In 1884 Hilary Richard Wright Johnson became President of the Republic. He was the first “native son” to hold the office. He was the child of the oft-mentioned Elijah Johnson, one of the first settlers. Hilary was born at Monrovia, June 1, 1837; he graduated from the Alexander High School, on the St. Paul’s River, in 1857; for seven years he was the private secretary of President Benson; in 1859 he became editor of the _Liberian Herald_, continuing to be so for two years; in 1861 he was elected to the House of Representatives; in 1862 he visited England and other countries with President Benson; he was Secretary of State under President Warner, and Professor of English and Philosophy in Liberia College; in 1870 he was Secretary of the Interior under President Roye, but resigned his office on account of difference of opinion with him; during the provisional government and during President Roberts’ final administration he was Secretary of State; he became President in 1884 and served eight years; after he left the presidential chair, he was for some time Postmaster-General; he died at Monrovia in 1900. It was in President Johnson’s administration that the boundary dispute so long pending with Great Britain was settled, the Mano River being recognized as the limit of Liberian territory; through a very considerable part of his time of service efforts were being made toward adjusting the unfortunate affairs connected with the loan of 1871; at the very close of Johnson’s term of office trouble with the French began by their claim on October 26th of the Cavalla River boundary. Joseph James Cheeseman was the next President, being inaugurated in 1892. He was born in 1843 at Edina, and was trained for the ministry by his father; he was ordained as pastor of the First Baptist Church in Edina in November, 1868. He was a man of energy; in 1893 he found the third Gedebo War upon his hands; he secured two gunboats--the _Rocktown_ and the _Gorronama_--to patrol the coast for the prevention of smuggling; during his administration the use of paper currency was abolished and gold payment established. He was twice re-elected and died in office in the middle of his third term, November 15, 1896. The Vice-President, William David Coleman, took the presidency and, at the close of his filling of the unexpired term, was elected to the presidency.