It would be unnecessary to
bring into review the causes that are
operating daily to make the conditions of
earning a living in America more difficult.
However much or little credence we place in
the Malthusian theory of the increase of
population, in the doctrine of diminishing
returns, or the iron law of wages, all
thinking men are agreed that the country is
already entering upon a new era. The period
of expansion, of the taking up of new
territory by the overflowing population of
the older districts, is practically ended;
future development will be intensive, the
country will be more thickly settled, and
the sharpness of competition will be
immeasurably increased. The possibility of
rising in life will be reduced to a minimum;
and there will exist a class, as in the
older civilizations of Europe, who live, and
expect to see their children live, in a
subordinate or inferior relation, without
the prospect of anything better.
There may be under this new régime a number
of occupations in which the Negro, by
contentedly accepting a subordinate
position, may hold his ground. Or the
conditions of life may become so severe that
a sharp struggle for existence will leave in
possession the race which shall prove
fittest to survive. To follow the train of
thought would lead into all the unsolved
difficulties of the Negro Problem. But
surely there will be some among all the
millions of the race who will become
dissatisfied with their life here. Some will
aspire to higher things, some will seek
merely a field where their labor will meet
an adequate return; many will be moved by
self interest, a few by nobler motives. To
all these Liberia eagerly opens her arms.
The pressure in America finds an efficient
safety valve in the colonization of Africa.
With such additions to her strength, the
resources of Liberia will be brought out and
developed. Communication with America will
be made easier and cheaper. The toiling
masses left behind will have before them the
constant example of numbers of their race
living in comfort and increasing prosperity
under their own government. Many will become
eager to secure the same advantages, and
gradually a migration will begin that will
carry hundreds of thousands from the house
of bondage to the promised land.
It is absurd to declaim about "expatriation"
and to declare such a movement forced and
unnatural. The whole course of history
reveals men leaving their homes under
pressure of one cause or another, and
striking out into new fields. The western
course of migration has reached its
uttermost limit, and the tide must turn in
other directions. One vast and rich
continent remains; upon it the eyes of the
world are fixed. Already the aggressive
Aryan has established himself wherever he
can gain a foothold; but the greater part of
the country is forever barred to him by a
climate which he cannot subdue.
To whom then can this rich territory offer
greater inducements than to the colored
people of the United States? And what is
more natural and rational than that they,
when the population of the country
approaches the migration point, should
follow the line of least resistance and turn
their steps to the home of their
forefathers.
History of Liberia, 1891