The_Open_Door_deel1

The Roye Administration
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The territorial expansion of the Republic was not limited to the
coastal area. President Benson (1856 - 1862) is said to have
organized the first expedition into the interior, in 1858, He was
greatly in favour of expansion of the settler Republic into the
interior and later claimed that during his first term of office,
from 1856 to 1858, the Republic's territory increased by forty
per cent (46). This included the annexation of the Independent
State of Maryland by Liberia.
In 1868 a former Secretary of the Treasury, Benjamin J.K.
Anderson, travelled far into the interior, to "Mandingo-country",
north-west of the St. Paul River. It is significant that he was
the first Liberian "citizen" to reach that far in the interior,
twenty-one years after the creation of the Republic. His
expedition was financed by two U.S. bankers, from New York,
whose financial assistance had been obtained by Edward Blyden
(47). Anderson v s elaborate report which he presented after his
return had two- (related) consequences which in the context of
the present study are worth mentioning. First, in 1869 a fully
Liberian-owned company was established, the "Mining Company of
Liberia", to exploit the mineral wealth whose existence
Anderson's expedition had revealed to the outside world.
Subsequently, the company was granted a concession by President
Payne. However, the company never started any mining operations
due to the lack of capital and the absence of infrastructural
facilities. Secondly, Anderson's "Journey to Musardu" and the
subsequent extension of the Liberian territory into the interior
aroused for the second time in the decade of the 1860's heated
discussions between the advocates of two different - opposing -
views. The controversy was over the participation of foreigners
in the development of the country and over the extension of
Liberian authority into the interior. (In 1869 The Department
of the Interior was officially created).
The "colour conflict" which separated the leading mulattoes from
the (large) majority of colonists of darker complexion coincided
with the two different views. Internal politics of Liberia
centered around this "colour issue" and "economic development
and trade policy issue".
This division between the two groups of colonists dated from at
least the period of Independence. In the early 185O's two
political parties had been established. The mulattoes had
organized themselves in the "True Liberian Party", and the
"black" colonists had created the "Old Whigs". During the
following decade both parties changed names. Thus, the "True
Liberian Party" became the "Republican Party" (48). In 1869,
very significantly, the black colonist's organized themselves In
the "True Whig Party", "(...) to liberate as it were, the people
from Liberia from practices of discrimination based on what
resembled caste distinction which were, prevailing concepts and
ideologies of the then Re-public Party. (...)" (49).
The Republican Party was in favour- of restricting the economic