The clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1883-1888, 1885-03-04
Sardis. Miss. sFeh. 18th. 1885.
Mr. Cleveland and the Silver aues-
ton.

The following is the reply addressed by
President-elect Cleveland to the advocates
of Silver Coinage in the House
To Hon A. J, Warner and others, Mem
bers OF the Forty-eighth Congress;
GENTLEMEN The letter which | have
had the honor to receive from you invites,
and indeed obliges, me to give an express
sion on some grave public necessities,
although in advance OF the moment when
they would become objects OF my official
care and partial responsibility.
Your solicitude that my judgment shall
have been carefully and deliberately form
ed is entirely just, and | accept the sug-
gestion in the same friendly spirit in which
it has been made. 1t is also fully justified
bv the nature of the financial crisis, which
under the operation ofthe act of Congress
of February %, 1873, is now close at hand.
By compliance with the requirements 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 IS per cent. of the gold dollar pre-
scribed as the 'unit of value In section
IA of the act of February -, 1878, and
which with silver certificates representing
| such coin are receivable for all public
dues, being thus receivable, while also
constantly increasing in quantity at the
rate of S2S, 000,00e year, it has followed
of necessity that the flow of gold into the
treasury has been steadily diminished.
Silver and silver certificates have displaced
and are now displacing gold, and the sum
of gold in the Federal Treasury, now avail
able for the payment of the gold obliga-
ttons of the United States and for the re-
lemption OF the United States notes called
ali lu oil
upon, is perilously near such encroach-
mem.
These facts, viii lie they do not admit OF
difference of opinion, call for no argument.
| They have been forewarned to us in official
reports of every Secretary of the Treasuary
| from 1873 TIL now. They are plainly
| affirmed in the last December report of the
present Secretary 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 a member, and through which tue bulk
of the recipes and payments OF the Fed
eral government and the country pass.
These being the facts of our present condi-
ton, our danger and our duty to avert
that danger would seem to be plain.
! hope you concur with me, and with the
great majority of our fellow citizens, in
/ deeming it most desirable at the present
| iuncture to maintain and continue in use
| the mass OF our gold coin, as we'll as the mass
| Of silver already coined. This is possible by
the present suspension OF the purchase and
| coinage of silver. | am not aware that by
any other method ii is possible.
1t is of momentous importance to pre-
vent the two metals parting company to
prevent the increasing displacement of gold
by increasing the coinage of silver. To
prevent the disuse of gold in the custom
houses of the United States in the daily
business of the people; to prevent the ulti.
mate expulsion Of gold by silver with the
financial crisis these events would certain.
ly preeipitate, which, were it now to follow
upon SO long a period OF commercial de
preston would involve the people of every
city and every State in the Union in pro
longed md disastrous trouble, and ths
revival of business enterprise and prosper
ity so ardently desired and apparently 81
near would be hopelessly postponed. GolC
would be Withdrawn to its boarding plac'
and unprecedented contraction in tn,
actual volume of our currency woul,
speedily take place Saddest OF all, il
every workshop, mill, factory, store and OF
every railroad and farm the wages 0
/, | LABOR, -aiESauf ucpEtcscui Nodiu SdHSF Fill
further depression BY the scaling down o
the purchasing power of every so-calle,
COLLAR paid into the hand of toll.
From these impending calamities it
, surely most patriotic and grateful dut
of the representatives of the people t
3 | deliver them. | am, gentlemen, with sir
a cere respect, your fellow-citizen.
: GROVER CLEVELAND.
: ALBANY, February "A, 1885.