as well as admired and respected abroad, rendered increasingly so by the continued equitable administration of her laws to all, and her certain, though gradual, advancement in every other essential element of national greatness.

6. If Liberia is ever to be really independent; if ever her finances or pecuniary interest is to find a reliable basis; if she is to establish and maintain a literature here; if the area of her territory is to expand commensurately with her national age; if civilization and Christianity are to be coextensive with her territorial jurisdiction; if ever she is made in the future to disgorge her last mineral and vegetable treasures; if ever we safely escape the danger of foreign influence in our politics; if ever we attain to perfect and respectable national manhood, these great and ennobling ends are to be secured by the general diffusion of religion and letters throughout this Republic.

7. I employ the term religion here as a comprehensive or generic term, comprehending in the galaxy of its constituent traits and concomitants industry and economy, and that industry, too, that is of the most productive and available nature. For inspiration plainly intimates (if not expressly teaches) that "diligence in business, fervor of spirit, and the service of the Lord," if not synonymous terms, are at least tri-sisters and inseparably joined. And if there is one national industrial pursuit to be preferred to another, taking precedence because of its paramount importance, it is that which Divine Wisdom assigned man in his primitive state of innocence-the cultivation of the soil; an occupation more congenial than any other to that state of purity in which he was created, and which was calculated more than any other secular employment to preserve from contamination those sanctified affections with which he held constant communion with his Creator.

8. If at this time there be any one thing in Liberia more than another that rejoices and encourages my heart,

it is the rapid progress that my fellow-citizens have made in agricultural and other industrial pursuits. Their progress in that respect is more than sufficient to compensate me for whatever ordeal I may have had to pass through during the last four years of my public life. I am fully aware that various have been, and perhaps are, opinions in foreign lands, as to our capability for the perpetuity of our government and civil institutions. Our success is still regarded by many as a problem, yet to be solved. The opinion was based, a few years ago, mainly on what was supposed to be a natural deficiency of intellect in the race, as well as delinquency in voluntary enterprise and industry. But the rapid discoveries and lucid testimony of numerous recent travelers upon this continent have pretty well convinced the civilized world that Africa and Africans, when not contaminated by such civilized influences as are vicious, are a very different people in condition and character from those of hopeless, indolent, and brutal degradation, which opinion had so generally obtained for centuries in the civilized world.

9. Barth, Livingstone, Bowen, and Seymour, have each, to a degree, drawn the curtain aside, and presented to the astonished view of the civilized world populous kingdoms and cities. They have not only traversed extensive regions of fertile and well-watered countries, abounding in natural wealth, because their vast mineral and vegetable treasures remain yet untouched, but they also bear testimony to the annual existence of large and well-cultivated fields where plenty abounds. And some portions of this land are occupied by negroes who consider it a disgrace to be indolent; negroes dwelling in the heart of Africa, who, for centuries of seclusion from the civilized world, have maintained a somewhat respectable state of civilization; vast regions peopled by negroes, whose virtues, especially of chastity, honesty, hospitality, and industry, rival the degree to which those qualities generally obtain in the civilized world; a people admirably subject to rule and order,

and possessing to an astonishing degree those elements which, by a proper development, and if accompanied with a knowledge and practice of Bible truth, can not fail in the future to elevate them to a state of national dignity and grandeur, second to no existing race now upon the earth.

10. Fellow-citizens, in proportion as years increase upon me do I discover the vastness of the field, and the responsibility of the work marked out by Divine Providence for Liberia upon this continent. Who is it that can look through the vista of the future without being satisfied that there must, in the very nature of things, be an extensive expansion of territory; coextensive with which, we trust, will be the diffusion of religion, letters, and law, and a rapid assimilation to us of the teeming tribes of this vast continent, their confederation or consolidation with us-tribes, many of whom, in their seclusion in central Africa, now possess all the essential elements and susceptibilities of a great and noble people; and surely one can not refrain from indulging in an anticipation, almost amounting to a certainty, of a glorious future for Liberia, a future whose glory will exceed the present in brilliancy, far more than the clear noonday does the beclouded morning sun.

11. Let our friends in foreign lands, who have for many years anxiously watched our progress; whose prayers and means have for so long a time been kindly and magnanimously tendered in our behalf; whose solicitude for our well-being and success is no less than our own; let them know, let them from this moment receive this declaration most respectfully made unto them, as an assurance emanating from the heart of each individual citizen of Liberia separately, and then again as emanating in the aggregate from every heart united in one, that "Liberia will not, can not, and shall not, be disgraced by civil wars!" Let the declaration of truth go forth to them this day, that their fears of civil war among us during the last year were un

founded; such a thought, apprehension, or intention could find no place to exist in any Liberian's head or heart.

12. Our citizens, when they become surcharged with real or imaginary political provocations, will seek and avail themselves of the medium of the press, if accessible, for relief. This is natural to them, in common with the citizens of all other republican governments, where the liberty of the press is tolerated. And though the abuse? of their privilege by going to excess, as was evidenced in all the Liberian papers published the last year, is much to be regretted, and should not be encouraged, yet it should be regarded more in the light of a safety valve, relieving them, through this medium, of that which might otherwise find a less harmless escape.

13. And now, fellow-citizens, since the year which ends my second administrative term has just closed, and we are just entering upon a new year and a new term, let the political follies and inconsistencies of the last year pass away with it. Let the wise and good in foreign lands be thoroughly convinced at last of the important fact, respecting which they seem most tenaciously incredulous, that Liberians can politically dispute and contend, can wage a most intense political warfare of words, and can most independently say a great many hard things about each other in the heat of their excitement-perhaps truly and untruly-and at the same time contemplate not the least corporeal or other injury to each other; and at no time permitting the excitement and adverse political feelings to become so intensive, as to prevent them at any time from uniting on a common platform of patriotism in defense and support of the fundamental interests of our common country.

14. Let Liberians demonstrate to the world that they can, at the proper time (as is now the case), lay down their weapons of political warfare after having inflicted no further damage than words can do, only to resume their use in moderation when circumstances shall really make it necessary. Let us in future look up and forward more in

tently than ever before to higher and nobler ends. Let Church and State keep their respective missions before them, and moving on in their respective legitimate spheres, strive to excel in being instrumental in contributing to the spiritual and temporal welfare of this land and country; in the faithful prosecution of which, in this very extensive and responsible field spread out by Divine Providence before each one individually, as well as before all in the aggregate, each and all will find enough. to do, to call into requisition their every energy, their every power, their every faculty.

CHAPTER LXXVII.

TREATY BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES AND LIBERIA.

By the President of the United States of America.

A PROCLAMATION.

WHEREAS a Treaty between the United States of America and the Republic of Liberia was concluded and signed by their respective Plenipotentiaries, at London, on the 21st day of October, 1862, which treaty is, word for word, as follows:

The United States of America and the Republic of Liberia, desiring to fix, in a permanent and equitable manner, the rules to be observed in the intercourse and commerce they desire to establish between their respective countries, have agreed, for this purpose, to conclude a treaty of commerce and navigation, and have judged that the said end can not be better obtained than by taking the most perfect equality and reciprocity for the basis of their agreement; and to effect this they have named, as their respective