1816 (Official Appointments): The French decree specified that all primary administrative and judicial appointments were the exclusive right of the First Con…

1816 (Official Appointments): The French decree specified that all primary administrative and judicial appointments were the exclusive right of the First Consul of the Republic. While the Captain-General could make provisional appointments to fill vacancies, these were subject to final approval from Paris. This centralization ensured that the colonial civil service remained loyal to the French metropole rather than local interests. Sanders presented these facts to counter “misrepresentations” that the indigenous Haytian leaders were incapable of organizing their own superior administrative systems. The Haytian Papers thus serve as both a historical record and a political defense of the “African race”.