FOUCHÉ (Joseph). Letter signed TO JOSEPH BONAPARTE.... Lot 35

FOUCHÉ (Joseph). Letter signed TO JOSEPH BONAPARTE. Paris, 18 fructidor year XII [September 5, 1804]. 1 p. in-4, letterhead printed "Le sénateur, ministre de la Police générale de l'Empire" with copper-engraved vignette of the Ministry. "The interest you take in Mr. S[o]nthonax inspires in me the keenest desire to soften his position. I HAVE HAD THE HONOUR OF PROPOSING TO HIS MAJESTY THE EMPEROR THAT THE ORDER AGAINST HIM BE REVOKED. I will always eagerly seize the opportunity to do something pleasing to V[otre] A[ltesse] I[mpériale]... "LIBERATOR OF THE BLACKS IN SAINT-DOMINGUE, THE LAWYER AND POLITICAL POLITICIST SONTHONAX (1763-1813) had been close to Brissot and Condorcet, and, sent in 1793 to Santo Domingo, had abolished slavery there. He had then attracted the hatred of the colonists, but also that of certain mulatto owners who saw the advantages of equality but the end of slavery as a disadvantage. Once again sent as commissioner to Santo Domingo in 1796, he instituted Toussaint Louverture as head of the island's troops, was elected deputy to the Council of Five Hundred, but had to return by force to France. To carry out his 1793 mission, he had for a time relied on a mulatto, Jean-Baptiste Lapointe, who turned against him and denounced him under the Consulate as a republican violently hostile to Napoleon Bonaparte. Despite Joseph Bonaparte's support, Sonthonax was then exiled from Paris.