Southport telegraph. [volume] (Southport, W.T. [i.e. Kenosha, Wis.]) 1840-1850, 1843-06-20
AMERICAN REPUTATION.

According to the late foreign arrivals, the SUBJ
ject of reputation of foreign bonds in the United
States, forms the topic of considerable discussion
in England The Rev. Sidney Smith, who is rep
resented as being an able divine, and writer of
considerable celebrity in Great Britain, has adj
dressed petition to the congress of the United
States on the subject of reputation. The reverend
gentleman, it appears, is holder of Pennsylvania
bonds, which have not been liquidated according to
contract. An English paper remarks that the Pc
tltion has attracted great attention in England
The following is the document referred to-
From the London Times of May 18.]
HE HUMBLE PETITION OF THE REvER-
END SIDNEY SMITH, TO THE HOUSE OF
CONGRESS- AT WAsHINGToN.-"I petition
your honorable house to institute some
measures for the restoration Of American
credit, and for the repayment Of debts in
Cured and repudiated by several Of the
States. Your petitioner lent to the State
of Pennsylvania a sum Of money, for the
purpose Of some public improvement. The
amount, though small, is to him important,
and is a saving from life income, made with
with difficulty and privation. If their
refusal TO pay from which a very large
number Of English families are sunering)
had been the result Of war, produced by the
unjust aggression Of powerful enemies; if
1t had arisen from civil discord; if it had
proceeded from an improvident application
OF means in the first years Of self govern
ment; it were the act of poor state strug-
crlinp ooipCt tho e ,oo+,,.o
every friend Of America would have been
contented to wait for better times; but the
fraud is committed in the profound peace of
Pennsylvania by the richest State in the
Union, after the wise investment of the
borrowed money in roads and canals, Of
which the regulators are every day reap
ing the advantage 1t is an tof bad faith
which Gall its circumstances considered) has
no parallel, and no excuse.
Nor IS it only the loss Of property which
your petitioner laments; he lamcnts still
more that immense power which the bad
faith Of America has given to aristocratical
opinions, and to the enemies of free inst-
tutions in the old world. 1t is in vain any
longer to appeal to history, and to ont out
the wrongs which the many have received
from the few. The Americans, who boast
to have improved the institutions of the old
world, have at least equallcd its crimes
A great nation, after trampling under foot
all earthly tyranny, has been guilty Of
fraud as enormous as ever diSgraCed the
worst king Of tho most degraded nation Of
Europe. 1t is most painful to your peti-
toner to see that American citizens excite
wherever they may go, the recollection
that they belong to a dishonest people. who
pride themselves on having tricked and pill
laged Europe and this mark is fixed by
their tailhless legislators, on some Of the
best and most honorable men in the world,
whom every Engishman has been eager
to see, and proud to receive.
1t is a subject Of serious concern to Your
pettionerthat YOU are losing all that power
which the friends of freedom rcioiced that
YOU possessed, looking upon you as the ark
Of human happiness, and the most splendid
picture Of Justice and of wisdom that tho
world had vet seen. Little did the friends
Of America expect it, and sad is the spec
tace, to see you rejected by every state in
Europe as a nation with whom no con-
tract can be made, because none will be
S ~IG. ' life dodniont IN the elements OF Of
ToaJ r,ith mon who nrofar onv Iood Of in.
2.n,v Lnroyor oroot - anv nross,ro of
,oyat;on bowov6r fgb,
Wa. :, i ooT,. r';99 a;r,o,;, h,,,1..,a.,,.
Cor 90 r,onv I,rroos g 7an;t,Ja n,d Tat;
tndo vLich yonr nof;,in,ar 3onIaros ' L1t bo
Is aIarn,oJ ,Iso bI ,Lot fntoI want Of sbon,o
with which those limos bavo hoon done tbo
nam,,,, ;,,,,araI;,, III, ,.l;aI, Tna-,' l
been plundered, that deafness Of the moral
sense which seems to preclude all return to
honesty, to perpetuate this new infamy,
and 10 threaten lis extension over every