LETTER XII.
Republic of Hayti.
TRAGEDY OF THE REVOLUTION CONTINUED—RIGAUD SUCCEEDED BY
TOUSSAINT—TOUSSAINT DUPED BY LE CLERC.
E omit, as unnecessary to the thread of this narrative, the contentions between the French and English, in consequence of the British invasion, from 1792 to 1798; during which time Rigaud was succeeded by Toussaint L’Ouverture, whose superior military genius had won for him the appointment of Commander-in-Chief of the native forces.
But there is yet another “lesson of the hour” to be gleaned from the history of this marvellous revolution. Treachery led to the fall of Toussaint.
On the 1st day of July, 1801, a Declaration of Independence was made by Toussaint, in the name of the people.
The ancient proprietors of plantations, who in the former insurrections had been compelled to quit the island and seek an asylum in France, soon found in this act of independence a confirmation of their former suspicions. They saw that all their valuable possessions must be inevitably lost, and that forever, unless government could be prevailed on to send an armed force to crush at once a revolt which had become so formidable as to assume independence.
The complicated interests of commerce were instantly alarmed and awakened to action; powerful parties were formed; a horde of venal writers started immediately into notice; a change was wrought in the public sentiment as by the power of magic; and negro emancipation was treated in just the same manner that negro slavery had been treated before. Such was the fickleness of the French at that time, and such is the inconstancy of the human mind in ours.
Bonaparte, aiming himself at uncontrolled dominion, found it necessary to bribe all parties with gratifying promises to induce them to favor his views, and to enable him to introduce such changes in the form of government as he desired.