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Anthony Gardiner

Anthony William Gardiner
Gardiner2.jpg
9th President of Liberia
In office
January 7, 1878 – January 20, 1883
Vice President Alfred Francis Russell
Preceded by James Spriggs-Payne
Succeeded by Alfred F. Russell
7th Vice President of Liberia
In office
January 1, 1872 – January 3, 1876
President Joseph Jenkins Roberts
Preceded by James Skivring Smith
Succeeded by Charles Harmon
1st Attorney General of Liberia
In office
1848–1855
President Joseph Jenkins Roberts
Personal details
Born (1820-02-03)February 3, 1820
Southampton County, Virginia, United States
Died 1885
Political party True Whig

Anthony William Gardiner (1820–1885) served as the ninth President of Liberia from 1878 until 1883. He was the first of a series of True Whig presidents who held power uninterruptedly until 1980.

Gardiner was born in Southampton County, Virginia in the United States. In 1831, when he was still a child, his family relocated to Liberia under the sponsorship of the American Colonization Society. Gardiner received his law degree in Liberia and, in 1847, he served as a delegate to the National Convention, which drafted Liberia's declaration of independence and constitution. He became Liberia's first attorney general and later served in the National Legislature from 1855 to 1871.

In May 1871, he was elected vice-president and was elected once again, serving until 1876. During the incapacitation of President J. J. Roberts from 1875 until early 1876, Gardiner was also acting president.

Less than two years after leaving office as acting president, Gardiner won election to the presidency, taking office in 1878. In the same election, the True Whig Party won a massive victory and proceeded to dominate Liberian politics until the coup d'état in 1980, which brought in a Krahn-dominated military dictatorship. Gardiner himself was re-elected to two further two-year terms.

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. As president, Gardiner called for increased trade with and investment from outside countries, improved public education, and closer relations with Liberia's native peoples. However, his policies were overshadowed by the ramifications of the European powers "scramble for Africa".


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