154 A TREATISE ON public debt of one of our states, and who were com- pelled to receive, during the late suspension, the amount of their interest, not in coin or its equivalent, for the payment of which the faith of the state was pledged, but in depreciated paper? I blush for the credit of my native state, Pennsylvania, when I recol- lect that the governments of New York, Ohio, In- diana, and probably some other states, considered themselves bound in honor to pay the foreign inte- rest on their debts in the equivalent of specie, whilst she, for a less sum than a hundred thousand dollars, was willing to be stigmatised all over Europe, as guilty of a breach of public faith, the notoriety of which cannot fail to influence the future value of her stock abroad, unless she makes the reparation so mani- festly and so justly due.* CHAPTER IV. OF THE CRIMINALITY OF BANKS IN AUGMENTING THEIR ISSUES AFTER A SUSPENSION OF PAYMENTS. BUT however culpable banks render themselves by not, immediately, after a general suspension, adopting measures for a resumption, accompanied by the pay- ment of interest to all who are forcibly withheld from the possession of their property, yet they are far less culpable than those, which, after the removal of all checks upon issues, take advantage of the ignorance
- On the 10th of June, 1839, after the publication of the first
edition of this work, the Legislature of Pennsylvania made pro- vision for paying to the holders of her loans, the loss incurred by them on the depreciated paper given in payment of the inte- rest falling due during the suspension of 1837, but the amount has not yet been paid. See Appendix, I.
