Xcept so far as the assets of her own Bank, then notoriously bankrupt,
should avail to make good these obligations. That is, the Congress of
the United States, by solemn act, was to authorize the State of Arkansas
to repudiate her solemn obligations. Recollect, this was not a case of
Mississippi bonds, of which State Mr. Davis was then a Representative in
Congress, but it was the case of Arkansas, another State, having on the
floor of Congress its own Senators and Representatives. But it is a very
remarkable fact, that Mississippi, for many years, had then repudiated
her own bonds, that Mr. Davis justified and sustained that repudiation,
and that now he appears on behalf of Arkansas to induce Congress, by
solemn act, to authorize that State to repudiate her obligations also.
Thus was it that Mr. Davis travelled out of his own State into another,
to make the Government of the United States a party to the repudiation
of her bonds by the State of Arkansas. Let me not be misunderstood. I do
not mean to say, that Mr. Davis proposed or intended that the Government
of the United States should repudiate its faith, plighted to the British
Court of Chancery, to make good this fund. That is not the question. It
is entirely collateral. But, what he did do was this, and there stands
his own resolution, offered by himself in the Congress of the United
States, which, if carried into effect, would have released the State of
Arkansas from these bonds, or, in Mr. Davis's own words, 'The said State
shall be and is hereby declared to be _absolved from the
