Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, Transmitted to Congress, With the Annual Message of the President, December 2, 1878
No. 183.
Mr. Welsh
to Mr. Evarts
.
London , August 13, 1878. (Received August 29.)
Sir: The Republic of Liberia desires to construct a railroad from the coast to the interior, and wishes the United States to aid her. The proposition will be fully explained by the inclosed communication on the subject from the honorable Edward W. Blyden, Liberian minister at London, addressed to me. I send also a copy of my reply. You will observe that the proposed improvement is immediately connected with the emigration of colored people from our Southern States to Africa.
I have, &c.,
Mr. Blyden to Mr. Welsh .
12 Cavendish Road, St. John’s Wood , August 8, 1878.
Sir: The Government of Liberia is deeply interested in a project which was before a committee of the House of Representatives of the United States last year for a preliminary survey for a railroad from Monrovia to the healthy highlands, about 100 miles back from the coast. Your excellency is probably aware that large numbers of negroes in the United States are contemplating emigration to Liberia. To promote this object “Exodus Associations,” independently of the American Colonization Society, have been organized in various parts of the country.
[Page 282]On the 3d of June over 200 of these voluntary emigrants arrived at Monrovia in a ship owned by the Exodus Association of Charleston, S. C. This must be considered one of the most important political and philanthropic movements of modern times.
But these people are going where they will be subjected to the sufferings and drawbacks of the early settlers, unless means are provided to enable them to get to the healthy highlands about 75 or 100 miles interior, where there is abundance of fertile lands, where men are healthy and strong, and where horses and cattle thrive. We need a railroad or at least a good open wagon-road with substantial bridges over the creeks, for at least seventy-five miles back, to throw the new-comers at once from the ship into the healthy regions and open up to their astonished and thankful gaze one of the finest countries in the world, only waiting for the civilized and Christian settler to make it as desirable a home as may be found in the fairest portion of the United States. The Government of Liberia is now not able to carry out these necessary internal improvements, and yet it is felt that some such provision ought to be made to diminish the inconveniences and facilitate the labors of immigrants.
We have accessions occasionally from America of individuals of real power, who might be of great use in pushing forward civilization on that continent; but they are met at the outset by, and have to contend against, the paralyzing influence of the malaria by which the coast is fringed. In many cases their energies are undermined and they are disheartened by the difficulties of locomotion. Industry is thus cramped and discouraged. Still, the numerous coffee and sugar farms on our rivers, and the active trade carried on by settlers in palm-oil, cone-wood, ivory, &c., give indications of a disposition to work and of unconquerable will and determination—elements of character which must appeal to the sympathy of every enlightened lover of progress.
The President of Liberia, knowing the interest which your excellency has always taken in every enterprise for the amelioration of humanity, has instructed me to request you to use your influence with your government to secure, if possible, the passage of the bill through Congress at its next session for the building of a railroad or some good substantial wagon-road from Monrovia, on the banks of the St. Paul’s River, to the highland interior of Liberia.
If there were a water-way provided by nature we might not for many years yet need such roads, but though we have several rivers they are obstructed by rapids only a short distance from the coast. Such roads would also bring to the coast a great deal of the traffic which for want of such facilities is diverted to European colonies on the coast; and American vessels are compelled to resort to such ports for articles obtained in the immediate interior of Liberia.
With good roads we could throw at once a hundred thousand American negro families into that country; and their influence there would in a very short time modify in no little degree the present character of the West African trade, which as pursued now enriches the foreigner without conferring any appreciable or lasting benefit upon the country. And nothing would tend more rapidly to bring the natives of the interior under civilized influences and induce them to adopt the ordinary usages of civilized life than the presence of communities of Christian negroes among them. Agriculture and commercial operations and the example of well-regulated domestic life would exemplify and enforce the teachings of the missionary.
The American nation, through the instrumentality of the negro population, has in its power to do more for Africa than any other Christian nation. The United States can send not only the prayer, the song, and the sermon; they can also send singers and preachers and teachers, who can live in the country. They can send farmers and mechanics and merchants allied in blood and race to the indigenous inhabitants of the country. It ought not to be forgotten that Africa is to be opened, as all other countries have been opened, by farms, by roads, by machinery, and steam-engines, by draining swamps and bridging rivers, by teaching the people science and its application by secular as well by religious agencies; and all these the American nation can furnish to a far more effective degree than any country in Europe.
The Liberia coffee is of so superior quality that we have demands for seed and young plants from all the chief coffee-growing countries. Three months ago the Government of Brazil sent a ship to Monrovia and bought up one hundred thousand coffee-plants and about fifty thousand pounds of seed. Ceylon, Java, Natal, are all importing and planting Liberian coffee. In Mincing Lane, in this city, a few weeks ago, Liberian coffee brought 105 shillings, while Ceylon only brought 85. The Liberian coffee is a wonderful providential means for building up in material importance that little republic. The recent immigrants are entering largely upon its cultivation.
The chief aim of the Liberian Government at this moment is to enlarge the area of these agricultural operations. We have an inexhaustible supply of fertile lands and a large aboriginal population ready and anxious to receive instruction and to be guided in the systematic cultivation of the soil. There are valuable minerals in the interior.
The natives bring gold from regions adjacent to and within the limits of Liberia; [Page 283] but it is not the policy of the government to encourage in the present condition of the country the search for gold and other minerals. We do not wish to attract from abroad the restless and the mercenary. We do not wish the interior to be a lottery in which men may win fortunes, but a field of labor in which they may earn them.
It is hoped that if your excellency should use your good offices in bringing this important subject to the notice of the President of the United States, your government may be induced to take up the matter at the next meeting of Congress and carry it through.
I inclose for your excellency’s perusal a letter just received from Washington.
I have the honor to be, &c.,
Mr. Welsh to Mr. Blyden .
London , August 9, 1878.
Dear Sir: I have received your letter of the 8th instant in regard to the construction of a railroad from Liberia to the interior. As you have requested, I will present the subject to the Government of the United States. As it could not be more effectively done I will send to it a copy of your letter to me. The railroad, as suggested, is a work of paramount importance, and to me, personally, it would be a cause of great gratification were the United States to aid your government in its construction, but it is very doubtful whether such aid can be constitutionally granted. There is another point raised by you—the emigration of the labor of our country. I do not believe that the general government can with any propriety do anything to forward it.
With great respect, I am, &c.,
His Excellency Edward W. Blyden, &c., &c., &c.