If the public abandon the loan, the 15 per cent sacrificed is, in point of fact, not the property of the Government at all, but the profits of Messrs.

Erlanger & Co., actually in their hands, and they cannot be expected to take a worse position.

At any rate they will not do so, and unless the compact can be made on the basis we name, matters must take their course[1067]." In the face of this ultimatum, Spence advised yielding as he "could not hesitate ...

seeing that nothing could be so disastrous politically, as well as financially, as the public break-down of the Loan[1068]." Mason gave the required authorization and this was later approved from Richmond.

For a time the "bulling" of the loan was successful, but again and again required the use of funds received from actual sales of bonds and in the end the loan netted very little to the Confederacy.