The Counter Revolution of June-July 55 



distinction and ask that their deputations be increased." It was 

 not without surprise, he asserted, that he had heard as an argument 

 for permitting this numerous deputation of San Domingo that 

 negroes who did not have the right to protest in the temple of 

 liberty, were the producers of wealth; so were the cattle and the 

 horses which belonged to the people in France. By what right had 

 these 23,000 whites excluded men, free like themselves, from the 

 assembly and then asked representation for them ? By what right 

 had these 23,000 whites chosen men to represent the negroes whom 

 they had excluded from the assembly ? " Do they believe that we 

 shall not represent them, that we shall not defend their cause? 

 Deputies should be accorded in proportion to the number of those 

 having suffrage. This is the general law and it is the same for 

 France and for San Domingo. "^^° Gouy d'Arsy, deputy of San 

 Domingo, desired to correct some errors which had been made 

 during the debate. He said : " The inhabitants of San Domingo 

 ask that the delegation be increased to twenty, not because of am- 

 bition but because they deem that this number is necessary in order 

 to thoroughly understand the great work to which they are called. 

 San Domingo should not be compared to the provinces of the 

 kingdom for the colony is remote, isolated, and the soil, the in- 

 habitants, the culture, the wealth, all are different. "^^^ 



The Point du jour states that Gouy d'Arsy said that " the 

 population should not be the only thermometer to determine the 

 size of the deputation. The number of deputies should be based 

 on the number of inhabitants, the riches of the country, its extent 

 and the contributions which it pays ; that according to this, San 

 Domingo, paying 12,000,000 direct taxes and 60,000,000 indirect 

 should have a large representation. Regarding negro slavery 

 and the abolition of the traffic M. de Gouy pretended that if the 

 assembly found the means of uniting the preservation of the 



^^'^ Assemhlee nationale, I, 330-331. 



~^''- Assemblee nationale, I, 334; Duquesnoy, Journal,!, 160, said in speak- 

 ing of the speech : " C'est en tout un des plus grands diseurs de rien que 

 je connaisse." Bulletins de I'assemblee nationale, ]uly 3; Gazette de Leyde, 

 Sup. No. 56 (July 5) ; Biauzat, Sa vie et sa correspondence, II, 157; Point 

 du jour, I, 106, gives the speech for July 4, but this is evidently a mistake. 



337 



