The dealer would then know exactly what he
purchased; and the only doubt which could hang upon his mind would
be the dread of the resumption of the spoil, which one day might be
made (perhaps with an addition of punishment) from the sacrilegious
gripe of those execrable wretches who could become purchasers at the
auction of their innocent fellow citizens.
AN open and exact statement of the clear value of the property and
of the time, the circumstances, and the place of sale were all
necessary to efface as much as possible the stigma that has hitherto
been branded on every kind of land-bank. It became necessary on
another principle, that is, on account of a pledge of faith previously
given on that subject, that their future fidelity in a slippery
concern might be established by their adherence to their first
engagement. When they had finally determined on a state resource
from church booty, they came, on the 14th of April, 1790, to a
solemn resolution on the subject, and pledged themselves to their
country, "that in the statement of the public charges for each year,
there should be brought to account a sum sufficient for defraying
the expenses of the R. C. A. religion, the support of the ministers at
the altars, the relief of the poor, the pensions to the ecclesiastics,
secular as well as regular, of the one and of the other sex, in
order that the estates and goods which are at the disposal of the
nation may be disengaged of all charges and employed by the
representatives, or the legislative body, to the great and most
pressing exigencies of the state.
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