The Sun.
London, England, 1845-05-19 00:00:00

" The stain of repudiation, which so lamentably oh-
-1 scums the fair fame of one of the States, so far as a pee
lof her debt is concerned ; and the embarrassments and
temporary delinquency of six or seven of the other
States, are greatly to be deplored. A full and fair ac-
count of the causes of and reasons for all this would
slim the in,ustice of much that is said and written on
the subject. Not a syllable should be suggested even
1 iii palliation of intentional fraud : and no one will deny
1 that some States have too long; abusedconfidence of
~the
their creditors ; or, at least, have not exerted their
energies As they were hound to do, by a just sense of
honour and public faith, to meet their engagements.
But those 'who are most bitter upon this subject, are not.
or should not be, ignorant of these facts ; viz. 1. That
the 5,000,000 dollars' stock disowned by Mississippi, was
disowned because it was wrongfully negotiated, and ap-
propriated against the laws, and not for the benefit of
the State. 2d. That in other States, the public works
for which loans were obtained, could not yield
a revenue until they were completed ; and that
the means of these States were thus suddenly
crippled by the course of foreign stockholders and the
Bank of England, in unexpectedly refusing, at the time
of the great commercial disasters, the continuance of the
supplies which had-before been temptingly offered, and
which were necessary to the completion of the works,
and for rendering them capable of paying the interest as
due. 3d. That twenty out of the twenty-nine States and
territories, equal in extent to the whole of Europe, save
Russia, either have no debt at all, or have honourably
and promptly fulfilled all their pecuniary engagements,
to the extent of several millions annually.
" These considerations, in connexion with the fact
that a large part of the deferred debts are due at home,
to Americans themselves ; that American journals of all
grades have urgently protested against the present state
of things. and most of the State legislatures have pointedly
condemned even the very excuses of the delinquents ;
that the natural resources of the State, when sufficiently
developed, are ample for ten times the amount of their
liabities ; and, moreover, that the constitutions of the
States, and the nature of the federal system, preclude all
control of one State over another, and render each one
alone responsiWe for its local pecuniary affairs, in just
the same way as the civic expenses of the english city
would belong to its municipal government, and not to
the Queen and Parliament: all these points.should have
some consideration, before it becomes necessary in Eng-
land to stereotype ' American' and ' swindler' as
synonymous terms."
The drab-coloured men of Pennsylvania are, it would
appear, the only honest men in the States.
. " Pennsylvania, since February 1342, has not paid
any dividends, at least not to .any who did not come
under the denvinination of small holders ; but never
was satire more misplaced, or ignorance more corn
pletely shewn, than when ' the drab coloured men of
Pennsylvannia' were held up to public odium ; for the
fact stands forth, simply thus : .the ' drab-coloured men'
are almost entirely limited to Philadelphia, and the
city of Philadelphia never for an instant defaulted : its
five per cent. stock, even during the wcrst times, never
fell below ninety-eight in America. The really
blameable parties are the agricultural German settlers,
who possess a majority in some of the countries ; many
of them cannot either read or write in any language:
almost all are unable to understand the English lan-
guage, and place a ban upon any descendant who should
so far forget the manners of his forefathers as to make
any attempt to assimilate himself, by his acquirements,
to those people among whom he dwells. At present
there are are nearly as many German newspapers pub-
lished in Pennsylvania as English ones :—now, however,
that the Germans have been made to understand that
deep dishonour has fallen upon their State, and that.
Faderland sees with sorrow the contempt into which
they have fallen, they have readily come forward
with their hard dollars, and contributed to remove the
stigma."

The author, however, gives up the State of .lis-
sissippi and characterises its conduct in the following
terms :

" The only State in the Union against which the scorn
of civilisation can be justly directed, on the ground of
entertaining the doctrine of r,pudiation, is 'Mississippi.
This State is rich in resources, and cannot plead poverty;
but even here a few words might be urged in mitigation.
By the last accounts of voters there, we find that the
number of persons in that State who were for payriunt
of the bonds 'were 18,665 and against paying them,
21,036 and there can be no question hut that the
minority contains the wealth, the talent, and the respoet-
ability of the State ; but, unfortunately, they are out-
voted by those who are neither the tax- payers, nor have
any deep interest in the commonwealth."