Greenbrier independent. [volume] (Lewisburg, Va. [W. Va.]) 1859-1980, 1896-04-09
Letter from Hon. Vim. l.. Wilson.


DR.. X. Tdyler, ,SdneSrWe, ". Ia.
DEAR SIR: l note what you say
about Mr.. Carlisle, and your criti- |
cism upon his sale Of bonds last Feb !
ruary to the Morgan syndicate
When you have got possession Of all |
the facts in the case you will find that
hr served the people Of the country
as faithfully and "a effectively in 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. 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, lust
as run is started on bank when
people begin to fear that it is shaky.
From the LIST of January, 1879, to
than IL years, only % millions of
dollars Of gold were withdrawn from
the treasury, whereas, between July
! 18th, 1890, when the Sherman bill
was passed, and the 1st of December,
| 1895, which is less than five years
and a half, nearly 375 millions ofgold
were withdrawn from the treasury
by people at home and people abroad,
who held our securities and were
afraid they would not be paid in the
present standard money. In order
to meet these Withdrawals and re.
deem the greenbacks and Sherman
notes in gOld-which is the standard
money of the couutry-it has become
necessary, during this run upon the
treasury, from time to time, to buy
gold to keep up the supply. Mr.. Car
Isle first tried popular loans, but he
found that the gold went out almost
as fast as it came in, AS people who
| bought the bonds drew out the gold
to buy them with. Time and again
the President brought this to the at
tentiOn of Congress, and asked for
Legislation to cure this trouble. In
January, 1895, he addressed special
iSlatiOn, which Congress refused to
grant. At the very last moment, af-
ter waiting to sec whether any action
would he 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 involved us in bank
ruptcy and loss far beyond every
thing that ever happened in the coun-
try, but of which, fortunately, the
people generally were not informed,
Mr.. Carlisle entered into the contract
Of which you speak with syndicate
| of bankers, by which he exchanged
81 millions of bonds for little more
than 60 millions of gold. On the
very day that the contract was made
the President communicated il to
Congress and informed Congress that
he had reserved the right in this con-
tract to substitute per cent. bonds
at par if they would authorize him
to make them payable in gold, which
was certainly proper IA he was to get
gold for them. /, myself, reported a
bill giving him this authority, and
tried to get it through the House, but
did not succeed. This put all the re-
sponsIbility on Congress, and moth
ing remained but to carry out the
contract with the syndicate, 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 il, for more than
six months against any Withdrawals
OF gold and under which they did
furnish TO the treasury many mil
lions 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
beginning of the present Congress,
when the President and Mr.. Carlisle
both appealed to Congress for legisla-
ton TO prevent the necessity of issu.
ing any more bonds for the purchase
of gold, which wac again refused.
This is but an outline of very
few of the facts in what was a very
desperate and difficult situation, but
1t is enough, l think, to show you
that the responsibility has been upon
Congress and not upon the President
and Mr.. Carlisle for failure to deal
with 1t in a more satisfactory way.
l think it is enough, also, to suggest
to you that the mere statement that
bonds were sold to syndicate at less
than their value in the market is not
correct statement, because there
were other advantages derived from
dealing with the syndicate which
were worth to the country many
times more than the apparent loss on
the bonds but even in dealing with
the syndicate, the President and Mr..
Carlisle reserved for ten days the
right to substitute bonds which
would have saved us IS millions of
dollars, if Congress had passed the
bill to which | have referred.
Very truly yours,
VIM. l.. WILSON.
Two PREACHERS FIGHT. AT
Frankford, Del, Rev. Francis NAL