Ogé’s armed resistance had encouraged the men of colour in the south to demand their rights; but they were easily dispersed, and their chief, Rigaud, taken prisoner. These isolated and irresolute outbreaks rendered the division between the coloured and the white population more marked than ever; the latter despised the former for their wretched resistance, while the coloured men were indignant at the cruel and unsparing executions which marked the close of Ogé’s career. Monsieur Blanchelande was then Governor, a weak man at the head of the Royalist party, who had not the courage to follow the energetic counsels of Colonel Mauduit. By his vacillation all discipline was lost both in the army and in the fleet, and the revolutionary party rose in arms in Port-au-Prince, murdered Colonel Mauduit, and drove the pusillanimous Governor to seek refuge in the plain of Cul-de-Sac. Thus the whites were everywhere divided, but were still strong enough to disperse any assembly of the freedmen. The news of the troubles in Hayti produced a great effect in Paris, and the Constituent Assembly determined to send three commissioners to restore tranquillity; but they prefaced this measure by decreeing (May 15, 1791) that every man of colour born of free parents should enjoy equal political rights with the whites. On the planters declaring that this would bring about civil war and the loss of the colony, the famous phrase was uttered, “Perish the colonies rather than a principle,” which phrase has not been forgotten by those amongst us who would sacrifice India to the perverse idea of abandoning our high political status in the world. When the substance of this decree reached Hayti, it roused to fury the passions of the whites; all sections united in declaring that they would oppose its execution even by force of arms, and a strong party was formed either to declare the independence of the colony, or, if that were not possible, to invite England to take possession. The coloured men, on the other hand, determined to assert their rights, and held secret meetings to bring about an accord among all the members of their party; and when they heard that Governor Blanchelande had declared he would not execute the decree, they summoned their followers to meet at Mirebalais in the western department. The whites in the meantime determined that the second Colonial Assembly should be elected before the official text of the dreaded decree of the 15th May should arrive; and so rapidly did they act, that on the 1st August 1791 the Assembly met at Leogâne, and was opened under the presidency of the Marquis de Cadusch, a Royalist. They called Governor Blanchelande to the bar of the House, and made him swear that he would not carry into effect the law giving equal rights to the freedmen. As Cap Haïtien had become in reality the capital of the colony, both the Governor and the Assembly soon removed there.