756 



UNITED STATES. 



all public dues. Being thus receivable, while also 

 constantly increasing in quantity at the rate of $28,- 

 000,000 a year, it has followed, of necessity, that the 

 flow of gold into the Treasury has been steadily di- 

 minished. Silver and silver certificates have dis- 

 placed and are now displacing 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 " greenbacks," if not already encroached upon, 



the increasing displacement of gold by the increasing 

 coinage of silver ; to prevent the disuse of gold in the 

 custom-houses of the United States in the daily busi- 

 ness of the people ; to prevent the ultimate expulsion 

 of gold by silver. 



Such a financial crisis as these events would certain- 

 ly precipitate, were it now to follow upon so long a 

 period of commercial depression, would involve the 

 people of every city and every State in the Union in 

 a prolonged and disastrous trouble. The revival of 

 business enterprise and prosperity so ar- 

 dently desiretf and apparently so near 

 would be hopelessly postponed. Gold 

 would . be withdrawn to its hoarding- 

 places, and an unprecedented contraction 

 in the actual volume of our currency 

 would speedily take place. 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 every so-called dollar paid into the 

 hand of toil. From these impending 

 calamities it is surely a most patriotic 

 and grateful duty of the representatives 

 of the people to deliver them. 



I am, gentlemen, with sincere respect, 

 your fellow-citizen, 



GROVER CLEVELAND. 

 ALBANY, Feb. 24, 1885. 



THOMAS FRANCIS BAYARD, 



Secretary of State. 



is perilously near such encroachment. These are 

 facts, which, as they do not admit of difference of 

 opinion, call for no argument. The^ have been fore- 

 warned to us in the official reports of every Secretary 

 of the Treasury from 1878 till now. They are plainly 

 affirmed in the last December report of the present 

 Secretary of the Treasury to the Speaker of the pres- 

 ent 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 Treas- 

 ury is a member, and through which the bulk of the 

 receipts and payments of the Federal Government 

 and of the country pass. 



These being the tacts of our present condition, our 

 danger and our duty to avert that danger would seem 

 to be plain. I hope that you concur with me and with 

 the great majority of our fellow-citizens in deeming it 

 most desirable at the present juncture to maintain and 

 continue in use the mass of our gold coin, as well as 

 the mass of silver already coined. This is possible by 

 a present suspension of the purchase and coinage of 

 silver. I am not aware that by any other method it 

 is possible. It is of momentous importance to prevent 

 the two materials from parting company ; to prevent 



Mr. Cleveland left Albany on the 

 evening of March 2, and arrived in 

 Washington the following morning. 

 The inauguration on the 4th was at- 

 tended by more than the usual mili- 

 tary and civic display. Before tak- 

 ing the oath of office, which was ad- 

 ministered by Chief-Justice Waite 

 of the Supreme Court, the Presi- 

 dent-elect delivered his inaugural 

 address from a stand erected at the 

 east front of the Capitol. (See page 

 258 of this volume.) 



On the following day the names 

 of the members of the Cabinet were 

 submitted to the Senate in special 

 session, but immediate confirmation 

 was prevented by an objection from 

 Senator Riddleberger, of Virginia. 

 The appointments were as follow : 

 Secretary of State, Thomas F. Bayard, of Dela- 

 ware ; Secretary of the Treasury, Daniel Man- 

 ning, of New York ; Secretary of War, William 

 C. Endicott, of Massachusetts ; Secretary of the 

 Navy, William C. Whitney, of New York ; Sec- 

 retary of the Interior, L. Q. C. Lamar, of _Mis- 

 sissippi; Postmaster-General, William F. Vilas. 

 of Wisconsin ; Attorney-General, Augustus H. 

 Garland, of Arkansas. 



THOMAS FRANCIS BAYARD was born in Wilmington, 

 Del., Oct. 29, 1828, his father being James A. Bavard, 

 at one time a United States Senator. After bem^ 

 carefully educated in private schools^he was placed 

 for a time in a mercantile house in New York. < 

 the death of his elder brother, in 1848, he returned t( 

 Delaware, studied law, and was admitted to the oar 

 in 1851. He was United States District Attorney in 

 1853, but the following year resigned to go to Phila- 

 delphia, where he was a partner of William Shippen 

 until 1858. He then returned to Wilmington, and 11 

 1861 was a prominent speaker at a peace meeting held 



