The Portland daily press., 1885-02-28
SILVER COINAGE.
President-Elect CieveIamd's Reply ts
Hon. A. J. Warner and Others.

President-EIect CieveIamd's Reply TO
Hon. A. j. Warner and Others.
ALBANY, N. Y, Feb. 27.-In the reply ad-
dressed by President-elect Cleveland to Hon.
A. ]. Warne" and other silver coinage advo-
cates in Congress, he says: Under the opera
tion of ths act of Congress OF Feb 28th, 1878,
all the vaults Of the federal treasury have
been and are heaped full OF silver coins which
are now worth less than So per cent of the
gold dollar prescribed as the "unit of vane'' in
sec. IA of the set of Feb. IL, 1873 and which,
with silver certificates representing such coin,
is receivable fer all public dues; and being thus
receivable, while also constantly increasing in
quantity, at the rate of $2S,000,000 a 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
the 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 encroached upon, is perilously near
such an encroachment. These are facts which,
as they do not admit of a differ
ence of opinion, cali for no arguments
They have been forewarned to us in the Off
cal reports of every Secretary of the Treasury
from 1878 till now. They are plainly affirmed
in the last December report of the prssent
Secretary of the Treasury to the Speaker of
the present House of Representatives They
appear in the official documents of this Con-
gress and in the records OF the New York
Clearing House of which the treasury is
member and through which the bulk of the
receipts and payments of the Federal govern
ment and Of 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, and hope that you will concur
with me and with the great majority of our
fellow citizens in deeming it most desirable at
the present juncture to maintain and continue
in use the mass of our gold coin as we'll
as the mass Of the 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 Is it possible,
and it Is Of momentous Importance to prevent
the two metals from parting company. To
prevent the increasing displacement of gold
By the increasing coinage of silver, to prevent
the disuse of gold in the custom houses of
the United States and in the daily business of
the peope, and to prevent the ultimate expul-
sion of gold by silver. Such a financial crisis
as these events would certainly precipitate
we're it now to follow upon SO long a period of
commercial depression would involve the peo-
in the Union in prolonged and
disastrous trouble, and the revival of busi-
ness enterprise and prosperity 80 srdently de-
sired and apparently so near, would be hope
lessly postponed. Gold would be Withdrawn
to its boarding places, and an unprecedented
contraction in the actual volume of cur cur
rency you'd speedily take place; and saddest
OF all, 10 every workshop, mill, factory, store
and on every railroad and farm, the wages Of
labor, already depressed, would suffer still
farther depression by the scaling down of the
purchasing power of every so.called dollar paid
into the hand of toll. From these impending
calamities it is surely the most patriotic and
grateful duty of the representatives of the
people to deliver them.