It is distressing to hear them speak of their distress at what they see and hear of the scorn and contumely with which the American character and American credit are treated abroad.  Why, at this very time, we have a loan in the market, which, at the present rate of money and credit, ought to command in Europe one hundred and twenty-five per cent.  Can we sell a dollar of it?  And how is it with the credit of our own Commonwealth?  Does it not find itself affected in its credit by the general state of the credit of the country?  Is there nobody ready to make a movement in this matter?  Is there not a man in our councils large enough, comprehensive enough in his views, to undertake at least to present this case before the American people, and thus do something to restore the public character for morals and honesty?

There are in the country some men who are indiscreet enough to talk of repudiation,—­to advise their fellow-citizens to repudiate public debt.  Does repudiation pay a debt?  Does it discharge the debtor?  Can it so modify a debt that it shall not be always binding, in law as well as in morals?  No, Gentlemen; repudiation does nothing but add a sort of disrepute to acknowledged inability.  It is our duty, so far as is in our power, to rouse the public feeling on the subject; to maintain and assert the universal principles of law and justice, and the importance of preserving public faith and credit.  People say that the intelligent capitalists of Europe ought to distinguish between the United States government and the State governments.  So they ought; but, Gentlemen, what does all this amount to?  Does not the general government comprise the same people who make up the State governments?  May not these Europeans ask us how long it may be before the national councils will repudiate public obligations?

The doctrine of repudiation has inflicted upon us a stain which we ought to feel worse than a wound; and the time has come when every man ought to address himself soberly and seriously to the correction of this great existing evil.  I do not undertake to say what the Constitution allows Congress to do in the premises.  I will only say, that if that great fund of the public domain properly and in equity belongs, as is maintained, to the States themselves, there are some means, by regular and constitutional laws, to enable and induce the States to save their own credit and the credit of the country.

Gentlemen, I have detained you much too long.  I have wished to say, that, in my judgment, there remain certain important objects to engage our public and private attention, in the national affairs of the country.  These are, the settlement of the remaining questions between ourselves and England; the great questions relating to the reciprocity principle; those relating to colonial trade; the most absorbing questions of the currency, and those relating to the great subject of the restoration of the national character and the