Bishop Scott, of the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, was, by order of his Conference, sent on an official visit to Liberia.  He spent more than two months among the missions, and returned in 1853 much gratified with the results garnered in that distant field.

“The government of the republic of Liberia, which is formed on the model of our own, and is wholly in the hands of colored men, seems to be exceedingly well administered.  I never saw so orderly a people.  I saw but one intoxicated colonist while in the country, and I heard not one profane word.  The sabbath is kept with singular strictness, and the churches crowded with attentive and orderly worshippers."[108]

The above is certainly re-assuring, and had its due influence among Christian people at the time it appeared.  At an anniversary meeting of the Methodist Church, held in Cincinnati, O., in the same year, 1853, Bishop Ames gave utterance to sentiments in regard to the character of the government of Liberia that quite shocked some pro-slavery people who held “hired pews” in the Methodist Church.  His utterances were as brave as they were complimentary.

“Nations reared under religious and political restraint are not capable of self-government, while those who enjoy only partially these advantages have set an example of such capability.  We have in illustration of this a well-authenticated historical fact:  we refer to the colored people of this country, who, though they have grown up under the most unfavorable circumstances, were enabled to succeed in establishing a sound republican government in Africa.  They have given the most clear and indubitable evidence of their capability of self-government, and in this respect have shown a higher grade of manhood than the polished Frenchman himself."[109]

The Presbyterian Board of Missions sent Rev. J.B.  Pinny into the field in 1833.  In 1837, missions were established among the natives, and were blessed with very good results.  In 1850 there were, under the management of this denomination, three congregations, with 116 members, two ordained ministers, and a flourishing sabbath school.  A high-school was brought into existence in 1852, with a white gentleman, the Rev D.A.  Wilson, as its principal.  It was afterward raised into a college, and was always crowded.

The American Protestant-Episcopal Church raised its missionary standard in Liberia in 1836.  The Rev John Payne was at the head of this enterprise, assisted by six other clergymen, until 1850, when he was consecrated missionary bishop for Africa.  He was a white gentleman of marked piety, rare scholarship, and large executive ability.  The station at Monrovia was under the care of the Rev. Alexander Crummell, an educated and eloquent preacher of the Negro race.  There was an excellent training-school for religious and secular teachers; there are several boarding-schools for natives, with an average attendance of a hundred; and up to 1850 more than a thousand persons had been brought into fellowship with this church.