207
PAPERS OF MIRABEAU BuoNAPARTE LAMAR
No. 1583 1839 Dec. 23, M. B. LAMAR, [AUSTIN, TEXAS]. VETO :MESSAGE 39
Veto l\Iessage
Executive Department beer 23, 1839
To the Hon
House of Representatives
I have bad the honor to receive the Joint Reso- lution40 of both branches of Congress in Secret session, entitled a "Resolution of Instruction to the Commissioners to negotiate a Loan" which I am constrained, after a full deliberation, and with every sen- timent of respect to yourselves, to return without my approval, together with a brief statement of some of the more important considerations which have impelled me to the exercise of this Constitutional pre- rogative. By the Resolution the Commissioners are instructed so to contract for the Loan, that one fifth part only, shall be paid at the time of con- tracting, and the ballance at four equal annual or eight semi-annual instalments- a restriction which will not only embarrass the whole operation, and impede the project of a pacific adjustment of our diffi- culties with l\Iexico, but may result in the total defeat of both objects, and leave the credit of the country and its prospects of peace in a less flattering condition than we now find them. The imperative instructions to contract for the Loan so as to receive not more than one fifth part of it in any one year, is equivalent to a mandate not to negociate a Loan for a larger amount than one million of dcllars, as the fluctuations to which the monetary affairs of the world is exposed would prevent any contractor from stipulating to give at any remote period, a rate which would be at all commensurate with the present value of the bonds. The price at which the Capi- talists would be willing to receiYe them now, they would not be willing to obligate themselves to give some five years hence, and risk the vicis- situdes and changes which the events of that period may produce. One of the principal objects which large purchasers have in view in advancing their money on securities of this kind, is the opportunity which is afforded them by the occasional advance in Stocks, to make ~ profit by selling small parcels of the same securities to less opulent and less adventurous speculators, and this important object would at once be defeated if they could not receive the bonds immediately after making the contract, or if the bonds when received were not available in the Stock market. If the Commissioners however should succeed in effecting their ob- ject, notwithstanding the serious impediment which this resolution in- terposes, still the great and important ends for which the loan is to
"'Copy. In no. 361, p. 180.
' 0 Printed in Winkler, E. W., Searet Journals of the Senate, Republic of Texas, p. 160.
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