Editing James Spriggs Payne

{{short description|President of Liberia (1868–70, 1876–78)}}
{{Infobox officeholder
|name=James Spriggs Payne
|office=4th and 8th [[President of Liberia]]
|smallimage=James_Payne2.jpg
|predecessor=[[Daniel Bashiel Warner]]
|successor=[[Edward James Roye]] 
|vicepresident=[[Joseph Gibson]]
|predecessor1=[[Joseph Jenkins Roberts]]
|successor1=[[Anthony W. Gardiner]]
|vicepresident1=[[Charles Harmon]]
|party=[[Republican Party (Liberia)|Republican]]
|birth_date={{birth date|1819|12|19|mf=y}}
|birth_place=[[Richmond, Virginia]], United States
|death_date={{death date and age|1882|1|31|1819|12|19|mf=y}}
|death_place=[[Monrovia]], [[Liberia]]
|term_start=January 6, 1868
|term_end=January 3, 1870
|term_start1=January 3, 1876
|term_end1=January 7, 1878
}}
'''James Spriggs Payne''' (December 19, 1819 – January 31, 1882) served as the fourth and eighth [[president of Liberia]], from 1868 to 1870 and from 1876 to 1878.<ref name=":0">[https://books.google.com/books?id=7shamTdW7OsC&pg=PA72 Jesse N. Mongrue, ''Liberia: America's Footprint in Africa: Making the Cultural, Social, and Political Connections''], iUniverse.com, 2013, p. 72.</ref> He was the last president to belong to the [[Republican Party (Liberia)|Republican Party]].

==Early life==
Payne was born in [[Richmond, Virginia]], in 1819 to free [[mixed-race]] parents. Payne grew up in a deeply religious [[Methodist]] family and was a devout [[Christians|Christian]].<ref name=dacb>[http://www.dacb.org/stories/liberia/payne_james.html "Payne, James Spriggs"], ''Dictionary Of African Christian Biography''</ref> His father, David M. Payne, was a Methodist minister and was ordained a [[deacon]] by the [[Virginia Conference]] in 1824.<ref>Melton (2007), p. 58.</ref> Payne was noted for having a rather light complexion, with some estimates claiming that he was indeed an [[octoroon]]—having seven-eights European ancestry and one-eighth African ancestry. When Payne was ten years old, his family emigrated to [[Liberia]] on the ship ''The Harriet'', the same ship as [[Joseph Jenkins Roberts]], Liberia's future first president, under the auspices of the [[American Colonization Society]].<ref name=":1">[http://ccharity.com/liberia/shipharriet1829.htm "Roll Of Emigrants That Have Been Sent To The Colony Of Liberia, Western Africa, By The American Colonization Society And Its Auxiliaries, To September 1843"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080705224429/http://www.ccharity.com/liberia/shipharriet1829.htm |date=2008-07-05 }}</ref>

Aside from religion, the young Payne showed interest in [[politics]] and [[economics]]. He later became a successful writer in these areas.<ref name=dacb/> As an adult, he was appointed by the Liberian government to work to complete the severance of Liberia's ties to the American Colonization Society.<ref name=dacb/>

==Presidency ==
=== First term ===

Payne was elected as the fourth president of Liberia in 1868 and served a single two-year term. During his presidency, he worked to end the slave trade that still took place along Liberia's coast.<ref name=dacb/> During his first term, he improved government relations with the [[Demographics of Liberia|indigenous communities]] in Liberia, whom he believed early settlers and leaders had for the most part ignored.<ref name="dacb" /> He likewise worked to extend Liberia's trading and political ties with Europe.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=zgKA4cV8SV4C&pg=PA55 Thomas Morris Chester & R. J. M. Blackett, ''Thomas Morris Chester, Black Civil War Correspondent''.]</ref> gaining recognition from Denmark and Sweden but struggling to maintain Liberia's economy as both Europe and the United States began to industrialize.<ref name=":0" />

=== Second term ===

Payne was elected a second time in 1876, again serving a single two-year term. Escalating economic difficulties began to weaken the Liberia's dominance over the coastal indigenous population. When the financially burdened ACS withdrew its support from the young republic in the years after the [[American Civil War]], conditions had worsened as Liberia struggled to modernize its largely agricultural economy. The cost of imported goods was far greater than the income generated by the nation's exports of coffee, rice, palm oil, sugarcane, and timber. As a result, Payne made efforts to increase the country's foreign trade. However, despite his efforts, Liberia's economy dwindled. Indeed, the Liberian dollar lost more than 70% of its value due to decreasing imports and excessive exports to the industrial nations of the Atlantic.<ref name=":1" /> Payne retired after this difficult term, but he could claim a few important successes. By the end of the term in 1878, for example, most European and North American countries recognized Liberia's independence.<ref>{{Cite book |author=Vinton, David K.|url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/32856174 |title=Topic : the U.S. Liberian dollar parity : its post-war economic implications |date=1993 |publisher=[University of Liberia] |oclc=32856174}}</ref>

==Later life and family==
Payne married three times in his life. He was widowed twice. He had nine children in total.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=|first1=|title=James S. Payne, Second President of Liberia|journal=Liberia Today|date=June 1952|volume=1|issue=6 |pages=7|url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.31158011975926&seq=57|access-date=September 29, 2023|publisher=Embassy of the Republic of Liberia in the United States|jstor=|issn=|oclc=}}</ref> On leaving political office in 1878, Payne continued his lifelong involvement in church work. In 1880, he was the Liberian delegate at the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church in [[Cincinnati]], [[Ohio]].<ref name=dacb/> The next year, he was elected president of the Methodist Annual Conference of Liberia.<ref name=dacb/> James Spriggs Payne died in [[Monrovia]] in 1882.

==Legacy and honors==
* In January 1882, he was awarded an honorary doctor of divinity degree by Liberia College (now [[University of Liberia]]) for his life achievements.<ref name=dacb/>
* [[Spriggs Payne Airport]] in the [[Monrovia]] area is named after him.
* Besides Payne's descendants in Liberia, the [[Sierra Leone Creole people|Krio]] branch of the Blyden family are descended from Payne through his granddaughter Anna Erskine, who was the partner of [[Edward Wilmot Blyden]].

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Sources==
* Melton, J. Gordon, ''A Will to Choose: The origins of African American Methodism'', Rowman & Littlefield, 2007, {{ISBN|0-7425-5265-9}}

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{{succession box|title=[[President of Liberia]]|before=[[Daniel Bashiel Warner]]|after=[[Edward James Roye]]|years=1868–1870}}
{{succession box|title=[[President of Liberia]]|before=[[Joseph Jenkins Roberts]]|after=[[Anthony W. Gardiner]]|years=1876–1878}}
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{{LiberianPresidents}}
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[[Category:1819 births]]
[[Category:1882 deaths]]
[[Category:Presidents of Liberia]]
[[Category:Politicians from Richmond, Virginia]]
[[Category:Americo-Liberian people]]
[[Category:Methodists from Virginia]]
[[Category:Liberian Methodists]]
[[Category:Republican Party (Liberia) politicians]]
[[Category:19th-century Liberian politicians]]
[[Category:19th-century African-American politicians]]
[[Category:19th-century Methodists]]