Pétion publishes an address to the people and the army summarizing events in the South.

But let us set down here, in order to summarize everything that had happened up to that point in the South, the address to the people and the army which Pétion had published on 1 February:

“I thought it necessary to enlighten my fellow citizens and the army on my conduct in the recent events which have broken out in the southern part of the Republic; if I have delayed doing so until this moment, my motive was to bring minds back to a point of conciliation and justice. The basis of my conduct has always been gentleness and the sparing of the blood of my brothers; it is these reasons, so powerful over my heart, that have particularly guided me and have prevented me from coming to the cruel extremity of shedding it.

“Amid the agitations by which we have been surrounded, occupied with the expeditionary army in the North under the orders of the brave Lamarre, disquieted by the movements of Goman in the South, having to guard ourselves against the invasion plans of Christophe, often troubled by senseless factions, provoked by restless and turbulent minds, I have had the good fortune to steer the vessel of the State without violent shocks, to meet the enormous expenses that the state of affairs required, and to make the authority of the government respected, at the head of which I was placed by the confidence of the people, though I never sought it.

“The arrival of General Rigaud in his native land was marked by every testimony of satisfaction that the thought could inspire of the misfortunes from which he had just escaped, and of seeing in our midst a new defender of our rights. I welcomed him eagerly, employed him as general of division against the insurgents of the Grand’Anse, and counted on his zeal to subdue them. Easy on that side, I applied all my efforts to placing the capital of the Republic beyond the reach of any insult and to preparing the means of repelling the army of Christophe, should it come to attack us.

“All the citizens of the Republic have been the object of my liveliest solicitude; I have always striven to make them happy, and to distinguish and reward merit among them. I have never regarded the army otherwise than as one: that of the South has been paid and clothed in the same manner and at the same times as that of the West; the services and the marches have weighed no more directly on the one portion than on the other; in the civil administration the residents of the South have had every facility for the settlement and stipulation of their interests, and they have enjoyed in particular the advantages of their situation, farther from the theater of the war. They have necessarily had to contribute to the public and general expenses for the maintenance of the government; and it was exactly just that they should cooperate in them and conform to the course of events.

“It was in these circumstances, and at the moment when a great crisis was preparing through the fall of the Môle, when, consequently, all minds ought to have been united for the defense of the common cause, that certain private persons of the town of Les Cayes were working to change the form of the government by establishing a primary and tumultuous assembly, the result of which was the dismissal of several public officials and a declaration of secession from the present government. The principal object of my attention being the declared enemy of the government (Christophe), I did not wish to deploy forces against the authors of this first movement; I counted on the presence of General Rigaud at Les Cayes to have recalled minds to tranquillity, and I was moreover certain that the arrondissement of Nyppes had no part in it. It was after I had gained the certainty that this secession was organizing itself, and had seen Generals Bonnet and Lys abandon their posts to repair to Les Cayes, that I marched troops to the Pont-de-Miragoâne to help preserve the arrondissement of Nyppes and to prevent the effects of a gathering which was forming at Aquin; I even consented to the sending of a deputation of several notable citizens of Port-au-Prince, which preceded the army to set forth to the chiefs of that gathering into what an abyss they were about to plunge us, if they persisted in a step as inconceivable as it was ill considered. The conduct of this army, under the orders of the generals of brigade Delva and Gédéon, deserves the highest praise for the order and subordination it showed and for its respect for property; for, amid privations, the soldier refrained from entering the plantations; he did not touch so much as a hen, which is quite contradictory to the design, attributed to this army by the residents of Les Cayes, of coveting their properties.

“General Rigaud, who was at Aquin, made a written reply to the deputies of Port-au-Prince, the sense of which was that he recognized my authority as President of Haiti, and he urged General Delva to withdraw his army from the territory of that arrondissement. I resolved, in consequence, to go in person to the Pont-de-Miragoâne to confer with General Rigaud. This interview took place on 2 December; on my side it passed with the utmost frankness and loyalty, and I set forth all the reasons that ought to contribute to the union of minds.