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recover them from their blindnefs. What have I opposed to the fenfelefs calumnies, to the virulent libels, with which Rigaud has inundated this department and foreign countries, to reprefent me in the eyes of my fellow-citizens of the South as the affaffin of my brethren; in the eyes of France, as the enemy of my country; in the eyes of foreign nations, as the violator of all the rights which they refpect? I oppofed to them nothing but moderation: and if I took up arms against him, it was only because he declared war against the republic, over the fafety of which it was my effential duty to watch as chief of the army; because he raised the ftandard of revolt against the national authority and his legitimate chief: it was, in fine, to repel his unjuft aggreffion, when his troops, joined with the cultivators of the South, whom he had ftirred up, invaded Great and Little Goave, and committed there, by his orders, the excefles with which he reproaches me in his writings. The citizens who have efcaped that carnage planned in cold blood and executed with fury, rettored at this day to their defolated homes, can testify to you the horrors of that frightful day. What, however, has been the refult of a conduct fo odious? Notwithstanding his calumnies and lying publications, as monftrously as emphati cally written by an Abbé named Boufquet, who fold his pen to him, and which were printed and circulated in profufion for no other purpose but to mislead the opinion of the citizens of the department of the South; notwithftanding his criminal attempts to deprive the North and the Weft of an influence acquired by fervices, and a conduct which had never been warped from the right path; notwithstanding his fecret machinations to frame in thefe two departments, a confpiracy which might in a fingle day bring them under his dominion, and for the purpofe of annihilating there all the partifans of the legitimate authority; notwithstanding that, in confequence of thefe machinations, the important place of the Mole was put into his power by the treachery of Bellegarde, who delivered it up to him; notwithstanding the levy en maffe of the cultivators of the South, which he ordered for the purpofe of forming them into an impofing armed force; notwithstanding all his efforts to create a marine, which, compofed of an hundred barks, thould capture every veffel they fhould meet, French as well as foreign, plunder them, and maffacre or drown the crews; notwithstanding his precautions to keep from your knowledge my addreffes and my kind proclamations, by which, feeling too fenfibly that there fhould be no war between the inhabitants of one and the fame country, I endeavoured to open your eyes, and I expanded my paternal arms to receive you; notwithstanding his measures with all foreign governments fituate in his vicinity to folicit their fupport, and his reiterated entreaties to obtain from them fuccours in men, provisions, and military ftores; finally, notwithstanding all he has done to maintain himfelf in his revolt and to attain his ends, Heaven,

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Heaven, the avenger of guilt, has reduced him to flight, while, the protector of innocence, it has lent me its fupport, and conducted to an happy iflue my enterprifes, which, commanded by the neceffity of a juft defence, have had no other object but the happinefs of my fellow-citizens.-Such was my prediction, when, in my addrefs of the 30th Germinal, I warned you of the difafters. which would refult from your perfeverance in fupport of the rebellion of Rigaud; and when, after having held out an helping hand to you, I told you that it was in vain you relied upon the fortifications which conftituted the hope of Rigand. The event has juftified my prediction.

You were deaf to my voice, citizens, and to the voice of reafon: I then faw myself obliged, contrary to my inclination, to have recourfe to force of arms. I marked out to General Deffalines, commander in chief of the army, the fteps which he fhould take. Supported by the courage of Generals Clervaux and Laplume, and the exertions of all his officers and foldiers, he furmounted all the difficulties oppofed to him by Rigaud: inafter of Aquin, he had only to purfue the courfe of his conquefts; but, faithful to the orders of his chief, he relaxed before Saint Louis the ardour of his troops, and patiently awaited the effect that the letter might produce, which I then determined to addrefs by a deputation of three members, to the conftituted authorities, and to all the citizens, as well civil as military, of the city of Cayes. I formed this depu tation, charged to make known to you my pacific intentions, of men capable of infpiring you with the greateft confidence. They were the Chief of Brigade Vincent, director of the fortifications of St. Domingo, and Citizens Arrault and Cezar, who were charged with that miffion. They arrived at Cayes with the olivebranch in one hand, and my addrefs promifing you oblivion of the paft, in the other. The hope of fuccour held out to Rigaud by his accomplices induced him to reject thofe means of fafety which my generosity ftill offered to him: but always perfidious, in the hope of gaining time, he gave me reafon to expect the accomplishment of the conditions, no lefs humane than juft, which I propofed to him, in order to put an end to the deftructive calamities of civil war, and to give peace to my country. With this view he anfwered my deputation by that which he fent to Petit-Goave, compofed of Citizens Chalviere, Martin-Belfond, and Latulipe: and whilft, in confirmation of the promifes which I had made to the citizens of the South, I indulged them in unreftrained liberty of communication with their fellow-citizens of Petit-Goave, he fhowed to my deputies an inflexible rigour, an implacable hatred, the thirst of vengeance, and all the preparations of a determined refiftance. Their fteps were watched, and they were forbid to raise their voice in the midst of the general defolation. NotwithRanding the diftruft which fuch conduct must have infpired, I did

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not cease to profecute the defign which I had conceived of gaining over the remainder of the department of the South by the means of perfuafion. I wrote to Rigaud, and affured him, by the return of his envoy Bonard, that I should forget the past, and that I required of him nothing more but to fubmit to the French government, and to acknowledge his legitimate chief. But seeing that, far from answering my expectation, he only ftrengthened himself the more, I ordered General Deffalines, to whom Saint Louis had opened its gates, to advance up to Cayes. His approach made Rigaud refolve upon a flight too precipitate to allow him time to mark the city of Cayes with the revenge which he meditated. He abandoned the place; and that day was the day of your deliverance. The army of the republic entered it; and its conduct in taking poffeffion ought to convince you, that, if it has known how to conquer when you took up arms against juftice and reafon, it has known how to fee in you only a people of friends and brothers, the moment you abjured your error.

With refpect to myself, invariable in my promises, you may reckon fo much the more on thofe contained in my amnesty of the ift Meflidor, as my principles of humanity, religion, and love of my brethren, render them inviolable. But when I fwear to you to throw the veil of oblivion over the paft, I must apprize you that I fhall be inexorable in the cafe of future faults, because, having turned away from your heads the fword, of the law, which was ready to ftrike you for having taken up arms against the republic, I become refponfible to it, by the general pardon which I grant you, for your fidelity to the new oath which you are going to take from my hands, never to betray it more, and to be wholly obedient to the national authority. Let this happy æra, which, in reftoring you to your families and to fociety, gives peace to St. Domingo, be to us a cause of gratitude to the Supreme Being! I have not the vanity to attribute to myfelf the glory of the happy iffue of this war, which the ambition of Rigaud lighted up: it belongs only to God. Without his fupport the work of man is perishable, and his defigns more fluctuating than the waves of the fea when agitated. Thus you have feen all the plans of Rigaud turn to his thame and confufion, while Heaven has crowned my enterprifes with the most complete fuccefs. Join yourselves then with me, citizens, brethren, and friends, in returning thanks to the Supreme Being; and if your return be truly fincere, fwear in his prefence, fidelity to the republic, attachment to your country, and obedience to your chiefs.

Done at head-quarters of Cayes, the 18th Thermidor, in the Sth year of the French republic, one and indivifible (7th August 1800).

The General in Chief,

TOUSSAINT LOUVERTURE.

Papers

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Papers relative to the Commencement of Negotiations for Peace with

Milord,

France.

(No. 1.)

No. 8, Hereford Street, le 6 Fructidor, An 8 (24 Août 1800). 1

UELQUE fcrupuleux que j'aie été jufqu'ici à fuivre en tous points la marche tracée pour mes communications officielles avec le miniflére de fa Majefté, le fecret & la célérité qu'exigem celles qui font l'objet de la note ci-jointe me paroiffent juftifier des relations plus directes. J'aime à croire d'après cela, que votre Excellence ne défaprouvera pas le parti que je prends aujourd'hui de lui communiquer, fans intermediaire, les intentions du gouverne ment François touchant les ouvertures qui lui ont été faites par Monfieur le Baron de Thugut.

Si fa Majefté agrée les propofitions renfermées dans la note cijointe, je vous prie, Milord, de nommer le plutôt poffible la perfonne qui fera chargée de traiter avec moi, & qui fans doute apportera, dans cette negociation importante, l'efprit de conciliation qui feul pourra rétablir la paix & la bonne intelligence entre les deux gouvernemens.

J'ai l'honneur d'être avec la confideration la plus refpectueuse, &c. Отто.

Tranflation.
(No. 1.)

(Signé)

No. 8, Hereford Street, le 6 Fruc. An 8

(Aug. 24, 1800).

My Lord, HOWEVER fcrupulous I may have hitherto been to follow in all refpects the path traced for my official communications with the miniftry of his Majefty, yet the fecrecy and dispatch requifite for thofe which form the fubject of the enclofed note, appear to me to justify a more direct communication. I flatter myself, therefore, that your Excellency will not difapprove of the ftep I now take of communicating to you, without any intervention, the intentions of the French government refpecting the overtures which have been made to it by Baron Thugut,

If his Majefty fhould accept the propofitions contained in the enclofed note, I beg, my Lord, that you would appoint, as foon as poffible, the perfon who fhall be employed to treat with me; and who without doubt will be guided in this important negotiation by that fpirit of conciliation which alone can contribute to

the

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the restoration of peace and good understanding between the two governments.

I have the honour to be, with the moft refpectful confideration,

My Lord,

Your Excellency's moft humble and moft obedient fervant,

(No. 2.)

(Signed) ΟΤΤΟ.

A fon Excellence Milord Grenville, Sécretaire d'Etat au Departement des Affaires Etrangères.

SA Majefté Imperiale ayant fait communiquer au gouvernement de la république Françoife une note de Lord Minto, envoyé extraordinaire et miniftre plenipotentiaire de fa Majefté le Roi de la Grande Bretagne près la cour de Vienne, de laquelle note il refulte, que le defir de fa Majefté Britannique feroit de voir terminer la guerre qui divife la France & l'Angleterre; le fouffigné eft fpécialement autorisé à demander au miniftére de fa Majefté des eclairciflemens ulterieurs fur la propofition qui a été tranfmife par la cour de Vienne; & en même tems, vû qu'il paroit impoffible que dans le moment où l'Autriche & l'Angleterre prendroient une part commune aux negociations, la France fe trouvât en fufpenfion d'armes avec l'Autriche & en continuation d'hoftilité avec I'Angleterre; le fouffigné eft autorisé pareillement à proposer qu'un armiftice général foit conclû entre les armées & les flottes des deux états, en prenant à l'egard des places affiégées & bloquées des méfures analogues à celles qui ont eu lieu en Allemagne, par rapport aux places d'Ulm, de Philipfbourg, et d'Ingolstadt.

Le fouffigné a reçû de fon gouvernement les pouvoirs néceffaires pour négocier & conclure cet armiflice général. 11 prie fon Excellence Milord Grenville de placer cette note fous les yeux de fa Majefté Britannique, et de lui tranfinettre la reponse de fa Ma jellé.

Londres, le 6 Fructidor, An 8

(24 Août 1800).

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Tranflation.
(No. 2.)

To his Excellency Lord Grenville, Secretary of State for the Depart ment of Foreign Affairs.

HIS Imperial Majefty having communicated to the government of the French republic a note from Lord Minto, envoy extraordi

nary

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