The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1885-03-06
Cleveland on Silver Coinage.

A number of Congressman favoripg
a continuation of the coinage of silver,
recently wrote a letter to President
Cleveland urging him to refrain from
committing himself on the subject.
The following is his reply:
$40 the Hon. Il. H. Warner and
others, members Of the Forty-eightA
Congress.
''GENrLEMEN The letter which
have had 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 accept the suggestion 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 operation of the act of Con.
gress of Feb. 2S, 1878, is now close at
hand. By compliance with the re.
9uirements 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 S5 per cent, of
the gold dollar prescribed as "the unit
of value" in section IA of the act of
Feb. II, 1878, and which, with the sill
yer certificates Representing such coin,
are receivable for all public dues. Be
ing thus receivable, while also con-
stantly increasing in quantity at the rate
Of $2S, 100000 year, it has followed,
Of necessity, that the flow of gold into
the treasury has been steadily diminish
ed. Silver aud silver certificates have
displaced and are now displacing gold,
and the sum of gold in the Federal
Treasury now available for the pay
ment of the gold obligations of the
United States and for the redemption
of the United States notes called
"greenbacks,' if not already encroach-
ed upon, is perilously near such en-
croachment. 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 Off
cial 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 Representatives.
They appear iD the official documents
of this Congress, and in the records of
the New York Clearing House, of
which the Treasury is a 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. l hope that you concur with
me and with the great majority of our
fellow citizens in deemng it most de-
sirable at the present juncture to main
tain and continue in use the mass of our
gold coin as well as the mass of silver
already coined This is possible by
present suspension 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 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
in the daily business of the people to
prevent the ultimate expulsion of gold
by silver. Such a financial crisis as
these events would certainly precipi-
tate were it now to follow upon per.
iod of commercial depression, would
involve the people of every city and
every State in the Union in prolong-
ed and disastrous trouble The revi-
val of business enterprise and prosper
ity so ardently desired and apparently
40 near would be hopelessly postponed.
Gold would be withdrawn 10 its hoard.
ing places aud an unprecedented CON
traction 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-