mysql++ installation on Linux

[Unix Wizard]

I get the following error trying to configure mysql++ with the following command:

./configure --prefix=/home/<user>/mysql++ --with-mysql=/home/<user>/mysql

checking for MySQL library directory... /home/<user>/mysql/lib
checking for MySQL include directory... /home/<user>/mysql/include
checking for mysql_store_result in -lmysqlclient... no
configure: error: Could not find working MySQL client library

the library is there:
ls /home/<user>/mysql/lib
libdbug.a libmygcc.a libmysql.imp libmysqlclient.a libmysqlclient_r.a libmystrings.a libmysys.a

anyone seen this?