SAINT-DOMINGUE. Jacques LOISEAU, Creole landowner... Lot 307

SAINT-DOMINGUE. Jacques LOISEAU, Creole landowner and magistrate, honorary councillor then president of the Conseil Supérieur de Cap-Français in Saint-Domingue. Manuscript, Discours de M. Loiseau lors de sa réception en l'office de Président du Conseil Supérieur, February 4, 1778; 12pages in-fol. (wetness and small marginal tears). "L'amour de la Patrie n'est pas une vain chimere imaginée pour tromper les âmes retrecies de quelques Citoyens sédentaires ou timides: c'est une vertu innée dans presque tous les hommes; c'est un ressort intérieur, une attraction intime qui se forme avec le sang; une espèce de force magnetique qui remene toûjours l'âme vers son pôle. [...] in the midst of the tumult and grand spectacles of the capital I have always felt this propensity for my country; and without being able to define this inner emptiness, these ever-present anxieties, I saw myself imperatively carried towards St Domingue, but the first of my wishes before seeing this colony again was to take back a State where it seemed to me that my fellow-citizens had seen me with pleasure, to spend my life there among magistrates from whom I promised myself feelings that I am resolved to acquire by all the care of which humanity can be capable: here you are, Messrs., the project which has made me desire the honor of presiding over this respectable Court"... Etc.