4842. LOUISIANA, Mission to France respecting.—[further continued].
It may be said, if this
object be so all-important to us, why do we
not offer such a sum as to ensure its purchase?
The answer is simple. We are an
agricultural people, poor in money, and owing
great debts. These will be falling due by
instalments for fifteen years to come, and require
from us the practice of a rigorous economy
to accomplish their payment; and it is
our principle to pay to a moment whatever
we have engaged, and never to engage what
we cannot, and mean not faithfully to pay.
We have calculated our resources, and find
the sum to be moderate which they would
enable us to pay, and we know from late
trials that little can be added to it by borrowing.—
To Dupont de Nemours. Washington ed. iv, 458.
Ford ed., viii, 206.
(W.
Feb. 1803)
