To Thomas Jefferson from Jean Pierre Paulin Hector Daure, 10 November 1802
From Jean Pierre Paulin Hector Daure
Au Cap, le 19 Brumaire an 11 de la
république. 10 Novembre 1802.
Monsieur le Président.
Je profite du passage du Citoyen Perrin Capitaine, aide de camp du Général en chef Leclerc, Pour vous annoncer que nous avons perdu ce respectable chef dans la nuit du 10 au 11 Brumaire.
Le Général Rochambeau est appelé par le gouvernement français, au Commandement de cette armée, je l’attends d’un moment à l’autre, il était au port-au-prince.
J’espére, monsieur le président que la mort du Général en chef Leclerc, ne diminuera point, votre bienveillance pour la Colonie de Saint Domingue.
nos derniers Succès ont été complets Sur les insurgés.
Je vous prie, Monsieur le président, d’agréer mes Salutations respectueuses.
J. Daure
EDITORS’ TRANSLATION
At Cap-Français, 19 Brumaire, Year 11 of
the Republic 10 Nov. 1802
Mister President.
I am taking advantage of the passage of Citizen Perrin, captain and aide-de-camp to commander Leclerc, to inform you that we lost this esteemed leader during the night of 10–11 Brumaire.
The French government has called General Rochambeau to command the army. I expect him any minute. He was in Port-au-Prince.
I hope, Mister President, that the death of commander Leclerc will not diminish your good will toward the colony of Saint-Domingue.
Our most recent victories over the insurgents have been complete.
Please accept, Mister President, my respectful greetings.
J. Daure
RC (DLC); on Daure’s printed letterhead stationery as colonial prefect for the western part of the colony of Saint-Domingue; letterhead includes the slogan “Liberté, Égalité” and partial dateline, with blank for day and month filled by Daure; English date added by Daure; at head of text: “Capitaine Général, (Par intérim)” and “À Monsieur Jefferson, Président des états unis”; endorsed by TJ as received 8 Jan. 1803 and so recorded in SJL.
Jean Pierre Paulin Hector Daure (1774–1846) accompanied the French expeditionary force to Saint-Domingue in the fall of 1801 as the chief pay commissioner of Victoire Emmanuel Leclerc’s army. Daure had formerly held a similar position with French armies in Egypt and Italy. After Pierre Bénézech, the colonial prefect at Cap-Français, died of yellow fever in the spring of 1802, Leclerc gave Bénézech’s duties to Daure and the home government formally appointed him the colonial prefect for Saint-Domingue. Daure later served as a minister in the government of the kingdom of Naples, where he reputedly had an affair with the queen, Bonaparte’s sister Caroline, and entered into an unsuccessful intrigue against the king, Caroline’s husband Joachim Murat. Daure was the chief paymaster of Napoleon’s army during the invasion of Russia, and later became master of petitions (maître des requêtes) of the Conseil d’État. Daure identified himself as Hector Daure on the stationery he used for the letter printed above (Thierry Lentz and others, eds., Napoléon Bonaparte: Correspondance Général, 6 vols. to date [Paris, 2004– ], 3:248, 829, 1334; , 374, 571; Paul Roussier, ed., Lettres du Général Leclerc, commandant en chef de l’armée de Saint-Domingue en 1802 [Paris, 1937], 172, 245, 248; Vol. 35:535, 539n).
NOUS AVONS PERDU CE RESPECTABLE CHEF: Leclerc died of complications of yellow fever during the night of 1–2 Nov. On 31 Oct., he dictated orders from his deathbed that gave the Vicomte de ROCHAMBEAU command of the army in Saint-Domingue (Henri Mézière, Le général Leclerc (1772–1802) et l’expédition de Saint-Domingue [Paris, 1990], 237–8; Vol. 35:539n).