menl or any other would so far defy public opinion as to act upon such arbitrary principles, when if honor and an entire sense of Justice would not secure a different course, but knowing as I do that you cannot intend any other than a course of honor and thal it is the only one under which you can be sustained, I am the more assured that you intend only what is jusl however, you may differ from the conlractors in opinion and am the more inclined lo this belief from the closing paragraph in your communication where you say "or lastly we arc willing to consumatc Lhe modified contract, according lo our urzderslarzdirzg ofit; and for this purpose Thomas Toby Esq. our agent will be instructed so soon as you shall have paid him the balance due by the contract, or satisfactorily arranged the same, to issue in your favor, scrip for the full amount of Land at fifty cents pr acre and also for the premium It being distinctly stated in the scrip that you arc to pay the surveying clues &c." You say you arc willing to consumate the modified contract according lo your understanding of it the lallcr clause is admissable with a Government because it admits of no superior tribunal to decide between it and those with whom it conlracls, but "your understanding of it" does not of course preclude Lhe true construction, if that can be made manifest and Lhat the true construction docs not require any farther payment in order to entitle the first contractors to their whole bonus. I am satisfied I can convince you. Had you been a member of the Cabinet when this compromise was made you could not have supposed that Lhc bonds had any connection with the permission lo take the remaining nine percent of the loan, for the previous part of the contract had been made and finally completed, several days, or at least one, before that permission was added; and the reason why that permission came to he added was this: After closing the contract of compromise Mr. Hall the purchasing agent al New Orleans, came on wilh his accounts, and reported that without money supplies for the Government could not be furnished much longer, the cabinet were at a loss how lo raise the money, for Lhcn it appeared to be understood, that no power existed lo sell land or part with it Except under the power to make Lhe compromise with the loan contractors, and for the want of other powers to sell, the cabinet availed themselves of the compromise to do it, nol by contract with the lenders, but by a permission to take the remaining nine pr. cent or one hundred & Eighty thousand Dollars-The language is "The lenders or contractors aforesaid of Loth loans in proporlion to their original subscriptions shall have the privilege of paying up the remainder of the loan and shall have the option lo
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