Le Cap. The Constitution is proclaimed on the Place d’Armes

Toussaint, believing he had nothing more to fear from a party that had been almost exterminated, showed himself generous. On the other hand, as he did not doubt that his constitution would draw down upon his head the anger of France, he strove to make himself beloved by the inhabitants of Saint-Domingue of every color. By a letter dated 31 May he informed Dessalines of the decision he had just taken concerning the Rigaudists, and recommended that he let them go to their families. “Urge them,” he told him, “never again to let themselves be led astray by disturbers of the public peace and enemies of order . . . . . . . . etc., etc. As for me, I regard them as brothers and as my children; my only desire is to see them on the right road; let them fulfil the duties that the social order prescribes, and above all let them practice religion, bringing up their children in the fear of God.” About two months after this act of belated generosity (for one must have been in a position like that of these unfortunates, with death before one’s eyes every day, to appreciate the clemency of a chief in such circumstances, whatever its cause), Toussaint, thinking he had won over every heart, resolved to publish his Constitution. On 7 July 1801, at three in the morning, the general call was sounded in the town of Le Cap; and at four the assembly was beaten. By five o’clock the troops of the line and the national guard, in perfect order, were drawn up on the Place d’Armes. The civil and military authorities entered the square in the following order: the commission of commerce, the administration of the navy, the municipality, the commercial court, the justice of the peace, the civil court, and the Central Assembly. Toussaint, surrounded by the richly dressed officers of his staff, closed the march. An immense throng covered the square; a deep silence fell, and Citizen Borgella, president of the Central Assembly, mounting the altar of the fatherland, delivered the following speech:

“French colonists, and you, brave soldiers: Saint-Domingue has long aspired to the inestimable happiness of having a local Constitution. The factions that succeeded one another in the government of the mother country, by propagating their subversive principles in this distant island, had stifled the just claims of its unfortunate inhabitants, had degraded them from the dignity of free men, had robbed them even of the precious impulses of those noble sentiments that elevate and enlarge the soul, and had forced them to receive a law they had neither made nor consented to. ‘The French colonies,’ said the Constitution of the Year 3 (article 6), ‘are integral parts of the Republic and are subject to the same constitutional law.’ Thus, by the most terrible fatality, the destinies of Saint-Domingue were bound to those of the mother country, which extended its ramifications across the immensity of the seas and bowed Saint-Domingue beneath the enormous weight of its perverse influence. Could this frightful state, this state of dissolution, endure?… No…! It was reserved for a genius of reconstruction soon to fix the fate of the Republic. Indeed, Bonaparte flies from the confines of Egypt to the heart of France; and at once the factions vanish; social order succeeds the convulsions of anarchy; the Republic tastes the sweets of peace at home and prepares to go and gather its fruits abroad. A new constitution is laid down; it is freed from that multiplicity of wheels that clash with one another and give rise to popular cabals, to diversity of opinions and to public calamities. But this new Constitution….. was it made for you, islanders, who inhabit a region so distant and so different from the mother country?…. Did your representatives, like those of the other French departments, contribute to it or take part in it?…. No.

“Wisdom, and all the virtues that are her companions, which presided over the drafting of that constitutional act, consecrated your rights and stipulated your interests there by proclaiming that it was not made for you, that you would be subject to the rule of particular laws. From that moment, at last, justice has shone for you; the powerful and generous nation whose tastes and character you share, and of which you form a part, has broken the shameful chains that the spirit of party and anarchy had taken pleasure in laying upon you. She has recognized the rights you hold from nature. Henceforth you will no longer be exposed to those terrible commotions, those violent shocks, those political tempests that arise from the execution of laws made without regard for your interests, far from you, and which could suit neither your manners, nor your customs, nor the climate you inhabit.(b)

“Thanks be given to the new French Constitution!!! * French colonists, you were awakened by article 91. The need for laws made itself heard at once, and you expressed your wish to the general who governs this colony, the general who has so many times saved it from the enterprises of the enemies of the French name and from the influence of every faction. Ah! Could you fail to be heard by him who devotes every moment of his life to healing the deep wounds inflicted on the colony and to pouring a consoling balm upon you?

“Toussaint Louverture, that extraordinary man, whose noble actions command your admiration and your gratitude, has risen like a phoenix from the ashes and has devoted himself wholly to the defense of your country, your persons and your property. Amid the convulsive movements of anarchy he had the generosity and the courage to take up the reins of a colony abandoned without any defenses save those nature gave it, and stripped of all the means that cultivation and commerce provide. He has made the French name respected here, as you know, by raising its colors everywhere; he has known how to supply your ports, quicken your cultivation, draw in commerce, restore your cities and discipline the troops; he has done more still: he has vanquished inveterate prejudices; he has cemented among you the bonds of the gentlest fraternity, those bonds which the old colonial system so inhumanly condemned, and which anarchy, to maintain its odious empire, made a barbarous game of tightening or breaking at will. The proclamation of the general-in-chief convoking your representatives proves to you how much he desires your happiness; he announces to you that the time of divisions is past; he shows you the necessity of giving yourselves laws suited to you; and adopting the constant maxim that laws are conventions established by men who must conform to them in order to regulate the order of society, he makes you understand that it is with laws as with the productions of the earth, that each country has its own manners and statutes, as it has its own fruits. On these principles an assembly of inhabitants received from you the important task of laying the constitutional foundations of the internal government of this colony; and the general who authorized the convocation of that assembly, faithful to the mother country, proclaimed that these constitutional foundations would be submitted to the sanction of the French government. But your representatives were bound to interpret favorably the too long silence of the mother country; considering her distance and the state of war in which she finds herself, they could not but be alarmed at the absence of laws; and in this imminent peril, out of love for you and attachment to France, they were bound to dispel every anxiety and reassure every mind. They remembered that the safety of all is the supreme law, and they believed it their duty to invite the general who watches over the destinies of Saint-Domingue to have the foundations of legislation they had laid put into execution at once. Today these foundations are offered to you. Your present and future happiness has constantly occupied your representatives; they have striven to make it lasting. May they not have been mistaken! French colonists, and you, brave soldiers, never forget, and be well persuaded, that time and experience alone can consolidate human institutions. Rally around the family compact that is presented to you; your representatives lay it in your bosom as the Palladium of your civil and political liberty, and as the pledge of their affection for you and of their devotion to the Republic. Long live the Republic, which rebuilds and protects the colonies.”

Citizen Borgella then read the constitutional act to the people and to the army, who heard it in a gloomy silence. When he had finished the reading, not a cheer, not an acclamation was heard. The mayor of the town, Télémaque, a Black man, an old man deeply devoted to France, and most of the civil officers seemed already to hear, rumbling in the distance, the thunderbolt that the Constitution was about to draw down upon the colony.