Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1885-03-05
CLEVELAND on SILVER COINAGE.

Cleveland several days ago by the silver
coinage advocates in Congress, he sent the
following reply under date of last Friday ::
members of the Forty-eighth Congress
Gentlemen: The letter which l have had
the honor to receive from you invites, and
indeed obliges me to give expression to my
views 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 l accept the sugges-
ton in the same friendly spirit in which it
has been made. 1t is also fully justified by
the nature of the financial crisis which un-
der the act of Congress of February q, 1878,
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 s. per cent. of the gold dollar
prescribed as the unit Of value by Section II
of the Act of February 12, 1873, and which,
with silver certificates representing such
coin, are receivable for all public dues.
Being thus receivable while also constant
ly increasing in quantity at the rate of $685.
900, 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
ment of the gold obligations Of the United
States, and for the redemption of United
States notes called greenbacks, if not already
encroached upon, is perlously near such en-
croachment
These are facts which, as they do not ad-
NIT of differences of opinion, call for no ar
gument. They have been forewarned to the
United States in the official reports of the
secretary of the treasury up to now. They
are plainly affirmed in the last December
report OF the present secretary of the treas
ury to the Speaker Of the present House of
Representatives. They appear in the OFF,
.cial documents of Congress and in the re-.
cords of the New York Clearing House, of
which the bulk of receipts and payment of
the Federal Government and Of the country
pass.
These being the facts of our: present con-
dition, our danger and our duty to avert
that danger would seem to be plain. hope
that YOU 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 silver
already coined. This is possible by the
present suspension of the purchase and
coinage of silver. am not aware that any
other method Of it is possible.
1t is of momentous Importance to prevent
the two metals parting company, to prevent
the displacement Of gold by increasing the
coinage of silver, to prevent the disuse OF
gold in the customhouse of the United
States in the daily business of the people,
to prevent the ultimate expulsion of gold
by silver.
If such financial crisis as these events
would certainly precipitate were now to
follow upon so long period of commercial
depression, it would involve the people OF
every city and every State in the Union in
prolonged and disastrous trouble. The re-
vival of business enterprises and prosperity,
so ardently desired and apparently SO near,
would he hoplessly postponed. Gold would
be withdrawn to its boarding places and an
unprecedented contraction in the actual
volume of our currency would speedily take
place.
Saddest of all, in every workshop, mill,
factory, store, and on every railroad ana
farm the wages of labor, already depressed,
would suffer still further 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 de-
deliver them. .,
L am with sincere respect your fellow
citizen. GROVER CLEVELAND.