2. TREATY OF 1862, ARTICLE VIII. § 853. Article VIII. of the treaty between the United States and Liberia of 1862 provides: "The United States government engages never to interfere, unless solicited by the government of Liberia, in the affairs between the aboriginal inhabitants and the government of the Republic of Liberia, in the jurisdiction and territories of the republic. Should any United States citizen suffer loss, in person or property, from violence by the aboriginal inhabitants, and the government of the Republic of Liberia should not be able to bring the aggressor to justice, the United States government engages, a requisition having been first made therefor by the Liberian government, to lend such aid as may be required. Citizens of the United States residing in the territories of the Republic of Liberia are desired to abstain from all such intercourse with the aboriginal inhabitants as will tend to the violation of law and a disturbance of the peace of the country." In February, 1879, the Liberian secretary of state complained to Mr. Smyth, the American minister at Monrovia, that one Julio, an American citizen, residing in the Taboo district, had, together with his partner in business, a German subject, named Lehmann, been carrying on trade with the aboriginal inhabitants at Taboo, and other places below Cape Palmas, without complying with the revenue laws. The secretary of state expressed the hope that Mr. Smyth and the acting German consul would cause the offenders to desist from their unlawful acts. Mr. Smyth, invoking Article VIII. of the treaty of 1862, requested Commodore Shufeldt, of the U. S. S. Ticonderoga, who was then on the coast, to interpose; and the commodore, coinciding with Mr. Smyth in his view of the treaty, took on board a Liberina official and sailed for the Taboo River. The Department of State, without awaiting the result, held that the treaty had been misconstrued, and quoted an opinion of its law officer to the effect that Article VIII. " was not intended to authorize, and certainly not to bind, the United States to interfere with their naval forces for the purpose of enforcing or aiding in the enforcement of the municipal law of the Liberian Republic." Mr. Smyth, in his letter to Commodore Shufeldt, referred to "the Alexander case" as a precedent. In that case the President of Liberia requested the assistance of Lieut. Commander Schley, of the U. S. S. Essex, against the king and natives of the Taboo district, who were protecting one Alexander, a citizen of Liberia, in violations of law similar to those afterwards committed by Julio and Lehmann, who were then in his employ. Lieut. Commander Schley, taking on H. Doc. 551-vol 5- 49 board a Liberian official, repaired to the Taboo River and obtained from the king and chiefs the surrender of their artillery and ammunition to the Liberian official, as well as a promise that they would not permit Alexander, who had fled, again to live in that region. Lieut. Commander Schley, when requested by the Liberian official to arrest Julio and Lehmann, refused to do so, on the ground that the interference authorized by the treaty extended only to matters between the government of Liberia and the natives, and not to the use of force to arrest a citizen of the United States for a breach of the municipal laws of Liberia and still less to the arrest of a citizen or subject of a third power. The Department of State observed that, "whatever "might be its " opinion ""as to the soundness of Lieutenant-Commander Schley's view of the law," the Alexander case was "clearly inapplicable," as a precedent, to the case in 1879. 66 Mr. Evarts, Sec. of State, to Mr. Smyth, min. to Liberia, No. 32, July 12, 1879, MS. Inst. Liberia, II. 79. See, also, Mr. Evarts to Mr. Smyth, No. 2, June 19, 1878, id. 52. The German steamer Carlos having fallen into distress on the Liberian coast, the natives of the "Kronbah" tribe plundered the greater part of her cargo, besides robbing and maltreating the crew. The Liberian government exhibited a desire to punish the offenders, but declared itself unable to exert the necessary authority over the lawless Kronbahs. The German government thereupon ordered a naval vessel to the Liberian coast to assist the government of the republic in the pursuit and punishment of the offenders in the general interest of all commercial nations. When the facts were communicated to the Department of State by the German minister at Washington, Mr. Evarts instructed the American minister at Monrovia that, as the offenders in question appeared to be not pirates in the common international acceptance of the terms, but simply lawless wreckers outside of the prompt and efficacious control of the central government, it was "presumed that the Liberian government would gladly avail itself of any proper and friendly aid from without in making its own laws and power felt within its own jurisdiction,” and, if consulted by the Liberian minister of state, he was authorized to express this view and to add " that had the case affected an American vessel and crew this government would not have failed to consider in a proper spirit any request made to it by that of Liberia for aid. such as Germany is now prepared to render.". The instruction makes no reference to Article VIII. of the treaty of 1862. Mr. Evarts, Sec. of State, to Mr. Smyth, min. to Liberia, No. 63, Feb. 28, 1881, For. Rel. 1881, 734. In December, 1887, some American missionaries, while ascending the Cavalla River in order to open up mission stations in the interior, were made prisoners and plundered by the natives and obliged to return to their point of departure, Cape Palmas. The President of Liberia, representing that the Half Cavalla tribe, by whom these acts were committed, had for some time been in rebellion against the Liberian government, asked the United States to lend its aid, under Article VIII. of the treaty, in order that the offenders might be punished for their misdeeds. The Department of State replied that the article did not invest the Liberian government with the right to "originate its claim to call upon the United States for such aid ‘as might be required' to overawe the hostile force of the aboriginal inhabitants;" that "the right and sole discretion to decide" whether a case under the article existed, belonged to the United States; that therefore, when a citizen of the United States should present a proper case to his own government, it would then decide whether it would present the case to the government of Liberia; and that, if it should then be informed that Liberia was powerless to execute the demand so made, the Liberian government might in such event "make requisition" upon the United States "to lend such aid as may be required" to effect the object of the demand. The Department of State also added that "the locality of the outrage was a "matter of controlling importance," since the article could apply only to the aboriginal inhabitants dwelling within the bounds of the republic. Mr. Bayard, Sec. of State, to Mr. Barclay, June 4, 1888, For. Rel. 1888, II. 1082-1083. 3. RELATIONS WITH GREAT BRITAIN. § 854. For many years a dispute existed as to the boundary between the northwestern part of Liberia and the adjacent British possessions. As early as 1871 the United States was asked to appoint an arbitrator in the matter. In 1878 Commodore R. W. Shufeldt was named. He arrived at Sierra Leone January 19, 1879. "I anticipate,” he said, "a long and somewhat tedious discussion and examination of this boundary question, as it will involve the testimony not only of the witnesses, citizens, or subjects of both parties, but apparently necessitate the examination of the chiefs and head men of the various tribes now occupying the disputed territory." The investigation was begun, but the commissioners were unable to reach an agreement as to the submission of the matter to the arbitrator, and Commodore Shufeldt, after a lengthened detention in the neighberhood of Sierra Leone, was compelled to depart, leaving his mission unfulfilled. In 1882 Mr. Frelinghuysen authorized representations to be made both to Great Britain and to Liberia as to "the friendly interest which the United States takes in the welfare of Liberia and their desire that the controversy may be settled in a just, equitable, and friendly spirit," and he also authorized an intimation to be conveyed to Liberia, on the strength of representations made to him by persons interested in its welfare," that the Solyma River might be a natural boundary satisfactory to both parties." It turned out, however, that the British demanded a settlement on the basis of the Mannah River. offering to set off the so-called Mannah River pecuniary claims against the territorial claims of Liberia westward of that river, and intimated that, if Liberia should reject this arrangement, the claims against her would be enforced. In these circumstances Mr. Frelinghuysen instructed Mr. Lowell, then American minister in London, to ask the British government to consider the Solyma River as a compromise, and directed Mr. Smyth, the American minister at Monrovia, to say to the Liberian government that, if it should reject both the proposed boundaries, it was felt that the government of the United States could not "usefully exert itself further." The dispute was settled in 1885. 5 Moore, International Arbitrations, 4948; Mr. Evarts, Sec. of State, to Mr. Smyth, No. 13, Nov. 12, 1878, MS. Inst. Liberia, II. 60; same to same, No. 21, Feb. 20, 1879, id. 68; same to same, No. 29, June 17, 1879, id. 77; Mr. Davis, Act. Sec. of State, to Mr. Lowell, No. 460, Sept. 15, 1882, MS. Inst. Gr. Br. XXVI. 488; Mr. Frelinghuysen, Sec. of State, to Mr. Smyth, No. 9, Dec. 21, 1882, MS. Inst. Liberia, II. 143; same to same, No. 14, April 8, 1883, id. 148; Mr. Frelinghuysen to Mr. Lowell, No. 567, April 9, 1883, MS. Inst. Gr. Br. XXVI. 625; Mr. Frelinghuysen, Sec. of State, to Mr. Smyth, No. 17, June 19, 1883, MS. Inst. Liberia, II. 153; Mr. Bayard, Sec. of State, to Mr. Smyth, No. 62, March 12, 1885, id. 187; Mr. Porter, Act. Sec. of State, to Mr. Hopkins, No. 3, Jan. 4, 1886, id. 198. For a review of the relations between the United States and Liberia, see Mr. Frelinghuysen, Sec. of State, to Mr. Chandler, Sec. of Navy, Feb. 2, 1883 (confid.), 145 MS. Dom. Let. 424. The treaty between Great Britain and Liberia of Nov. 11, 1885, concerning boundaries and claims, is printed in 76 Br. & For. State Papers, 88. 4. RELATIONS WITH FRANCE. § 855. In 1870 the French government intimated its desire to join with Great Britain in determining the boundaries of Liberia. This intimation did not result in any action. At that time only the northwestern boundary was in dispute and this dispute was with Great Britain alone. In 1884, while negotiations between Great Britain and Liberia were in progress, for a settlement on the basis of the Mannah River, it was reported that Kent's Island, in that river, had been occupied by the French. In bringing this report confidentially to the attention of the French minister at Washington, Mr. Frelinghuysen, who was then Secretary of State, adverted to the fact that Liberia "was founded by negro settlers from the United States," and that, "although at no time a colony of this government, it began its career among the family of independent states as an offshoot of this country, and as such entitled to the sympathy and, when practicable, the protection and encouragement of the United States." On the occasion of recent diplomatic disputes between Liberia and Great Britain, "this relationship of quasi-parentage had, said Mr. Frelinghuysen, been recognized. It was not thought possible that France could seriously intend to assert a claim to territory so notoriously in dispute between those two powers, where no French right of possession had before been recognized by either; but it was thought proper, said Mr. Frelinghuysen, to state, provisionally, that the United States would consider a French claim to territory in the Mannah River as threatening the integrity and tranquillity of Liberia, and also to intimate "the firm conviction and expectation" of the United States that, in view of its "intimate relationship" to Liberia, "any assertion of claim to any part of Liberia, as defined by conventional limits, and any enforcement of a settlement of alleged grievance, which might take place without the United States being allowed an opportunity to interpose their good offices to arrange the matter, could not but produce an unfavorable impression in the minds of the government and people of the United States." Mr. Frelinghuysen, Sec. of State, to Mr. Roustan, French min., Aug. 22, See, also, Mr. Frelinghuysen, Sec. of State, to Mr. Lowell, min. to It appears that the French government, in reply to a complaint of the "The weakness of Liberia and the difficulty of maintaining effective sovereignty over its outlying districts have exposed that republic to encroachment. It cannot be forgotten that this distant community is an offshoot of our own system, owing its origin to the associated benevolence of American citizens, whose praiseworthy efforts to create a nucleus of civilization in the dark continent have commanded respect and sympathy everywhere, especially in this coun . |