diversity of opinion, especially as to its lower termination.
The work of this first season quickly brought out the fact that it was a great task which the company had undertaken. This may have been the reason why payment on shares had been so slow; already the company's treasury was almost depleted. "The original motive which actuated the stockholders seemed for some cause to have abated, and it required the master spirit of the enterprise to be exerted, to prevent at this important and critical juncture, a total abandonment of the project. . . The State of Maryland had failed to pay the sums due on the shares it held, and a large number of individual stockholders had also neglected to meet their instalments. . . The treasury was no longer able to liquidate the claims of individuals against it, and a total prostration of its credit seemed inevitable unless soon relieved.[1]
Strenuous efforts on the part of the officers brought desirable results and with
- ↑ A New Chapter in the Early Life of Washington, pp. 83–84.
