as
very naturally consternation on the part of the people at this sudden
immigration, especially as many of the Africans arrived cramped or
paralyzed or otherwise ill from the conditions under which they had been
forced to travel. President Benson stated the problem to the American
Government; the United States sent some money to Liberia, the people of
the Republic helped in every way they could, and the whole situation was
finally adjusted without any permanently bad effects, though it is well
for students to remember just what Liberia had to face at this time.
Important toward the close of Benson's terms was the completion of the
building of the Liberia College, of which Joseph Jenkin Roberts became
the first president.

The administrations of Daniel Bashiel Warner (two terms, 1864-1867) and
the earlier one of James Spriggs Payne (1868-1869) were comparatively
uneventful. Both of these men were Republicans, but Warner represented
something of the shifting of political parties at the time. At first
a Republican, he went over to the Whig party devoted to the policy of
preserving Liberia from white invasion. Moved to distrust of English
merchants, who delighted in defrauding the little republic, he
established an important Ports-of-Entry Law in 1865, which it is hardly
necessary to say was very unpopular with the foreigners. Commerce was
restricted to six ports and a circle six miles in diameter around each
port. On account of the Civil War and the hopes that emancipation held
out to the Negroes in the United States, immigration from America ceased
rapidly; but a company of 346 came from Barbadoes at this time. The
Liberian Government assisted these people with $4000, set apart for each
man an allotment of twenty-five rather than the customary ten acres; the
Colonization Society appropriated $10,000, and after a pleasant voyage
of thirty-three days they arrived without the loss of a single life. In
the company was a little boy, Arthur Barclay, who was later to be known
as the President of the Republic. At the semi-centennial of the American
Colonization Society held in Washington in January, 1867, it was shown
that the Society and its auxiliaries had been directly responsible for
the sending of more than 12,000 persons to Africa. Of these 4541
had been born free, 344 had purchased their freedom, 5957 had been
emancipated to go to Africa, and 1227 had been settled by the Maryland
Society. In addition, 5722 captured Africa