Liberian Literary Magazine
Promoting Liberian literature, Arts and Culture
Forgotten Heroes
farmer, and finally a successful trader. When he
got hold of some money, he went back to school
but this time in the evenings and at night. He
went on to be a lawyer and worked along with C.
King long before either of them became
President.
William D. Coleman
(year of birth: 1842–– died 1908)
He entered politics and rose through the ranks.
He was a staunch member of the TWP a party of
which he was the Chairman. He was elected to
the House as a Representative of Montserrado in
1877 and was selected by members of that body
to become its Speaker. In the next election, he
ran for the Senate and won. It was this position
he was holding when he was elected as Vice
President in 1892 (the 13th VP).
Somehow, he made some powerful enemies over
policy when he became President. When his
interior policy of peaceful negotiation failed, he
opted to use force. This put him at odds with
some powerful men in his cabinet and outside of
government. Most notable of these were A.
Barclay, C. D. B. King, D. E. Howard, and G. W.
Gibson Surprisingly though each of his most
noted opponents went on to become Presidents
themselves. Each of these men took the
opportunity of the moment and spoke out
against Coleman’s policy.
"
Vice President from (Jan. 1892–Nov. 1896)
David was the second son of Kentucky to become
Vice President in Liberia. And as if by
coincidence he also ascended to the post after
his boss left office. This time, unlike Russell, his
boss died in office, making it a first in Liberian
history for a sitting president to die in office.
This unique piece of Liberian history these two
Kentucky sons share.
An interesting aspect of the Coleman saga was
the fact that his Vice President (J. J. Ross) had
died in office. It can be remembered that a
succession problem arose in 1883 and since there
were no laws then on succession confusion arose.
However, this time the law existed but politics
took primacy. The rightful successor should have
been the Speaker Robert H. Marshall. However,
Marshall had too many powerful enemies in the
TWP -amongst his colleagues, he was not much
favored. In the end, the Legislature amended
the succession laws (in effect denying Robert the
chance to become President) to favor the
Secretary of State who happened to be Gibson.
By changing the order of succession, the
lawmakers got rid of Marshall and the confusion
that arose. This made Gibson (then 70 years old)
the oldest person to hold the presidency.
William was born in Fayette County, Kentucky in
1842. When they migrated to Liberia he was
almost in his early teens. His mother was a
widow but she traveled with her four kids. They
arrived in Liberia in 1853 and settled in Clay
Ashland a settlement bought by the Kentucky
Colonization Society.
It is a tribute to the man’s hard work that he rose
so far. He came to the colony poor and broke, he
could hardly continue his education like other
regular kids. He had to abandon the process as a
youth and find other means to live. He was at
one time a carpenter, then master workman,
Coleman left office but remained active in
politics and switched parties and ran as the
candidate for the People’s Party in 1901, 1903
and 1905 but fail to beat his old party.
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