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EMORY UNIVERSITY
THE
ENGLISH LANGUAGE,
IN LIBERIA.
THE ANNUAL ADDRESS
CITIZENS OF MARYLAND COUNTY, CAPE P ALMAS,
LIBERIA—JULY 26, 1860.
THE REV. ALEX. CRUMMELL, B. A.
QUEENS' COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE.
MISSIONARY.
NEW YORK :
BUNCE & CO., Printers, 321 Pearl St., {2d floor.)
BEFORE THE
BEING
BY
1861
THE
ENGLISH LANGUAGE,
IN LIBERIA.
THE ANNUAL ADDRESS
BEFORE THE
CITIZENS OF MARYLAND COUNTY, CAPE PALMAS,
LIBERIA—JULY 26, 1860.
BEING
BY
THE REV. ALEX. CRUMMELL, B. A.
QUEENS' COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE.
MISSIONARY.
NEW YORK :
BUNCE & CO., Printers, 321 Pearl St., (2d floor.)
1861.
Rev. A. CRUMMELL,
Harper, Cape Palmas,
Aug. 18, 1860.
Dear Sir,
Will you be kind enough to favor us
with a copy of your Oration on the 26th ult. We desire to have
it published, for the benefit of our fellow citizens throughout the
Republie, and of our Race, generally. We hope you will let us
have it as early as possible. We have the honor to be
Your humble servants,
S. B. D'LYON, )
J. M. THOMPSON, > Committee.
J. M. WILLIAMS. )
Mt. Yaughan, Cape Palmas,
20th Aug. 1860.
Gentlemen,
I have many misgivings that the Address you
ask for publication, may tend more, itself to exhibit the defects it
points out, than to illustrate the commanding theme I have ven¬
tured to treat of. But even in that event, it is possible that I
may be able to fasten attention upon the great language we
speak, and thus help to advance the cause of Intelligence and Let¬
ters in the land: and therefore 1 shall comply with your kind
request, and place the manuscript at your disposal.
I am, Gentlemen, your faithful Serv't,
ALEX. CRUMMELL.
S. B. D'LYON, M. D. }
J. M. THOMPSON, Esq. f Committee.
J. M. WILLIAMS, Esq.)
This address was repeated by request, before a large and
most respectable audience, in the Hall of Representatives, Mon¬
rovia, on the Evening of February 1861, Gen. J. N. LEWIS, Sect,
of State, in the Chair: and its publication was then requested by
many of the leading citizens of that town.
6
for this duty, and hence I cannot be as brief as is desirable.
I shall have to ask your attention also, for I can promise
vou nothing more than a dry detail ol facts.
I trust, however, that I may be able to suggest a lew
thoughts which may be fitted to illustrate the responsibili¬
ties of our lot in this land, and to show forth the nature
and the seriousness of the duties which arise out of it.
1. Now, in considering this subject, what first arrests at¬
tention is the bare simple fact that here, on this coast, that
is, between Gallinas and Cape Pedro, is an organized negro
community, republican in form and name ; a people pos¬
sessed of Christian institutions and civilized habits, with
this one marked peculiarity, that is, that in color, race and
origin, they are identical with the masses of rude natives
around them; and yet speak the refined and cultivated Eng¬
lish language—a language alien alike from the speech of
their sires and the soil from whence they sprung, and know¬
ing no other. It is hardly possible for us fully to realize
these facts. Familiarity with scenes, events, and even
truths, tends to lessen the vividness of their impression.
But without doubt no thoughtful traveller could contem¬
plate the sight, humble as at present, it really is, without
marvel and surprise. If a stranger who had never heard
of this Republic, but who had sailed forth from his coun¬
try to visit the homes of West African Pagans, should ar¬
rive on our coast; he could not but be struck with the An¬
glican aspect of our habits and manners, and the distinct¬
ness, with indeed undoubted mistakes and blunders, of our
English names and utterance. There could be no mistaking
the history of tnis people. The earliest contact with them
vouches English antecedents and associations. The harbor
master who comes on board is perhaps a Watts or a Lynch;
names which have neither a French, a Spanish, nor a Ger¬
man origin. He steps up into the town, asks the names of
storekeepers, learns who are the merchants and officials,
calls on the President or Superintendent or Judge; and al¬
though sable are all the faces he meets with, the names are
the old familiar ones which he has been accustomed to in
the social circles of his home, or on the signs along the
streets of New York or London, viz.: the Smiths, (a large
family in Liberia as every where else in Anglo-Saxondom,)
and their broods of cousins, the Johnsons, Thompsons, Ro¬
binsons and Jacksons; then the Browns, the Greens' the
[paradoxical] Whites, and the [real] Blacks; the Williams'
James', Paynes, Dray tons, Gibsons, Roberts', Yates,' Warners'
Wilsons, Moores, and that of his Excellency President Ben¬
son.
"7
Not only names, but titles also are equally significant,
and show a like origin. The streets are Broad, and Aslimun,
and as here, Griswold. The public buildings are a Church,
a Seminary, a Senate House, and a Court House.
If our visitor enters the residence ot'a thriving, thought¬
ful citizen, the same peculiarity strikes him. Every thing,
however humble, is of the same Anglo-Saxon type and stamp.
On the book-shelves or tables, are Bibles, Prayer or Hymn
Books, Harvey's Meditations or Bunyan's Pilgrim's Pro¬
gress, Young's Night Thoughts or Cowper's Poems, Walter
Scott's Tales or Uncle Tom's Cabin. In many places he will
find well-used copies of Shakspeare and Milton. Not a few
have enriched themselves with the works of Spenser and
Wordsworth, Coleridge and Campbell, Longfellow and
Bryant, Whittier and Willis, and of that loftiest of all the
bards of the day, Alfred Tennyson. Should it happen to
be a mail-day, or the "Stevens" has just glided into our
waters, he would find at the Post Office, papers from Ame¬
rica and England: "The Times," "Illustrated London News,,"
" Daily Advertiser," " The Star," " The Guardian," " The
New York Tribune," and " Commercial Advertiser," the
"Protestant Churchman," and the "Church Journal." In one
heap, " Liltell's Living Age; in another, "Chambers' Jour¬
nal." Here, " Harpers Monthly ;" there, "The Eclectic."
Amid the mass of printed matter he would see, ever and
anon, more ambitious works : Medical and Scientific Jour¬
nals, Quarterly Reviews, the " Bibliothceca Sacra," " Black¬
wood's" and other Magazines.
Such facts as these, however, do not fully represent the
power of the English tongue in our territory. For, while
repressing all tendencies to childish vanity and idle exag¬
geration we are to consider other telling facts which spring
from our character and influence, and which are necessary
to a just estimate of the peculiar agency we are now con¬
templating. And here a number of facts present themselves
to our notice. Within a period of thirty years, thousands
of heathen children have been placed under the guardian-
shi p of our settlers. Many of these have forgotten their
native tongue, and know now the English language as their
language. Asa consequence, there has sprung up, in one
generation, within our borders, a mighty army of English
speaking natives, who, as manhood approached, have settled
around us in their homes from one end of the land to the
other. Many of these take up the dialect of the other tribes
in whose neighborhood their masters lived, but even then
English is their speech. TBlus it is that every where in
a
the Republic, from Gallinas to Cape Palmas, one meets with
a multitude of natives who have been servants in our Li-
berian families, and are daily in the utterance of English.
A considerable number of these have enjoyed the opportu¬
nity of school instruction, and have carried back to the
country the ability to read and to write English. In many
cases, it is, in truth impossible to say whether their attain¬
ments should be suggestive of sorrow or of joy. I have had
naked boys working for me on the St. Paul, who, when they
wanted any thing, would write a note with as much ex¬
actness as I could. We all he*re know one native man, over
the river, who is a leader in Devil-dances, and yet can read
and write like a scholar. A friend of mine, traveling in
the bush, nigh 200 miles from Monrovia, stopt one night,
exhausted, at the hut of a native man, who brought him
his own Bible to read, but alas! it was accompanied by a
decanter of rum! The moral of such facts I shall not enter
upon; but here is the simple fact, that by our presence,
though in small numbers, we have already spread abroad,
for scores of miles, the English language, written as well as
spoken, among this large population of heathen.
The trading schemes of merchants and settlers is another
powerful auxiliary in disseminating this language.
At every important point on the coast, Liberian, English
and American merchants have, for years, established their
factories between Cape Palmas and Monrovia, there cannot
be less than 30 factories. In each of these depots, some three
or four English-speaking persons—Liberians—are living;
in a few cases families have made them their permanent
abodes; and thus, what with the native servants, the natives
in neighboring towns, the more remote natives who flock
hitherward for trade, and the few happy cases where pious
young men devote a portion of their time to teaching, there
is, and has been, a powerful, a wide spread system in opera¬
tion for the teaching and extension of English.
Another process has been for some time at work to spread
our language. The interior natives have found out that a
home in our vicinity is equivalent to an act of emancipa¬
tion ; and as a consequence, remnants of tribes who for cen¬
turies have been the prey of their stronger neighbors, for
the slave trade ; and boys and men, upwards of 100 miles
inland, who have been held in slavery, crowd in upon our
neighborhood for freedom. Behind our settlements, on the
St. Paul, there is the most heterogeneous mixture conceiv¬
able, of divers tribes and families, who have thus sought
the protection of our commonwealth. Numbers of the
Bassas, Veys, Deys, Golahs, and especially the Pessas, the
9
hereditary slaves of the interior, have thus come to our
immediate neighborhoods. Although I am doubtful of the
moral effect of this movement upon ourselves, yet I feel no
little pride in the fact that this young nation should be¬
come, so early, a land of refuge, an asylum for the oppressed !
And I regard it as a singular providence, that at the very
time our government was trumpeted abroad as implicated
in the slave trade, our magistrates, in the upper counties,
were adjudicating cases of runaway slaves, and declaring to
interior slave holders that, on our soil, they could not reclaim
their fugitives!
Just here another important item claims attention, that
is the Missionary agency in propogating this language. The
reference here will be, chiefly, to the two uppermost coun¬
ties of Liberia. Their younger sister, Sinou, I am sorry to
say, has not, as yet, made any marked impression upon her
surrounding heathen ; more we believe through youth and
weakness, and suffering, than through indifference or ne¬
glect. Missionary operations, though participated in by
others, have been chiefly carried on, in Bassa, by the Bap¬
tists. The means which have been employed have been
preaching and schools. On the St. John's they have had
for years a Manual Labor School, instructed by white Mis¬
sionaries. This school has passed into the hands of a native
Teacher, educated at Sierra Leone—a man who is the son
of a prominent chieftain, and who possesses unbounded in¬
fluence, as far as the Bassa tongue reaches. He has, more¬
over, these three prominent qualities, that is, he is a well-
trained English scholar, a thoroughly civilized man, and
a decided and well-tried disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ.
His earnestness is evidenced in the fact that his work is un¬
aided and self-supporting, and numbers of his tribe are glad
to send him their children. Besides this means of influence,
ministers have been accustomed to visit numerous towns
and villages, preaching the Gospel. And thus, by preach¬
ing and schools, a multitude of the Bassas have gained the
English tongue, with many of its ideas and teachings.
The same Anglicising influence has been carried on, but
on-a larger scale, in Montserrada County, but mainly through
the Methodists; and they have spread our language widely
abroad through that county, by the means of native schools,
native children in their American schools, and Missiona¬
ries residing in country towns, teaching and preaching as
far back as the Golah tribe, and now among the Yeys: na¬
tive preachers too, men converted to the faith, and moved
by the Spirit to proclaim the glad tidings to their needy
2
10
parents, brothers and kin. I must not lail to mention the
fact, that during the la3t two years one ot their ministers
has carried the English tongue some 200 miles m the inte¬
rior,* and has spread it abroad amid the homes of the mild
Pessas ; thus preparing the way for legitimate tiade, for
civilization, for the Gospel of Jesus Christ, by the means of
the spoken Word and the English Bible.
Thus, fellow-citizens, by these varied means the English
language has been pushing its way among the numerous
tribes of our territory. And thus, in a region of not less
than 50,000 square miles, there are few places but where
an English-speaking traveller can find some person who can
talk with him in his own language.
And now I beg you to notice one point: this English,
which we are speaking, and likewise teaching the heathen
to speak, is not our native tongue. This Anglo-Saxon lan¬
guage, which is the only language ninety-nine hundredths
of us emigrants have ever known, is not the speech of our
ancestors. We are here a motley group, composed, without
doubt, of persons of almost every tribe in West Africa, from
Goree to the Congo. Here are descendants of Jalofs, Fulahs,
Mandingoes, Sussus, Timmanees, Yeys, Congos, with a large
intermixture every where of Anglo-Saxon Dutch, Irish,
French and Spanish blood—a slight mingling of the Ma¬
layan, and a dash, every now and then, of American Indian.
And perhaps I would not exaggerate much, if I ended the
enumeration of our heterogeneous elements in the words of
St. Luke—" Jews and Proselytes, Cretes and Arabians."
And yet they all speak in a foreign tongue, in accents
alien from the utterance of their fathers. Our very speech
is indicative of sorrowful history; the language we use
tells of subjection and of conquest. No people lose entirely
their native tongue without the bitter trial of hopeless
struggles, bloody strife, heart-breaking despair, agony and
death ! Even so we. But this, be it remembered, is a com¬
mon incident in history, pertaining to almost every nation
on earth. Examine all the old histories of men—the his¬
tories of Egypt, China, Greece, Rome and England—and in
every case, as in ours, their language reveals the fact of
conquest and subjection. But this fact of humiliation seems
to have been one of those ordinances of Providence, designed
as a means for the introduction of new ideas into the lan¬
guage of a people; or to serve, as the transitional step from
low degradation to a higher and nobler civilization.
* The lamented Rer. George L. Seymour, Missionary and Traveler.
11
2. And this remark suggests, in the 2d place, the query—
" What is the nature, and if any, the advantage of the ex¬
change, we have thus, in God's providence, been led to
make ?
The only way in which in a fit manner I can answer this
question is, by inquiring into the respective values of our
native and our acquired tongue. Such a contrast will set
before us the problem of" Loss and Gain" which is involved
therein. The worth of our fathers' language will in this
way stand out in distinct comparison with the.Anglo-Saxon,
our acquired speech. And first, lest us speak of the Afri¬
can dialects. I refer now to that particular group of Afri¬
can aboriginies who dwell in West Africa, from the Senegal
to the Niger, and who have received the distinctive title of
" Negro."
Within this wide extent of territory are grouped a mul¬
titude ef tribes and nations with various tongues and dia¬
lects, which doubtless had a common origin, but whose point
of affiliation it would be difficult now to discover. But
how great soever may be their differences, there are, never¬
theless, definite marks of inferiority connected with them
all, which place them at the widest distance from civilized
languages. Of this whole class of languages, it may be said,
in the aggregate that (a) " They are," to use the words of
Dr. Leighton Wilson, "harsh abrupt, energetic, indistinct
in enunciation, meagre in point of words, abound with in¬
articulate nasal and guttural sounds, possess but few inflec¬
tions and grammatical forms, and are withal exceedingly
difficult of acquisition."* This is his description of the
Grebo, but it may be taken, I think, as on the whole, a cor¬
rect description of the whole class of dialects which are en¬
titled " Negro." (b) These languages, moreover, are cha¬
racterised by lowness of ideas. As the speech of rude bar¬
barians, they are marked by brutal and vindictive senti¬
ments, and those principles which show a predominance of
the animal propensities, (c) Again, they lack those ideas
of virtue, of moral truth, and those distinctions of right
and wrong with with which we, all our life long, have been
familiar, (d) Another marked feature of these languages is
the absence of clear ideas of Justice, Law, Human Rights
and Govermental Order, which are so prominent and mani¬
fest in civilized countries ; and (e) lastly—These supernal
truths of a personal present Deity, of the moral Government
*" Western Africa, &e." 457, By Rev. J. Ti. Wtwon.D- D,
12
of God, of man's Immortality, of the Judgment, and of Ever¬
lasting Blessedness, which regulate the lives of Christians,
are either entirely absent, or else exist, and are expressed
in an obBcure and distorted manner.
Now, instead of a language characterized by such rude
and inferior features as these, we have been brought to the
heritage of the English language. Negro as we are by blood
and constitution, we have been, as a people, for generations,
in the habitual utterance of Anglo-Saxon speech. This fact
is now historical. The space of time it covers runs over
200 years. There are emigrants in this country from the
Carolinas and Georgia, who, in some cases, come closer to
the Fatherland; but more than a moiety of the people of
this country have come from Maryland and Virginia, and
I have no doubt that there are scores, not to say hundreds
of them, who are unable to trace back their sires to Africa.
I know that, in my own case, my maternal ancestors have
trod American soil, and therefore have used the English
language well nigh as long as any descendants of the early
settlers of the Empire State.* And, doubtless, this is true
of multitudes of the sons of Africa who are settled abroad
in the divers homes of the white man, on the American con¬
tinent.
At the present day, be it remembered, there are 10,000,000
of the sons of Africa alien from this continent. They live
on the main land, and on the islands of North and South
America. Most of them are subjects of European and Ame¬
rican Governments. One growing prominent section of
them is an independent Republic, t They speak Danish,
Portuguese, Spanish, French and English ; the English
speaking portion of them,-however, is about equal to all
the rest together. The sons of Africa under the Americans,
added to those protected by the British Flag, number
5,000,000.
Now what is the peculiar advantage which Anglo-Afri¬
cans have gained by the loss of their mother tongue ? In
order to answer this query, we must present those direct
and collateral lingual elements in which reside the worth
and value of the English language, especially in contrast
with the defective elements of the African dialects.
I shall not, of course venture to any extent, upon the ety¬
mological peculiarities of the English language, for even if
I had time, I lack the learning and ability for such disquisi-
*New York.
tHayti.
13
tion. Moreover the thoughts presented on such a day as
this, should have a force and significance pertaining to na¬
tional growth and a people's improvement. I Bhall there¬
fore point out some of those peculiarities of the English
language which seem to me specially deserving notice, in
this country, and which call for the peculiar attention of
thoughtful patriotic minds among us.
The English language then. I apprehend, is marked by
these prominent peculiarities;—(a) It is a language of un¬
usual force and power. This I know is an elemental excell¬
ence which does not pertain, immediately, to this day's dis¬
cussion ; but I venture to present it, inasmuch, as you will sect
presently, it has much to do with the genius and spirit of
a language. The English is composed chiefly of simple, terse
and forcible, one and two-syllabled words ; which make it, in¬
comparable for simplicity and intelligibleness. The bulk of
these words are the rich remains of the old Saxon tongue,
which is the main stream, whence has flowed over to us the
affluence of the English language. It is this element which
gives it force, precision, directness and boldness; making it a
tit channel for the decided thoughts of men of common sense,
of honest minds and downright character. Let any one take
up the Bible, the Prayer-Book, a volume of Hymns of any class
of Christians, the common proverbs, the popular sayings:—
which strike deep into the hearts of men and flow over in their
common spontaneous utterances; and he will see everywhere
these features of force, perspicuity and directness. IMor is it
wanting in beauty, elegance and majesty; for, to a considera¬
ble extent, this same Saxon element furnishes these qualities ;
but the English, being a composite language, these attractions
and commanding elements are bestowed upon it,'in fullness,
by those other affluent streams which contribute to its wealth,
and which go to make up its " well of English undefiled." (b)
Again, the English language is characteristically the lan¬
guage of freedom I know that there is a sense in which this
love of liberty is inwrought in the very fibre and substance of
the body and blood of all people: but the flame burns dimly
in some races; it is a fitful fire in some others ; and in many
inferior people it is the flickering light of a dying candle. But
in the English races it is an ardent, healthy, vital, irrepressible
flame ; and withal normal and orderly in its development.
Go back to the early periods of this people's history, to the
times when the whole of Europe seemed lost in the night of
ignorance and dead to the faintest pulses of liberty—trace
the stream of their descent from the days of Alfred to the pro
sent time, and mark how they have ever, in law, legislation
and religion, in poetry and oratory, in philosophy and litera¬
ture, assumed that oppression was an abnormal and a mons-
14
trous thing ! How when borne down by tyranous restraint, or
lawless arbitrary rule, discontent and resistance have
" Moved in the chambers of their soul"
How when misrule became organic and seated, tyranny un¬
reasoning and obstinate, they have demonstrated to all the
world, how trifling a thing is the tenure of tyrants, how resist¬
less and invincible is the free spirit of a nation.!
And now look at this people—scattered, in our own day, all
over the globe, in the Great Republic, in numerous settle¬
ments and great colonies, themselves the germs of mighty em¬
pires ; see how they have carried with them every where, on
earth, the same high, masterful, majestic spirit of freedom,
which gave their ancestors, for long generations, in their
island home—
— " the thews of Anakim,
The pulses of a Titan's heart
and which makes them, giants among whatever people they
settle, whether in America, India or Africa, distancing all
other rivalries and competitors.
And notice here how this spirit, like the freshets of some
mighty Oregon, rises above and flows over th eir own crude
and distorted obliquities. Some of these obliquities are prom¬
inent. Of all races of men, none I ween, are so domineering,
none have a stronger, more exclusive spirit of caste, none have
a more contemptuous dislike of inferiority: and yet in this
race, the ancient spirit of freedom, rises higher than their re¬
pugnances. It impels them to conquer even their prejudices :
and hence, when chastened and subdued by Christianity, it
makes them philanthropic and brotherly. Thus it is that in
England this national sentiment would not tolerate the exist¬
ence of slavery, although it was Negro slavery. Thus in New
Zealand and at the Cape of Good Hope, Statesmen, Prelates,
Scholars, demand that a low and miserable aboriginal popu¬
lation shall be raised to their own level; and accept, without
agonies and convulsions, the providence and destiny which
point plainly to amalgamation. * Thus in Canada it bursts
forth with zeal and energy for the preservation and enlighten¬
ment of the decaying Indian. And thus in the United States,
rising above the mastery of a cherished and deep-rooted spi¬
rit of caste; outrunning the calculations of cold prudence
and prospective result; repressing the unwrought personal
feeling of prejudice, it starts into being a mighty religious feel¬
ing which demands the destruction of slavery and the eman¬
cipation of the Negro ! (c) Once more I remark, that the Eng¬
lish language is the enshrinement of those great charters of
•"See Church in the Colonies, No. xxii. A Journal of the visitation of the Bishon
of Capetown. Also, letters of the Bishop of New Zealand, etc. etc."
15
liberty which are essential elemen ts of free governments, and
the main guarantees of personal liberty. I refer now to the
right, of Trial by Jury, the people's right to a participation in
Government, Freedom of Speech, and of the Press, the Right
of Petition, Freedom of Religion. And these are special
characteristics of the English language. They are rights,
which in their full form and rigid features, do not exist among
any other people. It is true that they have had historical de¬
velopment : but their seminal principles seem inherent in the
constitution of this race. We see in this people, even in their
rude condition, the roots from which have sprung so fair and
so beautiful a tree. And these conserving elements, carefully
guarded, deepened and strengthened in their foundations from
age to age, as wisdom and sagacity seemed to dictate, illus¬
trated and eulogized by the highest genius, and the most con-
sumate legal ability ; have carried these states, the old coun¬
try, the Republic of America, and the constitutional colonies
of Britian, through many a convulsive political crisis; the
ship of state, rocked and tossed by the wild waves of passion,
and the agitations of faction ; but in the end leaving her to
return again to the repose of calm and quiet waters!
In states thus constituted, no matter how deep may be the
grievances, how severe the suffering, the obstructive element
has to disappear ; the disturbing force, whether man or sys¬
tem, must be annihilated !—for freedom is terrible as well as
majestic; and the state emerges from the conflict with a fresh
acquisition of strength, and with an augmented capacity for
a nobler career and loftier attainments. This fact explains
the progressive features of all Anglican political society.
Revolution seems exoteric to it; but the tide of reform in le¬
gal constitutional channels, sweeping away obstructive hin¬
drances, goes onward and upward in its course.
I quote here a remark of a distinguished writer, a lady :—
"■ The original propensities of race are never eradicated, and
they are no where more prominent than in the progress of the
social state in France and England. The vivacity and specu¬
lative disposition of the Celt, appear in the rapid and violent
changes of government and in the succession of theoretical ex¬
periments in France ; while in Britain the deliberate slowness,
prudence and accurate perceptions of the Teuton are manifest
in the gradual improvement and steadiness of their political
arrangements. (Here she quotes a passage from Johnson's
Physical Atlas) ''The prevalent political sentiments of Great
Britain is undoubtedly conservative, in the best sense of the
word, with a powerful undercurrent of democratic tendencies
which give great power and strength to the political and so¬
cial body of this country, and makes revolutions by physical
16
force almost impossible* * * * Great Britain is the only
country in Europe which has had the good fortune to have all
her institutions worked out and framed by her in a strictly or¬
ganic manner: that is, in accordance with organic wants
which require different conditions at different and successive
stages of national development—and not by theoretical ex¬
periments, as in many other countries, which are still in a
state of excitements consequent upon these experiments. The
social character of the people of this country, besides the fea¬
tures which they have in common with other nations of Teu¬
tonic origin, is, on the whole, domestic, reserved, aristocratic,
exclusive."*
The spirit df the above contrast is truly and accurately re¬
produced in the lines of a great poet:—
" A love of freedom rarely felt,
Of freedom in her regal seat
Of England ; not the school-boy heat,
The blind hysterics of the Celt."
And another of England's great poets, the calmest, quietest,
the least impassioned of all her bards : moved by this theme,
bursts fourth in the burning words:—
* " We must
Be free or die f who speak the language
Shakspeare spake; the faith and morals hold
Which Milton held!"
(d) Lastly, in pointing out the main features of the English
language, I must not fail to state its peculiar identity with reli¬
gion. For centuries this language has been baptized in the
spirit of the Christian faith. To this faith it owes mostof its
growth, from a state of rudeness and crudity to its present vi¬
gor, fullness, and expressiveness. It is this moreover which
has preserved its integrity, and kept it from degenerating into
barren poverty on the one hand, or luxuriant weakness on the
other. The English Bible, more than any other single cause
has been the prime means of sustaining that purity of diction,
that simplicity of expression, that clearness of thought, that
earnestness of spirit, and that loftiness of morals which seem to
be distinctive peculiarities of this language. Its earliest ven¬
tures for a true life, were wrestlings with the spirit of the Word.
Previously to the invention of printing, pious Kings and holy
Priests made their first attempts in English in their rude es¬
says, to write " in their own language," the words and pre¬
cepts of the Gospels. Its first lispings were in scriptural
translation, its earliest stammerings in fervent prayers, holy
Primers, and sacred minstrelsy. Then when the Press unfol-
* " [Mrs.] Somerville's Physical Geography" Ch. 33
17
ded its leaves, its first page!? were vernacular readings of the
wor-i of God From thence, ever since, as from a fountain-
head, has flowed a mixed stream of thought and genius and
talent, in all the departments of science, of lavy and of learning :
but the whole has been coloured and leavened, and formed by,
and under the plastic influence of Christianity. The Bible and
its precepts, has been the prompting spirit of its legal statutes,
its constitutional compacts, its scientific ventures, its poetic
flights, its moral edicts. But above and beyond all these, this
language has delighted to expand and express itself in Tracts
and Tales and Allegories; in Catechisms and Homilies and Ser¬
mons ; in heavenly Songs, sacred Lyrics, and divine Epics ;
in Liturgies and Treatises, and glowing Apologies for the
Faith; sweeping along in a pure and gracious flood, which
in the end shall empty itself into a blessed eternity !
These then are the main peculiarities of this language, and
these some of the rich gifts it bestows upon us. But while,
indeed, dwelling as I do, with delight, upon the massy treas-
ure^ of this English tongue, I would not have you to suppose
that I forget the loss which has accompanied all this gain.
Do not think, I pray you, that I am less a man. that I have less
the feelings of a man ; because I would fain illustrate a fa¬
vouring providence,—
" And justify the ways of God to man."
No ! I do not forget that to give our small fraction of the race
the advantages I have alluded to, a whole continent has been
brought to ruin ; the ocean has been peopled with millions of
victims; whole tribes of men have been destroyed; nations
on the threshold of civilization reduced to barbarism; and
generation upon generation of our sires brutalized ! No, my
remarks, at best, are discordant; and I avoid collateral
themes in order to preserve as much unity as possible, while
endeavouring to set forth the worth and value ot the English
language.
And this is our language. But notice here the marks of
distinctive providence: Our sad and cruel servitude has been
passed among men who speak this tongue ; and so we have
been permitted, as the Israelites of old, to borrow " every man
of his neighbour, and every woman of her neighbour, jewels
of silver and jewels of gold."* But now on the other hand, as
to that portion of <£ur race whose lot has been cast among
other sections ofthf^'Europcan family ; what advantages, what
compensation have they reaped which can compare with our
riches and our gain ? Where do we find among them a Bill of
Rights, the right of trial by Jury or, an act of Habeas Corpus?
Where do they know clearly and distinctly the theory of Free
3
# Exodus. Ch. xi, 2.
18
Speech, of a Free Press, of Constitutional Government?—
where are ihey blessed with such a noble heritage as the Ln-
glish Bible, and all the vast wealth, both religious and politi¬
cal, of the literature of England and America ? It is not-in
Cuba, nor in Porto Rico. J\ot in Gaudalope, not in Miartinico.
Even'in Brazil these ideas are but struggling for life ; and
their continued existence is doubtful. Time is yet to show
whether either the white or black race there, will ever rise to
their full height and grandeur. With all our hopes of, and pride
in Hayti, her history shows how sad a schooling she has Lad!
In truth how could France or Spain train the Negro race to
high ideas of liberty and of government, when all their mod¬
ern history has been an almost hopeless effort, to learn the
"alphabet of freedom,—to tread the first steps of legal self-re¬
straint. 1 I grant that not unfrequently they present the in¬
dividual black man, refined, elegaut, accomplished and learn¬
ed, far beyond any that spring up on American or English
soil. But in capacity for free government, and civil order,
the British West India Isles, Sierra Leone, the free coloured
men of America, and our own Republic are, without doubt,
far in advance of all the rest of the children of Africa, under
the sun. Indeed it is only under the influence of Anglo-Sax¬
on principles that the children of Africa, despite their wrongs
and injuries, have been able to open their eyes to the full
clear quiet heavens, of freedom far distant though, at times
they were!
3. I venture now to call your attention to a few remarks
upon the probable destiny of this English language, in this
country, and throughout this continent.
And here, as every where else on the globe, one cannot
but see the most magnificent prospects for this noble lan¬
guage.* Its thought, its wisdom, its practicality, its en¬
terprising spirit, its transforming power, its harmonizing
influence, and its Christian leavening, have gone out every
where in our territory, and are changing and fashioning,
not only our small civilized communities, but also gradually
lifting up and enlightening our heathen neighbors. By a
singular power it is multiplying its own means and agen¬
cies for a reproduction of its own influence, and a further
extension of power in wider circles. As an illustration of
this, we have here present to-day, by a remarkable provi¬
dence, as guests—and we are glad to see them in our midst—
the Captain and this large company of officers, of the little
* I quote the following from a learned English Journal" And as of all the worka
of man language is the most enduring, and partakes the most of eternity, as our own
language, so far as thought can project itself in the future, seems likely to be coeval
with the world, and to spread vastly beyond even its present immeasurable limits ther«
cannot easily be a nobler object of ambition than to purify and better it." Rev .T r>
Hare, Philological Museum, Vol. I. 665.
19
Steamer " Sunbeam," bound for the upper waters of the
Niger ; there to introduce trade and civilization, to pioneer
letters and culture, and to prepare the way for the English
Language and Religion.*
One cannot but mark the finger of marvellous providence,
in the divers ways, in which this language is getting mas¬
tery over and securing hold upon, the masses of natives
through all Liberia. Look for instance at the fact, that
the only people these Krumen trust and rely upon, and with
whom alone they are willing to ship for sea, are men who
speak the English language. And consider here the bear¬
ing of this fact upon the increase of this speech throughout
the country. They come from all that section of the coast
which lies between Bassa and Beribi, and inland upwards
of 60 miles, and offer themselves as seamen. Indeed, the
desire for this service is almost a passion among them; boys
in scores, run away from their parents for sea-service; I
have seen here, in Harper, fully that number together, on
a Steamer day ; and notwithstanding the hindrances and
the monopoly of the coastwise natives, the interior people
run all risks to reach the coast to go to sea. The vessels in
which they ship as sailors are English-speaking vessels.
And in this way a multitude of them are acquiring the ha¬
bitual use of English. On the coast, between Bassa and
this point, there are many large towns where, among adults,
it is almost as constantly employed as in our civilize^
communities.t
Notice here another fact: among all the industrious pur¬
suits of our citizens, trading absorbs as much attention as
any other pursuit. Scores of our youth, soon after leaving
school, start, with their cloth, guns, powder and tobacco,
for the factory, whether on the coast or in the country.
Added to this is the other fact, that from Sierra Leone to
the Equator, the master commercial influence is English.
Liverpool and Bristol, Boston, Salem and Baltimore rule
this coast. The numerous factories which now exist, and
those which are starting up every where along the coast
and up our rivers, are English-speaking. So almost uni¬
versally is this the case, that Dutch, French and Sar-
*The Steamer "Sunbeam" came into the Roads of Harper, Wednesday, 25tli of
July and the Captain, and his Officers and Company, joined in the procession on the
th,' having fired a salute in tbe morning. They all participated in the festivities at
a public party, in the evening, and went off to their Steamer at 11 o'clock at night,
amid the loud cheers of the citizens, who accompanied them to the water's side.
t " Three-fourths of the male population of the Kru country speak imperfect, but
intelligible English.Africa," &c. p. 103. By Rev. J. l. Wilson, D. d.
20
dinian vessels find, an acquaintance with English an abso¬
lute necessity, and are lost without it.
Thus, by these varied means the English language is gra¬
dually extending itself throughout this country, and rival¬
ing the rude native tongues ot an aboriginal population.
Now all these divers streams of influence, operating daily
and hourly all through the country, upon thousands of our
native population, disclose to us a transforming agency,
which is gradually subverting these native languages of our
tribes. The influence is here; it is in operation; it is
powerful. Every day by trading, by adventure, by the cu¬
riosity of the natives, by war at times, by the migration of
tribes, by the hasty footsteps of fugitives—this English lan¬
guage is moving further and further interior wards its cen¬
tre, and sweeping abroad with a wider and wider circum¬
ference. Nor can it be resisted. It carries with it two
mighty elements of conquest: it is attractive, and it is
commanding : (1) it is attractive, in that it brings cloth, iron,
sale, tobacco, fish and brass rods, and all the other divers
articles which are wealth to the native, and excite.his de¬
sires. Poor, simple, childish, greedy creature! he cannot
rest satisfied with the rudeness of nature, nor with the sim¬
plicity of his sires; and therefore he will part at any moment,
with the crude uncouth utterances of his native tongue, for
that other higher language, which brings with its utterance
^wealth and gratification.
It is commanding too as well as attractive. When used
merely as the language of trade, it brings to these people
the authority of skill, ingenuity, and art in tasteful fabrics,
in finely-wrought domestic articles, in effective instruments
of warfare. The acquisition of it is elevation. It places
the native man above his ignorant fellow, and gives him
some of the dignity of civilization. New ideas are caught up;
new habits formed, and superior and elevating wants are
daily increased. Then when the instruction in schools and
service in our own families for a few years, put the native
boy so far in advance of his tribe that he must either be¬
come head-man or revolutionist; and if the latter, dividing
the nation and carrying his party to a higher mode of
living, and to a closer connection with Liberians or foreign
traders.
As to the future results of this rivalry there can be no
doubt; for, first of all, it is a superior tongue; and in all
the ideas it expresses it comes to the native man with com¬
mand and authority ; next, it appeals to him in the point of
his cupidity, and his selfish nature yields to an influence
21
which gratifies his desires and his needs. And it is thus,
by the means of commerce, and missions, and government,
that this language is destined to override all difficulties,
and to penetrate to the most distant tribes, until it meets
those other streams of English influence which flow from
Sierra Leone on the north and from Abbeokuta on the east;
and so at the last the English language and the English re¬
ligion shall rule for Christ, from the Atlantic to Timbuctoo,
and all along both the banks of the Niger !*
Powerful as are these divers agencies in working out the
end suggested, they are far inferior to one other, which I
must hold up to distinctive notice. Christianity is using
the English language on our coast as a main and mighty
lever for Anglicising our native population, as well as for
their evangelization.
I have already referred, in part, to the work of Missions:
but there are some peculiarities in this work which clearly
show that Christ is going to put all this part of the coast
in possession of the English language, English law, and the
English religion, for his own glory. Hundreds of native
youth have acquired a knowledge of English in Mission
Schools, and then in their manhood have carried this ac¬
quisition forth, with its wealth and elevation, to numerous
heathen homes. Throughout the counties, Bassa and Mont-
serrada, the Methodists have raised up numbers, in the
wilderness, whose daily utterance is English ; and they are
doing this more at the present time than ever before. We
who are living in this county, know well what a disturbing-
element, Missions, here, have been, both to heathenism and
to the Grebo tongue. But how great has been this Mission¬
ary transformation of the Grebo to English, very few, I
judge, have stopt to calculate. For instance., the Episcopal
Mission, in this neighborhood, comprises at least, 12 sta¬
tions ; and this has been its status for, at least, 12 years.
At these stations, what with day-schools and night-schools,
for a dozen scholars each ; and, remembering that, at Ca-
valla, 100 children, at least, are always under training, in
Reading, Writing and Arithmetic; you can see that several
thousands, of our aboriginal population, have received a
common school education, in the English language. And
numbers of these persons show their appreciation of their
* There seems every piobability that the whole of tint part of Africa, called
"Nimitia which includes what is tehned the Negro race, proper ; is to be brought
rnid.-r the influence of the English language, by the agency of black men, trained
a a nwlo-Saxon influences, at the Pongas Mission, Sierra Leone, Mendi Mission,
Liberia, English Accra, Lagos, and Abbeokuta.
22
advantages by securing the same for tlieir children, and
coveting them for th6ir kindred.
And thus, every year, wave after wave dashes upon the
weak intrenchments of heathenism, and is wearing them
away \ and thus, also, to change a figure, we have illustra¬
ted the noble truth, that a great language, like the fruit¬
ful tree, "yields fruit after its kind ; and has its seed in it¬
self by which it is not only reproduced in its own native
soil, but also takes possession of distant fields, and springs
up with all its native vigor and beauty, in far off lands, in
remote and foreign regions !
And now, lest this subject should seem to have butslight
connection with the rejoici ngs of the day, let me point out
a few practical teachings which flow from it, and which
clearly pertain to our nation's advancement, political and
moral, and to its future usefulness and power.
1st. Then I would say, that inasmuch as the English lan¬
guage is the great lingual inheritance God has given us for
the future ; let us take heed to use all proper endeavors to
preserve it herein purity, simplicity and correctness. We have pe¬
culiar need to make this effort, both on account of our cir¬
cumstances and our deficiencies: for the integrity of any and
all languages is assailed by the newness of scenes in which
an emigrant population is thrown by the crudity of the na¬
tive tongue, with which it is placed in juxtaposition ; and
by the absence of that corrective which is afforded, in all
old countries, by the literary classes and the schools. Here,
in our position, besides the above, we have the added dan¬
gers to the purity of our English, in the great defect of our
own education; of a most trying isolation from the world's
civilization; in the constant influx of a new population of
illiterate colonistst; and in the natural oscillation from
extremely depressed circumstances to a state of political
democracy, on the one hand, and an exaggeration of the
" ologies," and " osophies" of school training, at the expense
of plain and simple education, on the other. The correctives
to these dangers are manifest, (a) In our schools we must aim
to give our children a thorough and sound training in the simple
elements of common school education. Instead of the too com¬
mon effort to make philosophers out of babes, and savans out
of sucklings; let us be content to give our children cor¬
rectness, accuracy, and thoroughness, in spelling, reading,
*Gen. 1. ii.
tSinee the delivery of this Address a new element has been added to our popula
tion. The American Govornment is now sending recaptured Africans to Liberia
23
writing, arithmetic and geography. I cannot but regard it
as a serious defect in the schools in Liberia, that so many
teachers undertake to instruct their pupils in Chemistry,
Botany and Natural Philosophy before they can write and
spell with accuracy. It seems to me the wiser course is to
ground our youth well in the elements of the simple branches,
before any thing higher is undertaken. Where it is con¬
venient and desirable, teachers may aim at something more.
We are, most certainly, in need of learned men and accom¬
plished women. The State moreover is not too young, nor
our circumstances too humble for us, even now, to gather
around us the fruits of the highest culture and of the pro-
foundest attainments. But all learning in our schools should
be built upon the most rigid and thorough training in those
elements which enable people to spell and read correctly,and
to understand and explain, such simple reading as comes be¬
fore them in the Bible, the Prayer Book, devotional books,
and common newspapers, (b) But besides this, Common School
education must needs be made more general, superior masters se¬
cured, and the necessities of the case be put more directly within the
control of the citizens, than it is at present. Perhaps there is
no defect in our political system so manifest and so hurtful,
as that its arrangements allow no local interests, whether
it be in the election of a Constable, or the appointment of a
Schoolmaster. As a consequence, all our growth seems to be
the result of national, in the place of local enterprise ; a
feeling of dependence upon the Capital is exhibited every
where; and there exists, universally, a lack of municipal
pride and energy. It would be quite beyond the limits I
have set before me, to enter upon this subject, or, I should
venture to point out great and growing evils which are the
result of this state of things ; in the points, that is, of po¬
litical ambition, local improvements, Roads, and civil order.
.1 confine myself, however to the subject of education ; and
I would fain call the attention of public men to the neces¬
sity of putting the power of common school education in the
hands of the people, in townships,* with whatever measure of
government aid can be afforded; if, indeed they wish to
see inaugurated a common school system in our country,
and desire the continuance in the land of sound English
speech, thought, manners and morals, (c) In addition to
the above, let every responsible man in the country, and
* The wide diffusion of education, which has distinguished New England from her
earliest times, is owing to this arrangement. Its great, and divers advantages are
pointed out by De Tocquevili.e. See "Democracyin America-'' Ch. V.
24
by responsible man, I mean Government Officers, Ministers)
Teachers and Parents, strive to introduce among our youthful
citizens a sound and elevating English Literature. In this re¬
spect we are greatly endangered. There is going on, con¬
tinually, a vast importation among our young men, of the
vilest trash conceivable, in the form oi books. They are,
moreover, as poisonous as they are trashy. As trade and
commerce increase this evil will increase, and magnify it¬
self; and it is a manifest duty to ward off and forestall this
danger, as soon, and as effectually as possible. Happily the
antidote to this evil is simple, and easily available. There
are a few standard English books which, some for genera¬
tions, some in recent times, have served the noble purpose
of introducing the youthful mind to early essays to thought
and reflection; to the exercise of judgment and reason ; and
to the use of a chaste and wholesome imagination. It is-the
nature and the office of books, to produce these grand re¬
sults. "For books," to use the lofty periods of Milton, "are
not absolutely dead things, but do contain a potency of life
in them, to be as active as that soul whose progeny they
are—nay, they do preserve, as in a vial, the purest efficacy
and extraction of that living intellect that bred them ! I
know they are as lively, and as vigorously productive, as
those fabulous dragons' teeth, and being sown up and down,
may chance to spring up armed men."*
The particular works to which I refer, are so masterly,
and have become so much the staple of the Anglo-Saxon
mind, that in England, America, and the British colonies,
numerous editions of them have been stereotyped, and may
be ha<i almost as cheap as palm leaves. I do not speak of
the brilliant Essayists, of the profound Historians, of the
sagacious Moralists. I am refering to another class of
books, not les3 distinguished indeed, but more level to the
common taste: works which have been scattered broadcast
through the whole of Anglo-Saxondom, and the possession
of which is attainable by the humblest persons, by the
simplest investment. Any one of these books, which I shall
mention, can be bought by any one, if he Will practice a
simple act of self-denial, for a few hours, or put by, occa¬
sionally, a single twelve and a half cents. My catalogue
would include the following works:
Locke on the Mind. Life of Ben Franklin.
Bacon's Essays. Life of James Watt.
Butler's Analogy. Life of Mungo Park.
Paley's Natural Theology. History of Rome.
*Jolin Milton. Oration for" Unlicensed Printing.'"
25
Wayland's Moral Philosophy. History of England.
Banyan's Pilgrim's Progress. Milton's Poems.
Robinson Crusoe. Cowper's Poems.
Alison on Taste. Burder's Self-Discipline.
Watt's on the Mind. Todd's Student's Manual/
Channing's Self-Culture.
The entire list, as several of them are abridged, may be
purchased for less than three dollars. But the value of such
a Library to a youth, just starting into life would be incalcu¬
lable. And no better service could bo done the cause of pure
speech, correct diction, and earnest thought, than a general ef¬
fort to put a Library of this kind, within the reach of every
intelligent boy in the country, of 15 years of age.*
(d) But besides the correct training of the young, I beg to
insist upon the great necessity of special care being bestowed
upon the culture of the female mind, in Liberia. I feel that I
cannot exaggerate the importance of this duty. The mothers,
sisters, and daughters of the land, are to train the whole of
the rising generation, now growing up around us, down, for¬
ever through all the deep dim vistas of coming ages. The in¬
fluence of woman in this great work is deeper and more pow¬
erful than that of man; and especially in those years ot our
life when we are most susceptible. But no one who looks
carefully at the state of things in this country, can suppose, for
a moment, that either justice is done to the intellect of this sex,
or, that women, in this land, feel the burden of obligation which
rests so heavily upon them. The latter fact, however, pecu¬
liarly affects me. I must confess myself amazed at the general
frivolousness of the female mind in this country. It is one of
the most astonishing problems that my mind has ever been
called upon to solve, how women can live such trifling, un¬
thinking lives as they do in this land. When I look at the se¬
vere and rugged aspects of actual existence in this young
country, I find it difficult to understand how it is that Parisian
millinery can maintain such a tyranous control, as it does, over
the sex, from Cape Mount to Palmas.
I do not blame the women so much for this state of things;
nor do I forget the somewhat pardonable fact that dress is the
only Fine Art, we have in Liberia. The world has been six
thousand years in existence, and it has hardly yet begun to
do justice to the intellect of woman.t Here, on this soil, this
*' Just here while speaking of books, it ia no more than duty to acknowledge the
vast debt of obligation, Liberian citizens ow Benjamin Coates, Esq. of Philadel¬
phia U. S. A. Scores of persons in Liberia will join in this expression of gratitude.
The families are not a few, who, as in my own case, beside other books, have, like¬
wise their valuable Coates' Library.
t "It seems needful that something should be said specially about the education of
women As regards their interests they have been unkindly treated—too much flat-
tlrf^ too little respected. They are shut up in a world of conventionabilities, and
natnrallv believe that to be the only world. The theory of their education seems to
thnv should not be made companions to men, and some would say they cer¬
tainlyara /o t" " friends in Council" B. 1, Oh. viii.
4
26
injustice cannot be perpetuated with safety. What with the
present state of the census,—more than half of the population
being females; and the colonization ships, from the necessities
of the case, sending us every six months, two women to one
rtian; we shall, by and bye, reach a state of moral shipwreck j
and the sad examples of the heathen, will, ere long, begin to
act injuriously upon our social and domestic state, if we are
not careful and foresighted. This will surely be the case, es¬
pecially in the humblest walks of life, if we do not strive to
raise our daughters and our sisters to become the true and
equal companions of men, and not their victims. He who
keeps wide open, the eyes God has given him, cannot be
blind to some sad tendencies which already show themselves
in our social state. And reform, in this particular, cannot
commence too soon. Two or three things can be done imme¬
diately. (1) Let every respectable householder make the effort
to put in his wife's hand some thoughtful Literary Journal,
such as " Littells Living Age," or " Chambers' Journalby
which both taste and thought may be cultivated, and the
mind be started on the track of reflection. (2) Let some in¬
fluential persons attempt to gather, in clubs or a society, the
aspiring matrons and young women, in our communities, for
reading, composition and conversation upon improving topics.
Let the scheme projected be humble and simple: let it be ele¬
mentary, even in its nature ; and by gradual steps, rise to
something more ambitious; wby indeed, may not ministers of
the Gospel lead classes of their congregations in this intellec¬
tual effort ? There is certainly nothing unholy in it: there
is surely much that may lead to, and foster piety in it: much
that would have the sanction of Scripture. Indeed is not the
religion of Christ to be the great regenerating agent in all
mental, as well as all spiritual things ? Is not the church to
take the lead in all things that are. to elevate and dignify
man. ? In any event, and by all means, do not let us go on in
the dull, unthinking way we are now treading ; and leave the
minds of children and youth, in our families, unblessed by
that pure speech and strong Anglo-saxon thought, which come
with the most impressive force, from the graceful mind, and
the tender voice of cultivated womanhood. * (3) But the
master need in Liberia is that of a female seminary, of a high
order, for the education of Girls. Already our wives and
* I cannot resist the temptation to add here another fine extract from the learned
English Journal before quoted It is a most happy and beautiful provision that
children should imbibe their native language primarily and mainly from their mo¬
thers, should suck it in, as it were, along with their milk; this it is that makes it
their mother tongue. For women are much more dutious recipients of the laws of
nature and societyf; they are much less liable to be deluded by fantastical theories •
and it is an old and very true remark, that in order to feel all the beauty and nu-
rity of any language, we must hear it from the lips ***** 0f a sensible, well edn-
cated woman." *
[Rev.] J. O. Hare. Philological Museum, Vol. 1. 644.
27
daughters are in the rear of ourselves and sons, in training
and culture ; humble as we all are, in this country, in acquire¬
ments, yet there is a class of men in Liberia who are fully fifty
years in advance of our women, that is, intellectually. The
operations of High Schools, now in existence, the High
Schools for boys projected, the other educational preparations
going on, for Colleges and Seminaries, the return, ever and
anon, of the professional young men, Lawyers, Doctors, Min¬
isters, who are sent to America to be educated, with the men¬
tal training afforded men in mercantile pursuits, political con¬
tests, legal affairs and Legislative duty ; will place men be¬
fore long, a century ahead of our women. Snch mental ine¬
quality will be a dangerous state for the interests of educa¬
tion and for social well-being. The mental inferiority of wo¬
men will retard the progress of our children and youth. The
intellectual force of the country will more and more decline :
Learning and Letters will be without influence ; material in¬
terests will everywhere prodominate : we shall lose the fresh¬
ness and the force of all our anglo-saxon antecedents : and at
length, men every where, will rise up and weigh their paltry
purses in the scale, over against the strongest brains: and all
manhood shall cease in the land ! No better correction to this
sad tendency can be found than a good, sound, moral English
Education for those especially, who will be entrusted with
the reaving and training of our unborn children. I beg there¬
fore to urge upon public attention, the immediate need of
raising the standard of female education in this country. I
beg to insist upon the deep necessity of elevating the mind of
woman in the republic, and directing it to noble and com¬
manding themes. I beg to enforce the duty of making woman
in this land as superior intellectual and dignified as we all
would have her, beautiful and attractive and moral. And to
this end, all heads of families should strive, at the earliest day,
to fall upon some plan, to found a female seminary, with an
able staff of officers and teachers.*
2. The subject we have been considering, teaches the duty of
National care and effort, that our heathen neighbours be train¬
ed to the spirit, moral sentiments, and practical genius of the
language we are giving them.
I have already affirmed that more natives speak English in
Liberia than Anglo-Africans. I wish to add to this, the al¬
most certain fact, that by the arrival of Imigrants, by the
* I feel sure that, for the accomplishment of this end, we can, if necessary, look
to that anxious and painstaking benevolence, in America, -which so very generally
anticipates the intellectual needs of Liberia. But there are men of means enough
in Liberia to start such an undertaking; and there are scores who are able to pay
a good sum annually, to give their daughters a substantial "and at the same time, a
re*Sinc/tiie delivery of this address, Rev. Mr. Biyden has been acting in accordance
with the above suggestion, in England ; and has succeeded, I learn, in raising a con¬
siderable amount of funds for a female High School in Liberia.
28
opening of interior Stations, by Missionary Societies in Amer¬
ica, the number of native men and women who will read and
write will, ere long, overwhelmingly predominate over us ; so
that for one civilized Liberian, there will be ten native men
who will then speak English. Already our fellow-citizens
have, at times, to make strange comparisons. It was onlyjes-
terday a respectable citizen told me that his hired woman ex¬
pressed unwillingness on a recent occasion, to attend prayers
in his family, because his native boys could read and she could
riot. Her ignorance of letters shamed her. " and made her
feel" to use her own wise expression, " more than ever before
the importance of education." These comparisons are becom¬
ing too frequent; and by and bye they will extend to com¬
munities as well as individuals, unless we provide more fully
for the improvement of our own colonists. But I only men¬
tion the above facts in order to show, how rapid is the ad¬
vance of the heathen within our own knowledge and acquaint¬
ance. And now the question arises, are these people to be
quickened by letters to become only intelligent heathen. ?
Are we, Jby contact with them, to give them only an intellect¬
ual paganism. ? Is our influence upon them to touch only the
brain, and not life, manners, the family society ? or rather
should we not as a Nation, take upon us the duty of so training
these people, that as they receive the language, so they may
likewise receive the civilization, the order, the industry, and
the mild, but transforming influences of a regulated Christ¬
ian state. ? The Mission of Liberia, in its civil aspects, is
clear to my mind. This nation is to restore society all along
our coast; and by restoring society to regulate social life, to
quicken in its growth the " tender plant of confidence," in both-
a direct and indirect manner to elevate the domestic state, and
to give rise to industrial activity, and to establish good neigh¬
bourhood. However humble the effort may be, still it seems
to me, that we ought to have, in each county, an industrial
School for native boys who are fugitives, or wanderers, or
who have been convicted of crime ; where they could be train¬
ed to the use of the plough and hoe, and receive a good, but
simple English education. Our neighbours too, that is, those
who live near our settlements should be bound by law, to
make broad and substantial roads for travel, to keep the Sab¬
bath, and to conform more to our habits of dress than they
now do. Moreover we cannot be too early in giving them the
benefit of the great Saxon institutions of Trial by Jury, and
personal protection. Life should be made sacred among them
in the neighbourhoods of our larger towns. The Sassy-wood
Ordeal should be put an end to, and a due process of law
guaranteed to all criminals arid suspected parties among:
them. This I know could not be done in remote places ; but
29
in the vicinity of our towns and settlements, sanguinary re¬
taliation, envy and revenge should not be allowed to show
themselves as they now do; nor the awful scenes which take
place, almost under our eyes, be suffered to barbarize our
children. Indeed both for their benefit and our own, law and
authority cannot be too soon established an,iong them on a firm
basis, and with full legal forms. It is a matter alike of policy
and of duty for us to attempt, though at a humble distance,
the same legal reformation among this people that the English
have, with great success effected in India. There is no great¬
er disparity here in our relative numbers, than there, between
the Christian power and the heathen masses: while here we
have a population at once simple and unenlightened to deal
with, and the presence and protection of the three chief naval
powers of the world. Moreover we have this encourage¬
ment in any such undertaking, namely, that our heathen
neighbours are ambitious of improvement, and always wel¬
come the changes and the regulations, which tend to make
them "Americans."
3, Finally let us aim, by every possible means, to make in¬
digenous, in this infant country, the spirit and genius of the
English language, in immediate connection with its idiom.
You all doubtless remember the solemn utterance of St.
James that " the body without the spirit is dead." So like¬
wise a language without its characteristic features, stamp,
and spirit, is a lifeless and unmeaning thing, and must ere long,
degenerate into a crude, mongrel, discordant jargon. If the
English had educated their West India blacks they would never
have committed so great a blunder, as they did before emanci¬
pation, as the publication of the Bible for them, in broken Eng¬
lish :—a miserable caricature of their noble tongue. All
low, inferior, and barbarous tongues are, doubtless, but the
lees and dregs of noble languages, which have gradually, as
the soul of a nation has died out, sunk down to degradation
and ruin. We must not suffer this decay, on these shores,
in this nation. We have been made, providentially, the
deposit of a noble trust; and we should be proud to show
our appreciation of it. Having come to the heritage of this
language we must cherish its spirit, as well as retain its
letter. We must cultivate it among ourselves; we must
strive to infhee its spirit among our reclaimed and aspiring
natives. And what that spirit is, we have witnessed in the
character of the people among whom we have lived, across
the waters; in their strong institutions; in the history of
their ancestors; in the distinctive features of their govern-
St. James, ii. 26.
30
mental antecedents, in their colonies ; their religion, letters
and commerce. The spirit of the English language is the
spirit of Independence, both personal and national; the
spirit of free-speech and a free press, and personal liberty;
the spirit of reform and development; the spirit of enter¬
prise; the spirit of law, of moral character, and spiritual
beneficence.
With these ideas we have been familiar from our youth.
"Wherever the English language is spoken these sentiments
are the daily utterances of men. Even in those cases where
there is the widest separation between theory and practice,
even there the idea of freedom exacts and secures expression.
The American black man, even in the States of slavery, has
been in a school of freedom, from which even the Italian, the
German, the Frenchman, the Russian and the Sardinian,
have been separate and alien. He has had unfolded to him,
in harangues, in public speeches, in grand orations, in the
social talk of the table and the fire-side, in the august de¬
cisions of Courts and Legislatures; and in the solemn ut¬
terances of State papers, all the sublime abstractions of hu¬
man rights and civil freedom.
You and I have been accustomed to the utterance of the
noblest theories of liberty, the grandest ideas of humanity
all our life time; and so were our fathers. And although
we have been shorn of our manhood, and have, as yet, at¬
tained only a shriveled humanity; still there is some satis¬
faction in the remembrance, that ideas conserve men, and
keep alive the vitality of nations. These ideas, alas! for
the consistency of men I though often but abstractions there,
have been made realities here. We have brought them with
us to this continent; and in this young nation are striving
to give them form, shape, and constant expression. With
the noble tongue which Providence has given us, it will be
difficult for us to be divorced from the spirit, which, for
centuries, has been speaking through it. For a language
acts, in divers ways, upon the spirit of a people ; even as
ihe spirit of a people acts with a creative and spiritualizing
force upon a language. But difficult though it be, such a
separation is a possibility. And hence arises the duty of
doing all we can to keep alive these grand ide&s and noble
principles. May we be equal to this duty—may we strive
to answer to this responsibility! Let us endeavor to live up
to the sentiments breathed forth in all the legal charters,
the noble literature, the religious learning of this tongue.
Let us guard, even here, the right of Free Speech. Let us
esteem it one of the proudest boasts of this land, and to ap-
si
propriate the happy language of a heathen—esteem it "the
rare felicity of our times that, in this country, one can
think what he pleases, and speak what he thinks."* Let
us prize the principle of Personal Liberty, as one of the
richest jewels of our constitutional diadem. Let us not
shrink from the severest test to which a heathen and de¬
graded population around us, may at times strain it. Let
us, amid all the extravagances of their crude state, guar¬
antee, even them, the full advantage of it. Conscious of
the nobleness of this great constitutional principle, may we
allow it full force and unrestricted expression. Let us re¬
joice that our Republic, diminutive as it is in the group of
nations, is already a refuge for the fugitives; and congratu¬
late one another on the fact that we can already apply to
our state and position, the proud lines of Whittier:—
" No slave-hunt in our borders, no pirate on the strand,
No fetters in Liberia! no slave upon our land."
Let us endeavor, by the reading of their Journals, by close
observation of that venturesome enterprize of theirs, which
carries them from " beneath the Arctic circle, to the oppo¬
site region of Polar cold—by a careful inspection of their
representations, who visit these shores, and by a judicious
imitation of their daring and activity; let us strive to catch
and gain to ourselves somewhat the spirit op enterprize and
progress which characterizes them, in all their world-wide
homes. Moreover, let us cultivate the principle of Inde¬
pendence, both as a nation and as individuals, and in our
children; as. in itself a needed element of character, as the
great antidote to the deep slavishness of a three centuries'
servitude, and as a correction to the inactivity, the sloth-
fulness, and the helplessness, which are gendered by a
tropical clime. I am well aware of the exaggeration to
which all men are liable to carry this sentiment; but this,
indeed is the case with all the other noble principles which
I have alluded to. This possibility of excess is one of the
conditions of freedom. You cannot leave it in, nor any of
its accessories, within the line of strict propriety, to the rigid
margin of cold exactitude. And the spirit of independence, the
disposition to modest self-reliance,, the -feeling of one's being
sufficient for one's own needs, and temporal requirements ; is
just one of those golden elements of character, which needs to
be cultivated every where among our population. It is con¬
servative, too, as well as democratic ; and if it does overflow,
* « Onra J-emDOrum felicitate, ube sentire quse velis, et quse sentias dicere licet.'
*ar p Tacitus, Hist. Lib. 1 Cap. 2.
32
at times, its banks; it will not be long ere it will delight to
come back to, and run in, its proper channel. An antidote to
its extravagancies, will, moreover, be found, in the cultivation
of another prime characteristic of the English language, that
is, its high moral and spiritual character. Remembering that
"righteousness exalteth a nation, but that sin is a reproach to
any peoplelet us aim at the cultivation among us, of all that
sensitive honor, those habits of honesty, that purity of manners
and morals, those domestic virtues, and that evangelical piety,
which are peculiarly the attributes of Anglo-Saxon society,
States and homes.
So, by God's blessing, shall we prove ourselves not unde¬
serving of the peculiar providence God has bestowed upon U3;
and somewhat worthy of the inheritance of the great and en¬
nobling English Language.