Since 15 July 1789, a first assembly of "settlers residing in Paris" met at the initiative of
Louis-Marthe de Gouy d'Arsy in order to obtain the representation of the colonies in the Assembly and the creation in the colonies of colonial assemblies exercising local political control. The club created correspondence companies in ports. This was to prevent the Assembly from taking measures hindering the interests of the settlers. The Massiac club was dominated by personalities, like Gouy d'Arsy, from the nobility and holders of immense fortunes in
Saint-Domingue, as well as by the
Martinican Creole Médéric Louis Élie Moreau de Saint-Méry, theoretician of the club. The group relied in the Assembly on
Malouet,
Barnave, as well as on
Alexandre de Lameth. In his Monday session of 8 March 1790, Sieur Barnave, rapporteur of the Colonial Committee, read a report on the work of this committee, then submitted to the Assembly a draft decree whose preamble declared that:
"Considering the colonies as a part of the French empire and desiring them to enjoy the happy regeneration which has taken place there, she however never intended to include them in the Constitution which she decreed for the kingdom, and to subject them to laws which could be incompatible with their local conveniences or particulars”. Six articles followed which indicated the means for each colony to equip itself with the administration which 'best suited' its prosperity and that of its inhabitants by conforming to the principles which bound the colonies to the metropolis by "ensuring the conservation of their respective interests". The Massiac Club campaigned
against the equality rights of
free men of colour as well as against the most active defenders of
equality rights. As such, the club accused
Abbé Grégoire of acting under the improper influence of his brother who was married to a woman of colour. ==The claim for twenty seats in the Estates-General==