To Shining Sea - Chapter 23
President Jefferson’s new policy with France, July 1801
The Unveiling of Canadian History, Volume 4.
To Shining Sea – Ireland, Haiti, and Louisiana, and the Idea of a Continental Republic, 1797 – 1804.
Part 3 – The Louisiana Frontier
Chapter 23 - President Jefferson’s new policy with France, July 1801
When Thomas Jefferson became president, the United States’ policy towards Saint-Domingue began to change - stopping slave revolts was more important than supporting republicanism! And so, the diplomatic dance of Bonaparte and Jefferson began.
Thomas Jefferson, by Rembrandt Peale (1801)
Consul Bonaparte and his foreign secretary Talleyrand wished to restore France’s North American colonies – by re-colonizing Saint-Domingue and by re-acquiring Louisiana (that France had given to Spain at the end of the French and Indian War). Saint-Domingue was the ‘goose that laid the golden egg’ of France’s West Indien islands. Because Britain controlled the Caribbean seas, Saint-Domingue couldn’t be reliably supplied from France, but, through its port of New Orleans, Louisiana could supply the needed food stuffs to Saint-Domingue and Guadeloupe.
In August 1800, Bonaparte had sent General Berthier (who had assisted him in the coup d’etat of 18 Brumaire) on a mission to Spain, resulting in a secret agreement to return Louisiana to France, in exchange for territory in Italy, signed on October 1st – one day after the Convention had been agreed to by the French and American commissioners !?!
When France and Austria signed the Treaty of Luneville on February 9th 1801, that awarded the Grand Duchy of Tuscany to France, this now allowed Bonaparte to give Tuscany to Spain in exchange for Louisiana, when France and Spain signed their Treaty of Aranjuez on March 21st.
However, Spanish officials would remain to administer Louisiana until French officials could arrive to assume the administration of the territory, and although preparations were begun for a French expedition to Louisiana, the expedition never sailed!
Although the cession of Louisiana was kept secret from the United States, Rufus King, their minister to Britain, wrote to Secretary of State, James Madison, on March 29th 1801, that:
“in confirmation of the rumours of the day … in all probability … the cession of Tuscany … adds very great credit to the opinion which at this time prevails both at Paris and London, that Spain has in return actually ceded Louisiana and the Floridas to France.”
But before both Bonaparte and Talleyrand could begin to rebuild France’s colonial empire in the West Indies, they first must know the intentions of United States and of their new president, Thomas Jefferson, towards Saint-Domingue. Talleyrand now sent Louis Pichon, as France’s charge d’affaires to the United States, ‘to fathom what is going on with respect to our colonies’ – i.e. Saint-Domingue.
On May 11th 1801, Tobias Lear was appointed United States’ general commercial agent to Saint-Domingue, replacing consul general Dr. Stevens, who wished to return to the United States due to his ill health, suffering from malaria.
[Note the down-grading of the position by Madison and Jefferson - from ‘consul general’ to ‘general commercial agent’!]
After arriving at Cap Francois on July 4th, Lear wrote to Madison, of the republican changes coming for Saint-Domingue, that:
“a new and important era has commenced here. A Constitution has been formed for the government of this island, by Deputies called together for that purpose by the General in Chief. It was read in public, with great parade, on the 7th instant. It is not yet printed for the public. It declares General Toussaint, Governor for life, with the power of naming his successor. It is to be submitted to the French Republic for approbation; but in the meantime, it is to have effect here in the island.”
Note: After abolishing slavery in Spanish Santo Domingo and after uniting the entire island under his command, General Toussaint had called for an election. Ten men were to be chosen for a Central Assembly – two from each of the five departments of the island: the North, West and South Provinces in the French part; and the Engana and the Samana Departments in the former Spanish part. Of the ten chosen, six were white, three were mulatto, and one died before the first meeting on February 4th. A new constitution for Saint-Domingue (using Hamilton’s draft as a model) was agreed to in May, and on July 7th it was proclaimed into law.
In late July, President Jefferson met with Pichon, France’s charge-d’affaires. President Jefferson, by this time, knew of the probability of the French acquiring Louisiana, but had not yet received any reports from Lear. Pichon would report on the meeting in his letter to Talleyrand on July 22nd.
According to Pichon’s despatch, the President asked Pichon if he had any news from Saint-Domingue, since he had not yet heard of these recent developments from Lear. Pichon said no, but then asked the president whether or not the United States favored the plans of Toussaint.
President Jefferson hastened to assure him that his administration did NOT approve, but so long as France remained powerless to act, nothing could be done; the trade of the island was extremely important to the United States, and if the government considered prohibiting this traffic, it would unnecessarily get into difficulties with Toussaint and seriously compromise itself in public opinion.
Pichon then expressed his belief in the utility to both nations of this commerce, which, if interrupted, would cause Toussaint to turn to the British, and he asked, if France were in a position to act, would it not be possible to arrange a concert with the United States, in order to accomplish more quickly the conquest of the colony?
President Jefferson replied that it could be possible:
“without difficulty; but in order that this concert may be complete and effective, you must first make peace with Britain; then nothing would be easier than to furnish your army and fleet with everything, and to reduce Toussaint to starvation.”
He continued, that Pichon should not think there was a sentiment in the United States favorable to Toussaint – was not the negro a menace to two-thirds of the states? – did not Britain herself have everything to fear from him? – that:
“she would doubtless participate in a concert to suppress this rebellion, and independently of her fears for her own colonies, I am sure, she is observing like us how St. Domingo is becoming another Algiers in the seas of America.”
President Jefferson also had in his mind the slave rebellion that had occurred in Virginia the previous summer. It was claimed that black slaves, who had come to the United States with their French masters as refugees from Saint-Domingue ‘had been infected with the malady of insurrection’ and, as these island slaves mingled with Virginia’s slaves and bondmen, they would have passed on word of the revolution and freedom from slavery taking place there.
As Monroe would write in March 1802:
“The scenes which are acted in St. Domingo must produce an effect on all the people of colour in this and the states south of us, more especially our slaves, and it is our duty to be on guard to prevent any mischief resulting from it.”
That rebellion in the summer of 1800 - Gabriel’s Rebellion - involved (perhaps) a thousand of rebelling slaves in the counties of Henrico, Chesterfield, Louisa, Caroline and Hanover, that had planned to march on the capital city of Richmond – one group would set fire to the warehouse district, as a diversion, while another group would seize the guns stored in the Capitol and would take the governor, James Monroe, hostage (but would leave him unharmed).
Note: There had also been a promise from two French army veterans (Quersey and Beddenhurst) to help the slaves in the rebellion, but this information was NOT to be brought up during the trials – perhaps due to rumours that Jefferson, if elected, would call upon France to aid in a planned civil war (!?!) Any evidence was sent directly to Governor Monroe, and was never turned over to the courts, or was ever found.
The uprising was set to occur on the night of August 30th, but due to a ‘most terrible thunder storm, accompanied with an enormous rain’, most of the rebels were unable to reach the appointed meeting place. The plot was discovered, and Governor Monroe removed the guns from the capitol and placed them in the penitentiary, and called into service the militia – that would roam the countryside searching for any conspirators – in all, 65 were arrested. Those arrested would be tried in special courts – in the county where they were arrested, not where their masters resided; with no juries, but in a court of at least 5 justices of the peace; and with no appeal, except to the Governor. And, by law, the owners of the guilty slaves were to be compensated by the state for their loss!
The trials began on September 11th, and the hangings of the guilty began on the 12th! While some were found not guilty and acquitted, and while some were found guilty but were pardoned by the governor, 27 were found guilty – to be hanged. On October 10th, Gabriel became the 25th person to be hanged. [ironically, 8 days earlier, a slave named Nathaniel Turner was born]. The last to be hanged was Peter on October 24th in Petersburg.
But, since the condemned slaves had died at the hands of the court, the owners had to be compensated in full – totaling $8,899.91!!! Militia duties had cost another $5,431, plus the penitentiary and jail bills! The financial impact provided an effective brake on further hangings – given the immense numbers who are implicated in the plot, failure to stop the hangings not only would bankrupt the state but also produce the annihilation of Virginia’s black working class. If subjected to ‘transportation’ outside of the country, rather than hanged, they could be sold to a trader and the proceeds could be placed back in the state treasury!
In regards to this resolution on ‘transportation’, President Jefferson would later propose the use of Saint-Domingue as a dumping ground for Virginia’s (slave) conspirators or criminals !?! – like Britain did in Australia !?!
Jefferson wrote to Monroe on November 24th 1801, about whether to purchase lands in the ‘country, north of the Ohio’ to transport the conspirators:
“[this purchase] might perhaps be a more expensive provision than the House of Representatives contemplated”
or about transporting them ‘beyond the limits of the US’:
“the West Indies offer a more probable & practicable retreat for them: inhabited already by a people of their own race & colour; climates congenial with their natural constitution; insulated from the other descriptions of men; nature seems to have formed these islands to become the receptacle of the blacks transported into this hemisphere … the most promising portion of them is the island of St. Domingo, where the blacks are established into a sovereignty de facto, & have organised themselves under regular laws & government.
I should conjecture that their present ruler might be willing, on many considerations, to receive even that description which would be exiled for acts deemed criminal by us, but meritorious perhaps by him. The possibility that these exiles might stimulate & conduct vindictive or predatory descents on our coasts, & facilitate concert with their brethren remaining here, looks to a state of things between that island & us not probable on a contemplation of our relative strength, and of the disproportion daily growing: and it is over-weighed by the humanity of the measures proposed, & the advantages of disembarrassing ourselves of such dangerous characters.”
In July, while Pichon was meeting with President Jefferson in the American capital, William Vans Murray was in Paris meeting with Talleyrand and Bonaparte concerning the ratification of the Convention with France that had been agreed to but amended by the Senate.
The French commissioners were not pleased with the provisional ratification. They did not object to the Senate placing a limitation of 8 years on the convention but would not accept a suppression of the 2nd article because France could still be held liable for payment of indemnities. They thought that France should agree to the removal of the article only if the United States would renounce its indemnities claim – that would bring the negotiations back to where it had been before the convention was agreed to – at an impasse. It was at this time that:
“the ill health of Talleyrand has obliged him to go to the baths an hundred and eighty miles from Paris. He will be absent a month.”
But, also at this time, a British emissary arrived in Paris!!!
[next week - chapter 24 - The Leclerc Instructions, October 31st 1801]
*************
For those who may wish to support my continuing work on ‘The Unveiling of Canadian History’, you may purchase my books, that are available as PDFs and Paperback (on Amazon) at the Canadian Patriot Review :
Volume 1 – The Approaching Conflict, 1753 – 1774.
Volume 2 – Forlorn Hope – Quebec and Nova Scotia, and the War for Independence, 1775 – 1785.
And hopefully,
Volume 3 – The Storming of Hell – the War for the Territory Northwest of Ohio, 1786 – 1796, and
Volume 4 – Ireland, Haiti, and Louisiana – the Idea of a Continental Republic, 1797 – 1804,
may also appear in print, in the near future, while I continue to work on :
Volume 5 – On the Trail of the Treasonous, 1804 - 1814.