Proclamations, Manifeftos, Cor respondence, &c. Touffaint Louverture, Commander in Chief of the Cardon of the West, to Citizen Adet, Minifter Plenipotentiary from the French Republic to the United States. THE Gonaives, ft Germinal, March 21st, 1796. HE most horrible attempt has been made in the Cape town, upon the perfons of the Governor General, and the civil magiftrate of St. Domingo. 8 If this defign of the factious had been followed by full fuccefs, the European whites would have been deftroyed entirely in this part of the Republic-Slavery would have fucceeded to freedom; but the Supreme Being did not allow the crime to be confummated. The brave General Laveaux, and the civil magiftrate, were befet yesterday morning, 30th Ventofe. A hundred of the people of colour went to the town-houfe, where they lived, armed with poignards and pistols. This troop of affaflins, among whom there was not one white citizen, nor one black, had little difficulty in feizing these two principal perfons of the colony: they beat them down, and mutilated them by cudgels: they dragged them along by horfes to the gaols of the vileft criminals. I write to the inhabitants, and demand the liberty of these perfons; that their invaded powers be reftored, and themselves reinftated in their functions. If thefe my juft demands have hot the fuccefs I wifh, I fhall march against the Cape with a confiderable force. The Same to the Same. Gonaives, 26th Germinal, 15th April. BY my difpatches dated the 1ft of this month, I announced to you the dreadful event that occurred at the Cape, and the attack committed by a handful of factious men against the national fovereignty upon the perfons of the Governor General and civil directors of St. Domingo. VOL. V. "The The narrative which I made to you was undoubtedly alarming, but thanks to the Eternal, calm has fucceeded this menacing florm. The virtuous chiefs have been restored to their fellow citizens and reinftated in their functions. The leaders of the confpiracy have difappeared from the Cape, the stage of their crimes. Tortured by remorfe, they fly to thun the juft rewards of their guilt.-But where can they hide themfelves from divine and human juftice? The Governor General is occupied in drawing out the procès verbal of this great event. All Europe will be astonished, and France will know how to feparate the good from the bad. Health to the country. (Signed) TOUSSAINT LOUVERTURE. Stephen Laveaux, General in Chief, Governor of St. Domingo, and Cape, the-Germinal, April, fourth year of the CITIZENS AND FRIENDS, THE HE accounts of the great events that have just taken place at St. Domingo, will undoubtedly have reached you with fpeed. Wicked and corrupted people cannot have failed to represent to you the matter under the colours which their malice and atrocity never ceafes to make ufe of. They will even have inspired you with diftruft, in order to arrest your commercial operations with us, and reduce us a fecond time to the former ftate of want, out of which we had already emerged by your aid. But, citizens and friends, we haften to pre-engage a fenfible and generous people against the effects of envy and calumny; to destroy by everlasting truths, the fatal impreffions which fo many accumulated horrors might provoke, against the dearest interests you have in St. Domingo. Let not the impure breath of all vices, collected under the fhape of prudence, affect your tranquillity; repel far from you craft and falfehood; let your confidence in the Republicans of St, Domingo be unbounded. France will pafs a vote of thanks to you, and the cultivators of the colony will redouble their industry, in order to discharge what they owe you. Horrible outrages have indeed been committed against the reprefentatives of the French nation. The first authorities of St. Domingo, the only perfons entrusted with the powers of the French people to govern the colony, have been torn from the helm helm of government, dragged, abufed, ill-treated, and thrown into dungeons like real criminals, and the virtuous men who were attached to them, in confequence of their functions, fhared the fame fate. A horde of factious people and intriguers, ungrateful men, loaded with crimes, have done all thofe horrid acts, although France had heaped up benefits upon them. A horrible profcription, extending to all the white people, was already pronounced in all the quarters of the colony, and its deftruction was about to be effected, when on a fudden the true people, the real friends of order and general liberty, the faithful fubjects of the French Republic, rofe up in a mafs, and ftifled in its birth the difaftrous monfler, anarchy and rebellion. The true Republicans, the African cultivators, were ftruck with the horrors of that outrage, and haftened to join in a mafs, in arms, in order to take off our fetters, without leaving to the ambitious criminals more than they wanted to escape, the arm of vengeance. The whole plain of the north in St. Domingo was already reviving from its afhes, and a great part of the habitations rebuilt under our eyes, began to regain their former latitude. The freemen who cultivated the foil, enjoyed in peace the fruits of their labour, and no day paffed but they lifted up their hands to heaven, and returned thanks to the Almighty for the facred rights which France has restored to them. These very men, fo gentle and peaceable at their respective homes, became furious, when they heard of our being arrested. All in a mass, and led on by virtuous and intrepid chiefs, they fummoned the town of the Cape, to reftore to them the reprefentatives of the French nation and their fathers; elfe that town would again be reduced to afhes, and thofe concerned in arrefting us, fhould be put to the fword. The intrepid Touffant Louverture, this man, without his equal, to whom St. Domingo and its conftituted authorities owe their fafety, has just been made an affiftant in government operations, under the title of Lieutenant-Governor. We are three reprefentative heads, forming three ftrong columns, whercon you may with fafety establish the continuance of your commerce. Here all the means of guarantee, as far as lies in our power to promife, are expreffed, and you ought to rely thereon. The wish of the whole Republican army difperfed in different quarters, the confent of all the united municipalities, the union of、 all the brave generals and commanders, who, with their troops, have broke our chains; in fhort, all the legal authorities, demand carneftly the return of good order, fubmiffion to the laws, respect to the chiefs, and protection to the commerce of neutral nations. B 2 All All thofe brave cultivators have recommenced their works; the earth continues without interruption to grow fertile under their hands. Therefore we entreat you, in the name of the French Repub lic, which has always been your friend, to expedite veffels to us, as the explofion which we have juft gone through renders our operations fafer than ever. You will fee, that at no former period you have traded with us on a more certain and fecure bafis than at this new epoch. (Signed) Health and profperity, STEPHEN LAVEAUX. LIBERTY——EQUALITY, In the name of the French Republic. A PROCLAMATION. Leger Felicitè Santhonax, Julien Raymond, Marie Antoine Alexis Gi raud, Pierre George Leblanc, and Philippe-Rofe Romme, Commiffioners delegated by the French Government to the Windward Islands. To all the Citizens of the Colony, and to all those who compofe the Land and Sea Forces defined for its Defence. CITIZENS, A FTER fo many ftorms and critical emergencies, infeparable concomitants of a revolution, France enjoys at last a conftitution worthy of a people who know how to value liberty. Already under a truly republican government, the French people begin to reft from their long and arduous toil, and to enjoy the happy effects of the liberty which they have attained. Firmly refolved to caufe the conftitution to be executed, the Executive Directory is conftantly employed in fearching out means to have it eftablished in all parts of the Republic. The fixth article of the conftitution ftates, That the French colonies are infeparable parts of the Republic, and fubjected to the fame conftitutional law. It is particularly for the execution of that article, that we have received from the government the honourable miffion intrufted to us; and, at the fame time, to let you know all the means you ought to employ to preferve liberty and equality, which are the fundamental laws of that conftitution. Citizens, rally at the voice of the delegates of the Republic, fince it is in her name, and for her deareft interefts, that they are going to addrefs you. The antient government of the colonies had distinguished three different claffes-the whites, the coloured people, and the flaves. Το |