Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1886-06-05
MANNING OFFERS HIS RESIGNATION.

Inc following correspondence pe1Heeu
Hon. Daniel Manning aud the President is
made public:
WASHINGTON, D. c., May 90, 1SS6.-A(y
Dear Sir have decided to place in your
hands nv resignation of the Office which
YOU did me the honor to ask me to accept
fifteen months ago. My reasons for this de.
cison are both public and personal. Since
the partial recovery of my health has per-
mitted me to reflect upon tho demands of
the public service, to which / had given,
perhaps too freely, all my strength, and up
on the conditions of resumiDg my labor5 at
YOUR side, have not for moment ques-
toned what must be my present duty. The
| full recovery of my health is pronounced to
| be an affair of weeks, and longer period OF
| rest, especially during the hot months, is
| prescribed, or at least advised, as n prudent
regimen thereafter. Compliance with this
advice would not BIZ practicable were to
resume now the general direction OF the
Treasury Department, even if abatrg some
full to expend in the first year of my work.
Supervision at distance would be more
hindrance than help to the acting secreta-
nv. But it is not BETTING that a depart
ment of the Government SO difficult and so
important should be administered by con-
yalescent, studious of parrying its daily eX-
| actions, nor that the watchful control OF Its
enormous influence or the direction Of its
fiscal policies, even under your wise lead,
should be attempted by any one concerned
about outstanding his strength. The re-
forms in our fiscal policy which you have
maintained, and which have been framed
and commended to the wisdom of the legis-
lative branch, are reforms necessary to our
safety, binding in honor, obligatory IN the
traditions of the democracy, set down with
promises in our statute book.
Our present tariff laws are a needless op.
preston, instead Of on easy burden. Our
currency is chaos, into which we pour
from forced purchases OF one of the preci-
Gus metals q mechanical increment, under a
coinage law so ill;judged and untimely that
| it hinders the opening of our minis to the
natural and unlimited coinage of both me-
tals, and the free expansion OF our gold and
silver coin along with the growing needs OF
q mighty people All our needful customs
revenue might be collected by strictly reve-
nue. duties upon few score articles instead
of Inv extravagant or prohibitory duties upon
more than four thousand articles. Tho
nero machinery of administration, by its
own mass aud completely, breaks down and
brushes out the enterprise it assumes to pro.
tect.
A better currency then elsewhere exists
might be had by few lines of repealins
and empowering legislation, followed by two
or three years of capable administration Of
the treasury, and Joined with the present
sagacious conduct of our foreign policy by
the State Department. Under the opera
ton OF currency laws and tariff laws now in
force, which you and tho Forty ninth Con-
gress were elected BY the people to repeal
and reform, the burdened industries of our
country are pluDging heavily along q miry
road toward foreseen danger. We talk of
arbitrating our respective share of disaster,
instead of knocking of our selfimposed
letters and releasing a general prosperity.
This is not, in my deliberate judgment, a
time when the President can delay to pro.
vide, or afford to dispense with, an actual as
we'll as titular head Of the Treasury De-
partment. The fiscal policy of the federal
government in respect to debt so largo,
taxation so pervasive and a currency
which is universal cannot fail of being
the chief factor in national and indi.
vidual well. doing. Your own duty, to
which YOU have addressed yourself with
such clear and unainching purpose, the duty
of Congress in the premises, and the laws
, which may be enacted for the guidance of
the Treasury Department, will require that
YOU be assisted in their administration by an
officer capable of full efficiency and un-
wearied circumspection. Permit me, there
fore, without hesitation, TO accept my tenn
p0rary disability as Il summons to stand
aside and make way for one Immediately
capable of fulfilling every requirement Of the
public service.
Very respectfully, yours,
DANIEL MANNING.
To the President.
Executive Mansion, Washington, June l.,
1SSG.-My Dear Mr.. Manning have re-
ceived your letter, in which your resignation
is rendered as Secretary ofthe Treasury. The
sentiments therein contained are entirely in
keeping with the devotion to public duty
and loyalty to the interests Of the govern
ment which have characterized your rels-
tions to the present administration. l
am not surprised, though much impressed
by the concern which you evince for the
correction of the abuses and the Inaugural
ton of the reforms to which in your letter
you alude, and which have been so often
topics of our anxious consultations. | have
hoped that the day was at hand when the
party to which we belong, influenced large
IL by faith and confidence in you and in the
|
ed in the sense of responsibility and led
to more harmonious action upon the i'm
portant questions with which you have had
to deal.
In considering your proposed resignation,
I should be strongly Inclined by my person
al regard and friendship, and by the value
of your services to the country, to beg you
to at once and entirely abandon your incl-
nation to relinquish your part of arduous
duty. But am convinced that should
not do this, and that in all Isuggest and
ask should have much at heart your wei.
fare and safety. You have placed your
resignation in my hands. My response
biity here begins, and I know that the
responsibility will be met, and the wishes
of the people of the land fully an
swered, when I ask you to postpone for
a while any insstence upon the acceptance
of your resignation, and that your final con-
clusion thereon may be delayed until the
effects of continued rest and freedom from
official care upon your condition may be