamated in America 
 a movement is on foot in the United Kingdom to amalga- 
 mate the British legal professions. And are not the legal 
 professions in British North America, Australasia, British 
 Africa, and other British dependencies amalgamated after 
 the Yankee fashion ?* 
 
 Because America is Protectionist, all the British depend- 
 encies, and the rest of the world more or less, glory in 
 Protection. And are not the Right Honourable J. Lowther 
 and the honourable and gallant Colonel Howard Vincent, 
 M.P.s who command a respectable following, now doing 
 their very best to convert stolid, stiff-necked Free-Trading 
 Britishers to the principles of Fair Trade, which designation 
 has only to be scratched, and Protection would be found in 
 its place ? 
 
 Though British coin is the money chiefly in circulation, 
 yet because America uses the dollars and cents currency 
 nearly all the British possessions keep their accounts in 
 United States dollars and cents, while in many of those 
 dependencies there are actually dollar-notes framed after 
 the Yankee pattern. 
 
 Take the railway. Lloyd^s News for Sunday, February 28, 
 1892, says : ' Railway outrages having considerably increased 
 in number of late years, obvious interest is attached to the 
 forthcoming introduction into this [British] country of a 
 new train^ constructed upon the American pri?iciple^ the dis- 
 tinguishing feature of which is a gangway right through the 
 carriages from end to end. The South-Eastern Railway 
 Company takes the first step in this directio7i. On Wednesday 
 next Sir Miles Fentoti will despatch a special train^ built in 
 * ' Professional Handbook,' pp. 3-5, 11-14, 20, 2i. 
 
I 
 
 REPA TRIA TION AND LIBERIA. 295 
 
 New York for the S.E.R., on a trial trip from London to 
 Hastings,' etr., etc. ; the Yankees thereby teaching the 
 countrymen of George and Robert Stephenson and Isam- 
 bard Brunei literally and truly ' to suck eggs.' 
 
 When their Bridsh governors are being Americanized, 
 must the African subjects of the United Kingdom hang 
 back and hesitate and say that they are not enamoured of 
 Liberia because its Constitution is based on the American ?* 
 
 We are glad, however, to learn that the Sierra Leoneans 
 are surely, if slowly, beginning to see the necessity and im- 
 portance of joining Liberia. Liberian Dr. Edward Wilmot 
 Blyden, in his ' Christianity, Islam, and the Ethiopian Race,' 
 page 230, assures us that ' the progress of events — the 
 growth of the two countries — has shown that not only has 
 Liberia not interfered prejudicially with Sierra Leone, but it 
 has presented a field for the energies, industrial and com- 
 mercial, of many a native of the settlement. An interesting 
 fact in the present history of Liberia, which Sir Charles 
 McCarthy could not have foreseen, is this — that a native of 
 Sierra Leone, brought up amid the institutions of the colony, 
 is a successor of Messrs. Mills and Burgess as agent of the 
 American Colonization Society, having charge of the location 
 and rationing of all emigrants arriving in Liberia from 
 America. This native of Sierra Leone is also the Mayor of 
 the city of Monrovia, the capital of the republic' The late 
 Liberian Consul in, and a native of. Sierra Leone is now a 
 leading citizen of the West African Republic. 
 
 * We do not mean to convey the idea, by our comments in 
 the text, that we warmly admire all Yankee institutions, or are 
 in any way suffering from Yankeemania. Quite the contrary. 
 We only tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the 
 truth. We are of opinion, also, that the Chicago Exhibition or 
 World's Fair will tend to further Americanize the world— at 
 least, the Caucasian world. 
 
296 THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA. 
 
 We return to Laird Clowes for a moment. Writing on 
 page 189 of his ' Black America,' amongst other matters, 
 Laird Clowes says : ' Professor Edward Wilmot Blyden, 
 formerly of the West Indies, and more recently of Sierra 
 Leone, is another distinguished Negro who advocates 
 Negro Emigration from the States.' 
 
 As the purport of the present work is to refute Laird 
 Clowes's libels and to disprove his allegations, the reader 
 may not see at once our reasons for extracting the above 
 passage. We have, however, our reasons for so doing. 
 And we must be allowed to point out here, in the first 
 place, that though the Honourable Professor advocates 
 African Emigration from the United States of North 
 America, he does not advocate, and has never advocated, 
 African Emigration to the Congo Free State, or to any 
 other such State in Africa, or anywhere else. Dr. Blyden 
 sees the situation clearly, and being both patriotic and 
 having the welfare of his race at heart, he advocates African 
 Emigration to the Independent Republic of Liberia, just as 
 we do. 
 
 But that is not our only reason for extracting this passage. 
 We wish also to pomt out that Dr. Blyden does not belong, 
 and never has belonged, to Sierra Leone, as Laird Clowes 
 would have us believe. He was born a European subject and 
 a W^est Indo-African ; but the Liberian Professor, preferring 
 Independence to living as a subject under British or any 
 other Caucasian rule in the West Indies, Africa, America, 
 or elsewhere, in his youth sailed for Africa and joined the 
 Republic of Liberia, and there found Independence and 
 citizenship. He is a patriot, loves his Africa and his 
 Liberia. By becoming a Liberian Dr. Blyden followed the 
 patriotic and commendable examples set him by Joseph 
 Jenkin Roberts, Hilary Teague, Stephen Allen Benson, 
 Daniel B. Warner, James Spriggs Payne, Charles H. 
 
RE PA TRIA riON A ND LIBERIA . 297 
 
 Hanlon, A. W. Gardner, G. W. Gibson, A. J. Russell, Lot 
 Gary, Elijah Johnson, and other illustrious Liberians. 
 
 Had he remained a European, or any other Caucasian 
 subject, Dr. Blyden's brilliant talents would never have 
 come to the fore. But what will not Independence pro- 
 duce, encourage, and reward ? He is not only a Professor, 
 but he is also an Author of great celebrity and eminence. 
 By going in his youth to Liberia he may be said to have 
 been bred in Liberia. 
 
 We believe — ay, we are confident — that even in this our 
 generation many other Africans will follow the examples set 
 them by the Liberian first settlers, by Blyden and others, 
 and become free and independent citizens of the Liberian 
 Republic. 
 
 Blyden is known throughout the English-speaking world 
 because he is an independent free Liberian. His talents 
 shine out as a Liberian, but they would not have shone if 
 he had remained a European subject. Even Laird Clowes — 
 not the African's friend by any means — is bound to recog- 
 nise Blyden's sterling worth, applying, as he does, the 
 epithet ' distinguished ' to him. The New York Evangelist 
 also eulogizes him thus : ' Dr. Blyden is a Negro of pure 
 blood. Born on one of the West India Islands, he has 
 been a Liberian African from his youth, and has won a 
 high rank among the ripest and foremost scholars of the 
 age.' Last, not least, British Sir Alfred Moloney, K.C.M.G., 
 did the same in public. 
 
 Arriving in Liberia as an ordinary immigrant, Blyden 
 worked his way up to be one of the highest servants in the 
 service of the Liberian Republic. He was Liberian 
 Minister to the Court of St. James from 1878 to 1883. 
 Here was a man representing the might and dignity of the 
 Liberian Nation in the British Isles. Does there live the 
 Americo-African who imagines, even for a moment, that 
 
298 THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA. 
 
 he will some day be sent to the Court of St. James as 
 Minister representing the might and dignity of the United 
 States of North America ? Again, Does there live the British 
 African, whether m British Africa, in British America, 
 British West Indies, or elsewhere, who imagines that he 
 will some day be sent to the White House as Minister 
 representing the might and dignity of the United Kingdom ? 
 
 Let the reader only imagine a Caucasian Country sending 
 a ' Nigger ' as Ambassador or Minister to represent it in 
 another Caucasian Country ! 
 
 But the Liberian-African lives who can with good reason 
 hope that he will some day be sent to represent the might 
 and dignity of the Independent Republic of Liberia either 
 at the Court of St. James, or, it may be, in France at the 
 Elysee, at the German Court, at the Russian Court, at the 
 Austro-Hungarian Court, in Italy at the Quirinal, at the 
 White House of the United States of North America, at 
 the Court of Madrid, or at any other Caucasian Court. 
 , The African native can join the Liberian Republic 
 with greater facility than either the expatriated African in 
 the United States or the expatriated African in the British 
 Possessions out of Africa can ; but though near at hand, he 
 may yet be far off if he has no wish to become an indepen- 
 dent citizen of the Liberian Republic ; and the expatriated 
 African, if he has only the wish to become a Liberian, no 
 matter how far distant he is from the republic, can always 
 surmount his difficulties and obstacles, and find out the way 
 to betake himself to Liberia and Independence. 
 
 Are the Africans Hving as subjects of the Caucasians, the 
 kinsmen of the Assyrians, Carthaginians, and Phoenicians, 
 and other glorious Nations of the African Race, and do 
 they not love Independence and Self-government? Can 
 they be the kinsmen of Hannibal the Great, the kinsmen 
 of Toussaint the Great, the kinsmen of the Great African 
 
RE PA TRIA riON A ND LIBERIA . 299 
 
 National Poetess, the gentle Phyllis Wheatley (who, 
 besides writing many works, wrote ' The Negro is equalled 
 by Few Europeans ') ; and do we, the descendants of 
 Ham, disregard and ignore the appeal and the cry, 
 * Come over and help us,' of our kinsmen the Liberian 
 People ? Liberia is moving and progressing, but the 
 Liberians would move faster and their progress would be 
 quickened by the Immigration of Africans who are now 
 living under Caucasian rule. Why, we ask, is the rapid 
 growth of the United States the marvel of the world ? We 
 answer that the only reason is that Immigration has set in 
 from Europe. Let Africans who are living under the aegis 
 of the Caucasian migrate to Liberia and cause her to grow 
 faster and to quicken her pace and hasten her progress. 
 
 The starving barristers and solicitors, the starving doctors, 
 teachers who can hardly earn a pittance, and others who 
 are not blessed with this world's goods, should quit the 
 over-doctored and over-lawyered, etc., countries, and join 
 the Liberian Republic, where every man's condition can be 
 bettered, for Liberia needs talent, and we are happy to say 
 the African Race is a talented and progressive one. 
 
 Liberia, we assert, is in every way a fitting Fatherland for 
 all Africans. We say that she is progressing, but let us 
 assume that Liberia is not progressing, the Africans who 
 are non-Liberians ought surely to be patriotic enough to go 
 to the rescue of Liberia and make her progress. But 
 Liberia is progressing, and that we have proved, only she 
 can be made to hasten her progressive steps by Immigration 
 on the part of Africans who are non-Liberians. 
 
 Let the village schoolmaster of the African Race, who 
 may be on the point of starvation, seek his home and 
 country in Liberia ; let the briefless lawyer of the African 
 Race who may be on the point of starvation seek a hom.e 
 and country in Liberia; let the impecunious doctor of the 
 
300 THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA. 
 
 African Race find a home and country and better his 
 condition in Liberia. 
 
 Liberia is rich, fertile, and is a happy hunting-ground for 
 us, the descendants of Ham, who must become as mighty 
 on the earth as our kinsman Nimrod was of yore. 
 
 Let the non-Liberian-African cease to be a backwoods- 
 man, it may be, in Carapichaima, in Guayaguayare, in 
 Toco, in Couva, or, it may be, in Chaguaramas or else- 
 where, and go and better his position in Liberia. 
 
 Must those of us Africans who are non-Liberians wait 
 until our Maker calls us unto Him, and sink into our 
 Mother-Earth 'unwept, unhonoured, and unsung,' and 
 ' with none so poor as to do us reverence'? Or must we 
 instead go to our Liberia which is ready to welcome 
 us with outstretched arms, and help to build up the already- 
 growing Liberia n Empire? 
 
 Instead of the Trinidadian Africans striving as to who 
 should be Solicitor or Attorney General, or a Trinidadian 
 Government Medical Officer, or a San Fernando Town 
 Clerk, is it not better, we ask, that these Trinidadian 
 Africans should be Liberians, since the Liberians as a 
 Nation are happy and contented. Better to have a cot in 
 one's own country than a palace in the land of the stranger. 
 That was the patriotism of the great Sir Walter Scott, and 
 that is how he thought. Throughout all his writings — 
 amongst others, ' The Lay of the Last Minstrel' — he breathes 
 nothing but patriotism. And it is familiar history that 
 when Sir Walter, who was cruising about in a British 
 man-of-war in the Mediterranean for the benefit of his 
 health, began to perceive that his life was approaching its 
 crisis, and that he was about to pay the debt due to nature, 
 made it a point, he even insisted, that he should be taken 
 from the Mediterranean, and carried across Europe to his 
 beloved Caledonia, that he might have the pleasure of 
 
REPA TKIA TION AND LIBERIA. 301 
 
 dying in his own country and in the land of his forefathers. 
 He expired at Tweedside late in 1832. 
 
 The patriotism of the English Nelson and of the Irish 
 Wellington, sturdy and mighty Britishers both of them, made 
 them heroes in their duty. 
 
 The patriotism of the Africans who are subject to, and 
 living under, Caucasian rule, we must assert, falls far short 
 of that of those Africans who enjoy independence. 
 
 The Haytians, because they were patriotic, extorted 
 Independence from the Frenchmen, and their descendants 
 continue to cherish affection for their Fatherland. 
 
 The patriotism of the first settlers caused them to quit 
 America and return to their Africa and found Liberia ; and 
 the Liberian of to-day is as fond of his Fatherland as the 
 Scotsman is of Caledonia. 
 
 The patriotism of the Ashantees, the patriotism of the 
 Dahomans, etc., enables them to keep their respective 
 Fatherlands intact, independent, and free from foreign 
 aggression. 
 
 We cannot too often urge on the African who is subject 
 to white rule the importance of having a mighty Liberian 
 Empire. It is essential that Liberia should be reinforced, 
 consolidated, and extended, for Africans throughout the 
 world must be protected by Africans. Does there live 
 the African subject of the United Kingdom or of tht^ 
 United States who will look us in the face and maintain 
 that if a British or American subject of his (Ethiopian) race 
 were to be murdered in Germany, France, Russia, Austro- 
 Hungary, or Italy, the British or American Government 
 would in any way trouble themselves concerning the 
 murdered African and demand compensation ? We are 
 sure they would not stir a finger in such a matter, and as 
 for asking for compensation, such a thing is out of tlie 
 question altogether. 
 
302 THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA. 
 
 We assert that an African subject of the British Crown 
 or of the American Republic may be murdered or ill- 
 treated by any person or persons out of the territories of 
 the American Republic or the dominions of the British 
 Crown with impunity. In the British dominions, as well as 
 in the territories of the American Republic, an African 
 can be murdered or maltreated, but the villain who mal- 
 treats him escapes justice ; and such outrages occur only 
 too frequently in the United States. Our remarks apply 
 equally to the case of the African living under the rule of, 
 and subject to, other whites. 
 
 With Liberia, a strong Nation, these outrages would never 
 occur ; or if ihey did occur, they would be swiftly avenged, 
 and pressure brought to bear on the defaulting State. Were 
 the American Africans of the United States to leave America 
 for Liberia, the Yankee rulers of the United States would 
 have no Africans to ' lynch,' and otherwise ill-treat, and 
 would fall to 'lynching' one another, or otherwise ill-treat 
 one another in order to keep their hands going, or would 
 fall to ' lynching ' or otherwise outraging foreigners : witness 
 how some Italians a little while ago were 'lynched' by an 
 avenging American mob ! 
 
 Were Liberia a mighty country, would slavery and the 
 slave trade prevail in Africa, Turkey, and her depen- 
 dencies ? The Arab slave-hunters would have been extir- 
 pated long ago. As it is, they (the Arab man-hunters) still 
 flourish and prowl about in Africa. Slavery, like its ally 
 polygamy, exists in Mahommedan countries ; and we are 
 sanguine that the Koran, the Mahommedan Bible, contains 
 passages in which slavery is both commanded and 
 sanctioned. Therefore we are not surprised that slavery 
 should exist in European Turkey, in Asiatic Turkey, in 
 Egypt, in Tripoli, in Persia, and throughout the Mahom- 
 medan world. But Liberia, with a powerful Navy and an 
 

 REPATRIATION AND LIBERIA. 303 
 
 efficient Army, would check the execrable traffic in human 
 flesh, and would blockade the Mahommedan ports if neces- 
 sary. Does the Caucasian bring pressure to bear on the 
 Mussulman Turk, and cause him to manumit the slaves who 
 Kuard his harem, and otherwise do his dirty work ? Does 
 Britain, who has the copyhold and paramount authority 
 in Egypt, exterminate the Slavery which exists in the 
 Land of the Pharaohs ? She does nothing. African 
 Slavery by the Semitic Egyptian may be mild and of a 
 domestic nature, but Slavery is Slavery^ no matter what are 
 its peculiarities, and it ought in no way to be tolerated in 
 Egypt by the British authorities. 
 
 Were the Liberians a mighty People, and if they had a 
 great Empire, would the Massowah Massacres have been 
 perpetrated by the Italians ? Perhaps they would ; but 
 would Liberia have sufifered Italian Lieutenant Livraghi and 
 his associates in crime to wander at large unpunished ? 
 The Liberian Elephant, gentle and docile though it be, 
 would have fallen like an avenging Nemesis on Italian 
 Livraghi and his fellow-felons, and meted out swift but 
 * even-handed justice ' to these bloodthirsty Italians. But 
 unfortunately, Liberia is not a powerful country, or she would 
 have brought the Italians to their senses. 
 
 Livraghi and his subordinates massacred perhaps a thou- 
 sand of the African Natives of Massowah; but did Mr. 
 Gladstone write a pamphlet on the Massowah Massacres, 
 as he did on the Bulgarian Horrors a few years ago ? And 
 what could be the presumed reason or reasons ? We answer 
 by asking. Is not the Massowah Native blacky while the 
 Bulgarian Native is white ? It was Turkey which butchered 
 the Bulgarians, but it was Italy which butchered the 
 Massowans. Mr. Gladstone knew that Turkey could be 
 crushed ; but Italy is of greater importance than Turkey, 
 and the prudent man held his tongue. Besides, are not 
 
304 THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA. 
 
 the Massowans, in the opinion of the white man, of far 
 less importance than the Bulgarians ? and, for all we know, 
 the Liberal Chief might not have heard of the Massowah 
 Horrors, the Massowan being too small a fry for the British 
 Press to take much cognizance of. 
 
 Did we see in large type in the British Press, ' Perse- 
 cution of the Massowans by the Italians,' or, better still, the 
 ' Massowah Horrors ' ? Let the Jews and the Poles be 
 persecuted and slaughtered by the Russians ; let the Jews 
 be slaughtered by the Greeks in Corfu, or other places, and 
 we should have a plentiful supply of these large-type 
 headings. The Massowah Natives were not favoured with 
 leading articles, which are the especial property of the Poles 
 and Jews ; they were relegated to an obscure corner in the 
 newspapers which referred to the matter. Did the British 
 Foreign Anti-Slavery Society"^ take any action when the 
 Massowah Massacres became known ? Did the Aborigines 
 Protection Society take any steps in the matter ? Were 
 there any Mansion House and Guildhall indignation meet- 
 ings held to protest against the cruel and heartless treat- 
 ment of the People of Massowah by the Italians ? Did 
 they send a Memorial to the King of Italy requesting him 
 to punish the malefactors, and to use his influence to prevent 
 his Italian subjects from ill-treating the Natives of Massowah? 
 Did the Five Great European Powers — Britain, France, 
 Russia, Germany, Austro- Hungary — address a Collective 
 Note to the Sixth Great European Power, Italy, command- 
 ing it not only to punish the perpetrators of the Massacre, 
 but to take steps that no more Massacres should occur at 
 
 ■^ We absolutely decline with thanks the ' protection ' of these 
 two 'philanthropic' societies. We shall have none of their 
 ' protection.' We should not be sorry if they were to come to 
 grief. 
 
RE PA TRIA TION AND LIBERIA . 305 
 
 Massowah ? They did nothing of the kind ; but were some 
 petty Balkan State in question, the Great European Powers 
 would not have hesitated to address such a Collective Note 
 to the Sick Man at the Ottoman Porte. 
 
 We agree with Laird Clowes when he suggests that the 
 European Nations should help the American Government 
 pecuniarily in effecting the removal of the African from the 
 United States to Africa ; but we are not in agreement with 
 the same gentleman when he suggests that the Americo- 
 African should be sent to the Congo Free State. We are 
 convinced that Liberia is the only fitting place for the 
 Africo- American. 
 
 The American whites owe the Americo-Africans a heavy 
 debt. And should they wish to discharge that debt, they 
 should by all means do it quickly. We are confident in 
 asserting that even if the American Government should be 
 actuated by the desire of assisting African Emigration from 
 America to Africa, there would be those of the Africans 
 who would wish to remain in the United States ; but these 
 by no means should have pressure brought to bear on them. 
 Emigration from the United States should be free in every 
 way, because the Americo-Africans are now a free people. 
 Come what may, however, it is the generally received opinion 
 that some day, it may not be in this our generation, the 
 Americo-Africans, one and all, must leave the United 
 States. 
 
 There is one point on which Laird Clowes and the 
 Africo-American, opposites and extremes though they be, 
 are singularly yet worthily in agreement. And that one 
 point is this, they both cherish the hope, the vain hope and 
 fond delusion, that the white man will, of his own will, 
 come to the rescue of the African ; and the Americo- 
 African actually waits expecting that help from the White 
 Man's Government. We call that hope a vain hope, a fond 
 
 20 
 
3o6 THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA. 
 
 delusion. If it is not, what is it ? That we are justified in 
 calling this a vain hope we shall attempt to prove in the 
 following pages. 
 
 Before we show the relations of the white man with the 
 black man, we must cast a glance backward at the ancient 
 period of the world, and observe how the rich white has 
 treated the poor white. 
 
 It is familiar history that there was Grecian Slavery ; that 
 in days long ago Greek enslaved Greek, and Greek enslaved 
 Barbarian. We know that the stern Spartans, after taking 
 Helos by storm, reduced her inhabitants to a state of 
 bondage ; and we know that even Athens, the Mother of 
 the Arts and European Civilization, like the rest of Greece 
 generally, had slaves. 
 
 It is familiar history that there was Roman Slavery, when 
 Latin deprived Latin and non-Latin of their liberty. The 
 rich and powerful Italian, like the Greek, enslaved his poor 
 countrymen, and the conquered stranger, with an avowed 
 reason, however unjustifiable that reason may have been. 
 
 It is familiar history also that there was Hindoo Slavery, 
 when the Hindoo owned his fellow-man. As it is also 
 familiar history that there was Russian Serfdom in our own 
 time, the poor and lowly Muscovite owning the haughty and 
 opulent Muscovite, his countryman, as his lord and master. 
 It is also a matter of common knowledge that there was 
 Anglo-Saxon Slavery, from time immemorial to so late as 
 the Plantagenet period. But what were Grecian, Roman, 
 Hindoo, and Anglo-Saxon Slavery and Russian Serfdom 
 in comparison with African Slavery by the Caucasian, 
 particularly by the Britisher, the Yankee, and the French- 
 man ? Were they not of far less importance and gravity 
 than African Slavery? The Grecian, Roman, Hindoo, 
 Russian, aijd Anglo-Saxon Slaves were generally of the same 
 colour as their rrtasters, and often of the same race. These 
 
REPA TRIA TION AND LIBERIA. 307 
 
 slaves were, as a rule, not uneducated. They were not, as 
 a class and corporate whole, kept in ignorance. They lived 
 in the midst of their masters' families, and not rarely filled 
 positions of trust and honour. 
 
 We have not heard of the Hindoo slave rising in insur- 
 rection against his Hindoo master. We have not heard of 
 the Anglo-Saxon slave rising in insurrection against his 
 Anglo-Saxon or Norman master. We have not heard of 
 the Russian slave rising in arms against his Russian master. 
 
 History tells us that only in very few instances have 
 the helots taken to arms against their masters of Greece ; 
 while history also teaches us that only in very few instances 
 have the Roman slaves been compelled to fly to arms, and 
 levy war on their Roman lords and masters, the most 
 notable instance being the uprising of Thracian Spartacus 
 and his heroic band of fellow-captives. But, after all, 
 ' Roman slavery at its worst was a humane institution com- 
 pared with the slavery of the Negroes.'"^ 
 
 What was the slavery of the Africans by the whites, 
 particularly by the Yankee, Frenchman, and Britisher, like ? 
 
 The slavery instituted in 1442 by Portuguese Prince 
 Henry the Navigator; in 15 17 by Bartolome de las Casas, 
 Bishop of Mexican Chiapa, who gave out that one African 
 was worth four Red Indians; and in 1562 by Captain Sir 
 John Hawkins, all three of infamous and execrable memory, 
 was a 'compound of everything that was vile.' African 
 slavery by the white man was of such a type that the 
 African slave often flew to arms. Martial law was para- 
 mount in every locality where there was slavery. Yet that 
 did not deter the Africans from repeatedly flying to such 
 arms as they could obtain. But the European and American 
 troops, efficiently armed as they were, did not find it an 
 uphill work to subdue inadequately-armed men. 
 
 ■^ Hunter's ' Introduction to Roman Law,' chap, ii., p. i8. 
 
 20 — 2 
 
3o8 THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA. 
 
 The Africans rose in Jamaica; the Africans rose in 
 Barbadoes ; the Africans rose in Dominica ; the Africans 
 rose in Martinique, and sundry other places in the West 
 Indies and the Americas ; but every attempt of theirs was 
 fruitless — it was nipped in the bud by the white man's 
 power. The African rose in Hayti ; he rose in his might 
 in August, 1 791, under the leaderships of Jean Francois 
 and Biassou, and continued to struggle for freedom until 
 the Liberator of San Domingo, Toussaint-L'Ouverture, 
 came upon the scene, when that great master of war, in 
 a comparatively short space of time, gave his Haytians both 
 Liberty and Independence. 
 
 The African slave, unlike the white and Asiatic slaves, 
 was kept in ignorance. White law, white public opinion, 
 and white custom, imposed ignorance on the African slave. 
 He did not, like the white or Asiatic slaves, fill posts of 
 trust and honour. The drudging work of the cane-fields 
 was his, with hardly a shirt to his back, and even then he 
 was half starved. 
 
 The white or Asiatic debtor who was unable to discharge 
 his debt became, according to law, the slave of his creditor. 
 The white or Asiatic was reduced to bondage also in 
 another way. If he was conquered in war, he became the 
 slave of his conqueror, according to the former law of 
 nations. Neither of these cases applies to the African. 
 The African was not the white man's debtor, while the laws 
 which decreed that the conquered must be his conqueror's 
 slave had long since been obsolete. But the African was 
 unsuspectingly kidnapped, and by main force, by those to 
 whom he had given hospitality. We do not propose to 
 enter on a discussion here as to how many Africans perished 
 in the Middle Passage and during slavery, and their suffer- 
 ings generally during that period, for they are sufficiently 
 known to the world. Suffice it to add here that the 
 
REP A TRIA TION AND LIBERIA. 309 
 
 Christian Church was the 'bulwark of slavery,' for the 
 Reverend Slaveholders were legion. And when the British 
 Government emancipated the British African in ever- 
 memorable August, 1838, instead of compensating the 
 African for his losses and sufferings, it indemnified the 
 Reverend Slaveholders, with the Planters and others, for 
 their supposed losses through African emancipation. 
 
 The British and other nations are now engaged in Africa 
 in endeavouring to Christianize and civilize the aboriginal 
 African. The British, French, Italians, Germans, Spaniards, 
 Portuguese and Belgians ought surely to be aware that 
 their efforts are not only vain and fruitless, but also that 
 they are not genuine philanthropy. If Africa is to be 
 civilized and won for Christ, the only true way for effecting 
 this twofold object is to bring back the captive tribes of 
 Africans from America and the West Indies. Only Africans 
 can civilize Africa ; ihey only can Christianize Africa ; they 
 only can put down slavery and the slave trade. Were the 
 European nations in Africa actuated by genuine philan- 
 thropic motives, that is what they would do. They would 
 assist the African of the American Continent and Islands 
 to migrate to Africa, his Fatherland. 
 
 John Brown, who fought for, and suffered martyrdom 
 on behalf of, the American African, was a genuine phi- 
 lanthropist. Elijah P. Lovejoy, the Martyr, earned the 
 Martyr's Crown for the sake of the African because he 
 loved him. Gerrit Smith, who gave 120,000 acres of land 
 to the Africans in the United States, was a genuine 
 philanthropist. Miss Kate Drexeli (Sister Catherine, 
 Catholic Superior of the Convent of the Holy Sacrament), 
 who gave over ;^i, 000,000 to the Africans and Indians of 
 the United States, is, without the shadow of a doubt, a 
 genuine philanthropist."^ The American Colonization 
 
 * We, in the name of the Ethiopian race, sincerely thank 
 Miss Kate Drexeli for her munificent gift. 
 
3IO THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA. 
 
 Society, which has done and is doing such priceless yeoman 
 service to the Ethiopian race, is genuinely philanthropic. 
 But what philanthropy does the European in Africa 
 possess? The European has as much philanthropy as 
 Stanley. The European has gone to Africa, not to civilize 
 and Christianize the African, but to impoverish him and 
 ruin him. He has gone to ease the African of his terri- 
 tories, his gold, his silver, his ivory, and for profit and 
 riches generally. 
 
 The European brought in the train of his Civilization 
 and Christianity the Liquor Traffic into Africa, which is 
 doing woeful harm to the African Aborigines, especially to 
 those who come across the fire-water for the first time. 
 
 German Arminius, fighting for Independence, surrounded 
 and annihilated the Roman legions of Varus, and secured 
 Independence. When the Roman Emperor Augustus 
 heard that Varus and his soldiers had experienced not only 
 defeat, but extermination, at the hands of German Arminius, 
 he exclaimed : ' Varus, Varus, give me back my legions !' 
 He said very little, and never contemplated sending 
 another expedition into Germany to subdue German 
 Arminius and his countrymen. He never entertained the 
 thought for a moment of taking the Liberator of Germany 
 captive, and bringing him to Italy. Arminius, Augustus 
 knew, was a white man like himself, though he did not 
 belong to the same race as he did. 
 
 American George Washington, with the active co-opera- 
 tion and assistance of the French, Spaniards, and Dutch, 
 and with the countenance of Russia, Sweden, and Den- 
 mark, fought for and won Independence for his Fatherland, 
 the United States ; and this he might not have gained had 
 the above-named powers not assisted him both with men 
 and money and munition of war. The British, much as 
 they disliked parting with the American Colonies, had to 
 
REPATRIATION AND LIBERIA. 311 
 
 concede Independence to the United States. They did 
 not, after the War of American Independence, send an 
 expedition to reconquer the United States, and seize George 
 Washington, treacherously or not treacherously, and convey 
 him a prisoner to Britain. They took no such steps as 
 these ; for American Washington was their kinsman, and a 
 white man. 
 
 Venezuelan Simon Bolivar liberated Venezuela, Peru, 
 Columbia, Ecuador, and Bolivia from the yoke of the 
 Castilian; but the Spaniard did not, after the Indepen- 
 dence of the five named States was acknowledged, send an 
 expedition to reconquer these, and treacherously seize their 
 Liberator, Simon Bolivar. Venezuelan Bolivar had white 
 blood in his veins and was related to the Castilian. 
 
 Chilian San Martin de Jose, with the active co-operation 
 of British Cochrane, the first Earl of Dundonald (and, next 
 to Nelson, the greatest Admiral Britain has ever produced), 
 and sundry other Britishers, and supported by American 
 public opinion, gave Independence to Chili and Argentina, 
 and other Countries on the American Continent, and freed 
 them from the yoke of the Spaniard. But the Spaniard did 
 not in revenge send another expedition to reconquer those 
 countries. The Castilian did not attempt to treacherously 
 seize San Martin de Jose. For De Jose had not only 
 white blood, but he claimed consanguinity with the Cas- 
 tilian, with the Spaniard. 
 
 Mexican Iturbide is reputed to be the Liberator of 
 Mexico. After that personage gave Independence to his 
 country the Spaniards did not try to reconquer Mexico; 
 they did not send an expedition into Mexico with orders 
 to take Iturbide prisoner in a faithless manner, for Mexican 
 Iturbide was a white man, and claimed a Spanish 
 ancestry. 
 
 Boer Joubert is the Liberator of the Transvaal ; for he it 
 
312 THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA. 
 
 was who defeated Britain at Amajuba in 1881, and ex- 
 torted Independence from the reluctant Britishers. But 
 the British did not, on account of their disasters, seize 
 Joubert, Kriiger, and Smit Far from it ; and why ? 
 Because Joubert and his Boers of the Transvaal, being the 
 descendants of Dutchmen, are white, and the Britisher is of 
 the same Low German Family as the Dutchman. There- 
 fore, the Boers of the Transvaal were left unmolested after 
 Amajuba Hill. 
 
 But when the Haytians were bravely battling for Liberty 
 and Independence against the Frenchmen, what European 
 Country, what European nation, was there that stirred a 
 finger on their behalf? No nation thought for an instant 
 of marching to the assistance of San Domingo ; the Hay- 
 tians, unlike the Americans, who received the active assist- 
 ance of the French, Spaniards, and Dutchmen, while 
 Russia, Denmark, and Sweden countenanced them — the 
 Haytians, unlike the Spanish-American Colonists, ■**■ who 
 received the countenance of many civilized nations of the 
 earth, while British soldiers and sailors fought by their side 
 — the Haytians, unlike the Greeks, who had the might of 
 the British, French, and Russians fighting on their behalf, 
 when they were struggling for Independence, were left to 
 fight out their battles singlehanded and alone, as best they 
 could. They received no sympathy and no countenance 
 from the white man, as did the Germans, the Belgians, and 
 the Boers of the Transvaal when they were fighting for 
 Independence. 
 
 The Haytians, unlike the British-American and Spanish- 
 American Colonists, the Greeks, the Germans, Belgians, 
 
 ■^ President Potion, of Hayti, supplied Venezuelan Simon 
 Bolivar with four Haytian battalions, who in 1816 covered 
 themselves with imperishable renown when fighting against the 
 Spanish Royalists on the plain of Savannah. 
 
RE PA TRIA TION AND LIBERIA . 313 
 
 and Transvaal Boers and Swiss, fought not only for Inde- 
 pendence, but also for Liberty. 
 
 The Haytians of Fran9ois Dominique were few in 
 number, but they were mighty, stalwart, and plucky men. 
 They were a devoted, fearless band of heroes. But what 
 will not heroic souls undertake, what will they not achieve, 
 with a Toussaint the Great at their head to lead them? 
 Toussaint the Great and his Haytians not only resolved to 
 fight for, but to win, their Liberty and Independence. The 
 struggle which Biassou and Jean Francois began in August, 
 1791, was continued under Toussaint the Great in 1793. 
 Toussaint not only took the field, but he joined battle with 
 the Frenchmen. He did not merely grapple with and fight, 
 but he defeated the Frenchmen. To defeat them in battle 
 was of great moment ; but the Haytian soldiers of L'Ouver- 
 ture did more than that : they subdued the Frenchmen, 
 and almost annihilated them. The Frenchmen who were 
 left were expelled from San Domingo or took to flight of 
 their own accord, putting a long space between themselves 
 and the Haytian bayonets. 
 
 Far from helping the Haytians, the white men, in the 
 persons of the British and Spaniards, tried to wrest Inde- 
 pendence from the Haytians. General Maitland and his 
 British countrymen came to grapple with Toussaint the 
 Great, but Maitland was no match for the Haytian 
 Liberator; he was compelled to return home disappointed. 
 The arrogant Castilian tried his hand also, but Toussaint 
 the Great easily drove the Spaniard into the sea. The 
 history of the Haytian struggles for Liberty and Indepen- 
 dence is unique ; it is without a parallel. Here were the 
 Haytians, enjoying practical Independence from the French- 
 men. Yet, because the Haytians are Africans, they must 
 needs be attacked by the British and Spaniards. The 
 Americans, after they had achieved Independence, were 
 
314 THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA. 
 
 not attacked by any nation. Mexico, Central America, 
 Chili, Argentina, Peru, Bolivia, Venezuela, Ecuador, 
 Columbia, after they gained their Independence from the 
 Spaniards, and like the Belgians, after they extorted Inde- 
 pendence from the Dutch, and like the Greeks, after they 
 won their Independence from the turbaned Turk, were not 
 molested by any individual or united States. But the 
 Haytians were molested by the British and by the 
 Spaniards. Said they : ' What right under Heaven have 
 the Ethiopians of Hayti — men who were the slaves of 
 yesterday — to be independent?' They tried with might and 
 main to retake Hayti and wrest Independence from the 
 Haytians: but Toussaint-L'Ouverture, few though his 
 Haytian soldiery were, prevailed everywhere, an uncon- 
 ditional surrender alone saving the crestfallen Britishers 
 and Spaniards from destruction by the Haytian bayonets. 
 
 Toussaint the Great won Liberty for his countrymen in 
 1794, but it was nearly 1800 before he gained absolute and 
 unqualified Independence. 
 
 Unfortunately, Corsican Bonaparte was bent, for sundry 
 reasons, on re-conquering San Domingo, and for this pur- 
 pose the French First Consul organized and despatched a 
 squadron of fifty-four sail of the line, under his brother- 
 in-law, General Leclerc, and Admiral Villaret Joyeuse, to 
 San Domingo, with orders to re-establish slavery in San 
 Domingo on its reduction beneath French sway. Such 
 proceedings on the part of the French were unprecedented 
 and unsurpassed, as they have never been followed. 
 
 The Americans extorted Independence from stubborn 
 Britishers, but the British, to their credit, did not try to 
 retake the United States when their arms were free to be 
 directed in any direction, particularly in a weak direction. 
 
 The Spanish-American Colonists, after they had become 
 Independent Nations, were not molested by the Castilian. 
 
w 
 
 The B( 
 
 /?EPA TRIA TION A ND LIBERIA . 315 
 
 'he Belgian, after he had driven the slow-moving Dutch- 
 man from his country and wrested Independence from him, 
 was not subjected to annoyances from the Hollanders. 
 
 The Transvaal Boers, after they had been given Indepen- 
 dence consequent on Amajuba, a decisive battle and well- 
 fought field, were not subjected to annoyances at the hands 
 of the Britishers. But the Haytians were more than annoyed 
 by the French. 
 
 We say that Napoleon sent a formidable expedition 
 against San Domingo ; but the conquering Toussaint the 
 Great, though a price was set upon his head and he was 
 declared an outlaw by the French, was equal to the 
 occasion. He was the most active man in Hayti, in 
 addition to being the most capable and the most indefatig- 
 able. He gathered the ' thin red lines ' of his Haytians 
 around him, and issued (on December 18, 1801) a counter- 
 proclamation against Napoleon's insolent and arrogant edict 
 for the re-establishment of slavery in San Domingo. 
 
 There were sieges ; there were burnings ; there were 
 marches and counter-marches ; there were bivouacs, and 
 whole nights under arms ; there were laying wastes ; there 
 were skirmishes ; there were battles stout and long and 
 hotly contested. 
 
 Still Toussaint the Great fought on and on. Was he not 
 a hero and a master of the art of war as well as that of 
 diplomacy? And he continued to harass them so that the 
 Frenchmen got sick and tired of the war, and were fain to 
 cry ' Enough !' They offered him, and Toussaint the Great 
 accepted, peace on his own terms. 
 
 The Treaty, following in the wake of the Peace, of 
 course, could only have been an honourable one to 
 L'Ouverture the Liberator ; for what Treaty or what Peace 
 other than an honourable one has the Great Toussaint ever 
 concluded ? 
 
3i6 THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA. 
 
 The principal Terms of the Treaty provided that (i) 
 Toussaint the Great was to be Governor and Commander- 
 in-Chief of San Domingo or Hayti for life, with power 
 to name his successor ; that (2) the French General Leclerc 
 was to reside in San Domingo as Agent representing the 
 First Republic ; that (3) all Toussaint the Great's Haytian 
 officers were to retain their rank and command in the 
 French Army of San Domingo ; that (4) slavery was to be 
 perpetually abolished in San Domingo. 
 
 The Treaty concluded between Leclerc and Toussaint 
 L'Ouverture the Great was, however, only a cloak for French 
 perfidy of the deepest dye. The F'rst Consul, Bonaparte, 
 had given his brother-in-law, Leek ' ^ orders to seize 
 
 Toussaint L'Ouverture alive where ^.1 he could. 
 
 Said the Frenchman, Napoleon : H jares he try to act 
 the part of Liberator of San Domingo, as German Arminius 
 did thousands of years before him for his Germany, and as 
 American George Washington did for the United States a 
 score of years before ? We, said Napoleon, must ' suppress ' 
 him. And do you, Leclerc, bring the First of the Blacks to 
 France alive or dead ; it is your duty — ?is our commission. 
 
 And Leclerc, to his shame, and teethe shame of the 
 Corsican, if either could be said to ha 'e had any shame, 
 carried out to the letter his commissior It was early in 
 the year (1802) when General Leclerc' selected General 
 Brunet, one of his chief officers, to carry out his unworthy 
 commission. The seizure by the Frenchman was eff"ected 
 in this way : Brunet invited Toussaint to a friendly confer- 
 ence midway between Sancey and Gonaives on the loth of 
 June, 1802. The unsuspecting L'Ouverture, relying on the 
 honour and good faith of the Frenchman, with his noble, 
 fearless and soldierly mind, for was he not a preux 
 chevalier, the Bayard sans peur et sa?is reproche of Hayti ? 
 entertained no mistrust, and accepted the invitation and 
 
REPATRIATION AND LIBERIA. 317 
 
 attended the conference at the rendezvous on the day 
 named. But while he was thus engaged, Brunet, with true 
 Gallic perfidy, disarmed L'Ouverture's handful of body- 
 guard, and seized the First and Greatest of the Haytians, 
 the Liberator of San Domingo. So he whom they could 
 not crush or subdue, was ; treacherously seized by pledge- 
 breaking Frenchmen, and conveyed as a close prisoner 
 to France, which was the implacable enemy of him and his 
 country. They had caught the lion in their snare, but the 
 Frenchmen never succeeded in turning L'Ouverture's proud 
 and lofty spirit. The Corsican incarcerated the Haytian in 
 an Alpine dungeon in the Castle of Joux, near Besan9on, 
 where Toussaint. - ' nd more than ordinary conqueror, 
 
 and more th jirtyr, perished of cold and starva- 
 
 tion, if not of Uc*. /and more sinister agencies, at the 
 hands of the Frenchman, the then First Consul Bonaparte, 
 on April 27, 1803. 
 
 Toussaint's treacherous seizure, imprisonment in a cold 
 Alpine dungeon an4 death from starvation, are foul blots 
 on the reputation r*" Napoleon. His fate is unparalleled in 
 history sn ^^ deals with Liberators. None save a 
 
 hit rrican could have experienced the fate 
 
 which the x- ^ Liberator met at the hands of the 
 
 French. Only r f^lack — an African — Liberator could have 
 met with such a ate. And are we not justified in saying 
 this? In the first place, did Arminius, the Liberator of 
 Germany, experience maltreatment at the hands of the 
 Romans for freeing Germany from their yoke? But the 
 Haytian Liberator did at the hands of the French. 
 
 In the second place, did George Washington suffer ill- 
 treatment at the hands of the British because he freed his 
 country from their rule ? On the contrary, no American, 
 we shall say, no foreigner, is held in greater honour amongst 
 Britishers than George Washington. 
 
3i8 THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA. 
 
 In the third, fourth and fifth places, Simon Bolivar, San 
 Martin de Jose, Iturbide, the Liberators of Spanish 
 America, as we before pointed out, were not in revenge 
 treacherously seized and ill-treated by the Spaniards, 
 though the Castilians were strong enough to do it, just as 
 the British were strong enough to entrap Washington and 
 convey him to Britain if they had wished it. 
 
 In the sixth place, we hear that the Belgians have had 
 their Liberator, but it is not recorded in history that the 
 Dutchmen treacherously seized and ill-treated the Belgian 
 Liberator. Nor does history tell us, in the seventh place, 
 that the Liberator of the Greeks, for taking up arms against 
 the Turkish Crescent, was ensnared and put to death by slow 
 or quick methods. While we have pointed out that, in the 
 eighth place, the Liberator of the Transvaal, Boer Joubert, 
 who inflicted a defeat on the British Lion at Amajuba Hill, 
 did not experience any calamitous fate. He did not ex- 
 perience at the hands of the British the fate which Tous- 
 saint the Great, Liberator of San Domingo or Hayti, met 
 with at the hands of the French. And the British, so far 
 from entertaining any animosity against Joubert, who gave 
 Independence to the Transvaal, went to the length of giving 
 a dinner in his honour on December ii, 1890, when 
 the gallant Boer gentleman, the Transvaal Liberator and 
 General, was paying a visit to the British Metropohs. 
 
 But the Frenchmen did not wreak their vengeance on 
 Toussaint L'Ouverture the Great alone : for after the demise 
 of the Haytian Liberator L'Ouverture's family were also 
 confined to prison at Brienne-en-Agen, where one of his sons 
 died, while his widow in 181 6 expired there in the arms of 
 her two remaining sons, Isaac and Placide Toussaint L'Ouver- 
 ture, as a state prisoner of perfidious France. But the 
 awful and mysterious Adrastea, retributive Nemesis, avenged 
 the cruel, brutal and disgraceful wrongs heaped upon the 
 
REPA TRIA TION AND LIBERIA. 319 
 
 Great Toussaint, and the Toussaint Family, not only in the 
 persons of the Bonaparte Family, but in the persons of 
 Frenchmen in general. For though First Consul Bona- 
 parte mounted the Imperial Throne of the French, he 
 found himself at Leipsic, and in the year of Leipsic, not 
 only deprived of all his conquests, and his brothers, other 
 kinsmen and intimate friends, driven from thrones and 
 power, but he was, after being driven from burning Moscow 
 with humiliating loss, pursued by the aggressive and 
 harassing Muscovite hordes of the White Czar, humbled at 
 Leipsic, and imprisoned at Elba. He returned from Elba not 
 only to fight, but to be defeated ; not only to be defeated, but 
 to have his Frenchmen almost annihilated at Waterloo by 
 the omnipotent allies. Waterloo, for Napoleon's French- 
 men, was not a battle, but a massacre — at least, from the 
 time when the Prussian Bliicher reinforced the British 
 Wellington. He was crushed at Waterloo only to abdicate 
 the French Imperial Throne at Fontainebleau. He by 
 compulsion laid aside the Imperial Diadem, but it was 
 only to be conveyed a prisoner for the term of his natural 
 life to St. Helena, an African island, where the executioner 
 and oppressor of Toussaint the Great died in 1821. 
 
 Nemesis the Avenger punished Frenchmen and the 
 Napoleons in other ways also. For the son and heir of the 
 First Napoleon, the King of Rome and Duke of Reichstadt, 
 never reigned over France. He died in the land of his 
 grandfather more or less an Austrian state prisoner. 
 
 Retribution also overtook the Frenchmen in 1870-71. 
 For Napoleon III., ' the nephew of his uncle,' was conveyed 
 a prisoner to Prussia and incarcerated in a castle of the 
 Teuton after Sedan. Frenchmen lost not only men, and 
 not only met with humiliating defeats and experienced dis- 
 graceful surrenders by their soldiers, but they were also 
 compelled to hand over the whole of Alsace, and a great 
 
320 THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA. 
 
 part of Lorraine, to their German conquerors ; while the 
 victorious Teutons, in the pride of victory, also extorted a 
 heavy war indemnity from the crest-fallen Gauls. Did not 
 *the grand-nephew of his grand-uncle,' the French Prince 
 Imperial, meet with his death at the hands of the Zulus — men 
 of the same Ethiopian race as Toussaint L'Ouverture — at 
 Isandhwlana in 1879? And may we add here, that the 
 power of the Bonapartes in France at present is not by any 
 means of importance, and that the heir of the First Napoleon 
 is an uncrowned Emperor living in constrained exile ? 
 
 The Frenchmen evidently under-estimated the capacities 
 of the Haytians for organization. They found out their mis- 
 take to their cost when it was too late; and bitterly did they 
 repent of their blunder. And the blunder of the French- 
 men was this : They treacherously seized, wrongfully in- 
 carcerated, and feloniously brought about the death of the 
 Haytian Chief, thinking thus to crush the spirit of the 
 Haytians in their struggles for Independence. For, said the 
 Frenchmen, if we only take their Chief out of the way, 
 affairs will proceed smoothly with us, and our work will be 
 downhill and easy; only remove their idolized Chieftain 
 from off the scene, and there will not be found the Leader 
 who will have the courage or the capacity to lead the 
 Haytians on any further struggle for Independence. But 
 the Frenchmen reckoned without their host. And, fortu- 
 nately for the Haytians and the African Race in general, 
 they blundered when they left the swift, the agile, the inde- 
 fatigable, the talented, and fearless Jacques Dessalines in 
 San Domingo alive and at large, and occupying one of the 
 chief commands in the French Army of Hayti. For the 
 distinguished and fearless Dessalines rose and flew to arms 
 with his Haytians only six months after the demise of their 
 beloved Chief. They rose in their might in October, 1803, 
 fought the Gauls, won battle after battle, captured town 
 
REP A TRIA TION AND LIBERIA . 32 1 
 
 after town, fort after fort, from the Frenchmen. But the 
 ever-memorable battle of St. Mark, the Amajuba of French- 
 men, brought untold and humiliating disasters on the French 
 arms. It was fought in November, 1803. Dessalines com- 
 manded in person. There the European and the Africo- 
 West Indian, the Caucasian and the Ethiopian, the Gaul 
 and the Haytian, met face to face on equal terms and on a 
 well-planned field. The veterans of Napoleon were pitted 
 against the veterans of Toussaint ; but the former were 
 eclipsed by the latter. That battle, which tested the 
 superiority of the black man over the white man, freed the 
 Haytians, for the victorious troops of Dessalines compelled 
 the Frenchmen to evacuate San Domingo in November of 
 the same year (1803). Is it not hard to believe that the 
 Spaniards tried their hand in recovering the western portion 
 from the grasp of Dessalines, though the Haytians had pro- 
 claimed their Independence ? Is it not hard also to beHeve 
 that France never recognised the Independence of Hayti 
 till the year 1825, though they were driven finally from San 
 Domingo in 1803 ? Frenchmen recognised the Inde- 
 pendence of San Domingo only so late as 1825, but on what 
 condition? On the condition that the Haytians should en- 
 gage to pay 150,000,000 francs, or ^^6,000,000, to the 
 avaricious and insatiable Frenchmen. 
 
 Britain did not take so long a time to recognise the Inde- 
 pendence of the United States of North America. Spain 
 did not take so long a time to recognise the Indepen- 
 dence of Spanish America. Holland did not take so 
 long a time to recognise the Independence of Belgium. 
 Turkey did take so long a time to recognise the In- 
 dependence of Greece. Britain did not take so long 
 a time to recognise the Independence of the Transvaal 
 as the Frenchmen took to recognise the Independence 
 of Hayti. And why was it so? The Haytians were, and 
 
 21 
 
322 THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA. 
 
 are, Ethiopians; but the Americans, the Greeks, the Belgians, 
 the Transvaal Boers, the Spanish Americans (partly) were, 
 as they are, white. At the same time the Yankees had to 
 pay no indemnity to Britain ; the Spanish Americans had 
 to pay no indemnity to Spain; the Belgians had to pay no in- 
 demnity to the Hollanders ; the Greeks had to pay no in- 
 demnity to the turbaned Turks ; the Transvaal Boers had to 
 pay no indemnity to Britishers as the price of their Indepen- 
 dence. But the Haytians (alack-a-day for the Haytians ! alack- 
 a-day for the African — the African Race in general !) had to 
 pay 150,000,000 francs, and no less, to the Frenchmen as the 
 price of their Independence. As white rule over the black 
 means injustice and cruelty, we cannot help reflecting that 
 it was better for them to have paid 150,000,000 francs, or 
 even more, to the Frenchmen rather than have allowed them 
 (the Frenchmen) to reinstate their rule over the Haytians 
 again. Is it not hard to believe that Britain did not 
 acknowledge the Independence of the Haytian People 
 until 1850 ? But the fact is so. When Belgium proclaimed 
 her Independence of Holland, Britain immediately acknow- 
 ledged it. Britain not only acknowledged the Indepen- 
 dence of Greece, but even sent British men, British 
 money, British ships with British munitions of war to the 
 help of the Hellenes. While the Independence of Spanish 
 America and the Transvaal were acknowledged almost im- 
 mediately by the Britishers, and we know that they sent 
 men, money, ships and arms to the assistance of the former 
 when she was bravely battling with Spain. 
 
 The present attitude of the white towards the black, where 
 the former rules, is treated in the First, Second, and Fifth 
 Chapters of this work. From one white Anglo-Saxon race 
 we can form an estimate of the whole white race. And is 
 it reasonable for the African to dream, and for Laird Clowes 
 to suppose, that the white man's Government will some day 
 
REP A TRIA TION AND LIBERIA. 323 
 
 (say in the near future) spontaneously, and in a philan- 
 thropic spirit, offer to take the African expatriates from 
 America to their Fatherland Africa? 
 
 Because Cetewayo, the renowned King of the Zulus, was 
 fearless and patriotic enough to take up arms in 1879 to 
 assert his rights and maintain the integrity of his Kingdom, 
 and repel the British invaders of his dominions ; and 
 because he inflicted humiliating and disastrous defeats on 
 the British arms at Isandhwlana, Inyezane, Intombi River, 
 and Hloblane Mountain and elsewhere, he was, after 
 Ulundi, treacherously seized at durbar, conveyed a close 
 prisoner of state to Britain, had his Kingdom taken away 
 from him and divided, and his son. Prince Dinizulu, was 
 deprived of the Royal Heritage of Zululand. 
 
 Because Dinizuli, King Cetewayo's son and heir, rose in 
 arms to vindicate his rights in Zululand he was taken 
 prisoner, and after undergoing a mock trial was, together 
 with many of his vassal Chieftains, transported to the 
 Island of St. Helena by the British to go through a long 
 term of imprisonment. 
 
 The conduct of the British towards His Opoban Majesty 
 King Ja Ja is one of the worst on record. Ja Ja of 
 Opobo, after he was treacherously seized at durbar by 
 Consul Johnston, for no just cause, on the West Coast of 
 Africa, was banished to the British West Indian Island of 
 St. Vincent, and thence to Barbadoes, another British 
 West Indian Island. In an article on ' England's Honour,' 
 in a widely-read and influential British journal, the dis- 
 honourable action of British Consul Johnston towards 
 Opoban Ja Ja is thus dealt with : 
 
 'It is now' (May i, 189 1) ' nearly three years since we 
 deemed it our duty to direct attention to the action of Mr. 
 Consul Johnston in seizing and deporting an African Chief, 
 Ja Ja. At that time Mr. Johnston was Consul on the West 
 
 2 1 — 2 
 
324 THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA, 
 
 Coast, and he was called upon to settle a quarrel between 
 the traders and the Chief. It is not necessary for our 
 purpose to enter into the merits of the dispute. It is 
 sufficient to say that Ja Ja claimed rights over the oil 
 districts, which were scouted by the traders, ridiculed by 
 Mr. Johnston, but partly admitted by Lord Salisbury, then, 
 as now. Foreign Minister. Right was on the side of the 
 Chief, and Mr. Johnston knew it. But the Consul is 
 a man of resource, untrammelled by scruples. Beaten in 
 argument, he summoned a man-of-war ; but a warship 
 cannot do much injury to a Chief who has no towns to 
 destroy, and can paddle into the interior of a country 
 known only to his own people. And this is what Ja Ja was 
 about to do when Mr. Johnston summoned treachery to 
 his aid. He invited the Chief to a conference. " We 
 have been quarrelling long enough," said the Consul. " I 
 have written despatches innumerable ; you have replied ; 
 the traders have rejoined ; Lord Salisbury has had his say, 
 and we are — as we were. Meet me in my tent, and we 
 will settle our differences as becomes friends." But Ja Ja 
 was suspicious. He would come, he said, but not without 
 a safe-conduct. The safe-conduct was given, and Ja Ja 
 came to the conference unarmed, and almost unattended. 
 No sooner there than Mr. Johnston presented his ulti- 
 matum. He told Ja Ja that he was a pestilent knave, who 
 had given an infinity of trouble, and must go on board the 
 man-of-war in the offing, and be taken to Accra, a thousand 
 miles away, there to stand his trial. Ja Ja protested. He 
 was present to negotiate on equal terms, not to be seized 
 and sent abroad. Mr. Johnston was obdurate. Ja Ja then 
 reminded him of his safe-conduct. And what was Mr. 
 Johnston's answer? "True; you have a safe-conduct, and 
 I will respect it. You are free to leave. But what can you 
 do ? My boats have blocked your escape by the river ; you 
 
REPA TRIA TION AND LIBERIA. 325 
 
 cannot escape by land. I will offer such a heavy reward 
 for your head that your life will not be worth an hour's 
 purchase. Go if you will, but if you go, you go to certain 
 death." Ja Ja saw he was trapped. Sullenly he submitted, 
 and was taken to Accra, where even the judges who 
 tried him spoke well of him. He is now an exile in St. 
 Vincent* * Mr. Johnston won the game, but it was with 
 loaded dice. He sullied England's honour by violating 
 a safe-conduct, by doing that to a savage which, if done 
 to a civilized foe, would have branded him with an indelible 
 stigma.' 
 
 Again, as indicating the far from friendly attitude of the 
 white towards the African, no European sovereign would 
 for a moment think of conferring a distinction and an 
 honour on African crowned heads, though half-civilized and 
 half-wild Asiatics, with the Sultan of Turkey arid the 
 Khedive of Egypt, have had such honours and such dis- 
 tinctions conferred on them. 
 
 There are exceptions, however, to the rule embodied in 
 the former part of the above statement. For the present 
 Sultan of Zanzibar, His Highness Seyyid Ali bin Said,! was 
 in thecourseof last year (1890) dubbed Knight Grand Com- 
 mander of the Star of India ; but that distinction emanating 
 from the British Crown was the price of, or the bribe for, 
 the influence assumed by the Imperial British East India 
 Company over Zanzibar in the course of the last year 
 (1890). But the only African, the only African Ruler, who 
 has ever had a distinction or an honour conferred upon 
 him through motives of disinterestedness and genuine 
 
 * Thanks to the refined cruelty of perfidious Britishers, 
 Opoban Ja Ja is no more, he having died in July, 1891, an 
 exile and a homeless man. 
 
 t We are afraid, however, that the present Sultan of Zanzibar 
 is an Asiatic — at least on his father's side. 
 
326 THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA. 
 
 brotherly friendship was His Excellency the late Siberian 
 President Gardner, on whom, on February ii, 1882, His 
 Majesty Alfonso XH., the late King of Spain, conferred 
 the Knighthood of the Grand Cross of the Royal Order of 
 Isabel the Catholic. While the only British subject of the 
 Ethiopian Race who has ever been knighted is the Chief 
 Justice of Barbadoes, Sir William Conrad Reeves — but he is 
 only a Knight Bachelor. 
 
 Of course these honours and distinctions are of very 
 little moment, particularly in a country like Republican 
 Liberia. Yet as Europeans confer these favours on one 
 another, and even on semi-barbarous Asiatics, the unen- 
 lightened and retrograding half- savage Sultans of Turkey 
 and the Khedives of Egypt, why not, in Heaven's name, 
 extend these courtesies to the cultured Sovereigns and 
 other Chiefs of the African or Ethiopian Race in a similar 
 manner? 
 
 With all these evidences of the attitude of the ruling white 
 towards the subject black before him, any man will, we shall 
 say any man must^ infer and maintain that for the Americo- 
 Africans to live on in continual and paradise-like dream, and 
 for Laird Clowes to imagine that a white Government — the 
 Yankee Government supported by the white Governments 
 of Europe — will some day, spontaneously, and grateful for 
 unrequited services rendered during slavery, as an atone- 
 ment and a penance for wrongs heaped upon them in the 
 course of the slave-trade and during slavery, and in a 
 philanthropic spirit, hurry to the rescue of the African 
 freedmen in America, and arrange to send them to their 
 Fatherland, our Africa, and to her worthy daughter Liberia, 
 is foolish indeed. If the African particularly wishes to 
 leave the United States for Africa, he must, as we pointed 
 out before, organize and marshal his ranks, and bring 
 pressure to bear on the Yankee Government, by first of all 
 
REPA TRIA TION AND LIBERIA. 327 
 
 petitioning them, and if unsuccessful, then by agitating as 
 energetically for Repatriation and Liberia as Irishmen did 
 towards the disestablishment of the Irish Church (which 
 was finally disestablished on January i, 187 1); and as 
 they (Irishmen) are now doing to obtain a grant of Home 
 Rule. 
 
 The American Colonization Society, unaided by the 
 Yankee Government, is, however, carrying on the work of 
 Liberian Colonization with a pure and praiseworthy philan- 
 thropy. All honour, then, be to the American Colonization 
 Society ! 
 
 We have said, and we have shown, in the earher part of 
 this chapter and elsewhere in this work, that it would be 
 to the interest of, and that it was of the greatest importance 
 to, the British, as well as the Americo-African, that he 
 should help to complete the Colonization and hasten 
 the progress and prosperity of the Liberian Republic by 
 joining the ' Lone-Star ' of Liberia, and becoming her free 
 and independent citizen. 
 
 But if someone were to say. It is all very well for us to 
 advise migration by the British and Americo-African into 
 Liberia : does the Liberian Government offer any material 
 incentive to Liberian Immigration by non-Liberian Africans? 
 we should promptly answer that Liberian President John- 
 son's Government is too enlightened and patriotic, and 
 the Liberian Constitution is too Hberal towards the de- 
 scendants of Ham, not to make suitable provisions for the 
 African Immigrant into Liberia. President Johnson"^ is him- 
 self a man of no ordinary ability, talents and culture. His 
 Government guarantees a free grant of ten acres of fertile 
 land to every single grown-up person, and twenty-five acres 
 
 * The present Chief Magistrate of Liberia is President J. J. 
 Cheeseman, Mr. Johnson not seeking re-election at the end of 
 his term. 
 
328 THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA. 
 
 of land to every family of Hamitic, or African, descent who 
 elects to not only reside in the West African Republic, but 
 to become a Liberian citizen with liberty to purchase more 
 from the Government at a reasonable and moderate price. 
 
 We cannot conclude our work without venturing to 
 submit some counsel to the gracious consideration of the 
 present or any future Liberian Government. Members, both 
 individual and aggregate, of white Governments of en- 
 lightenment and leading, in the olden times as in modern 
 times, have not thought it beneath them to accept and 
 follow good counsel at the hands of their inferiors — we 
 mean, of those lower in rank or station than themselves, 
 when asked for or voluntarily offered. We do not think 
 that a black Government, like that of the Liberian Republic, 
 progressive, enlightened and patriotic as it is, can remain 
 indifferent to the advice which we venture to voluntarily 
 offer it. For we should like to impress upon it the fact that 
 greater exertions must be made by the Liberian Govern- 
 ment if they wish the non-Liberian Africans to flock into 
 Liberia and accelerate her progress and prosperity. Immi- 
 gration it was that hastened the greatness of the United 
 States of North America and the Dominion of Canada. 
 
 Canadian Immigration is encouraged by the Government. 
 The British daily papers for February 23 of this year(i89i) 
 report that : 'In addition to the free grant of 160 acres of 
 fertile land, offered by the Canadian Government to any male 
 adult of the age of eighteen years and over in Manitoba and 
 the North-West Territories, and to the land that may also 
 be obtained at a moderate price in British Columbia, the 
 Minister of Agriculture is now authorized to offer, until 
 further notice, the following bonuses to settlers from the 
 United Kingdom taking up land within six months of their 
 arrival in the country : Fifteen dollars {^-^ is. 8d.) to the 
 head of a family, 7 dols. 50 c. (;^i los. lod.) for the wife and 
 
REP A TRIA TION A ND LIBERIA . 329 
 
 each adult member of the family (over twelve years of age), 
 and a further sum of 7 dols. 50 c. (;£"i los. lod.) to any 
 adult member of the family over eighteen years taking up 
 land. Forms of application for the bonuses, without which 
 no payments will be made, may be obtained when the 
 passenger tickets are issued from any authorized agent of the 
 Canadian steamship lines in Great Britain and Ireland, etc' 
 
 We are of opinion that the example set by the Canadian 
 Government should not be lost sight of, but should more 
 or less be followed by the Liberian Government. Liberia 
 is much smaller and less rich than the Dominion of 
 Canada, we must admit. Still, we believe that the example 
 set by the Canadian may be followed by the Liberian 
 Government to some extent and with some modifications. 
 
 The following may be taken as our counsel to the Liberian 
 Government : Does Liberia need non-Liberian Africans, 
 her kinsmen, who are learned in the ' wisdom of the 
 Egyptians,' and who are subject to and living beneath the 
 sway of the 'Egyptians'? She does. Then she must 
 make greater exertions than she has ever yet made. She 
 must find the men and the wisdom she needs. She offers 
 a free grant of 10 acres of fertile land to every Liberian 
 Immigrant, and also 25 acres of the same to every family 
 who migrates into the Liberian Republic, as an encourage- 
 ment or incentive to Immigration by the non-Liberian of 
 Hamitic descent. But we say, How many millions of 
 Africans are there who may not know that there is such 
 a Country, such a Fatherland, in existence as Liberia? 
 Apart from that, we are convinced that there are millions 
 of Africans who know Liberia only by name, and nothing 
 more. These, then, cannot know that the Liberian 
 Government pledges itself to give a grant of 10 acres of 
 freehold land to the African adult, and 25 acres of the same 
 to the African family who migrates into Liberia. What, may 
 
330 THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA, 
 
 we be permitted to ask, is the cure for that disease of 
 ignorance, what is the remedy, what the panacea? We 
 believe we know the remedy ; and we believe that a better 
 state of things can be brought about in this way : In the 
 first place let the Liberian Government appoint Liberian 
 Immigration Agents* in all the English-speaking countries 
 where the Africans abound — say, in British Africa, in the 
 United States of North America, British America (including 
 the British West Indies) and Australasia — with orders and 
 powers to set up in the post-offices or otherwise, and put 
 into circulation, Liberian Immigration Notices for the 
 benefit and information of the Africans. 
 
 The above is to be construed as one of the chief points 
 of advice we should like to give the Liberian Government. 
 This will enable the Immigrant to know something of Liberia, 
 if he should happen not to know anything of her. There are 
 two other points of advice we should also like to give to the 
 Liberian Government. In the second place, as Liberia 
 cannot afford to follow the example of Canada and give i6o 
 acres of land and bonuses besides to Immigrants, because 
 she is neither as large nor so rich, artificially rich, as Canada, 
 in order that all possible inducements for leaving the land 
 where the white man rules and joining the Liberian Re- 
 public by non-Liberians of African descent may be made the 
 greater and keener and the more effective, let the Liberian 
 Government pledge themselves to give a free grant of 
 twenty instead of ten acres of fertile land to every grown-up 
 person of the age of eighteen years and over, and let them 
 engage to give a free grant of fifty instead of twenty-five 
 acres of fertile land, as is the case at present, to every 
 family of African descent. 
 
 In the third place, let the Liberian Government charter a 
 
 * Liberian Consuls might efficiently discharge the duties of 
 Agents. 
 
REPATRIATION AND LIBERIA. 531 
 
 line of Liberian Immigration Steamships, to be placed at 
 the disposal of the Liberian Immigration Agents, and under 
 their supervision, with the view of conveying to Liberia 
 those of the Africans who wish to emigrate at a moderate or, 
 if possible, very low rate, or even free of charge, with the 
 proviso that the Liberian Immigrant who is conveyed free 
 of charge should be given riot more than two years within 
 which to make up for expenses to which the Liberian 
 Government has gone on his behalf. When the Govern- 
 ment does these things, we feel confident that the desired 
 results will be achieved and brought about in Liberia. 
 
 The three points in our advice to the Liberian Govern 
 ment are, we must admit, not easy things for the powers that 
 be to undertake. But the points embodied in the advice indi- 
 cate a broad and liberal, and certainly a a'/V^, policy. Have the 
 Liberian Government no money to carry out the broad and 
 liberal scheme we suggest ? If so, let them find the money 
 somehow to carry out that policy, for Liberia has wonderful 
 natural resources, as both her friends and enemies testify. 
 Of course they must proceed gradually, and they should 
 proceed cautiously. But we are of opinion that it is better 
 for the Liberians to proceed gradually than for them to 
 make no attempt at all in carrying out such a feasible policy 
 as is indicated in the counsel which we make bold to submit 
 to their consideration. For we fail to see how, save it be by 
 the Immigration of the English-speaking Africans, the great- 
 ness, the progress and the prosperity of Liberia — the Land 
 of the Free— the * Lone-Star ' of Liberia, can be accelerated, 
 as it certainly should be, and as every true friend of the 
 African wishes it to be. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 Elliot Stocky Vatcrnostcr Row, London. 
 
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