Norfolk Gazette And Publick Ledger

Correspondence between Alexander Petion, President of Haiti, and General Dauxion Lavaysse, minister of Louis XVIII (Concluded)

(No. *)

LIBERTY. EQUALITY

REPUBLIC OF HAYTI.

Alexander Petion President of Haiti, has the honor to acknowledge to his excellency General Dauxion Lavaysse the receipt of the note which he addressed him on the 6th of the present month, in his quality of principal agent of his excellency the minister of the navy and colonies of his most Christian majesty for the restoration of the French colony, in the island of Hayti, &c. &c.

A revolution as long as astonishing, which had like to have overturned the universe, whose character and direction stood no example in the annals of the world, has just terminated in a manner as extraordinary as it was unexpected; and nations restored to peace, are now seeking the lost or forgotten traces of their former institutions. The island of Hayti, called upon by the voice of liberty, which, in France, was heard at the very beginning of the revolution, was, by its nature, destined to take a very active part in it. She did take a part, and its mighty power was felt, and the events which were its attendants, have prepared and fixed its present condition.

It is painful to the people of Hayti, to repeat to his excellency general Lavaysse, that all the misfortunes which befell this country are the works of revolutionary France, and that she has not ceased to provoke them by a conduct as steady as it was cruel and which drove the inhabitants of Hayti to despair! Never did a people show more devotedness to the mother country than we did. Forsaken and abandoned by her to the caprice and sanguinary fury of ferocious and corrupted agents, who, in turn, succeeded each other to tear her up more and more; the Haitians ever faithful to France, fought for her, under their own colours, made her triumph at 2000 leagues distance, and were constantly giving her proofs of their unexampled attachment, when at the period of the peace of Amiens, she fitted up an expedition, which was to fix the happiness of this fine country, and acknowledge the services rendered the mother country, by a portion of men, who alone and left to themselves, had during fourteen years maintained the glories of the French arms! Expedition of cannibals! in which the colonists and the French rivalled one another in the unquenchable thirst of the blood of the wretched Haitians! The very arms which they had just been using to facilitate the taking possession of. the French army, were snatched out of their hands. and they were dragged and thrown into floating prisons, qualified with the name of etouffoires (chokers or stiflers.) drowned, hung, or run through with bayonets, burnt, devoured by dogs trained up to this dreadful practice, and transported from the Spanish coast, at great expense, to be used in this terrible manner. Every night covered with its shade these abominable executions, and the day was consecrated to collect the victims without any distinction whatever!--It was enough to have borne arms either as officers or soldiers; or to have appeared on the stage of the revolution in any manner whatever,--to merit death,--The sex, childhood, old age, nothing could stop the fury of these monsters! And when they were at a loss for prey, they entered the houses and seized the servants or any other persons present! The citizens in cities were deprived from eating fish, lest they should feed on their own blood! And when at the same periods sickness exercised its ravages on the French army, exposed to the vengeance, and resentment of those who, to avoid destruction took refuge in the woods, and there waged war as well as they could, the ramparts were seen filled with these same Haitians, who defended her with their strength and courage, until the very moment, when it was their turn to perish, arrived! Such were, general, the pleasures and relaxations of Leclerc, Rochambeau and the colonists, proprietors and owners of property., who excited them, and who, for fear of being suspended from their functions, provoked and induced by an address. the appointment of Rochambeau to the office of captain-general. . Their prayers were granted. as, perhaps they were those of France! This was the signal, when the desertion of the Haytians to the woods: became almost general : it was also that, when the tortures of the rack increased: Toussaint formed the same resolution to avoid death. What would indeed be our hopes? Could we believe in the possibility of driving away the French? What then was our alternative? Could we hesitate on the part we were to take? I care not, it justifies us; God and our perseverance have done the rest.

At the time of the evacuation by the French army, we returned into the towns, every thing was destroyed ; every thing was to be revived. Shall any one now talk to us of our crimes, of our vengeance? Let the history of our troubles and misfortunes be read, and then let us be judged: i think I have seen somewhere, in the dark annals of the world, in countries where slavery existed, that when slaves could succeed in breaking their chains, they converted them into arms against their oppressors ; it is what we have done.

War had just been kindled anew between France and England separated from all nations, obliged to govern ourselves, our first act was to proclaim our independence; it was natural to do so. especially, circumstanced as we were. We have formed a constitution, enacted and fixed positive laws, for these eleven years we have governed ourselves; the several offices are all filled by regenerated Haitians. We have an army, our flag has warred and been respected on the seas; we have been necessitated to raise ourselves -to the height of our condition and destiny. We have respected the laws of nations, and lastly, we may. without presuming too much, declare, that we have acted a part among the endangered nations, against revolutionary France, in assisting her by our commerce, our provisioning the West-Indies, our attitude, in some manner more or less direct in their operations; and we associate ourselves to the glory of having co-operated in the results which have just taken place. Let this self-love be permitted.

I will beg to ask your excellency, whether we can retrograde, whether we can abandon the advantages, which we have procured, of liberty in all the extent of its signification, of the perfect equality of our rights-and our assurance.

which we have held by the arms in our hands?

However, the Haitians have been so often and so cruelly deceived, that an almost indestructible spirit of distrust is established among them. This is an axiom unsusceptible of any reply. and I shall add, that that spirit of distrust has ever been fed; the writings, the plans of attack on our country, and of the proscriptions which have not ceased to abound in France, of which several of them have reached us. The P. Abbé Delattre, &c. &c all mad colonists in their important rage have calculated on the terms and means to subjugate us. Not satisfied with the re-possession of their estates, they have also disposed of ours, and have dared to have them inserted in a chapter, on their calculations of colonial receipts: Can any relation exist between us and such men after this? Can any confidence be re-established? Where were they? With whom are their fortunes connected? They certainly were not in England with Louis the 18th, but were undoubtedly burning incense at the feet of the idol; the censer escaped from their hands, and nothing was left them but the pan, which to us would be as bad as Pandora's-box.-

More fortunate than the emigrants, could they pretend to re-enter in possession of their estates, when the faithful followers of their sovereign have been compelled to give them up or abandon them.

Your excellency is pleased to observe to me, that times are much altered: what a difference! What a contrast between Louis the 18th and the preceding government! I am very far from thinking otherwise, and to attribute to his most Christian majesty, sentiments so opposed to those he has always manifested ; we know him by his misfortunes. He knows nothing of us but by our troubles;: we have never offended him; and those same men who persecuted him, equally persecuted us. Where did the revolution begin? Against whom? The national cockade was brought from France, and the first troubles of this country were occasioned by white Frenchmen, against their government and sovereign, whose authority was contemned. What were we then doing? Let colonel Mauduit. and his death be recollected, and our conduct will be seen. The restoration of his most Christian majesty on the throne has not astonished us. It was the wish of the allied powers. and it was under the walls of that capital-that that work was consummated, in the presence of their own armies. One of the first acts of the king, on entering France, has been the forgetting of the past; to see in Frenchmen, only Frenchmen, and to sacrifice to the repose of the world and of his kingdom. the most cruel recollections! He did not with respect to that, count the sacrifices. Should we then be.the only ones excluded from receiving any in our favor ;

I am not at all opposed to the idea that men may come to an understanding; they are by their organization, made to communicate with one another, hence, sometimes spring reconciliations, according to the law of nature; they always can, because there is between them a kind of equality; this is the position in which we consider ourselves, but it is not proved to us in what manner we are considered --With regard to the result of the commercial relations in the general sense with France, it matters little in whose hands the country may be. there will always be the same: and it is fully demonstrated that it can only be useful in our own. In adopting another manner of considering things. what would happen? War would necessarily ruin all, especially in the manner it is carried on in this country, where it is absolutely a war of destruction. and would not at all be to the advantage of the political system that would be followed: Your excellency may be assured we do not desire it; and that our opinions make no part of any general ambition for power; we have nothing in view but our existence, our security, and a guarantee against any event whatever.

In order the better to answer your excellency in a precise manner, on the principal proposition contained in your official note, I have the honor to acquaint you that I have called together the first authorities of the republic, to meet at Port-au-Prince the 20th instant, in order to lay it before them. I have on that occasion, issued out an order of the day, and I shall have the honor to apprise you of the result of that communication.

I have spoken to your excellency with the greatest frankness, and from the exact acquaintance I have of the spirit of the people. Your stay or continuance among us, will enable you to know our character, which, unluckily for us, has not been sufficiently known or observed.

The president of Hayti improves this opportunity to assure his excellency general Lavaysse of the sentiments of his high consideration.

(Signed) PETION.

Port-au-Prince. Nov. 12, 1814,

Year 11th of the Republic.

(No. *.)

Port-au-Prince, Nov. 19, 1814.

Mr. President. -The last letter which your excellency did me the honor of writing to me, dated the 12th, was delivered to me only in the afternoon of the 14th. I had a fever the next day and took a physic on the following, which has reduced me to a state of debility, which made me unable to write a long reply.

In the letter I have now the honor of addressing you, I cannot refrain from expressing to you my astonishment at your excellency's persisting in your letters. as well as in your conversations. to accuse and stain the French nation with the crimes committed in this island by the emissaries and agents of a faction and of a tyrant, who have for a long time been the instruments which Providence made use of, to lay his heavy and avenging hand on our country.

It would be quite as just, Mr. President, to accuse the inhabitants of Bordeaux. Nantes, Lyons, Toulon, Marseilles, &c. with the murders, drownings, and crimes of every species which were committed in those cities by that same faction, as rapacious and sanguinary.

Nevertheless, that same Providence, who doubtless wanted only to punish and not to destroy France, has permitted that it should illustrate itself by the glory of its arms the wisdom and greatness of its institutions? and to say that it is governed by the wise and good chief of that ancient family of kings, saints or knights, who made her during so long a time, great and prosperous, in a word, by a Bourbon, (at the sound of which every Frenchman glories) it is as sweet as it has always been operable to be a Frenchman.

May Mr. President the inhabitants of this island experience the same sensations as their European countrymen! The manner with which your excellency concludes his last letter, makes me conceive that happy expectation..

There is one thing however, which would seem to poison so sweet sentiment ; I mean the facility, the avidity with which some persons receive and propagate here all absurd and flying news, which certainly are contrary to the interest and honor of our country.

And who are then the inventors and hawkers of such news? what are their intentions? There are some wretches, the scum and the refuse of the English and American nations; paltry merchants' clerks; master of coasting vessels; men whom, a respectable merchant in Jamaica, in England, and certainly in France, would not so much as sit at this table.

But it would seem as if they were of some importance in this country, for they are looked upon as oracles.

Not to you, Mr. President, who are too enlightened, prudent and circumspect, to suffer yourself to be influenced by their impudent folly. through which are easily seen their vile intentions and interest to perpetuate discord, and prevent the reconciliation of this colony with the mother country.

After having been your blood suckers, they now would wish to play the part of hyenas. and jackals, who sneak about the lions, tigers, and other such animals, to divide among themselves the leavings of carcasses, which these latter refuse. Such are the instinct and inclination of those vile and perverse beings who pant only for civil wars and conflagrations, either to have a pretense to appropriate to themselves their employers property, or to gorge themselves with the spoils we leave at our death, and to rejoice at our. misfortunes.

But we are all Frenchmen. Mr. President.-- Let the august name of Bourbon be our rallying point. Let the wisdom and mildness with which you have so long governed this country, during the revolutionary storms, be also its compass and anchor; let not France and her excellent monarch be indebted for the possession of this country, to necessity, but to sentiments truly French and to the loyalty of its inhabitants. Your excellency is worthy of performing this mighty work." May it merit to you the gratitude of your sovereign, and of your countrymen of both countries!

Such is the most ardent and sincere wish of him who has the honor to be, with the highest consideration, Mr. President, from your excellency, the most humble and obedient servant:

P. S.-I take the liberty to desire your excellency to have the goodness to lay this letter before the magistrates and the chiefs who are about meeting you.

Liberty. (No. 7) Equality.

REPUBLIC OF HAYTI

Alexander Petion, President of Hayti, to his excellency Dauxion Lavaysse.

I have the honor to acquaint your excellency with the reception of your letter, addressed to me, dated the 19th inst. I sincerely regret that your health should have continued impaired, and I shall with pleasure learn the restoration of it.

I have thought it my duty to represent to your excellency the evils which have afflicted our countries since the revolution began in France, and who were its principal authors ; this exposition having the more necessary, that after having exhausted the patience of the Haitians, which was put to the severest trials, the lot of this country has been decided, and that our emancipation, as a nation, was dictated by the atrocious conduct of those. who, in the circumstances they were placed, could, for ever, have attached our destiny to those of France. It would be unjust to attribute to his most Christian majesty, events in which he took no part, since he was himself in a manner exiled from his own estates, and pursued by the same men who have so cruelly persecuted us; his accession to the throne. every thing which pre- pared and accompanied it, this spirit of enlightened philosophy, which appear to have changed the policy of the world, our conduct in the midst of this memorable struggle, seemed to permit us to hope that we should have received the reward of all our sacrifices, by the spontaneous acknowledgment of our rights.

I shall not repeat to your excellency all I had the honor to observe to him on that subject, since I have endeavored to enable you to understand what would be the national will; which my duty as head magistrate has been to consult. The moment this national will is to be pronounced, is at hand, the principal members of this republic are about to repair to this town; I shall hasten to lay before them all the documents which have been addressed to me by your excellency, and I will lose no time in transmitting to you the result of their decision.

In this circumstance, as in all those of my life, I shall give my fellow-citizens a proof that my principles and actions have always been directed by public opinion, and that it is their province to explain themselves. in a conjuncture where their dearest interests are at stake.

Your excellency would be wrong in thinking that the Haitians should suffer themselves to be influenced by the report of news propagated without authenticity ; they deserve more justice, they can judge of those which may be adopted, from such as are entitled to no credit. In all countries, in all times, among all nations, some are fabricated. It is, to use the expression, the trade of all printers of news, and some persons are always found to circulate them. It ought to pay, to the known character of strangers settled here, to their honorable conduct, in all circumstances, as well as in their commercial relations. that tribute of praise which is due them. They have not feared to employ vast sums in their trade with us; to make considerable loans to Haitians, as well as to their government, and to assist the republic whenever it was in their power. they have every thing to lose in the disorganization and public troubles, and no persons are more interested than they in the maintenance of order and tranquility. Always specially protected by the government, they have never been wanting in their respect towards it, and have confined themselves within the limits of their profession, without seeking either to influence or take any public office. Men, such as your excellency describes; if there were any, would deserve the most marked contempt.

I beg your excellency to accept the assurance of the high esteem &c.

(Signed) PETION

Port-au-Prince, Nov. 20th, 1814

Year 11th of our Independence.

(No. 7.)

LIBERTE. EQUALITY.

REPUBLIC OF HAYTI.

Alexander Petion, President of Hayti, to his excellency Dauxion Lavaysse,

Sir -The generals and the magistrates of the Republic of Hayti, convoked in Assembly, in order to take into consideration the several despatches from your excellency. They were laid before them and they were invited to decide on the proposal contained in them, viz. to form a provisional government, in the name of his majesty Louis the 18th, to govern Hayti. They have thought that the divers events of the revolution, which had brought matters to their present state, were the result of the greatest sacrifices, and consecrated by the best blood of their fellow citizens. victims or dead in defending the rights which they were attempted to be deprived of, and which they have known how to acquire by their courage, their perseverance and by Divine protection.-That their first impulse, when they emancipated themselves, was to proclaim their independence ; that they have not ceased during the whole course of the coalition of powers against revolutionary France to show principles conformable to those which directed their operations ; that in that respect they think they have incontestable rights to the justice of the sovereigns, and more particularly to that of his most Christian majesty. Rights so well founded, that they sought in vain, in what respect any reproaches could be imputed to them. Convinced they had no other alternative to take but the one they have adopted, and which is justified by all the circumstances that have occasioned it, they cannot expose their own security and existence by a change of condition. To think of it, would occasion a sudden and general subversion, and infallibly ruin a country too long torn by the fury of the revolution, and which, as well as the rest of the world. ought likewise to hope to be able to enjoy quiet in the shade of peace.

It belongs to the greatness and philosophy of his most Christian majesty to acknowledge the emancipation of a people whose misfortunes began with his; and who delivered up to the rage of his enemies, has been able, after reducing them to make so fine and noble a use of his victory, in taking for his model the nations who have just replaced him on the throne. They delight in thinking that his majesty in his proceedings towards Hayti, is much less directed by his personal sentiments, than by what he owes to that portion of his subjects which with incessant complaints claims the return of Hayti to France and to the old system. it would certainly be an eternal glory to his majesty at the same time that he would acknowledge to the Haitians the independence of their rights. to conciliate what he owes to a part of his subjects, and in making the others participate in the resources of a commerce whose abounding channels made both countries flourish. . it is with these sentiments, that, as the organ of the people over whom I have the honor to preside, I shall propose to your excellency, acting in behalf of his majesty Louis the 18th, and to give him a proof of the dispositions that animate us, to establish the basis of an indemnity, agreed upon, and which we all solemnly engage to pay, with all reasonable security that may be asked of us, the application of which you may direct as you may judge most proper ; this work is worthy of you. I most sincerely wish that these propositions may be agreeable to your excellency. and in case this should not come within the line of your powers and instructions, I flatter myself that you will have the goodness to present it to your sovereign, and that your residence in Hayti, where you will have had it in your power more particularly to appreciate our national character, and what we really are, may engage him to do it in a favorable manner. I beg that your excellency will see in this determination, nothing but the will of a people, whose rights and liberty are dearer than life, who act only in the intimate conscience of its own preservation, without any ill will or prejudice against the French nation. In inviting your excellency to support these propositions with his government, it is giving him a high proof of the high consideration which he has inspired us with, of which I take pleasure to renew my acknowledgement.

I have the honor to be, &c.

(Signed) PETION.

Done at Port-au-Prince, Nov. 27th, 1814.

Year 11th of the Independence.

(No. 8.)

Port-au-Prince, Nov. 29th, 1814.

Mr. President,

I have the honor to acknowledge your letter of the 27th, by which your excellency acquaints me with the result of the deliberations of the Assembly of the Notables of your government. I shall hasten to communicate it to his excellency the minister of the navy and colonies.

The closing of this Assembly and your letter having put a period to my mission, I ought not to lose a moment in departing for my country. In consequence thereof, I have charged, yesterday. a merchant to freight a vessel to carry me to Jamaica. He will have the honor of applying to your excellency to day or to morrow to obtain passports.

I have the honor to return thanks for the personal civilities you have shown me, at the conclusion of your letter ; if I do not merit them by the sad and unfruitful result of my mission, those who have witnessed my zeal, my efforts I will even say, my moral anguish, during a long and afflicting sickness, will, at least, do me the justice to say. that I have neglected nothing to reach a happier result; and that the perverse and daily machinations of our enemies who are also yours, have not been able to disgust or discourage me, and against whom, I prophecy to you, Mr. President, you will one day or other be as indignant as I am.

I have the honor to be with the highest consideration from your excellency, the most humble and obedient servant.