There is no denying that Liberia has had her crisis, that she has trembled on the verge of ruin, that her rulers have made mistakes; but I contend that she has recovered from these shocks with increased stability and without the barbarism of bloodshed. Run your eye over the pages of contemporaneous history, read of the bloody executions, the fusillades in France, count the victims to the garoté in Cuba, number the exiles to Siberia, count the expatriated in New Caledonia—all in the name of order and good government—then turn to the records of our own eventful career or to the modest pages of Liberian history, and tell me which of all the Powers contain within themselves the surest foundations, the best promise of stability and permanence. Like our own, the Government of Liberia is based upon the will of the people, and although sometimes swayed from the path of wisdom by popular clamor, it in the main has been administered for the _good_ of the people. Resting as it is upon education, secular and religious, it possesses a constantly increasing tendency toward perfect excellence and consequent permanence. I dislike to be considered as a constant apologist, but the Republic of Liberia is on trial, and she needs the services of even so poor a pleader as myself. If we, gentlemen, have _real_ faith in our own institutions, we _must_ also have faith in the institutions of our little sister Republic. And in order to form an unbiased opinion we must lose sight of the question of _color_. Fortunately for the future of Liberia, the homogeneousness of her population removes one of her greatest dangers. In our own country the question of _caste_ is yet to be fought out, and in my opinion upon its result will depend the permanence of our own Government and the stability of our own institutions. “For in this Union, you have set Two kinds of men in adverse rows— Each loathing each.” Events are rapidly shaping themselves, and at this present moment we hardly know how swiftly we are approaching the crisis which is to determine the question of color—of equal rights to all men, without regard to color, in the administration of the Government of this country. While, therefore, we remember Liberia, let us not forget ourselves, or the day may come when she can point out to us the fatal rock upon which we split. I do not apprehend for Liberia dangers from incapacity of her rulers or instability in her institutions. She has had her Roberts, her Benson, her Benedict, and hosts of others, good and true, and she will find their peers in the time of her need. She has her schools and her churches, and under their tuition her next generation will improve upon this as this has upon the last. She will resist the heathen and drive back the Mahomedan. The danger which I _do_ apprehend for her is the danger of _absorption_.