In transmitting the copy of this paper, I am pleased to state that this
utterance by the President is an evidence that His Excellency comprehends
the duty towards native races his great office imposes.
When the masses of American Liberians shall see the right policy clearly to
be adopted and followed with respect to the aborigines, and cheerfully act
in accord with it, the future of Liberia and of those other contiguous negro
countries, will be safe to civilization and Christian influences.
[Inclosure in No. 28.]
proclamation by alfred f. russell,
president.
Whereas one of the prime objects contemplated in the founding of the
colony, now Republic of Liberia, was the elevation of the aboriginal
tribes of this continent, or of those among and contiguous to us; and
whereas this end can never be secured until a more conciliatory policy
is inaugurated in respect to them than has hitherto obtained among us;
and
Whereas it is the policy of the present Government to bring about the
best and most friendly feelings on /the part of our aboriginal citizens
(for they are important, nay indispensable, to us in building up this
national fabric, and the redemption of this land, so long under the
domination of the devil); and
Whereas it is the design of government to accord to all such worthy
individuals, tribes, or fragments of tribes every guarantee within the
scope of her power, as far as law and justice will allow; and whereas it
has too often come to the knowledge of Government that the practice has
hitherto prevailed of buying up and surveying off tracts of public
domain already occupied by members of one or another of these tribes,
thus ignoring their rights and reducing them to great distress and
suffering; and whereas this practice, in the opinion of this Government,
is in direct violation of the compacts and treaties existing between
this Republic and the several tribes around us and is quite at variance
with the spirit and intent of the constitution and laws of this
Republic, and in its results nugatory to the godly and humane idea that
simultaneous with the thought that first suggested the founding of this
Christian nation sprang into being, also that other, the enlightenment
of the aboriginal tribes and their incorporation in the body politic and
religious, derogatory to
[Page 617]
the
policy of this Government, and to her high sense of justice and
humanity, derogatory to the spirit and teachings of the sacred
Scriptures; and
Whereas the practice alluded to above has broken up, in thousands of
cases, whole families and driven them from among us to far remote parts,
beyond the pale of civilization and Christianity, depleting whole
districts of country and leaving them to grow up in wilderness, to the
great impediment and detriment of the entire country:
Therefore, I, Alfred F. Russell, President of the Republic of Liberia, in
virtue of the authority vested in me as such by the constitution and
laws of the same, do enjoin and command all land commissioners and
registrars to carefully abstain from giving deeds for lands surveyed or
granted, and also all surveyors to abstain from surveying lands in
violation of this proclamation without first submitting their action to
the inspection of Government.
Given under my hand and seal of the Republic
this 29th day of
March, 1883.
[
l. s.]
ALFRED F.
RUSSELL,
President
D.
Ware,
Secretary of the
Interior.
