The Greenville times. [volume] (Greenville, Miss.) 1868-1917, 1885-03-07
VIZ. Cleveland aud the Silver Question
Full Text Of the Letter Of the Prssidsnt- Elect
to Certain Cengrsssnsn.

l "AAsNAttNAahu auu tue otAfSt R1tclluM
Full Text Of the Letter Of the PrssidsntElset
to Certain Congrsssmsn.
Albany n. Y, Feb. 27.-The fol-
lowing is the reply addressed by
President-elect Cleveland to silver
coinage advocates in Congress;
To Hon. A. J. Warren and others, Mem
bers of the Forty-eighth Congress:
Gentlemen-The letter which I
have had the honor to receive
from you invites, and indeed obli-
ges, me to give an expression on
some grave public necessities, al.
though in advance of the moment
when they would become objects
of my official care and partial re-
sponsibility.
Your solicitude that my judg-
ment shall have been carefully
and deliberately formed is entirely
just, and l accept the suggestion
in the same friendly spirit in
which it has been made. tits also
fully justified by the nature of the
financial crisis, which under the
operation of the act of Congress
of Feb. %, 1878, is now close at
hand. BY compliance with the re-
quirements of that law all the
vaults of the Federal Treasury
have been and are heaped full of
silver coins, which are now worth
less than 50 per cent of the gold
dollar prescribed as the "unit of
value.' IN section IA of the act
of Feb. II, 1873, and which with
silver certificates representing
such coin are receivable for all
public dues, thus receivable, while
also constantly increasing in guam
tity at the rate of S2S,000,000 q
year, it has followed Of necessity
that the flow of gold into the
treasury has been steadily dimin-
ished. Silver and silver certifi.
Gates have displaced and are now
displacing gold, aud the sum Of
gold in the Federal Treasury, now
available for the payment of the
gold obligations of the United
States and for the redemption of
the United States notes called
"greenbacks," if not already Ell.
croached upon, is perilously near
such encroachment.
These facts, while they do not
admit of difference of opinion. call
for no argument. They have been
forewarned to u.s. in official reports
of every Secretary Of the Treas
ury from 1878 till now. They are
plainly affirmed in. the last Decem
Der report of the present Secre.
tary to the Speaker of the present
House of Representatives. They
appear In the Official documents of
this Congress and in the records
of the New York Clearing house
of which the Treasury is q Nom.
Der, and through which the bulk
of the receipts and payments of
the Federal government and the
country pass. These being the
facts of our present condition, our
danger and our duty to avert that
danger would seem to be plain.
l hope you concur with me, aud
with the great majority of our fel.
low.citizens, in deeming it most
desirable at the present juncture
to maintain and continue in use
the mass of our gold coin, as well
as the mass of silver already coin
ed. This is possible by the pres
ent suspension of the purchase
and coinage of silver. / am not
aware that by any other method
it is possible.
1t is of momentous Importance
to prevent, the two metals parting
company to prevent the increasing
displacement of gold by increas.
ing the coinage of silver. To pre-
vent the disuse of gold in the GUS
tom-houses Of the United States
in the daily bushes of the people; ;
to prevent the ultimate expulsion
of gold by silver with the financial
crisis these events would certain.
ly precipitate, which, were it now
to follow upon so long a period of
commercial depression, would in
volve the people of every city and
every State in the Union in pro.
longed and disastrous trouble, and
the revival Of business enterprise
and prosperity SO ardently desired
and apparently so near would be
hopelessly postponed. Gold would
be withdrawn to its boarding place