The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-12-23
COLONIZATION
 SOCIETY CENTENARY

The inhabitants of the republic of Liberia, on the western coast of Africa, will celebrate today the one hundredth anniversary of the found
 ing of the American Colonization so- ciety, which was responsible for the establishment of the colony of Ameri- can negroes in their ''fatherland." This famous society, which enlisted for many years the earnest efforts of some of the most distinguished of Americans, had it's origin in the prop
 aganda carried on by the Rev. Dr. Samuel Hopkins, of Newport, R. 'sI. The first attempt to found a colony of free blacks in western Africa was made by the British government at Sierra Leone, in 17S7, but it was far from being success, owing to the attacks of the natives and the thrift lessness of the colonists. Thomas Jefferson and other eminent Virgin ians, early advocated the colonization of emancipated negroes in some part of America. In 1915 the scheme was given great impetus by Capt Paul Cuffee, colored man of New Bed- ford, Mass, who carried 38 emil grants to Sierra Leone in his own vessel, expending $4,000 of his own money for this purpose.
 In the autumn of 1916 the faculty of the college and theological sem mary at Princeton issued a call for a public meeting to discuss tHe forma- ton of an American; Colonization So- ciety.i This meeting was opened in Washington on Dec. 23, 1916. Fran cis s. Key, the author of "The Star Spangled Banner" was one of the prominent delegates. A constitution was adopted and officers were elected. Henry Clay, John Randolph, Bush rod Washington, and other prominent slave owners took a prominent part in the formation of the society.
 On the same day that the society met resolution favoring colonization of free blacks in Africa, drawn by Gen. Charles F. Mercer, passed the Virginia legislature. General Mercer and others immediately began the work of raising funds, and in 1877 Samuel J. Mills and Ebenezer Bur- gess were sent to Africa to choose a site for the colony. The place they determined on was Sherbro Island or the adjacent coast. The first com pany of colonfsts, S6 in number, were sent out in 1920. Several lives were lost in the attempt to settle on the island, and the blacks of the adjacent mainland were hostile. Cape Mes urado, some 300 miles south of Sierra Leone, was then selected. There they laid the foundation of the city of Monrovia, and of the republic of Liberia. The few colonists were soon enfeebled by disease and, dishearten- ed, wanted to join the Sierra Leone colony but they were dissuaded by Lott Cary, an educated negro who had been distinguished as a preacher in Richmond. Cary became the agent of the society, in which all the powers of government were vested, but died in 1928. By that time about "a thousand negroes had been dis patched to Liberia from America. In 1847, with the full and free consent of the society, Liberia became an in- dependent republic, and ever since it has been ruled by negro officials chosen by popular vote. While the republic has undergone many vicis- situdes and on several occasions has been bankrupt and has had to accept the friendly offices of the United States in getting on it's feet again, the experiment on the whole has been a highly useful one to the negro race. Liberia does not afford shining ex- ample of the capacity of the'African for self-government, but it's citizens have at last not descended to the ex- cesses and b1oodthirsty orgies which characterize the republics" of Haiti and Dominica. Judge BuShrod Washington was the first president of the Colonization Society, and his suc- cessors included Charles Carroll of Carrollton, Henry Clay, James Madi- son and other men of eminence.