Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume V.djvu/96

 92 COLONIZATION SOCIETY COLONNA A legislature was in existence, but its laws were subject to the veto of the society, as were also all treaties made by the colony. Several valuable tracts of land had been acquired by treaties made with native chiefs, and duties had been imposed on goods imported. British subjects who traded on the coast included within the territory of the colony landed goods without paying duties ; and when their goods were seized by the government of Liberia, they applied to the British government for redress. The British authorities applied to the govern- ment of the United States, and were informed that Liberia was an independent political com- munity, and not a colony of the United States ; whereupon the British took the ground that Liberia had no existence as a nation, inasmuch as its powers were derived from an association of private individuals, which did not possess and could not impart any political authority ; and that the levying of imposts being a prerog- ative of sovereign power, the rights of British subjects to free commercial intercourse would be enforced by arms. In this emergency the directors of the society, in January, 1846, sur- rendered such governmental power as they still retained, and recommended the colony to pub- lish to the world a declaration of its true char- acter as a sovereign and independent state. The colonists appointed delegates, who on July 26, 1847, adopted a declaration of indepen- dence and a new constitution. In 1848 the in- dependence of the republic was acknowledged by Great Britain and France, and afterward by most of the powers of Europe and America. The Maryland colony, which had maintained a separate existence, united in 1857 with Libe- ria. The credit therefore is due to the coloni- zation society of having been mainly instru- mental in the foundation of Liberia, and of having guided its destinies until it became a self-supporting state. Since relinquishing all direct control over the government of Liberia, the colonization society has continued to send out emigrants, and to furnish them with pro- visions and temporary dwellings, and has aided in developing commerce and agriculture. It has also labored for the dissemination of Chris- tianity, and for the promotion of education and the general welfare of the country. The aboli- tion of slavery has not by any means put an end to the usefulness of the society; on the contrary, since that event the number of appli- cations for passage to Liberia has very much increased. The receipts of the society from its foundation to Jan. 1, 1872, were $2,364,648 47, and those of the auxiliary societies more than $400,000. The whole number of emigrants which had been sent out at that date by the parent society was 13,598; and 1,227 had been sent out by the Maryland society, and 5,722 recaptured Africans by the United States gov- ernment. The presidents of the society have been Bushrod Washington, Charles Carroll, James Madison, Henry Clay, and J. II. B. Latrobe. (See LIBEBIA.) COLONNA, a princely family of Italy, of which the founder claimed that he brought from Jerusalem a part of the column (colonna) to which Christ was bound when scourged. It is now divided into the three lines of Colon- na-Paliano, Colonna-Stigliano, and Colonna di Sciarra. Pope Martin V. (Ottone Colonna), several personages who took a conspicuous part in the contest between the Guelphs and the Ghibellines, and many other persons of historical or literary distinction, were members of this family. I. Fabrizio, lord high constable of Naples, died there in 1520. He served in the armies of France, and afterward in those of the king of Aragon. In 1512 he was taken prisoner at the battle of Kavenna by the duke of Ferrara, by whom he was treated with much consideration. II. Prospero, a general, cousin of the preceding, died in 1523. When Charles VIII. of France invaded Italy, Pros- pero embraced his cause, chiefly because the Ursini, the hereditary enemies of his house, took the opposite side. He afterward changed sides, and fought against France. At the bat- tle of Villafranca, in 1515, he was taken pris- oner ; but having been restored to liberty, he again took the field against the French, gained the battle of Bicooca in 1522, and distinguished himself by the vigor of his operations, which were cut short by his death. III. Vlttoria, a poetess, daughter of Fabrizio Colonna, born in the castle of Marino in 1490, died in Rome in February, 1547. She was affianced by her pa- rents when four years of age to Ferdinando Francesco d'Avalos, son of the marquis of Pes- cara, a child of the same age ; and in their 17th year they were married. Shortly afterward her husband engaged in the war between France and Venice, receiving from Vittoria at parting a superb pavilion and an embroidered standard, as well as some leaves of palm in to- ken of her hope that he would return crowned with honor. In his absence she occupied her- self with literature and with her correspon- dence with him. In order to see him occasion- ally, she removed from Ischia to Naples. In the battle of Pavia (1525), at which Francis I. fell into the hands of his enemies, Vittoria's husband received wounds which brought on a fever, and he found it necessary to warn his wife of his dangerous condition. She at once set out for Milan, and at Viterbo was met by the intelligence that her husband was dead. Her grief caused her to lose her reason for a time. When restored she resisted offers of a second marriage from several princes who sought her hand. She turned again to literary studies, and consoled herself with the composi- tion of poems in memory of her husband. She also composed canzonets and sonnets of a devo- tional character, to which she gave the title of Rime spirituali. In 1541 she entered the convent di Sucre in Orvieto, aud afterward that of St. Catharine in Viterbo. Her beauty and virtues have been celebrated by Michel Angelo, Ariosto, and other poets. Her bust