take lands, on the terms provided for the payment of the loans already received by this contract (but ,vithout the premium) &c,- can any thing be plainer? "We have the privilege" we are not bound-and if we take the remainder of the loan it is to be on the terms provided for in the contract except as bonus, we get none of that, an other exception contained in an after clause towit: The lands if taken to be at fifty cents per acre and held on the terms compromised for on this contract, except the right to buy of individuals. Now that the bonus does not attach to the $180,000 of the loan which we have the privilege of taking every member of the cabinet who was a member when the contract was made will allow. Not one of them will contend that such was the intention or the expectation of either party, the privilege granted says, "The land if taken is to be at 50 cents per acre" Why "if taken" provided there was any thing binding, and how can any bonus attach if it is to be at 50 cents pr acre? S180,000 worth of land at 50 cents is 360,000 acres, any bonus would increase the quantity, and it would then not be at 50 cts. But further more you ,vill discover that the privilege is signed by the president only-it forms no part of the contract, it is not signed by the contractors and imposes no obligation upon them and when it was added it was by permission of the contractors, not at their solicitation for the fortunes of your country were then at their lowest ebb, and it was a very doubtful matter, whether or not, the privilege was desirable. But if any thing could be wanting to make this matter clear beyond the possibility of cavil it is to be found in the considerations for which the bonus was given, the final one being as follows: "and further more relinquishing their right to take more of it than to the amount paid up." here one of the considerations named for granting the bonus, is that the contractors "Shall relinquish their right to take more of the loan." It is very clear then that the bonus attaches to that part already taken, and not to that part which they relinquished the right to take, and when afterwards the necessities of the Government made it necessary for them to grant the privilege, did that give them the right to abrogate a contract already made, provided the lenders did not choose to avail themselves of the privilege? The privilege of taking the $180,000 of the loan under th~ original contract the lenders valued verry highly-but at the time of the compromise before the battle of San Jacinto they did not value the privilege of taking it upon the modified terms at any thing. Evry member of the cabinet at the time the privilege was added to take the remainder of the loan, knows that no consideration was allowed for it and it was especially and emphatically stated that it would not be received if it was in
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