Toussaints Final Proclamation

Proclamation of 29 Frimaire the year X

Source: Francois Roc, Dictionnaire de la Rvolution Haitienne. 2006, Les Editions Guildives, Montreal;
Translated: for marxists.org by Mitch Abidor;
CopyLeft: Creative Commons (Attribute & ShareAlike) marxists.org 2007.

Citizens:
I have learned that there are malicious ones in your midst among whom one was just arrested who,
loving only disorder, provoke the disunity of citizens and the disorganization of the current state of affairs;
who, jealous of all Ive done for the prosperity of this colony seem to desire nothing else than seeing
French blood flow.
Since the news of the peace between France and England, which cannot be considered certain as long as the
government doesnt announce it to me officially, these malicious ones spread the rumor that France will be
coming with thousands of men to annihilate the colony and freedom. Are they not ashamed to say before
officers and soldiers who, since the beginning of the Revolution, have shed their blood for the triumph of
liberty and the prosperity of this island that France will reduce them, will again plunge these soldiers into
slavery and destroy the officers? How can they maintain such language? Do they think that France for no
reason wants to destroy its children of Saint-Domingue who, victors over all their enemies internal as
well as external have preserved this colony for it and, by wresting it from the hands of anarchy, have
made it flourish; that they will pay with ingratitude men who have never ceased deserving well of it?
Fortunately the wish loudly manifested by a few evil men is not that of the majority of citizens. In the midst
of the sorrows their evil intentions cause me it is consoling for me to be able to tell myself that among the
inhabitants of this colony there are good landowners, courageous people, and good fathers who do not
share their wickedness and who, friends of both the colony and France and attached to the liberty as well as
the prosperity of Saint-Domingue, desire only peace, which alone can return this colony to its former
splendor. The hope they placed in me and my comrades in arms will not be betrayed. They will always find
in us ardent protectors, true friends, zealous defenders. But you who, to fan the flames of discord impute
liberticide intentions and destructive projects to the French government and who, in order to provide these
claims with some foundation, say that the government did not want to return my sons to me because they
wanted to keep them as hostages until they could carry out their plans; who, in order to embitter spirits and
increase the number of the wicked assure with the same shamelessness that the government will gather
together all the men of color and Blacks in France to send them to Saint-Domingue and have them march
before the army which has been sent to annihilate them: you who say this will obtain nothing but our
contempt. It is true that I sent for my children and that they have not yet arrived. But though I am quite
annoyed with this delay for I asked for nothing but what belongs to me nevertheless I am far from
thinking in the same way as the wicked. Confident in the principles of honor and dignity of the French
government it would never enter my heart to suppose it has the projects you impute to it.
People of good faith, those attached to the prosperity of this country, the impartial who will reflect on what
you say can also not believe that if France abandoned this colony to its own devices at a time when its
enemies disputed its possession, that today, when its own children have rid it of all its enemies, it should
want to send an army there to destroy those men who have never ceased to serve it well and bring about the
annihilation of the landowners and land of the colony. They will feel that such a project could only have
been given birth to by the enemies of Saint-Domingue who, like you, are jealous of its prosperity; by men
who have not shared the suffering of those who there combated the enemies of the Republic, or who
collaborated in bringing calm order and public prosperity there. But in the case that the injustice you
suppose on the part of the French government is real, it is enough for me to tell you that a child who knows
the rights that nature gave him over the authors of his days demonstrates his obedience to his father and
mother, and that if despite his submission and obedience his father and mother are unnatural enough to
want to wipe him out he has nothing left to him but to place vengeance in the hands of God. I am a soldier
and I dont fear men: I fear only God. If I must die I will die like a soldier of honor who has nothing to
reproach himself for.
While waiting for the events whose evil threatens us I will nonetheless continue, as usual and in conformity
with the constitution, to see to it that persons and property are respected, to see to the prosperity of the
colony, to protect all individuals. But while the greatest protection has been accorded to peaceful
individuals it is my obligation to pursue the malicious and the disturbers of public peace. Consequently, the
constituted authorities of the colony are invited to denounce to me all those who, by their statements or
conduct, are capable of troubling the good order and tranquility we enjoy so that their deportation can be
ordered by me as unworthy to remain in a country they want to overturn. I also recommend to all the
generals and commanders of departments, arrondissements, and quarters the full and entire execution of my
proclamation of 4 Frimaire and to think well on all its points in order not to stray from the dispositions it
contains.
Brave military personnel, generals, officers, non-commissioned officers, and soldiers, do not listen to the
evil ones who ask nothing better than to do you harm in order to have a pretext to dishonor you. Attached
to the soil of this country, unite yourselves with your chief to render it fruitful and to preserve it in its
current state of prosperity. Ever on the path of honor, I will show you the route you must follow. You are
soldiers; you must be faithful observers of the subordination and military virtues, and must vanquish or die
at your posts.
The current address shall be printed, read, published, and posted wherever need be, transcribed in the
registers of administrative judicial bodies and sent throughout the colony.