Liberia <^ 



In assuming the momentous responsibilities of the position 

 they have taken, the people of this republic feel justified by the 

 necessities of the case, and with this conviction they throw them- 

 selves with confidence upon the candid consideration of the civilised 

 world. 



Liberia is not the offspring of grasping ambition, nor the tool 

 of avaricious speculation. 



No desire for territorial aggrandisement brought us to these 

 shores ; nor do we believe so sordid a motive entered into the 

 high consideration of those who aided us in providing this asylum. 

 Liberia is an asylum from the most grinding oppression. 



In coming to the shores of Africa, we indulged the pleasing 

 hope that we would be permitted to exercise and improve those 

 faculties which impart to man his dignity ; to nourish in our hearts 

 the flame of honourable ambition ; to cherish and indulge those 

 aspirations which a beneficent Creator had implanted in every human 

 heart, and to evince to all who despise, ridicule, and oppress our 

 race that we possess with them a common nature ; are with them 

 susceptible of equal refinement, and capable of equal advancement 

 in all that adorns and dignifies man. 



We were animated by the hope that here we should be at 

 liberty to train up our children in the way that they should go ; to 

 inspire them with the love of an honourable fame ; to kindle within 

 them the flame of a lofty philanthropy, and to form strongly within 

 them the principles of humanity, virtue, and religion. 



Among the strongest motives to leave our native land — to 

 abandon for ever the scenes of our childhood and to sever the most 

 endeared connections — was the desire for a retreat where, free from 

 the agitations of fear and molestation, we could approach in worship 

 the God of our fathers. 



Thus far our highest hopes have been realised. 



Liberia is already the happy home of thousands who were once 

 the doomed victims of oppression ; and if left unmolested to go on 

 with her natural and spontaneous growth, if her movements be left 

 free from the paralysing intrigues of jealous ambition and un- 

 scrupulous avarice, she will throw open a wider and yet a wider 

 door for thousands who are now looking with an anxious eye for 

 some land of rest. 



Our courts of justice are open equally to t'he stranger and the 



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