742 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1805. 



Of IVorship- 

 •The la^v admits of no predomi- 

 nant religion. The freedom of wor- 

 ship is tolerated. 1 he state does 

 not provide for the maintenance of 

 any religious institution, nor of any 

 minister. 



General Dispositions. 

 The crimes ot high treason, the 

 dilapidations of the ministers and 

 generals, shall be judged by a spe- 

 cial council, called and provided by 

 the emperor. — The house of every 



citizen is an inriolable asylum. 



All property which formerly be- 

 longed to any white Frenchman, is 

 incontestibly, and of right, confis- 

 cated to the use of the state. 



Every Hayfian, who, having pur- 

 chased property from a white 

 Frenchman, may have paid part of 

 the purchasc-moneystipulated in the 

 act of sale, shall be re.'^ponsible to 

 the domains of the state for the re- 

 mainder of the sum due. Mar- 



riage is an act purely civil, and au- 

 thorised by the government. — The 

 Jaw authorises divorce in all cases 

 ■which shall have been previously 



provided for and determined. 



There shall be natioaal festivals for 

 celebrating independence, the birth- 

 day of (he emperor and his august 

 spouse, that of agriculture and of 



the constitution. At the first 



firing of the alarm gun, the citias 

 will disappear and the nation rjse. 



We, the undersigned, place under 

 the safeguard of the magistrates, 

 fathers and mothers of families, the 

 citizens, and the arm^ , the explicit 

 and solemn covenant of the sacred 

 rights of man and the duties of the 

 citizen. We recommend it to our 

 successors, and present it to the 

 friends of liberty, to philanthropists 

 of all countries, as a signal pbdge 

 of the divine bounty, who, in the 

 course of his immortal decrees, has 

 given us an opportunity of break, 

 ing our fetters, and of constituting 

 ourselves a people, free, civilized, 

 and independent. 

 (Signed) 



H.Christophe. &c. (as before.) 

 Having seen the present constitu. 

 tion, we, Jacques Dessalines, em- 

 peror I. of Hayfi, and commander- 

 in-chief of the army, by the grace 

 of God, and the constitutional law 

 of the state, accept it wholly, and 

 sanction it, that it may receive, with 

 the least possible delay, its full and 

 entire execution throughout the 

 whole of our empire. And v^c swear 

 to maintain it, and to cau.se it to be 

 observed in its integrity to the last 

 breath of our life. Done at the im- 

 perial palace of Dessalines, the 20th 

 May, 1803, second year of the in- 

 dependence of Hayti, and of our 

 By the emperor, 

 Dessalines. 

 Juste Chanlatte, Sec. Gen. 



reign the first 



CHARACTERS, 



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