WRITINGS OF 5AM HOUSTON, 1827
119
very grave and serious consideration of the General Assembly. It is true, that according to a!l the ordinary rules governing com- pacts, the sellers are bound to pay, and without hesitation, the amount stipulated as the price of their lands; but it must at the same time be confess~d, that the contract in some of its leading features bears the stamp of obligation submitted-to under duress. The occupants of that country were with very few exceptions poor, and dEStitute of visible effects of any kind; they had migrated from the older states because they were poor; they had made small improvements at the imminent hazard of their lives~ and had for several years formed a barrier between the Holston settlements and their savage foes. The era of peace and pros- perity to other parts of the country, found them in possession of their humble log cabins, unable to leave them in the hope of procuring better, and prepared in their minds to cling to the spot endeared to them by so many interesting recollections, what- ever might be the terms of tenure imposed on them by the govern- ment. If in this -situation they are forced to raise obligation on themselves which they might then believe, and may have since found to be b::yond their ability, should not the Legislature with the kindest feelings of parental regard, seek with sedulous anxiety for any circumstance of amelioration in the adjustment of claims yet due from them, which even handed justice will admit. The interest on all the instalments due from the· purchasers at the Hiwassee sales has now become due, and the great balance of principal owing to the State from that class of debtors, will by the terms of sale be payable at a short period. A combina- tion of circumstances meeting at the same time of these sales, forced the prices up to a standard of value, which experince has shown to be wholly fallacious; a paper currency deluged the country, and being every wh2re considered to be as legitimately the representative of property as specie itself, the facilities for procuring it baffled the calculations of the most cautious and prudent. When the day of sob~:r reckoning came, and the true aspect of things was presented to us all, no one could boast of having seen further than his neighbor; the delusion had spread through all orders and conditions of society, and surely we should not now be backward in relieving, by every proper expedient, those who are still the victims of that period of general infatua- tion. The act of the last session of the General Assembly, per- mitting the purchasers to make payment in the notes of the
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