New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1843-06-05
Reputli8tiOn.

The following is copy Of q Petition addressed
% Congress by the Rev. Sydney Smith, the we'll
iuowr English author. 1t tells some singing
mhs-n very polished and pointed manner:
" petition your honorable house to institute
rme measures for the restoration of American
.ydit. and for the repayment Of debts incurred
ind repudiated by several of the States. Your
D.ttioner lent to the State Of Pennsylvania sum
ofnoney, for the purpose of some public improve
nent. The amount, though small, is to him I'M
0,ant, and is a saving from life income, made
With difficulty and priyation. If their refusal to
ny from which very large number OF English
hnlies are suf1crng) had been the result of war,
roduced by the unjust aggression of powerful
enemes ii it had arisen from civil dlscord If 1t
had proceeded from an mprovidcnt application
Cfmeans in the first years of sclf-government; II
twere the act of poor state struggling against
the baroness of naturc-cvery TREND OF Amen
en- would have been contented to wait Tor better
imcs;; but the fraud is committed IN the profound
peace of Pennsylvania, by the richest State IN the
onion, alter me wise investment of the borrowed
money in roads and canals of which the repudia
tors are every day rcapng the advantage. 1t IS
an act of bad faith which GALL It's circumstances
considered) has no parallel, and no excuse.
Nor is it only the loss of property which your
petitioner laments he laincnts still more that
immense power which the bad faith Of America
has given to ars,ocratical opinions, and to the
enemies Of free institutions in the old world. 1t
sin vain any longer to appeal TO history, and TO
point out the wrongs which the many have re-
teived from the few The Americans, who
boast to have improved the institutions oil the ola
world, have at least equalledits crimes. a great
nation, after rampling under foot all earthly
tyranny, has been guilty of a fraud as enormous
aevcr disgraccd the worst king of the most de-
graded nation of Europe.
Il is most painful to your petitioner to sec
that American citizens excite, wherever they may
20 the recollection that they belong TO dis
honest people. who pride themselves on having
tucked and pillaged Europe; and this mark is
liked, by their tathless legislators, on some OF the
hs. and most honorable men in the world. whom
very Englishman has been eager to see, and
lpud to receive.
II is subject of serious concern to your peti-
toner that YOU are losing all that power which
aeiriends of freedom rejolced that you possess
d, looking upon you as the ark of human hap
lness, and the most splendid picture of justice
md of wisdom that the world had yet seen.
Little did the friends Of America expect It, and
ads the spectacle, to sec you rejected by every
sale in Europe as a nation with whom no con-
tact can be made, because none will be Kept
Unstable in the very foundations of social HE, de-
aelent in the clements of good faith, men VINO
peter any load of infamy, however great, 10 any
Hessure OF taxation, however light.
Nor IS onl,- tl,iS uiuoDtlc bauiIruDtCv iOr so
many degrees of longitude and latitudc which
yOur petitioner deplores, but he is alarmed also
BY that total want of shame with winch these
aHgs have been done, the callous immortality
With which Europe has been plundcrcd, that
esadness Of the moral sense which seems to pre-
sude all return TO honesty. TO perpetuate this new
MANY, and to threaten as extension over every
State Of the Union.
10 any man of real philanthropy, who receives
pleasure from the Improvements OF the world, the
liquidation of the public debts of America, anc
tae shameless manner III which II has been talked
OF and done, is the most melancholy event WHICH
aas happened during the existence OF the present
seEeraliop. Your petitioner sincerely prays that
lie great and good men still existing among yot
NAY, by teaching to the United States the deeE
sssracc they have incurred in the whole world
Nsiore them to moral health, to that high position
aey have lost, and which, for the happiness o
mankind, 1t Is SO important they should eve
maintain; for the United States are now work
as out the greatest OF all political problems ant
upon that conicderacy the eyes of thinking mcr
are Intensely fixed, to see how far the mass o
mankind can be trusted with the management o
their own affairs, and the establishment of ,hei
ovnhappness"