The treaty of Damiens, drafted by Pinchinat, was completed after the congress opened on 11 October at the Goureau plantation.

On both sides they set about naming deputies; the whites elected, at Port-au-Prince, Messrs. Caradeux the elder, Vincendon Dutour, Catherinot, Cambfranc, Lerembourg senior, Boyer, Dufour and Guieu; at Léogane, Tiby and Lagroix; at Grand-Goâve, d’Arnaud and Dufau; at Petit-Goâve, Dupalis the elder and Funeyrol; at Jacmel, Tavet and Ragon; at Mirebalais, Leydier and Bardoulx; at Petite-Rivière, Pivert and Avril; at Gonaïves, Raboteau and Pongaudin; at Saint-Marc, Grasset and Drouin; at Arcahaye, Allenet and d’Oleyres; at Croix-des-Bouquets, Lathoison, des Vareux and Hamon de Vaux-Joyeux; all these nominations were made at the seats of the municipalities. As for the freedmen, who lived far from most of the towns, they held their elections at Croix-des-Bouquets itself for all the communes, with the exception of Saint-Marc, Petite-Rivière and the Verrettes, where they were all-powerful. Their choice fell, for Port-au-Prince and Croix-des-Bouquets, upon Messrs. Beauvais, Rigaud, Lambert, Doyon the elder, Dégant, Pétion, Lillavois, Barthelemy Médor, Marc-Borno, Charles Olivier, Poisson the elder and Pellerin; for Mirebalais, upon Borno the elder, Etienne Saljuzean, Alexandre Petit-Bois and Jean-Baptiste Nivard; for Petite-Rivière, upon Ferdinand Deslandes and Lazare Perrodin; for Arcahaye, upon Lapointe, Chanlatte junior, Barbancourt, Hugueville, Juste Drouillard, Sterlein Créplanie and Leblanc; for the Verrettes, upon Jean-Baptiste Jean-Paul, Jean-Jolly, Cyprien Jolly and Charles Lépinard; for Saint-Marc, upon Jean Savary, Jean-Baptiste Dubourg, Augustin Ducla, Jean-Baptiste Pinson and François Périsse; for Gonaïves, upon Laquinte de Clavin, Louis de Clavin and Pierre Coquille. On 11 October the congress opened on the Goureau plantation, near the village of Croix-des-Bouquets. The colonists had as their president the famous Caradeux the elder, and as secretary M. Dufour; the freedmen had Pinchinat as president and M. Dubourg as secretary. The treaty was completed on the Damiens plantation on the 23rd of the same month; its drafting does the greatest honor to Pinchinat. This memorable act, of which Locke and Montesquieu would have been proud, according to the words of Brissot (1); which breathes in every line the love of liberty and of order, proclaimed the political rights of free Black people and free *mulâtres*. It declared that “the whites would make common cause with the freedmen, and would contribute with all their strength to the literal execution of the decree of 8 March and of the king’s instructions, without restriction and without interpretation. It promised the execution of the decree of 15 May, when it should be officially known. It promised further that the whites would pledge themselves to protest against all protests and claims contrary to this decree. It stipulated the early convocation and opening of the primary and colonial assemblies for all active citizens without distinction of color; the appointment of Black deputies and deputies of color to the colonial assembly, with a consultative and deliberative voice, pending the new assembly; the dissolution of the municipalities and of the provincial and colonial assemblies, because they had been formed only by whites; the inviolability of the secrecy of letters (1)”; for, monstrous and infamous thing! no Black man or *mulâtre* could post the slightest effusion of friendship, the slightest detail of domestic affairs, without the white gentlemen of the colony thinking they had the right to take cognizance of it. The treaty also provided for freedom of the press, and for the keeping of the confederation under arms until the execution of the decrees of the National Assembly; the colonists undertook to supply this army in part with provisions; the freedmen reserved to themselves the power to aid and sustain all their brothers on the island in the vindication of their rights. Finally, the families of Desmarres, Desruisseaux and Poisson were to be indemnified for the losses which the affair of Fonds-Parisien had caused them; and the executioners of Ogé and Chavanne were devoted to infamy. This glorious treaty was carried to the Cap for the governor’s sanction.