1816 (The Moral Contest for Posterity): The King and his council declared that their current labors were not for their own happiness alone, but for the “happ…

1816 (The Moral Contest for Posterity): The King and his council declared that their current labors were not for their own happiness alone, but for the “happiness of our posterity.” They argued that while they had already proven their “resolution, energy, and courage” in physical battle, they were now engaged in a different species of contest: a moral one. This new struggle was to be waged through the “wisdom of our laws, the purity of our manners,” and the “security of our commerce.” By excelling in these civil virtues, the Haytians sought to force the universe to acknowledge their equality and their right to be a sovereign nation. This vision of a moral victory served as the ideological conclusion to the collected papers.