nrovia, joined to the resolutions from the other counties of the
Republic, depose President E.J. Roye from his high office of President
of Liberia; and did decree that the Government shall be provisionally
conducted by a Chief Executive Committee of three members, and by the
chiefs of Departments until the arrival of the constitutional officer at
the seat of Government."

Before the party of the Administration could recover from the shock of
this action, President Roye and his Secretaries of State and of the
Treasury were arrested and thrown into prison,--a _coup d'etat_ which
made his opponents undisputed masters of the situation. The appointed
Committee took charge of affairs; the excitement died away with a
rapidity characteristic of Liberian politics, and in January, 1872,
Roberts was triumphantly inaugurated. Roye died in prison soon
afterward.

A reign of peace and prosperity followed under Roberts, interrupted
toward the end of another term, to which he was elected, by a severe war
with the Grebo tribe near Cape Palmas. Limited space will prevent
detailed consideration of the later history of the Republic. Payne was
elected to a second term in 1876. A.W. Gardiner was Chief Executive for
three successive terms, from 1878-1884; and H.R.W. Johnson, a native
born Liberian, son of the famous pioneer Elijah Johnson, was made
President in 1884. The recent years of the Republic have not brought an
increased tide of immigration, nor any marked progress. The diminished
interest in colonization felt in the United States so crippled the
finances of the Society that few immigrants have been sent in the last
decade. That large numbers of Negroes are willing, even anxious to go,
is shown by the lists of the Society, which has adopted the policy of
aiding only those who can pay a part of their passage. Several instances
of the formation of societies among the Negroes themselves to provide
for their own transportation have occurred. In South Carolina the
"Liberia Joint Stock Steamship Company" was formed, which succeeded in
purchasing a vessel and sending over one expedition of 274 emigrants.
The company was unfortunate and failed financially before another
attempt could be made. In Arkansas a large secret Society for the same
object was formed, several hundred members of which made their way to
New York and prevailed upon the Colonization Society to give them
passage.[15]

The culmination of a dispute with Great Britain over