Dessalines entered Camp-Gérard, Geffrard’s headquarters, and assembled the senior officers the next day.

On 16 messidor (5 July) (3), he made his entry into Camp-Gérard, Geffrard’s headquarters. The next day he assembled all the senior officers. He needed to assure himself of the confidence of the populations that he had so terrorized under the government of Toussaint. He needed to make them forget the dreadful executions over which he had then presided. Knowing well that the dead cannot defend themselves, in the midst of the circle of officers he cast upon the memory of Toussaint all the crimes committed during and after the civil war, as if the arm that strikes were not as guilty as the head that orders the crime! Say what one will, obedience has its limits. Dessalines spoke at length of the protection that he had granted in those calamitous times to some persons, by incorporating them in the 3rd and 4th demi-brigades. He was in the right. He was therefore applauded, although everyone knew inwardly that this conduct was due to the influence of madame Dessalines, who always opposed to his violences the voice of the most generous pity. People were still more satisfied when he spoke of the union that must reign between the Black man and the *mulâtre*, on pain of seeing the whites regain their preponderance and slavery its rods.