“President Roye has, contrary to the Constitution, proclaimed himself President for four years, although elected for only two years.

“He has distributed arms and munitions of war, and has not ceased his efforts to procure armed men to crush the liberties of the people.

“He has contracted a foreign loan contrary to the law made and provided; and without an act of appropriation by the Legislature he has with his officers been receiving the proceeds of that loan.

“Every effort to induce him to desist from his unconstitutional course has been unavailing.  Threats and entreaties have been alike lost upon him.  He has turned a deaf ear to the remonstrances from all the counties of the Republic: 

“Therefore, on the 26th day of October in the year of our Lord 1871, and in the twenty-fifth year of the Independence of the Republic, the sovereign people of Liberia did by their resolutions in the city of Monrovia, joined to the resolutions from the other counties of the Republic, depose President E.J.  Roye from his high office of President of Liberia; and did decree that the Government shall be provisionally conducted by a Chief Executive Committee of three members, and by the chiefs of Departments until the arrival of the constitutional officer at the seat of Government.”

Before the party of the Administration could recover from the shock of this action, President Roye and his Secretaries of State and of the Treasury were arrested and thrown into prison,—­a coup d’etat which made his opponents undisputed masters of the situation.  The appointed Committee took charge of affairs; the excitement died away with a rapidity characteristic of Liberian politics, and in January, 1872, Roberts was triumphantly inaugurated.  Roye died in prison soon afterward.

A reign of peace and prosperity followed under Roberts, interrupted toward the end of another term, to which he was elected, by a severe war with the Grebo tribe near Cape Palmas.  Limited space will prevent detailed consideration of the later history of the Republic.  Payne was elected to a second term in 1876.  A.W.  Gardiner was Chief Executive for three successive terms, from 1878-1884; and H.R.W.  Johnson, a native born Liberian, son of the famous pioneer Elijah Johnson, was made President in 1884.  The recent years of the Republic have not brought an increased tide of immigration, nor any marked progress.  The diminished interest in colonization felt in the United States so crippled the finances of the Society that few immigrants have been sent in the last decade.  That large numbers of Negroes are willing, even anxious to go, is shown by the lists of the Society, which has adopted the policy of aiding only those who can pay a part of their passage.  Several instances of the formation of societies among the Negroes themselves to provide for their own transportation have occurred.  In South Carolina the “Liberia Joint Stock Steamship Company” was formed, which succeeded in purchasing a vessel and sending over one expedition of 274 emigrants.  The company was unfortunate and failed financially before another attempt could be made.  In Arkansas a large secret Society for the same object was formed, several hundred members of which made their way to New York and prevailed upon the Colonization Society to give them passage.[15]