2
The Green Bag
governed by a class of American ancestry or traditions and impregnated with the ideals of Anglo-Saxondom. English was the language of the early settlers of Liberia, and they were more familiar with the governments and laws of the United States and England than with those of any other country. The common law was near at hand. The legal systems of continental Europe were remote and inaccessible. The adoption of the common law came about natur ally, as a result of the adoption of the form of government of the United States. Early in the days of Liberia, the advan tages of a country governed by AngloSaxon institutions were appreciated even by the most ignorant natives. One poor fellow from the region of the Congo, asked if he was going back to that place, said: "No, no, if I go back to my coun try, they make me slave. I am here free; no one dare trouble me. I got my wife— my lands—my children learn book—all free—I am here a white man —me no go back!" Anglo-Saxon insti tutions have shown themselves much better suited to the negro character, in Liberia, than French and Spanish insti tutions, for instance, in the West Indies. The unassimilated Kru tribes in the hinterland will doubtless, in years to come, find themselves in much closer sympathy with Liberian institutions than with those of the contiguous French possessions. The history of the republic is interest ing as showing the process of impreg nating the new country with AngloSaxon institutions. When the Maryland colonists, with Dr. Hall as their leader, settled Cape Palmas in 1834, the natives were in the habit of committing in numerable thefts. "They would slip their hands," says Dr. Hall, "through the wattling of the houses, and strip the bed clothes from the sick." The governor
forced the king of the natives to pay for these thefts. Presently a colonist was caught stealing from a native's field. King Freeman wanted to know why the governor would not pay for it, but Dr. Hall explained, "I have a law that punishes theft and you have not." Finding that the governor's law came from America, King Freeman announced his intention to have one of his own from the same source. Accordingly Simleh Ballah, "the king's mouth," was dispatched to the United States. He appeared before the board of managers of the American Coloniza tion Society,* and said: — "I'm Ballah, head man for King Freeman, of Cape Palmas. Him send me dis country. I come for peak (speak) his word. Pose (suppose) him savee (know) book, I no come. He make book and send him; but 'cause he no savee make book, I come for look coun try and peak him words." A criminal code was then prepared for King Freeman, none of its provi sions being accepted by Simleh Ballah till he had had it fully explained to him. Here are some of the sections of this code, selected at random:— All men must do to each other as they would have men do unto them. All men must speak truth; none but bad men lie. If a man kill another man because he hated and wanted to kill him, he must be hung. If a man kill another man, and did not hate him or want to kill him, but did not take care, and killed him, he must go to jail and be punished as the judge says. If a man have one wife, and while she lives take another wife, so as to have more than one wife living, he must go to jail and be punished as the judge says; besides, he must give to both wives and their children a house to live in, and enough to eat and drink as long as they live. •See "Maryland in Liberia," by John H. B. Latrobe, Baltimore, 1885, for what here follows.
