“I have to reproach myself with the attempt made upon the colony during the consulship. The design of reducing it by force was a great error. I ought to have been satisfied with governing it through the medium of Toussaint. Peace with England was not sufficiently consolidated, and the territorial wealth I should have acquired by its reduction would have served but to enrich our enemies.” He had, he observed, the greater reason to reproach himself with this fault, because he had foreseen its failure, and it was executed against his inclination. He had solely yielded to the opinion of the council of state and his ministers, hurried along, as they were by the clamours of the colonists, who formed a considerable party at Paris, and were, besides, he said, either nearly all royalists or in the pay of the English faction.
The Emperor assured us, that the army which had been sent out consisted but of sixteen thousand men, and was quite sufficient. The failure of the expedition was solely to be attributed to accidental circumstances, such as the yellow fever, the death of the Commander-in-chief, but above all to his blunders, a new war, &c.
“The arrival of the Captain General Leclere,” said the Emperor, "was followed by complete success, but he had not the skill to ensure its continuance. Had he followed the secret instructions which I drew up for him myself, he would have saved many lives and spared himself great mortifications. I ordered him, among other things, to associate with himself men of colour, that he might the better keep the Blacks in subjection; and, as soon as he had reduced the Colony, to send to France all the black Generals and superior officers, to be placed at the disposal of the minister at war, who would have employed them in their respective ranks. This measure, which would have deprived the Negro population of its chiefs and its leaders, would have been a decisive stroke, without wounding in their persons the military laws and regulations. But Leclere did just the contrary: he kept down the people of colour, and bestowed his confidence on the black Generals. In consequence, as it might naturally be expected, he was duped by the latter, found himself beset with difficulties, and the Colony was lost. At first, he would not send to France Toussaint, who had filled a distinguished post there; but after some time he found himself obliged to order his apprehension and to send him prisoner to us. Malevolence did not fail to paint this act under the odious colours of tyranny and perfidy, representing Toussaint as an innocent victim deserving of the deepest interest; and yet he was eminently criminal.
"Toussaint was not a man destitute of merit; though certainly he was not what people attempted to describe him at the time. His character, besides, was ill calculated to inspire real confidence; he had given us serious causes of complaint. We must always have distrusted him.[[23]] He was chiefly guided by an officer of engineers or artillery, director of the fortifications of St. Domingo. (Colonel Vincent). That officer had come to France before Leclere’s expedition, and conferences were, for a long time, held with him. He exerted himself very much to prevent the attempt, and described with great precision, all its difficulties, without pretending, however, that it was impossible." The Emperor thought that the Bourbons might succeed in reducing St. Domingo if they employed force; but on that subject the result of arms was not to be calculated upon; it was rather the result of commerce and of grand political views. Three or four hundred millions of capital transferred from France to a remote country; an indefinite period for reaping the fruits of such a sacrifice; the very great certainty of seeing them engrossed by the English, or swallowed up by revolutions, &c.: those were the points for consideration. The Emperor concluded with saying, "The colonial system, which we have witnessed, is closed for us, as well as for the whole continent of Europe; we must give it up, and henceforth confine ourselves to the free navigation of the seas, and the complete liberty of universal exchange.”[exchange.”]
The History of the Convention, of which Napoleon had already expressed his disapprobation, again presented itself to his thoughts; he was far from being satisfied with Lacretelle. “Sentences in abundance,” he repeated, “and but little colouring, no depth: he is an academician, but in no respect a historian.” He made me call my son, and dictated the two following notes, of which I give a literal copy, however imperfect they may be, for he never read them a second time. Every thing that comes from him is, in my opinion, valuable.
NOTE I.
"The Convention, called by a law of the Legislative Assembly to give a new constitution to France, decreed the Republic; not that the most enlightened did not think the republican system incompatible with the existing state of manners in France, but because the Monarchy could not be continued without placing the Duke of Orleans on the throne, which would have alienated a great part of the nation.
"An executive power, consisting of five ministers, was established by the Convention for conducting the affairs of the republic.
"Two parties contended for the ascendancy in the National Convention: that of the Girondists, composed of men who had influenced the Legislative Assembly, and that of the Mountain, formed by the Commune of Paris, which had directed the atrocities of the 10th of August and the 2d of September, and commanded the population of the capital.
"Vergniaud, Brissot, Condorcet, Guadet, and Roland, were the leaders of the Girondists; Danton, Robespierre, Marat, Collot d’Herbois, and Billaud-Varennes, headed the Mountain. These two parties were alike indebted for their rise to the principles of the revolution. Their conductors sprang out of the popular societies which they had successively rendered subservient to their views.