Page:A Chapter on Slavery.djvu/99

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THE REPUBLIC OF LIBERIA.
85

essentially Anglo-Saxon; and with the English tongue and the English Bible, not to speak of a spirit of English industry, we may suppose it to possess a power of endurance, and skill in management, which unhappily never distinguished the imperfect nationality of Hayti.[1]

To the ability, wisdom, and dignified deportment of the gentlemen (for such they truly are, in all respects) who fill the offices of trust and honor in the Liberian Government, we have many testimonials. In reference to President Roberts, — Commodore Perry, of the United States navy, in a report to his Government, dated in 1844, says: "Governors Roberts, of Liberia, and Russworm, of Cape Palmas, are intelligent and estimable men, executing their responsible functions with wisdom and dignity; and we have, in the example of these two gentlemen, irrefragable proof of the capability of colored people to govern themselves." Mr. Buchanan, late Governor of the Pennsylvania Colony at Bassa Cove, in an account of a Visit which he made to Monrovia, says, "I also attended their courts, and was gratified to observe the perfect good order and decorum with which the proceedings were conducted; the dignity and good sense of the judges, the shrewdness and legal acumen of the counsel, the patient attention of the jury, — all, of course, colored men." — "It is a highly honorable fact," says Mr. Freeman[2]' (the remark may be quoted in this connection), "that no capital crime has ever been committed in the colony. The crimes usually brought before the court

  1. Chambers’s Journal of December 16, 1848.
  2. Plea for Africa, Conversation XXIV.