File No. 4688/4.
Minister Lyon to the Secretary of State.
Monrovia , May 20, 1907 .
Sir: I have the honor to report that the biennial elections for President and Vice-President of the Republic of Liberia and for the [Page 832] representatives and senators of the national legislature occurred on the 7th instant, with the following results: The present incumbent, the Hon. Arthur Barclay, was elected President, and the Hon. J. J. Dossen, one of the associate justices of the supreme court and a resident of Cape Palmas, was elected Vice-President. These gentlemen represent what is known in Liberia as the True Whig party, which party has succeeded in absorbing all the other parties, so that, practically, there is but one party in Liberia, and its standard bearers therefore had no opposition in the field.
A great deal of opposition, however, centered itself around the attempt to amend the constitution. The proposed amendments, a copy of which had been transmitted in a previous dispatch dated June 13, 1906, were submitted to the voters by an act of the last legislature, and was therefore the paramount issue of the campaign.
Among the most important amendments which received the two-thirds votes at Tuesday’s election are that which relates to the term of the President, senators, and representatives, and that which provides for the filling of the office of the vice-president in case of the death of that officer. By the result of Tuesday’s election President Barclay will, after the inauguration next January, enter upon his third term for a period of four years, as amended, instead of two years. The senators will have six years instead of four, and the representatives four years instead of two years, and in case of the death of the vice-president, according to the amended constitution, an election must be held to fill the vacancy.
I have, etc.,