“ Esqre. Dear Sir. I proceed without delay to give a hasty reply to yours of the 12th. ultimo just received my engagements will not admit of a lengthy detail of events and circumstances which have transpired to bring about that state of things which now exists in this place, as be[HC 5:6]fore you receive this you will probably be apprised of the failure of myself and brethren to execute our designs in paying off our contracts, or in other words, that we have been compelled to pay our debts by the most popular method (i.e.) by petitioning for the privilege of General Bankruptcy, a principle so popular at the present moment throughout the Union— A pressure of business has been sufficient excuse for not giving you earlier notice, although it could have been of no real use to you yet I wish you to understand our intentions to you and your Company, and why we have taken the course we have. You are aware Sir, in some measure of the embarrassments under which we have labored through the influence of Mobs and designing men, and the disadvantageous circumstances under which we have been compelled to contract debts in order to our existence both as Individuals and as a Society, and it is an account of this as well as a pressure on us for debts absolutely unjust, in themselves, that we have been compelled to resort to the course we have to make a general settlement and this we deferred till the last moment, hoping that something would turn in our favor, so that we might be saved the painful necessity of resorting to such measures to accomplish which, Justice demanded a very different course, from those who are justly our debtors but demanded in vain. We have been compelled to the course we have pursued and you are aware Sir, that all have to fare alike in such cases. But Sir, you have one, yea two things [p. 1330]