"[...] Pétion, a magnificent soldier, freedom fighter is also a politician, a decoder of conjunctures. A thinking head, as we say of a research head, endeavoring to bring out the intelligible in the web of events. It is in the development, the heat and above all the gravity of these events that the historical individual is most often revealed. From the day of embarkation for Santo Domingo, with the troops of the expedition, begins to truly build this political spirit called to weigh so strongly on the destiny of the Haitian people.

[...] Then Pétion, on the boat 'La Virtue', the frigate which transported the mulattoes, seeing in the distance the flames of the fire of the Cap, drops, like a sigh, '...We will not go to Madagascar !' Already assured that Toussaint was not going to let it go and that Leclerc’s staff would need the service and experience of his brothers.

From that day, until practically his accession to the presidency of Haiti, on March 9, 1807, Alexandre Pétion is despite himself, and sometimes, deliberately involved in most of the major events at the apotheosis of January 1st, 1804 and the emergence of this Republic."

(Alexandre Pétion: April 2, 1770 – March 29, 1818)

Source : Pierre Buteau, "La Fondation de la République, Les Trésors de la République", pp 194 - 201

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