Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1896-04-08
LETTER FROM HON. W. I. WILSON.
OFFICE OF. THE POSTMASTER GENERAL,
WASHINGTON, March 9Th. 1896.
IA. Tua,7oa. 0Iu9 ocrsJJo III VI,

WASHINGTON, March 9th, 1896.
DR.. h. Taylor, SzdnesUille, W. Va.
Dear Sir:-I note what you say
about Mr.. Carlisle, and your criticism
upon his sale of bonds last February
to the Morgan syndicate. When you
have got possession of all the facts in
the case you will find that he served
the people of the country as faithfully
and as effectively ia that transaction as
in any other of his public acts. and that
the abuse which is heaped upon him
has absolutely no foundation whatever.
There is no truer Democrat, or more
honest man, in the country to day, and
| few statesmen anywhere in the world
more deserving of confidence and re-
spect for character and ability than
Mr.. Carlisle. l cannot give you all the
facts in letter, but will remind you
of a few of them.
The Sherman law which was passed
in 1890 by the Reed Congress started a
run on the gold in the Treasury, just
| as run is started on bank, when
people begin to fear that it is shaky.
From the LIST of January, 1879, to July
II, 1890, period of more than II years.
only 90 millions of dollars of gold were
withdrawn from the Treasury, whereas,
| between July IA, 1890. when the Sher-
| man bill was passed, and the LIST of De
| cember. 1895. which is less than five
years and a half, nearly 375 millions of
gold were withdraw from the Treasury
| by people at home and people abroad
who held our securities who were afraid
they would not be paid in the present
standard money. In order to meet
these Withdrawals and redeem the
greenbacks and Sherman notes in gold
which is the standard money of the
country-it has become necessary dur
| ing this run upon the Treasury from
time to time to buy gold to keep up the
supply. Mr.. Carlisle first tried popular
loans, but he found that the gold went
out almost as fast as it came in, as peO-
pie that bought the bonds DIRE out the
gold to buy them with. Time and again
the President brought this to the at
tcntiOn of Congress, and asked for leg
islation to cure this trouble. In Janu-
airy, 1895. he addressed a special mes
sage to Congress asking for legislation.
| which Congress refused to grant. At
the very last moment, after waiting to
see whether any action would be taken
by the Senate and House, when there
| was probably not gold enough to last
for two days, and we were on the verge
of great panic that would have in
volved us in bankruptcy and loss far
beyond everything that ever happened
i'll the country, but of which, fortu
nately, the people generally were not
informed, Mr.. Carlisle entered into the
contract of which you speak with
syndica tie of bankers, by which he ex
changed e. millions of bonds for little
more than IS millions of gold. On the
very day that the contract was made
the President communicated it to Con-
gress and Informed Congress that he
had reserved the right in this contract
to substitute per cent. bonds ct par
if they would authorize him to make
them payable in gold, which was GER
tainly proper as he was to get gold for
them. l myself reported bill giving
him this authority and tried to get it
through the House, but did not succeed
This put all the responsibility on Con
gress, and nothing remained but to
carry out the contract with the syndi
cate, by which they agreed to furnish,
and did furnish, more than one half of
the gold from abroad, by which they
agreed to protect the Treasury, as they
did protect it, for more than six months
against any Withdrawals of gold; and
under which they did furnish to the
Treasury many millions more of gold
than they had contracted to furnish
the latter in exchange for greenbacks.
In this way panic was prevented
and we had year of comparative
prosperity from February until the be-
ginning of the present Congress, when
the President and Mr.. Carlisle both ap
pealed to Congress for legislation to
prevent the necessity of issuing any
more bonds for the purchase of anV
Iaore gold, which, again was refused.
This is but an outline of a very few
of the facts in what was very desper-
ate and difficult situation, but it is
enough, think, 10 show you that the
responsibility has been upon Congress,
aud not upon the President aud Mr..
Carlisle, for failure to deal with it in a
more satisfactory way. l think it is
enough, also, TO suggest to you that the |
mere statement that bonds were sold
to a syndicate at less than their value |
in the market is not Il correct state
ment, because there were other advan-
tages derived from dealing with the |
syndicate, which were worth to the |
country many times more than the APP |
parent loss on the bonds; but even in |
dealing with the syndicate, the Presi |
dent and Mr.. Carlisle reserved for ten |
days the right to substitute bonds
which would have saved US 16 millions |
OF dollars, if Congress had passed the
bill to which l have referred.
Very truly yours.
VIM. L. WILSON.