Garreston W. Gibson

Infobox_President
name=Garreston W. Gibson
small

order=14th President of Liberia
term_start=December 11 1900
term_end=January 4 1904
vicepresident=None
predecessor=William D. Coleman
successor=Arthur Barclay
birth_date=birth date|1832|5|20|mf=y
birth_place=Maryland, United States
death_date=death date|1910|4|26|mf=y
death_place=Monrovia, Liberia
party=True Whig

Garreston Wilmot Gibson (20 May, 1832 – 26 April, 1910) was President of Liberia from 11 December, 1900, to 4 January, 1904. Born in Maryland, in the United States, his family emigrated to Liberia in 1835. After receiving an education in mission schools, he returned to Maryland to study theology. Ordained a priest, he served as rector of the Episcopalian Trinity Church in Monrovia. He also served as Chaplain of the Liberian Senate. Later, he served as President of the Trustee Board of Liberia College and at one time President of the College.

President Gibson began his political life as a Justice of the Peace. With the election of William D. Coleman as president in 1896, Gibson was appointed Secretary of the Interior. He was Secretary of State when Coleman resigned in 1900, and since there was no vice-president, Gibson was chosen to succeed him. He won the election that same year, and served until 1904, when his Secretary of the Treasury, Arthur Barclay, succeeded him.

He was in his 70th year when he became President of Liberia. Some important events of his administration are:

1. The granting of rights of the Union Mining Operations in the country;

2. The completion of a thorough investigation in respect of the flora of Liberia; and

3. The surveying of the Northern boundary of the country by a joint commission of Great Britain and Liberia.

President Gibson died in his 78th Year in Monrovia, April 26, 1910.

Presidency (1900-1904)

President Garreston W. Gibson was sixty-eight when he took office. Gibson had a vast amount of political experience including Secretary of the Interior and Secretary of State.

The decades after 1868, escalating economic difficulties weakened the state's dominance over the coastal indigenous population. Conditions worsened, the cost of imports was far greater than the income generated by exports of coffee, rice, palm oil, sugarcane, and timber. Liberia tried desperately to modernize its largely agricultural economy.

Gibson’s accomplishments as President include the granting of rights to the Union Mining Company to investigate the hinterland for minerals including gold. In addition, a joint commission of Liberia and Great Britain surveyed the northern boundary of Liberia.

In 1903, the British forced a concession of Liberian territory to Sierra Leone, but tension along that border remained high.

Whenever the British and French seemed intent on enlarging at Liberia's expense the neighboring territories they already controlled, periodic appearances by U.S. warships helped discourage encroachment, even though successive American administrations rejected appeals from Monrovia for more forceful support. [Liebenow, J. Gus, "Liberia: the Quest for Democracy". Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1987]

References

ee also

*History of Liberia

Further reading

*see History of Liberia, further reading

ources and links

*Nathaniel R. Richardson, "Liberia's Past and Present." London: The Diplomatic Press and Publishing Company, 1959.
*see also History of Liberia, external links