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252 humble, as indeed they are, are our own, that we are the creature and dependent of no foreign government, you will agree with me, I think, that men who have families will act wisely in looking narrowly at our advantages ere they place themselves in circumstances where the moral elements of life and society are more rude, and where the formative agency and influence will belong to some foreign power. That these elements are slow in growth and expansion is true; but this, it will be remembei'ed, furnishes probability of their being sure and permanent.

I have heard the poverty of our particular locality contrasted with the richness of other parts of West Africa. Well, this may be the case; but I think there can be no doubt that there is no nobler, more commanding position in West Africa than that of Liberia. We hold, I think, the key to the vast interior. You have heard it said, and seen it published, that we have no great rivers. But the St. Paul's, the Booma, the St. John's, and the Cavalla rivers, stretch away into the far interior 300 and 400 miles, with great breadth, and with a vast volume of water. That they come from the same great water-shed from whence, on an opposite side, the Niger drains its mighty waters, seems almost a certainty. And if so, the valley of the Niger, with its wondrous resources and its teeming wealth, will, ultimately, be as available to us as any other people. At present these