He was empowered to do so by Bonaparte's orders of March 16th, 1802: "Follow your instructions exactly, and as soon as you have done with Toussaint, Christopher, Dessalines, and the chief brigands, and the masses of the blacks are disarmed, send to the continent all the blacks and the half-castes who have taken part in the civil troubles." Toussaint was hurried off to France, where he died a year later from the hardships to which he was exposed at the fort of Joux among the Juras.
Long before the cold of a French winter claimed the life of Toussaint, his antagonist fell a victim to the sweltering heats of the tropics.
On November 2nd, 1802, Leclerc succumbed to the unhealthy climate and to his ceaseless anxieties.

In the Notes dictated at St.Helena, Napoleon submitted Leclerc's memory to some strictures for his indiscretion in regard to the proposed restoration of slavery.

The official letters of that officer expose the injustice of the charge.
The facts are these.

After the seeming submission of St.Domingo, the First Consul caused a decree to be secretly passed at Paris (May 20th, 1802), which prepared to re-establish slavery in the West Indies; but Decres warned Leclerc that it was not for the present to be applied to St.Domingo unless it seemed to be opportune.

Knowing how fatal any such proclamation would be, Leclerc suppressed the decree; but General Richepanse, who was now governor of the island of Guadeloupe, not only issued the decree, but proceeded to enforce it with rigour.