York and Pennsylvania Societies; Greenville, on the Sinou river, by
emigrants from Mississippi; and the Louisiana Society engaged in a
similar enterprise. The separate interests of the different settlements
at length began in many cases to engender animosity and bad feeling; the
need of general laws and supervision was everywhere apparent; and a
movement toward a federal union of the colonies was set on foot. A plan
was at length agreed upon by all except Maryland, by which the colonies
were united into the "Commonwealth of Liberia," whose government was
controlled by a Board of Directors composed of Delegates from the State
societies. This board at its first meeting drew up a plan of government,
and Thomas Buchanan was appointed first Governor of the Commonwealth,
1837. The advantages of the union were soon apparent. The more
aggressive native tribes with whom not a little trouble had been
experienced, were made to feel the strength of the union; and many of
the smaller head-men voluntarily put themselves under the protection of
the Government, agreeing to become citizens, with all their subjects,
and submit to its laws. The traffic in slaves all along the coast was
checked, inter-tribal warfare prevented, and trial by the sassa-wood
ordeal abolished wherever colonial influence extended. Mr. Buchanan was
the last white man who exercised authority in Liberia. On his death the
Lieutenant-Governor, Joseph Jenkins Roberts, succeeded him. Roberts, who
afterward became Liberia's most distinguished citizen, was a Virginia
Negro, having been born at Norfolk in 1809, and brought up near
Petersburg. He obtained a rudimentary education while running a
flat-boat on the James and Appomattox Rivers. In 1829 he went with his
widowed mother and younger brothers to Liberia, where he rapidly rose to
wealth and distinction. As Governor he evinced an efficient
statesmanship that promised well for his future career.

Roberts had not long been governor when trouble arose with the British