“Allow a government to decline paying its debts and you overthrow all public morality — you unhinge all the principles that preserve the limits of free constitutions.Nothing can more affect national prosperity than a constant and systematic attention to extinguish the present debt and to avoid as much as possibly the incurring of any new debt.”
-Alexander Hamilton, Courtesy of TheForgottenAmerican
Note: I have not been able to find the source of this quote despite the fact that it is widely used.