experience to speak from. When I went to Liberia my views and purpose? were almost entirely missionary in their character, and very much alien from any tiling civil or national; but I had not been in the country three days when snch was the manliness I saw exhibited, so great was the capacity I saw developed, and so many were the signs of thrift, energy, and national life which showed themselves, that all my governmental indifference at once vanished; aspirations after citizenship and nationality rose in my bosom, and I was impelled to go to a magistrate, take the oath of allegiance, and thus become a citizen of Liberia. And I then decided for myself and for my children, so far as a parent can determine the future of his line, that Liberia should be our country and our home forever. Nor have I repented this election. As denizens of all new countries, so we have been called to the trials and some of the sufferings of emigrants; and sickness in my family has caused us to seek restoration in the land of our birth; yet, if it pleases God to open to me my field of labor, I shall soon be wending my way back to my home again.
The resolution in my hand expresses gratification at the signs of industrial, moral, and intellectual progress in Liberia. And this, sir, is the assertion of fact. In every department of life and labor in Liberia there are unmistakable evidences of growth. I feel the assurance to affirm here that in every quarter the most casual observer can perceive strength, confidence, self-reliance, development, increase of wealth, manliness, and creator hardiment
