[Footnote 1:  See Liberia, Bulletin No. 5, November, 1894.]

Joseph James Cheeseman (1892-November 15, 1896) was a Whig.  He conducted what was known as the third Grebo War and labored especially for a sound currency.  He was a man of unusual ability and his devotion to his task undoubtedly contributed toward his death in office near the middle of his third term.  As up to this time there had been no internal improvement and little agricultural or industrial development in the country, O.F.  Cook, the agent of the New York State Colonization Society, in 1894 signified to the legislature a desire to establish a station where experiments could be made as to the best means of introducing, receiving, and propagating beasts of burden, commercial plants, etc.  His request was approved and one thousand acres of land granted for the purpose by act of January 20, 1894.  Results, however, were neither permanent nor far-reaching.  In fact, by the close of the century immigration had practically ceased and the activities of the American Colonization Society had also ceased, many of the state organizations having gone out of existence.  In 1893 Julius C. Stevens, of Goldsboro, N.C., went to Liberia and served for a nominal salary as agent of the American Colonization Society, becoming also a teacher in the Liberia College and in time Commissioner of Education, in connection with which post he edited his Liberian School Reader; but he died in 1903.[1]

[Footnote 1:  Interest in Liberia by no means completely died.  Contributions for education were sometimes made by the representative organizations, and individual students came to America from time to time.  When, however, the important commission representing the Government came to America in 1908, the public was slightly startled as having heard from something half-forgotten.]

William D. Coleman as vice-president finished the incomplete term of President Cheeseman (to the end of 1897) and later was elected for two terms in his own right.  In the course of his last administration, however, his interior policy became very unpopular, as he was thought to be harsh in his dealing with the natives, and he resigned in December, 1900.  As there was at the time no vice-president, he was succeeded by the Secretary of State, Garretson W. Gibson, a man of scholarly attainments, who was afterwards elected for a whole term (1902-1903).  The feature of this term was the discussion that arose over the proposal to grant a concession to an English concern known as the West African Gold Concessions, Ltd.  This offered to the legislators a bonus of L1500, and for this bribe it asked for the sole right to prospect for and obtain gold, precious stones, and all other minerals over more than half of Liberia.  Specifically it asked for the right to acquire freehold land and to take up leases for eighty years, in blocks of from ten to a thousand acres; to import all mining machinery and all other things necessary free of duty; to establish banks in connection with the mining enterprises, these to have the power to issue notes; to construct telegraphs and telephones; to organize auxiliary syndicates; and to establish its own police.  It would seem that English impudence could hardly go further, though time was to prove that there were still other things to be borne.  The proposal was indignantly rejected.