Daily Texarkana Democrat., 1893-08-17
sINaULARLY PROPHETIC.
Cleveland's Letter on National Finan-
ces Written Before his First Term.

Cleveland's Letter on National Finan-
ces Written Before his First Term.
Before going to Washington to en-
ter upon the duties of his Presiden-
tial office, just after his first election
to that high place ofpubic trust, Mr..
Cleveland held consultations at Al
bany with several prominent MEM
bers of his party, including Vice
President-elect Hendricks, Speaker
Samuel j Randall, and Senators Cor
man Of Maryland, Garland of Arkan-
sas, and Lamar, of Mississippi. lie
also visited Mr.. S. j. Tilden, at Grey
stone-on-the-Hudson. In reply to
letter signed by several members of
congress, on the subject of silver coin
age, be sent the following, which was
published on Feb. 27, 1885, and which
is singularly prophetic considered in
connection with the present financial
situations
Albany, N. Y, Feb. "a, }Sj 49, TO
the Hon. A. j. Warner ld other,
members of the forty-eigl congress-
Conference.-The letter whIeh | have
had the honor to receive from you
invites, and indeed obliges me to give
expression to some grave public nee
essities, although in advance of the
moment when they would become the
object of my official care and partial
responsibility.
Your solicitude that my judgement
shall have been carefully and deliber-
ately formed is entirely just and i
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. %, 1878, is now close at
hand. By compliance with the re-
quirements of that law all the vaults
Of the federal treasury have been and
are heaped full ofsilver coins, which
are now worth less than 85 per cent
of the gold dollar proscribes as "the
unit value" in sction ii Of the act of
Feb. IL, 1878, and which, with the
silver certificates representing such
coin, are receivable for all public dues.
Being thus receivable, while constant
ly increasing in quantity at the rate
of $28 100000 year, it has followed,
of necessity, that the flow Of gold into
the treasury has been steadily dimin-
ished. Silver and silver certificates
have displaced and are now displac-
ing 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
"greenbscks," if not already encroach-
cd upon, is perilously near such en-
croachmont. There are facts which,
as they do not admit Of differences of
opinion, call for no argument. They
have been forwarded to us in the Of
fetal reports of every secretary Of the
treasury from 1873 until now. They
are plainly affirmed in the last Decem-
ber report Of the present secretary Of
the treasury to the speaker of the
present House Of Representatives.
They appear in the official documents
of this Congress and in the records of
the New York clearing house, of
which the treasury is member, and
through which the bulk of the re-
ceipts and payments Of the Federal
government and Of the country pass.
Such financial crisis as these events
would certainly precipltate, were it
now to follow upon SO long a period
of commercial depression, the people
of every city and Of every state in the
Union in prolonged and disastrous
trouble Saddest of all, in every
workshop, mill, factory, store, and on
every railroad and farm, the wages of
labor, already depressed, would suffer
still further depression by a scaling
down of the purchasing power Of eve-
ry so-called dollar paid into the hand
of toll. From these impending ca
lamlties IL is surely u most patriotic
and grateful duty of the representa-
tives of the people to deliver them. l
am, gentlemen, with sincere respect {,
your fellow citizen,
GROVER CLEVELAND.