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1806-10-23

Christophe, at Milot, assembled a council and answered Pétion’s letter, accepting the provisional government.

Haitian

At headquarters at Milot, 23 October 1806, Year III of independence.
Henry Christophe, general in chief of the army of Haiti, to General Pétion, commanding the second division of the West.

My comrade,

I hasten to reply to your letter of the 16th of the current month (1), which has just been delivered to me with the copies of the declaration made by the divisions of the South and the second of the West.

The grievances that you set forth against the conduct and the arbitrary acts of which we have been the witnesses and the sad victims, and which placed us in a state of nullity under the reign that has just passed, deserve the greatest attention in order to assure the empire of the laws in our country. The measures that you have taken for the maintenance of order, since they were necessary, are wise; I have acted likewise here, by ordering, at this moment, that the divisions of the North, the first of the West, be paid and clothed. Make known to all your brothers in arms of the army of the South and of the West that I approve the good conduct they have kept in this circumstance, since order has not been disturbed, which must always be the basis of our constitution.

The choice they have made of me in calling me to the honorable and painful post of the government imposes great obligations upon me. No one better than you, my comrade, knows my principles and my disinterestedness toward every sort of employment; it took so powerful a motive to determine me to accept this enormous burden, with the persuasion I have that you will concur, in your own capacity, in helping me with your enlightenment when the public good shall require it.

Source  ·  p. 162 Joseph Saint-Rémy (des Cayes), Pétion et Haïti: étude monographique et historique, tome 4 (Paris: Auguste Durand, 1857), p. 162; English translation, Rasanblaj.