Toussaint Louverture - Madison Bell [123]
Once he saw the expedition was inevitable, Vincent did all he could to ensure its success; it's clear that he hoped to regain the favor of the government in the process. He produced a checklist of dozens of men he knew in civil and military posts all over the country, with notes on their rank, their race, their character, and their most likely reaction to the appearance of this large French force. He furnished Captain General Leclerc with annotated maps and copious, detailed advice for his plan of attack. He sent a bundle of letters to men of all stations that he knew in the colony, in hopes of bringing about a peaceful reception for the French.
To Christophe, whom he thought likely to prove loyal to France when the chips came down, he wrote: “We count very much on your Help, my dear General, for the success of this great enterprise,”43 and exhorted him particularly to guarantee the security of Cap Francais for the French. To Leclerc, Vincent mentioned that Christophe would probably be forced to show any letters he received to both Toussaint and Moyse. In his checklist Vincent described Moyse as “a wicked young man … and infinitely dangerous,”44 but in his letter to him he said, “Let the brave men of Saint Domingue look with pleasure on the arrival of those who have only been sent to assure the rights of all … you can do a great deal, Citizen General, with the Spirit of your brothers, and my hope has always been that your conduct will assure the motherland of your obedience.”45 As it happened, Moyse was executed soon after Vincent wrote this letter, and long before it could reach him.
There was no letter for Dessalines, but in his notes Vincent observed that while the extent of that general's power should be greatly reduced, there was no one as efficient as he in getting work out of the blacks, so he ought, one way or another, to be retained in that role. To Pascal, now at the top of Toussaint's secretarial pool, he wrote, “It's up to you, who have the confidence of the General in Chief, to unite yourself with the Citizen Allier, whom I salute, to prevent Toussaint from straying.”46 At around the same time, Allier (another of Toussaint's white secretaries) wrote to his family in France that he was throwing in his lot with Toussaint forever and so must bid them forever adieu.
Because he had so staunchly defended Toussaint's loyalty to France, Vincent had a major personal interest in Toussaint's reaction to the expedition. “Through you,” he wrote to the general in chief, “I may become the happiest or most unhappy of men.” Before he left Saint Domingue, Vincent had perceived Toussaint to be in the grip of an “occult force”; now he tried addressing himself directly to Toussaint's guardian angel. “Let not your good (but always too defiant) Spirit conceive any anxiety over these great dispositions—they spring from the vast genius of the great man [Napoleon] who is directing everything. His character is to love everything that is great; I am sure that no one esteems you so much as he; he knows that you have done great things, that you have been humane and Generous; the Restorer of a France made larger by his works will never lose sight of one who, without (so to speak) receiving any help from the metropole, has nonetheless known how to chase her most dangerous enemies out