Liberia ^ 



Allen Benson was elected President, to take office in 1856. 

 Benson was born in Maryland (U.S.A.) in 18 16 and had come 

 to Liberia in 1832. He had risen to be a General and a Vice- 

 President in the Liberian State. 



Roberts had rendered great services to the Liberian Re- 

 public, only to be matched by those of Ashmun. It is 

 possible that but for his vigorous management the State might 

 never have had any independent existence at all, but have 

 drifted into such a condition as to render annexation by Sierra 

 Leone a necessity for the welfare of West Africa. Though 

 Roberts had a strain of Negro blood in his veins, he was 

 mentally and physically a white man, a fact which perhaps 

 gave him more weight at that time in the councils of Europe, 

 but a circumstance which raised some jealousy about him 

 amongst the pure-blooded Negroes in the Liberian State, and 

 perhaps also in America. He was much exasperated in the 

 summer of 1855 by the attacks of a Mr. George S. Downing, 

 described as a " free coloured man of New York City," who 

 " wrote bitter articles containing various aspersions on Liberia 

 and President Roberts." 



Roberts after ceasing to be President still continued to 

 devote his talents and energies to the service of Liberia. As 

 already related, he took command of the armed force that 

 went to save Maryland at the beginning of 1857, and he played 

 a leading part in the annexation of that colony. 



In 1857 he was appointed principal of Liberia College, 

 an institution founded on paper in 1856, but not brought into 

 being until 1858-62. With Mrs. Roberts he resided on the site 

 of the College (outskirts of Monrovia) for a good many years. 

 In 1862 he was sent on a six months' mission to Europe. 

 Soon after his return to Liberia he was appointed by the King 

 of the Belgians Belgian Consul at Monrovia, and, as will be 



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