From time to time, our number has been increased by migration from America, and by accessions from native tribes; and from time to time, as circumstances required it, we have extended our borders by acquisition of land by honorable purchase from the natives of the country. As our territory has extended, and our population increased, our commerce has also increased. The flags of most of the civilized nations of the earth float in our harbors, and their merchants are opening an honorable and profitable trade. Until recently, these visits have been of a uniformly harmonious character, but as they have become more frequent, and to more numerous points of our extending coast, questions have arisen, which it is supposed can be adjusted only by agreement between sovereign powers. For years past, the American Colonization Society has faithfully withdrawn from all direct and active part in the administration of the Government, except in the appointment of the Governor, who is also a colonist, for the apparent purpose of testing the ability of the people to conduct the affairs of Government; and no complaint of crude legislation, nor mismanagement, nor of mal-administration has yet been heard. In view of these facts, this institution, the American Colonization Society, with that good faith which has uniformly marked all its dealings with us, did, by a set of resolutions in January, in the Year of Our Lord One Thousand Eight Hundred and Forty Six, dissolve all political connection with the people of this Republic, return the power with which it was delegated, and left the people to the government of themselves. The people of the Republic of Liberia then, are of right, and in fact, a free sovereign and Independent State, possessed of all the rights, and powers, and functions of government. In assuming the momentous responsibilities of the position they have taken, the people of this Republic, feel justified by the necessities of the case, and with this conviction they throw themselves, with confidence upon the candid consideration of the civilized world. Liberia is not the offspring of grasping ambition, nor the tool of avaricious speculation. No desire for territorial aggrandizement brought us to these shores; nor do we believe so sordid a motive entered into the high consideration of those who aided us in providing this asylum. Liberia is an asylum from the most grinding oppression. In coming to the shores of Africa, we indulged the pleasing hope that we should be permitted to exercise and improve those faculties which impart to man his dignity--to nourish in our hearts the flame of honorable ambition, to cherish and indulge those aspirations, which a Beneficent Creator hath implanted in every human heart, and to evince to all who despise, ridicule and oppress our race that we possess with them a common nature, are with them susceptible of equal refinement, and capable of equal advancement in all that adorns and dignifies man.