mong other considerations which
rendered this convenient, the chief was that he thus avoided much
collision with the French officials, which must otherwise have taken
place. All the commissaries, who rapidly succeeded one another from
Paris, resided at Government-House, in Cap Francais. Thence, they
issued orders and regulations in the name of the government at home;
orders and regulations which were sometimes practicable, sometimes
unwise, and often absurd. If Toussaint had resided at Cap, a constant
witness of their ignorance of the minds, manners, and interests of the
blacks--if he had been there to listen to the complaints and appeals
which would have been daily made, he could scarcely have kept terms for
a single week with the French authorities. By establishing himself in
the south, while they remained in the north, he was able quietly to
neutralise or repair much of the mischief which they did, and to execute
many of his own plans without consulting them; while many a grievance
was silently borne, many an order simply neglected, which would have
been a cause of quarrel, if any power of redress had been at hand.
Jealous as he was for the infant freedom of his race, Toussaint knew
that it would be best preserved by weaning their minds from thoughts of
anger, and their eyes from the sight of blood. Trust in the better part
of negro nature guided him in his choice between two evils. He
preferred that they should be misgoverned in some affairs of secondary
importance, and keep the peace, rather than that they should be governed
to their hearts' content by himself, at the risk of quarrel with the
mother-country. He trusted to the singular power of forbearance and
forgiveness which is found in the negro race for the preservation of
friendship with the whites and of the blessings of peace; and he
therefore reserved his own powerful influence over both parties for
great occasions--interfering only when he perceived that, through
carelessness or ignorance, the French authorities were endangering some
essential liberty of those to whom they were the medium of the pleasure
of the government at home. The blacks were aware that the vigilance of
their Commander-in-chief over their civil rights never slept, and that
his interference always availed; and these convictions ensured their
submission, or at least their not going beyond passive resistance on
ordinary occasions, and thus strengthened their habits of peace.

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