act of Congress on the day following[1054].  But there was no Southern enthusiasm for the project.  Benjamin wrote to Mason that the Confederacy disclaimed the “desire or intention on our part to effect a loan in Europe ... during the war we want only such very moderate sums as are required abroad for the purchase of warlike supplies and for vessels, and even that is not required because of our want of funds, but because of the difficulties of remittance”; as for the Erlanger contract the Confederacy “would have declined it altogether but for the political considerations indicated by Mr. Slidell[1055]....”

From Mason’s view-point the prime need was to secure money; from Slidell’s (at least so asserted) it was to place a loan with the purpose of establishing strong friends.  It had been agreed to suspend the operations of Spence until the result of Erlanger’s offer was learned, but pressure brought by Caleb Huse, purchasing agent of the Confederacy, caused a further sale of “cotton warrants[1056].”  Spence, fearing he was about to be shelved, became vexed and made protest to Mason, while Slidell regarded Spence[1057] as a weak and meddlesome agent[1058].  But on February 14, 1863, Erlanger’s agents returned to Paris and uncertainty was at an end.  Spence went to Paris, saw Erlanger, and agreed to co-operate in floating the loan[1059].  Then followed a remarkable bond market operation, interesting, not so much as regards the financial returns to the South, for these were negligible, as in relation to the declared object of Slidell and the Richmond Government—­namely, the “strong influences” that would accompany the successful flotation of a loan.

Delay in beginning operations was caused by the failure to receive promptly the authenticated copy of the Act of Congress authorizing the loan, which did not arrive until March 18.  By this contract Erlanger & Company, sole managers of the loan, had guaranteed flotation of the entire $15,000,000 at not less than 77, the profit of the Company to be five per cent., plus the difference between 77 and the actual price received, but the first $300,000 taken was to be placed at once at the disposal of the Government.  The bonds were put on the market March 19, in London, Liverpool, Paris, Amsterdam and Frankfurt, but practically all operations were confined to England.  The bid for the loan was entitled “Seven per Cent.  Cotton Loan of the Confederate States of America for 3 Millions Sterling at 90 per Cent.”  The bonds were to bear interest at seven per cent. and were to be exchangeable for cotton at the option of the holder at the price of sixpence “for each pound of cotton, at any time not later than six months after the ratification of a treaty of peace between the present belligerents.”  There were provisions for the gradual redemption of the bonds in gold for those who did not desire cotton.  Subscribers were to pay 5 per cent. on application. 10 per cent. on allotment, 10 per cent. on each of the days, the first of May, June and July, 1863, and 15 per cent. on the first of August, September and October.