-»5 Frontier Questions 



Meantime, the United States had at last, on October 22nd, 

 1 862, officially acknowledged Liberia's independence as a sovereign 

 State. This recognition, as already stated, had been delayed 

 for fourteen years by an absurd prejudice against regarding any 

 country ruled by black men as a State which could send 

 diplomatic representatives who were men of colour. This 

 treaty of October 22nd, 1862, did not, as has sometimes been 

 thought, guarantee the independence of Liberia, nor did. it 

 convey any distinct assurance of United States protection.^ 



' Whilst touching on this question, it might be well to summarise as far as 

 possible the instances in which the United States Government have intimated 

 to other great Powers their special interest in Liberia. The extracts in question 

 are abridged and quoted from the first edition of The Map of Africa by Treaty, 

 by Sir Edward Hertslet, K.C.B. 



"In 1879, •^'^ ^^^ occasion of the reported offer of French protection to Liberia, 

 the American Minister at Paris was instructed to make inquiries on the subject, 

 and he was reminded in his instructions that when it was considered that the 

 United States had founded and fostered the nucleus of native representative 

 government on the African shores, and that Liberia, so created, had afforded a 

 field of emigration and enterprise for the emancipated Africans of America, who had 

 not been slow to avail themselves of the opportunity, it was evident that the 

 United States Government must feel a peculiar interest in any apparent movement 

 to divert the independent political life of Liberia for the aggrandisement of a great 

 Continental Power, which already had a foothold of actual trading possession on 

 the neighbouring coast. 



" In 1880 Mr. Evarts informed Mr. Hoppin (the United States Charge d'Affaires 

 in -London) that the United States were not averse to having the great Powers 

 know that they publicly recognised the peculiar relations which existed between 

 them and Liberia, and that they were prepared to take every proper step to 

 maintain them. 



" In 1884 Mr. Frelinghuysen informed M. Roustan (French Minister at Washing- 

 ton) that Liberia, though not a colony of the United States, began its independent 

 career as an offshoot of that country, which bore to it a quasi-parental relationship. 

 This authorised the United States to interpose its good offices in any contest 

 between Liberia and a foreign State. A refusal to give the United States an 

 opportunity to be heard for this purpose would make an unfavourable impression 

 on the minds of the Government and the people of the United States. 



" In 1887, on the occasion of the reported French aggressions on Liberian 

 territory, the United States Government stated that their relations with the 

 republic had not changed and that they still felt justified in employing their good 

 offices on her behalf," ' 



247 



