The news of Leclerc's success reached Paris early in June,22 and set Bonaparte again in motion. Imagining that the blacks were at his mercy, orders were at once issued to provide for restoring them to slavery. The truth relating to this part of the subject, habitually falsified or concealed by Bonaparte and his admirers,23 remained hidden among the manuscript records of the Empire; but the order to restore slavery at Guadeloupe was given, June 14, by the Minister of the Marine to General Richepanse, who commanded there, and on the same day a similar instruction was sent to General Leclerc at St. Domingo, in each case leaving the general to act according to his discretion in the time and manner of proceeding.
"As regards the return of the blacks to the old régime, wrote the Minister to General Leclerc,24 "the bloody struggle out of which you have just come victorious with glory commands us to use the utmost caution. Perhaps we should only entangle ourselves in it anew if we wished precipitately to break that idol of liberty in whose name so much blood has flowed till now. For some time yet vigilance, order, a discipline at once rural and military, must take the place of the positive and pronounced slavery of the colored people of your colony. Especially the master's good usage must reattach them to his rule. When they shall have felt by comparison the difference between a usurping and tyrannical yoke and that of the legitimate proprietor interested in their preservation, then the moment will have arrived for making them return to their original condition, from which it has been so disastrous to have drawn them."
1 Correspondance, vii. 279; Bonaparte to Berthier, 16 Vendémiaire, An x. (Oct. 8, 1801).
2 Correspondance, vii. 298. Bonaparte to Berthier, 1 Brumaire, An x. (23 Oct. 1801).
3 Pamphile de Lacroix, Mémoires, ii. 277.
4 Vie de Toussaint, par Saint-Remy, p. 322.
5 Toussaint to President Adams, 16 Brumaire, An vii. (Nov. 6, 1798); MSS. State Department Archives.
6 Treaty of June 13, 1799; MSS. State Department Archives.
7 Toussaint to President Adams, Aug. 14, 1799; MSS. State Department Archives.
8 Stevens to Pickering, Feb. 13, 1800; MSS. State Department Archives.
9 Stevens to Pickering, April 19, 1800; MSS. State Department Archives.
10 Ibid.
11 Stevens to Pickering, May 24, 1800; MSS. State Department Archives.
12 Pamphile de Lacroix, Mémoires, ii. 52.
13 Lear to Madison, July, 1801; MSS. State Department Archives.
14 Pichon to Decrès, 18 Fructidor, An ix. (Sept. 5, 1801); Archives de la Marine, MSS.
15 Correspondance, vii. 319; Bonaparte to Talleyrand, 22 Brumaire, An x. (Nov. 13, 1801).
16 Correspondance, vii. 315; Proclamation, 17 Brumaire, An x. (Nov. 8, 1801).
17 Correspondance, vii. 322; Bonaparte to Toussaint, 27 Brumaire, An x. (Nov. 18, 1801).
18 Ibid., 327; Exposé de la situation de la République, 1 Frimaire, An x. (Nov. 22, 1801).
19 Pamphile de Lacroix, Mémoires, ii. 228.
20 Correspondance, vii. 413; Bonaparte to Leclerc, 25 Ventôse, An. x. (March 16, 1802).
21 Ibid., 503, 504; Bonaparte to Leclerc, 12 Messidor, An x. (July 1, 1802).
22 Moniteur, 24 Prairial, An x. (June 13, 1802).
23 Correspondance, xxx. 535; Notes sur St. Domingue.
24 Decrès to Leclerc, 25 Prairial, An x. (June 14, 1802); Archives de la Marine, MSS. Cf. Revue Historique, "Napoléon Premier et Saint Domingue," Janvier-Février, 1884.
Closure of the Mississippi
Simultaneously with the order to restore slavery at Guadeloupe and St. Domingo, Bonaparte directed his Minister of Marine to prepare plans and estimates for the expedition which was to occupy Louisiana. "My intention is to take possession of Louisiana with the shortest delay, and that this expedition be made in the utmost secrecy, under the appearance of being directed on St. Domingo."1 The First Consul had allowed Godoy to postpone for a year the delivery of Louisiana, but he would wait no longer. His Minister at Madrid, General Gouvion St.-Cyr, obtained at length a promise that the order for the delivery of Louisiana should be given by Charles IV. To the First Consul on two conditions: first, that Austria, England, and the dethroned Grand Duke of Tuscany should be made to recognize the new King of Etruria; second, that France should pledge herself "not to alienate the property and usufruct of Louisiana, and to restore it to Spain in case the King of Tuscany should lose the whole or the greater part of his estates."
To these demands Talleyrand immediately replied in a letter of instructions to Gouvion St.-Cyr, which was destined to a painful celebrity.2 After soothing and reassuring Spain on the subject of the King of Etruria, this letter came at last to the required pledge in regard to Louisiana:—
"Spain wishes that France should engage herself not to sell or alienate in any manner the property or enjoyment of Louisiana. Her wish in this respect perfectly conforms with the intentions of the French government,