The Whig standard. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1843-1844, 1844-04-26
REPUTATION.

The last intelligence from Harrisburg seems
to justify the worst forebodings. The Senate by
a vote of l6 to ID, have refused to lay an ade-
quate tax for the redemption of the public faith,
and have transformed what the immediate repre-
sentatives Of the people meant to be measure OF
relief into an engine of impotent and vexatious
annoyance. Our private advices, (Which, by the
bye, yet encourage the hope that this decision
may be reconsidered) state that on the motion to
reduce, or in fact abrogate the tax, Mr.. Benjamin
Champneys, of Lancaster, was the only person
who ventured 10 be its advocate. We desire to
chronicle the fact We desire to put this public
man on the eminence he aspires to- 1t will not
be the first time that actions like this though in
an humber sphere, have been piHoried. Mr.
Champneys, the Chairman of the Committee on
Finance, was the cool and unblushng advocate
of reputation, and made a speech to rally his
followers to the work of dishonor.
We take the above from the Philadelphia Fo
rum, and observe corroborating proof in the Har-
risburg letter of the United States Gazette, of
the fact above stated. We regret, we are panied,
to see this evidence of a want of manliness OF
principle, of honesty on the part of those men,
bers of the legislature OF Pennsylvania, who have
thus wantonly sacrificed the honor Of their State,
and have suffered the brand of dishonesty and
disgrace to be stamped upon her brow. They
have stood by, and heard every epithet Of scorn
applied to the State for her dsgraceful and dis.
honest neglect to meet her engagements, without
making an effort to restore her honor and they
now consent to put the stamp of truth upon every
word that has been uttered in Europe, by the
Sidney Smiths, and other defrauded creditors, in
deroga,ion OF their State. Does Judge CHAMP
NEYs, and those who voted with him, think to es-
cape the detestalion of mankind from the circum-
stance that they are acting in public capacity I
They ought not, and can not The name of every
man by whose vote the stain of dishonor is cast
upon Pennsylvania, should be published in CAPT
tails, and the men themselves held up to the world
as infamous; if the State is to be denounced to
the world as disgraced, and regardless of all the
obligations of honor, as we'll as void of all sense
of shame, it is but fair that the guilty should
suffer. Let not those who have done their ut
most to save and restore the honor Of the State
be held accountable ; nor, at the same time, let
those who are guilty escape the punishment they
SO justly deserve Let "the slow, unmoving
finger OF scorn" for ever point at them. Wher-
ever they 60, whenever their names are heard,
let it be said. "there go the men who brought
the disgrace Of reputation upon the State Of
Pennsylvania, and caused her to become byword
of infamy in the mouths of civilized nations"
Let their ears Jingle with the sound of "shame,
shame y whenever they venture abroad, until
confusion and modification shall compel them TO
shun the presence of honest men, and herd with
other swindlers and regulators.
We would recommend Judge CHAMPNEYs, and
the people of Pennsylvania generally, to read the
following remarks of the Chancellor of the Ex-
chequer of England, in the House of Commons,
when speaking of the plan the government had
adopted of reducing the rate OF interest of the
three and half per cent. stocks:
:" The House would, doubtless be gratified with
the opportunity thus afforded of effecting reduc-
ton in the annual burdens of the public, but in
30 doing, on the present occasion, they would de.
rive additional qualification from the rrefragable
proof which the opportunity of doing SO afforded