Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1885-02-28
MR.. CLEVELAND'S LETTER ON THE SILVER
QUESTION

TO the Hon. A. j. Warner and others, mem
Jers af the Forty-eighth Congress:
Gentlemen-The letter which have bad
the honor to receive from you invites, and,
indeed, obliges 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 entirely just, and l
accept the suggestion in the same friendly
spirit in which it has been made.
1t is also fully justified ~ the nature of
the financial crisis which under the opera
ton of the act Of Congress of Feb. IS, 1878,
is now close on 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 eighty Eve per
cent of the gold dollar prescribed as the
unit of value in section IA of the act Of Feb
II, 1873, and which, with the silver certif-
Gates representing such coin, are receiva-
bic for all public dues Being thus receiva-
bic, while also constantly increasing IN
quantity at the rate of twenty-fcur million
dollars q year, it has followed, of ueces-
sty, that the flow of gold into the
Treasury has been steadily diminished. Sill
yer and silver certificates have displaced
and are now dispacng gold, and the sum
of gold in the Federal Treasury now avail
able for the payment of the gold obligations
of the United States, and for the redemp-
lion Of the United States notes called
"greenbacks," if not already encroached
upon, is perilously near such encroachme
These are facts which. as they do not
admit of difference of opinion, cali 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 December
report of the present Secretary of the Trea-
sury to the Speaker of the present House of
Representatives. They appear in the Of
fetal documents Of this Congress and in the
Re cords 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 Government 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. / hope that you concur with
me and with the great ma ority of our fell
low citizens in deemng it most desirable at
the present jupctureto maintain and con-
tinue in use the mass of our gold coin, as
we'll as vic DdsS VI SliSol tiiIoduJ GOlucu.
This is possible by present suspension
of the purchase and coinage of silver. | am
not aware that by any other method it il
possible It is of momentous importance to
prevent the two metals from parting COM
pany to prevent the increasing displace-
ment 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 business Of the people; to prevent the
ultimate expulsion of gold by silver. Such
q financial crisis as these events would GER
tainly precipitate, were it now to follow
upon so long q period of commercial de-
preston, would involve the people of every
city and every State in the Union in pro-
longed and disastrous trouble. The revival
of business enterprise and prosperity, go
ardently desired and apparently SO near,
would be hopelessly postponed. Gold would
be withdrawn to its boarding places, and an
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
and farm, the wages of labor, already de-
pressed, would suffer still further depression
by a scaling down of the purchasing power
of every so-called dollar paid into the hand
of toll. From these impending calamities
it is surely q most patriotic and grateful
duty of the representatives of the people to
deliver them.
am, gentlemen, with sincere respect
GROVER CLEVELAND.