Nothing is regarded in a more obnoxious light than the repudiation of their honest debts by sovereign States.

It is regarded in financial circles as the crime of all crimes the blackest.

The credit of the State is reduced to a song, and moneyed men shun it as they would a rattlesnake.

The State and its people are held up as monsters of depravity.

It matters not how unjust the debt, how poor the people; the mere fact that they repudiate an obligation which they entered into in good faith is sufficient to destroy their credit in New York or London and make them the target of every virtuous newspaper which voices the sentiment of the class that deals in "futures" and "corners." As an illustration, take the State of Virginia.