SOME INSULAR QUESTIONS?

THE last three years have brought upon us a swarm of

questions which have excited much controversy. They

have been disputed as if entirely new, while important precedents bearing on them seem to have been overlooked.

Even the recent oracular deliverances of the Supreme Court have failed to settle most of these things, so that at this late date there still seems room for discussion.

Up to 1898 we had never extended our territory by force. Even after the Mexican war what we took was paid for, inadequate as the price may appear. We paid also for the Philippines, but for many of our best citizens there is reason for lasting regret in the departure from our former policy, by which Porto Rico was taken as spoils of war. This now rises up to plague us. This island, with its dense yet alien population, raises the question whether under our system of government it is possible to carry on colonies.

This possibility has been furiously denied by the little group of violent anti-imperialists, and their opponents have been so accustomed to finding the men making up this group to be theoretically right in the various points which they have raised from time to time, that they have failed to offer any answer to this denial, though in our history many things could be brought out in favor of colonization.

To many people it will probably come as a surprise that the United States did once for more than a quarter of a century, and after the promulgation of the Monroe Doctrine, maintain without European protest a colony in the Old World, and that at the expiration of that time the United States allowed that colony peaceably to withdraw from its protection, and set itself up as an independent state, the sovereignty of which the United States later acknowledged, a sovereignty which still exists. So far as I know, the right of our Government to maintain such a colony was no more questioned during this period than its right to turn it loose afterward, and it can be safely asserted that no

one ever expected to see this particular colony ever become a part of the United States, or one of the United States, because it was under the protection of the United States.

It has been asserted that Liberia never was a colony of the United States, but in point of fact it certainly bore as intimate a relation to the Government of the United States as Connecticut or Rhode Island or Pennsylvania to Great Britain prior to 1776. Its history is curious. Its first effective start was obtained when, after failure of the Commissioners of the American Colonization Society to secure, as individuals, a satisfactory site, a vessel of the United States Navy, the "Alligator," was sent over to aid in the negotiations, and a deed for the site was extorted by her commander at the muzzle of his pistol from a most unwilling vendor in the shape of an African chief, who did not desire the profitable slave trade to be interfered with. It is true that this action on the part of Captain Stockton was hardly reprehensible, for it was only done when this same chief ordered Stockton and his sole attendant put to instant death, but these very vigorous measures by an officer of the United States Navy made the starting point of the new colony.

It is true that in his message to Congress of December 17th, 1819, setting forth his intention to establish an agency to look after the Africans recaptured from slavers, Monroe announced his purpose not to exercise any power founded on the principle of colonization, and that his agents were instructed not to exercise any such power, nor to go on any "other principle than that of performing benevolent offices," and that "you are not to connect your agency with the views or plans of the Colonization Society, with which under the law the Government of the United States has no concern." This limitation, however, in practice did not amount to much, for almost, if not quite without exception, during the whole period of dependence of Liberia, the position of Government Agent was given to the individual chosen by the American Colonization Society to manage the affairs of the colony, and more than once this agent marched at the head of troops raised by him as Colonial Agent to destroy French or Spanish slave-trading stations in the Liberian territory.

Moreover the Government furnished the money for transporting the first colonists to Africa, and they were convoyed by the

United States frigate "Cyane."1 There is in the executive documents of the first session of the 28th Congress a long paper with reference to Liberia. From this it appears that the following instructions were given June 11th, 1822, to Capt. Spence of the "Cyane." "When you arrive on the coast of Africa, you will proceed for Cape Mesurado" (the same as Cape Montserrado), "and visit the Colonial establishment near this place, and afford all the aid and support in your power to Dr. Eli Ayres, the Agent of this Government, and the colonists." And later these instructions were added to as follows: "By recent accounts received from Cape Messurado on the coast of Africa, it appears that the American settlement there has been attacked by the natives, and the safety of the people endangered. Their situation is therefore such as requires immediate relief and protection. I wish you to remain near them until you shall be relieved or receive further instructions from this department, and afford to the settlement and to the Agent of the Government all the aid and protection in your power"; and again April 8th, 1823, "For the greater security of the settlement made at Messurado, be pleased to station at that place, as long as you shall continue on the coast of Africa, or while the settlement is endangered by the natives, as many marines as can conveniently be spared from the United States ship 'Cyane' under your command." From these instructions it appears how strong a direct interest was had by the United States Government in this colony, although it always recognized the colony as being under the government of the American Colonization Society, a condition of things very similar to the government of the colony of Plymouth by the Plymouth Company. It was, however, the fact of this government by the society which eventually led to the independence of Liberia when it came. It is highly honorable, both to the society and to the United States Government, that, although the VicePresident of the society was Secretary of State of the United States (Daniel Webster), when trouble arose with Great Britain, which necessitated the independence of Liberia, there was no attempt to juggle with this double relation. December 22d,

See History of Liberia by J. H. T. McPherson, Johns Hopkins University Studies, 9th series, No. X, Baltimore, 1891, convenient but inaccurate.

1842, R. R. Gurley, the Secretary of the American Colonization Society, wrote to Daniel Webster, stating that "the late Secretary of State for the colonies of Great Britain, Lord John Russell assured me of the disposition of Her Majesty's Ministers to consider with candor the claims of Liberia, provided the subject was brought to its notice through the channels of our Government."

Two weeks later, on January 5th, 1843, Webster wrote to Minister Everett to make representations to Lord Aberdeen on the subject, saying: "I suggest that an inquiry may be instituted into the facts alleged, and that measures may be adopted for the prevention, in future, of any infraction of the rights of these colonists, or any improper interference, on the part of Her Majesty's subjects on the coast of Africa with the interests of the colonial settlement of Liberia." A little later, March 24th, 1843, Webster again wrote to Everett a letter in which he says, "Without having passed any laws for their regulation, the American Government takes a deep interest in the welfare of the people of Liberia, and is disposed to extend to them a just degree of countenance and protection"; but as the outcome of a direct inquiry from the British Government whether Liberia was a colony of the United States, Everett wrote December 30th, 1843, to the Earl of Aberdeen, "The policy of the United States, in reference to extra continental possessions, has not allowed them, had it been otherwise expedient to extend that kind of protection to the Liberian settlement, to which colonies are entitled from the mother country by which they are established. It has, in consequence, been compelled to rely on its intrinsic right to the common protection of all civilized nations; and, thus far, for the most part, without being disappointed."

This whole correspondence grew out of a dispute over the Liberian customs regulations. The British Government finally refused to consider binding on its subjects the regulations on trade imposed by the existing government of Liberia; arguing that the American Colonization Society, composed of mere private individuals, possessed no political powers, and that levying of imposts was the prerogative only of sovereign power, and that this sovereign power had not been assumed (as it might have

been) by the United States. It was on account of this difficulty that in January, 1846, the American Colonization Society recommended the colony of Liberia to declare itself independent, and July 26th, 1847, Liberia adopted a declaration of independence and a new constitution, which was ratified in September, and on the first Monday of 1848, under this was inaugurated Joseph J. Roberts as first President of Liberia. The new Government was recognized almost at once by England, France, Prussia and Belgium; but the slavery question, which had formerly prevented the United States Government from claiming the sovereignty over Liberia, interfered again to prevent its recognition by the United States Government until 1862, when slavery ceased to be a political issue.

So far we have considered only our practice with reference to colonization. Let us see what have been the accepted theories on this subject prior to the recent excitement. So far as my information goes, the first utterances on this question were in the Virginia legislature in 1800. The question then came up of a colony for "persons obnoxious to the state or dangerous to the peace of society," meaning free negroes, and the Governor (Monroe) was requested to communicate with the President of the United States with reference to a suitable situation.

Monroe seems to have waited till after Jefferson was inaugurated, but he then brought the matter up. On November 24th, 1801, Jefferson answered Monroe's letters of June 15th and November 17th, saying that "questions would also arise whether the establishment of such a colony within our limits and to become part of our Union would be desirable to the State of Virginia itself, or to the other States-especially those who would be in its vicinity.

Could we procure lands beyond the limits of the US to form a receptacle for these people?"

Apparently Jefferson considered colonization lawful and expedient, for he makes no question of it in this letter, and offers to sound foreign powers for a location; and in 1802 he tried to obtain a suitable situation near Sierra Leone, and failing there tried again in Brazil, but the Louisiana purchase then suggested the possibility of a suitable location in the newly acquired territory, and during the exploration of this it was lost sight of.