168 



CONGRESS. (THE FINANCIAL CONDITION.) 



He said : 



I am not frightened by the little disturbance 

 in London, nor am I frightened at the disturb- 

 ance which is said to exist in the city of New 

 York. Suppose stocks do fall ; what of it? That 

 is not a matter that the American people as a nation 

 care very much about. I am told railroad stocks 

 went oft 4 points to-day in New York. I do not 

 care if they did. I do not suppose that will affect 

 the price of wheat or of corn or of cotton ; it will 

 not affect the country generally, but only a few 

 speculators; and if the English capitalists who hold 

 our securities conclude that they want to return 

 them to this country, let them return them. We 

 shall not suffer by 'that. They will return them 

 here to be put upon our markets and sold, and if 

 they fall 20 points or 40 points or 50 points we need 

 not be disturbed about it. We shall find plenty of 

 money in this country to take them up at those re- 

 duced values." 



The proposed amendment was laid upon the table, 

 and the bill was reported without amendment, read 

 the third time, and passed. It was signed by the 

 President Dec. 21. On that day a message of con- 

 gratulation from the Congress of Brazil on the 

 message of the President was sent to the Senate by 

 the Secretary of State. 



The Financial Condition. The following mes- 

 sage was laid before the Senate Dec. 20. It was 

 read, ordered to lie on the table, and be printed : 

 To the Congress : 



In my last annual message the evils of our pres- 

 ent financial system were plainly pointed out and 

 the causes and means of the depletion of Govern- 

 ment gold were explained. It was therein stated 

 that after all the efforts that had been made by the 

 executive branch of the Government to protect our 

 gold reserve by the issuance of bonds amounting to 

 more than $162,090,000, such reserve then amount- 

 ed to but little more than $79,000,000, that about 

 $16,000,000 had been withdrawn from such reserve 

 during the month next previous to the date of that 

 message, and that quite large withdrawals for ship- 

 ment in the immediate future were predicted. 



The contingency then feared has reached us, and 

 the withdrawals of gold since the communication 

 referred to, and others that appear inevitable, 

 threaten such a depletion in our Government gold 

 reserve as brings us face to face to the necessity of 

 further action for its protection. This condition is 

 intensified by the prevalence in certain quarters of 

 sudden and unusual apprehension and timidity in 

 business circles. 



We are in the midst of another season of perplex- 

 ity caused by our dangerous and fatuous financial 

 operations. These may be expected to recur with 

 certainty as long as there is no amendment in our 

 financial system. If, in this particular instance, 

 our predicament is at all influenced by a recent in- 

 sistence upon the position we should occupy in our 

 relation to certain questions concerning our foreign 

 policy, this furnishes a signal and impressive warn- 

 ing that even the patriotic sentiment of our people 

 is not an adequate substitute for a sound financial 

 policy. 



Of course there can be no doubt in any thought- 

 ful mind as to the complete solvency of our nation, 

 nor can there be any just apprehension that the 

 Ainrriciui people will be satisfied with less than an 

 honest payment of our public obligations in the 

 recognimt money of the world. We should not 

 overlook the fact, however, that aroused fear is un- 

 'iiing and must be taken into account in all 

 efforts to avert possible loss and the sacrifice of our 

 people's intere- 



The real and sensible cure for our recurring 

 trouble? can only be effected by a complete change 



in our financial scheme. Pending that, the execu- 

 tive branch of the Government will not relax its 

 efforts nor abandon its determination to use every 

 means within its reach to maintain before the 

 world American credit, nor will there be any hesi- 

 tation in exhibiting its confidence in the resources 

 of our country and the constant patriotism of our 

 people. 



In view, however, of the peculiar situation now 

 confronting us, I have ventured to herein express 

 the earnest hope that the Congress, in default of 

 the inauguration of a better system of finance, will 

 not take a recess from its labors before it has, by 

 legislative enactment or declaration, done some- 

 thing not only to remind those apprehensive among 

 our own people that the resources of their Govern- 

 ment and a scrupulous regard for honest dealing 

 afford a sure guarantee of unquestioned safety and 

 soundness, but to reassure the world that with these 

 factors, and the patriotism of our citizens, the abil- 

 ity and determination of our nation to meet in any 

 circumstances every obligation it incurs do not ad- 

 mit of question. 



I ask at the hands of the Congress such prompt 

 aid as it alone has the power to give to prevent, in 

 a time of fear and apprehension, any sacrifice of 

 the people's interests and the public funds or the 

 impairment of our public credit in an effort by 

 executive action to relieve the dangers of the pres- 

 ent emergency. GKOVER CLEVELAND. 



EXECUTIVE MANSION, Dec. 20, 1805. 



The following day Senator Stewart ,of Nevada, 

 spoke on the subject in the Senate, in part as fol- 

 lows: 



" Mr. President, yesterday the President's pa- 

 triotic course was commended and indorsed not 

 only by the two Houses of Congress but by the 

 American people. The loyal people of the United 

 States were resolved and are resolved to stand by 

 the President in his patriotic vindication of the 

 Monroe doctrine, in which is involved the safety of 

 the republic. 



" I regret, and I suppose all patriotic citizens 

 must regret, that the President, immediately after 

 that grand indorsement, placed himself on a lower 

 level. Why this was done is not explained by words 

 in the message which he sent to Congress, but it is 

 coincident with proceedings on the other side of the 

 Atlantic which were of such a threatening charac- 

 ter that they appear to have diverted him from his 

 grand purpose. The meeting in banking houses, 

 the financial war made upon American securities, 

 the threat to destroy American credit, reached to 

 the White House, and the President has yielded be- 

 fore it. 



" What does he command us to do? To carry out 

 the recommendations of his annual message. What 

 are those recommendations? Five hundred million 

 dollars of gold bonds and $500,000,000 less money 

 with which to pay them by the destruction of the 

 greenbacks. 



" If the President means what he says in his pa- 

 triotic message to Congress, he means that if the 

 demands of the United States are resisted specie 

 payment will be suspended, and that the United 

 States will exercise its inherent constitutional right 

 and power to clothe any material that may be 

 necessary with the monopoly of paying debts and 

 taxes, and with that kind of money to defy the 

 world. 



" We knew very well that if the United States at- 

 tempted to assert her rights as against England, Brit- 

 ish financiers would make financial war. We ex- 

 pected it ; it has come. The President should not 

 yield to it. We must hold up his hands in this 

 emergency and get him to understand that there is 



