Milford chronicle., 1885-03-06
NEWS NOTES.
Happenings Of Interest to All,
At Home and Abroad.
CLEVELAND ON SILVER COINAGE.
EmphaticaIly Opposed 10 Coming Dollars
Worth EIghty-FIve Cents Only.

!
The following is the reply addressed b.
President-elect Cleveland to the silver coinage
advocates in Congress;
GTHTLEMEN; The letter which have had the
honor to receive from you, invites, and indeed
obiges, me to give expression to some grave
public necessities, although in advance OF the
moment when they would become the objects
OF my official care and partial responsibility.
Your solicitude that my Judgment shall have
been carefully and deliberately formed is en-
tirely just, and I accept the suggestion in the
same friendly spirit in which it has been
made. It is also fully justified by the nature
| Of the financial crisis which, under the
! operation Of the act Of Congress Of Feb. 28
/ 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
prescribed as "the unit Of value, and which
with the silver certificates representing such
coin, are receivable for all pub
lie dues. Being thus receivable,
while also constantly Increasing in quantity
at the rate Of SOS, ,0000 0J0 a year, it has fol-
lowed, 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 available for the
payment Of the gold obligations Of the United
States and for the redemption of the United
States notes, called ''greenbacks,n il not al
ready eneroached upon, is perilously near such
encroachment.
These are facte, 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 1873 until now. They are plainly af-
firmed in the last December report of the
present Secretary Of the Treasury to the
Speaker Of the present House of Representa-
tives. They appear in the official documents
Of this Congress, and in the records OF the
New York Clearing House, Of which the Treas
ury is a member, and through which the bulk
of the receipts and payments of the Federal
Government and Of the country pass.
These being the facts Of our presentc condition,
our danger, and our duty to avert that danger, |
would seem to be plain. I hope that you con- /
cur with me and with the great majority of |
our fellow citizens in deeming it most desirable /
at the present iuneture to maintain and con-
tinus in use the mass of our gold coin as /
well as the mass of silver already coined. |
This is possible by a present suspen-
sion Of the purchase and coinage Of silver / |
am not aware that by any other method it is pos
sible. 1t is of momentous Importance to pre-
vent 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
.he United States in the daily business of the
people; 10 prevent the ultimate expulsion of
gold by silver. Such financial crisis as these
vents would certainly precipitate, were
now to follow upon so long period Of COM
nercial depression, would involve the people
II every city and every state in the Union in a
and disastrous trouble The re-
'ival of business enterprise and prosperity, so
rdently desired and apparently 50 near,
would be hopelessly postponed. Gold would
10 withdrawn to its boarding places, and
n unprecedented contraction in the actual
olume of our currency would speedily take
lace. Saddest Of all, in every workshop mill, !
actory, store and on every railroad and farm [
he wages of labor, already depressed, would
infer still further depression by a sealing
own Of the purchasing power of every So
allied dollar paid into the hand of toll From {
lese impending calamities it is surely a most /
atriotic aud grateful duty of the representa-
YES Of the people to deliver them. l am, gen-sJa
emen, with sincere respect, your fellow.f. .
en-, GROVER CLEyF, and ra-