ong the coast was
checked, inter-tribal warfare prevented, and trial by the sassa-wood
ordeal abolished wherever colonial influence extended. Mr. Buchanan was
the last white man who exercised authority in Liberia. On his death the
Lieutenant-Governor, Joseph Jenkins Roberts, succeeded him. Roberts, who
afterward became Liberia's most distinguished citizen, was a Virginia
Negro, having been born at Norfolk in 1809, and brought up near
Petersburg. He obtained a rudimentary education while running a
flat-boat on the James and Appomattox Rivers. In 1829 he went with his
widowed mother and younger brothers to Liberia, where he rapidly rose to
wealth and distinction. As Governor he evinced an efficient
statesmanship that promised well for his future career.

Roberts had not long been governor when trouble arose with the British
coast-wise traders that gave rise to a most interesting crisis. The
Liberian Government in regulating commerce within its jurisdiction had
enacted laws imposing duties on all imported goods. The English traders,
accustomed for hundreds of years to unrestricted traffic on this very
coast, were indignant at the presumption of the upstart colony, and
ignored its regulations. The Government protested, but in vain. And at
length the little colonial revenue schooner John Seyes, while
attempting to enforce the laws at Edina, was actually seized by the
stalwart Britisher and dragged before the Admiralty Court at Sierra
Leone. A long discussion which would be profitless to follow in detail,
ensued. The result was, that the John Seyes was confiscated. The British
Government opened a correspondence with the United States, in which it
was ascertained that Liberia was not in political dependence upon them.
Whereupon the sovereignty of Liberia was promptly denied, her right to
acquire or hold territory questioned, and she was given to understand
that the operations of British traders would in future be backed by the
British navy.

Evidently if Liberia was to maintain and govern her territory something
must be done. The Colonization Society while claiming for Liberia the
right to exercise sovereign powers, seems to have had the unacknowledged
conviction, that England's position, however ungenerous, was logically
unassailable. The supreme authority wielded by the Society, its veto
power over legislative action, was undoubtedly inconsistent with the
idea of a sovereign state. This is clearly apparent from the fact tha