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I cannot close my letter, without some observations on the transfer of
our domestic debt to foreigners. This circumstance, and the failure to
pay off Fiseaux' loan, were the sole causes of the stagnation of our
late loan. For otherwise our credit would have stood on more hopeful
grounds than heretofore. There was a condition in the last loan, that,
the lenders furnishing one third of the money, the remaining two thirds
of the bonds should remain eighteen months unsold, and at their option
to take or not, and that in the mean time, the same bankers should
open no other loan for us. These same lenders became purchasers of our
domestic debt, and they were disposed to avail themselves of the power
they had thus acquired over us as to our foreign demands, to make us
pay the domestic one. Should the present necessities have obliged you
to comply with their proposition for the present year, I should be of
opinion it ought to be the last instance. If the transfer of these debts
to Europe meet with any encouragement from us, we can no more borrow
money here, let our necessities be what they will.
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