PAPERS OF MIRABEAU Bu6NAPARTE LAMAR 537 ell any land, and had nothing to pledge but the faith of the embryo Govt; the non ratification of the :first conditional contract made by the Commissr, destroyed cill confide11ce in that pledge. 'fhe Commi r. found that money could not be borrowed in the U S at any rate of intere t, but could be had to any amount for land at :fifty Cents pr. Acre, What money they did obtain wa had for con- ditional contracts for land at fifty cents pr. Acre, with a pledge of their private ~state. for the ratification of the contracts by Govt. to the extent of the sums received. The writer of this article had not been a week in ew Orleans be- fore he ,vas called upon by a Gentleman of Capital and respectability as agent for a company of planter who aid "your Govt. wants "money, there is a company of us who have five hundred thousand '' dollars at command and want land if your Govt. will pas an act "authorising u to locate a million. acres of land the money hall be "placed at their di po ition on the instant, We prefer taking it in !'large bodies where it is clearly vacant our object being to ettle t0- ''gether if practicable, we do not want mall tracts amongst the settle- '' ments,'' (thi, wa before the battle of Sanjacinto) I replied that being in no wise co~nected with the Govt. I could expre s no opinion on the ubject of its disposition, but would con ult with Gentm. then in the City, who were recently .from Harri burg and if their opinion should be favorable would pa the proposition to the president being myself of. opinion that it ought to be accepted without he itation I applied to several Gentlemen, some who had been members of the Convention and other who were direct from Harrisburg on public service, they aid the matter had been discu 'd at Washington and at Harri burg and the majority were opposed to letting the land go at half a dollar pr Acre, I replied to the Gentleman Accordingly I mention the e things to hew that the want of money is solely owing to the ,noclus openundi of the everal Govts. and not to a want of a disposition in Capitalist to furnish money on such terms as would give them a chance of gain, in ca. e of the uccess of the Cause com- mensurate with the risk The grand mistake cems to have been too anguine a reliance upon the sympathie and good feelings of the monied men of the U S Capitalists do not permit their sympathies of feelings to enter into their business operation Financial uegociation are with them mat- ter of cold calculation of the chances of profit and loss Whilst in the U S I conver ed with many heavy capitalist with the express view of ascertaining how money could be bad with the greatest ea e and ·most favorable terms, Those di posed to hazard money in Texa , invariably aid \Ve will not lend you money for a f~w year , at any rate·of interc. t, not even at 30 pr Cent pr annum becau e we must run the risk of lo ing the capital in case of defeat and gain noth- ing ip case of success but a rate of interest which we can obtain here on securities slightly hazardous, By lending on interest we run all the risk of the war and the people of Texas get all the benefits but give us a fair chance of gain in case of ucce and you have as much money a you want; If you will not let u have land at half a dollar pr Acre give us a funded 8 pr Cent Stock irredeemable for fifty Years and you will get the money at par or near it, not that we expect your Govt.
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