coast-wise traders that gave rise to a most interesting crisis. The
Liberian Government in regulating commerce within its jurisdiction had
enacted laws imposing duties on all imported goods. The English traders,
accustomed for hundreds of years to unrestricted traffic on this very
coast, were indignant at the presumption of the upstart colony, and
ignored its regulations. The Government protested, but in vain. And at
length the little colonial revenue schooner John Seyes, while
attempting to enforce the laws at Edina, was actually seized by the
stalwart Britisher and dragged before the Admiralty Court at Sierra
Leone. A long discussion which would be profitless to follow in detail,
ensued. The result was, that the John Seyes was confiscated. The British
Government opened a correspondence with the United States, in which it
was ascertained that Liberia was not in political dependence upon them.
Whereupon the sovereignty of Liberia was promptly denied, her right to
acquire or hold territory questioned, and she was given to understand
that the operations of British traders would in future be backed by the
British navy.

Evidently if Liberia was to maintain and govern her territory something
must be done. The Colonization Society while claiming for Liberia the
right to exercise sovereign powers, seems to have had the unacknowledged
conviction, that England's position, however ungenerous, was logically
unassailable. The supreme authority wielded by the Society, its veto
power over legislative action, was undoubtedly inconsistent with the
idea of a sovereign state. This is clearly apparent from the fact that
though there was pressing necessity for a treaty with England, neither
the colony nor the Society had power to negotiate it. It was accordingly
determined to surrender all control over the colony; and the "people of
the Commonwealth of Liberia" were "advised" by the Society "to undertake
the whole work of self-government;" to make the necessary amendments to