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connect the general Government, or the people of these States in their collective or representative capacity, with the dishonest and censurable conduct that has been pursued by the numerous intersections of the Republic, against whom neither public opinion, nor the expression of public dissent, nor censure, has been directed to their just reprobation. Other Governments, it is true, have become bankrupt in their means, and unable to pay either interest or principal; but it has been permitted to the republican States of America to record instances of moral turpitude and faithlessness unequalled in the history of nations, and while possessing the means, by adequate taxation or from other sources, to discharge their obligations, to disavow the entire, notifying the unfortunate dupes, whom they had cajoled and stript of their property, to get their money in the best way they could.

There is no apology made for these excessesthere can be none. Were the capabilities and resources of these States exhausted to their utmost limit, the energies of their population prostrated beneath an unequal pressure of taxation, in discharge of liabilities previously incurred, wholly irrespective of any subsequent difficulty that might arise, these States might then plead a necessity in part extenuation. But when we are told insteadproclaimed in every variety, until wearied by the repetition of the inexhaustible wealth of the Republic,-its mineral treasures already developed,— its rich and productive lands already under cultiva

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tion, or to be appropriated,—its forests, yielding to the persevering energy of its hardy population, made available to its vast monied resources,—propriety and all moral sense is outraged by the mendacity of these proceedings-the utter want of principle in which they have been conceived and carried out to their recent consummation.

Until the principle of repudiation was first introduced and received countenance in America, the stocks and public securities of these several commonwealths sustained some fair character in the English and other European money markets; when, from the belief that the faith and public credit of these States were pledged to the due fulfilment of the contract made by them with the public creditor, every expectation was entertained that they would continue to pay the interest of these engagements with punctuality and honour. The assurance of Mr. Webster, American Secretary of State, when in London in 1839, in answer to the inquiry of the commercial house of Baring, Brothers, and Co., added strength and renewed confidence to these anticipations. Yet, scarcely two years were allowed to pass before they were falsified, and the illusion into which so many were betrayed, exposed in its simplicity and folly before the world.

To the State of Michigan belongs the creditthe distinguished honour of being the first in this work of spoliation and plunder; of having thrown off the mask and proclaimed this new principle, -divesting itself of every responsibility under the

very bonds, the public securities it had issued under the legislative sanction of its Government and people; that subsequently found their way to the possession of other parties, and who, upon the faith of the State guarantee attached to each, had purchased these securities at their highest marketable value, perfectly unconscious, that there could by possibility exist any pretext for their subsequent disavowal.

The State of Mississippi followed this discreditable example, and even made the "repudiation" of her debts-the public disclaimer of her solemn obligations, a question of grave political consideration, on which her citizens were called upon to pronounce at the fall elections of 1841. The principal proportion of these securities consisted of five millions of dollars of State bonds, issued and delivered by the State to the Mississippi Union Bank in 1839, being the amount of its subscription for fifteen thousand shares hypothecated to its use, and which were immediately thereupon brought into the public market, principally in England, and purchased at their highest recognised value at the time.

It is somewhat remarkable, that the first notice given to the public of the intention of this State to disclaim her liabilities and repudiate her debts, was the promulgation of Governor McNutt on the 2nd of March, 1840,-" warning all persons and incorporations, not to advance money upon the hypothecation of the said bonds, or purchase them for a less sum than their par value;" it being alleged that this

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was the provision of the law under which they were issued.

This notice, if honestly intended, was of too late a date to answer any equitable purpose by its promulgation, or beyond further depreciating the value of these securities, that had already been disposed of, to other and innocent parties, who were not aware at the time, and could know nothing whatever, of any understood or secret arrangement

between the state, on whose account and under whose responsibility they were first issued, and its agent, or officers, in whose hands they were supposed to have been placed for this purpose; for it is quite foreign to the question between this state, and the public creditor, the understanding on which these bonds were originally appropriated—whether the debt was contracted through the knavery of her own agents, or otherwise. They may have acted in bad faith-they may have cheated her and deceived the foreign creditor; all this may have been true; still, it is not denied, the money advances that have actually been paid by such creditors, the holders of these bonds, upon the guarantee and faith of the state, pledged by her regularly appointed agent, and to whom she had confided, to bring them into the public market, with a view to their sale and further disposition.

This effort of Mississippi to release herself from every pecuniary responsibility-from every solemn obligation in the non-payment of this large portion

of her debt, was not the mere act of her rulers, or the result of any primary decision of her legislative body; it was the calm and deliberate resolve of her citizens, made through the ballot box, and which invests this question with an abiding interest and importance, not merely to Mississippi, but also, to every other state of this confederacy; whose credit and character are extensively implicated by the extreme dishonesty of the act. Still, it is to be hoped that some salutary and beneficial results may grow out of this severe injustice, and that it will serve from henceforth as an admonitory lesson, especially to the foreign capitalist and merchant, who have been somewhat rudely dealt with in these transactions-for whom our sympathies are nevertheless in some degree lessened, from the blind and headlong manner in which they have committed themselves with a people, whose reputation for honesty and good faith has seldom been lauded before the world, and who have given this last proof of an utter debasement, by their patient endurance of the obloquy and disgrace, which these foul deeds have affixed to the national character.

Neither can we find a pretext amongst the other repudiating States of the Republic, for the extreme conduct adopted by Pennsylvania, from whom a very opposite course was anticipated; and that should have furnished some more laudable and honest example, than to withhold the payment, or neglect to provide in discharge of the liabilities she

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