Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1885-03-05
NUMBER 28.
SILVER COINAGE
President CIeyeIand's Letter De-
filming His Position.
He FaYors Suspending the Coinage
Of the Silver Dollar


Shortly before his inauguration President
elect Cleveland was written to by numb<r
Of Democratic Congressmen concerning biz
views on the suspension Of silver coinage
The following is the reply addressed by Mr.
Cleveland to the silver advocates in Con
gress:
ITO the Hon. A. J. Warner 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, obliges me to give expression to
some grav public necessities, althoughin adj
vance of the moment when they would be-
come the objects of my official care and
partial responsibility. Your solicitude
that my judgment shall have
been carefully and deliberately
formed is entirely just and / accept the sug-
gestion in the same friendly spirit in which it
has been made. 1t is also fully justified by
the nature of the financial crisis which, nm
der the operation of the act of Congress OF
February %, 1878, is now close at hand. By
a compliance with the requirements Of
that law all the vaults of the Federal treas
ury have been and are heaped full
OF silver coins which are now worth less than
eighty-fve per cent. Of the gold dollar pre-
scribed as 'tthe unit of value" in section IA
of the act of February 70, 1873, and which,
with the silver certificates representing such
coin, are receivable for al public dues
Being thus receivable, while also constantly
increasing in quantity at the rate Of $28, ,O00,-
900 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 dis
placing gold, and the sum of gold in the
Federal treasury now available for the pay
ment of she gold obligations Of the United
States and for the redemption Of
the. United States notes called "green-
backs il not already encroaahed
upon, is perilously near such encroachment.
These are facts which, as they do not admit
of difference Of opinion, call for no argument
They have been forewarned to US in the
official reports of every secretary of
the treasury from 1878 till now. They
are plainly affirmed in the last Decem-
Der report Of the present secretary
OF the treasury to the Speaker Of the
present House Of Representative. They ap-
pear 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 gov
ernment and Of the country pass.
These being the facts OF our present condi
tion, our danger and our duty to avert that
danger would seem to be plain 1 hope that
you concur with me and with the great ma
jority of our fellow-citizens in deeming it
maintain and continue in use the mass of our
gold coin as well as the mass Of silver already
coined. This is possible by present suspen-
sion 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 from parting COM
pany; 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 in the daily busi-
ness Of the people; to prevent the ultimate
expulsion of gold by silver. Such financial
crisis as these events would certainly precipi-
tate were it now to follow upon so
long a period of commercial depression
would involve the people of every city and
every State in the Union in a prolonged and
disastrous trouble. The revival of business
enterprise and prosperity SO ardently desired
and apparently SO near would be hopeiessly
postponed. Gold would be withdrawn to its
boarding places and an unprecedented con
traction in the actual volume OF our currency
would speedily take place. Saddest of all in
every workshop mill, factory, store, on every
railroad and farm, the wages OF labor al
ready depressed would suffer still further
depression by a scaling down Of the purchas-
ing power of every so-called dollar paid into
the hand of toll. From these impending ca
lamitjes it is surely most patriotic and
grateful duty of the Representatives of the
people to deliver them. / am. gentlemen,
with sincere respect, your fellow-citizen,
GROVER CLEVELAND.