The present assemblage of the legislative branch of our Government occurs at a time when the interests of our people and the needs of the country give especial prominence to the condition of our foreign relations and the exigencies of our national finances. The reports of the heads of the several administrative Departments of the Government fully and plainly exhibit what has been accomplished within the scope of their respective duties and present such recommendations for the betterment of our country's condition as patriotic and intelligent labor and observation suggest. I therefore deem my executive duty adequately performed at this time by presenting to the Congress the important phases of our situation as related to our intercourse with foreign nations and a statement of the financial problems which confront us, omitting, except as they are related to these topics, any reference to departmental operations. I earnestly invite, however, not only the careful consideration but the severely critical scrutiny of the Congress and my fellow-countrymen to the reports concerning these departmental operations. If justly and fairly examined, they will furnish proof of assiduous and painstaking care for the public welfare. I press the recommendations they contain upon the respectful attention of those charged with the duty of legislation, because I believe their adoption would promote the people's good. By amendatory tariff legislation in January last the Argentine Republic, recognizing the value of the large market opened to the free importation of its wools under our last tariff act, has admitted certain products of the United States to entry at reduced duties. It is pleasing to note that the efforts we have made to enlarge the exchanges of trade on a sound basis of mutual benefit are in this instance appreciated by the country from which our woolen factories draw their needful supply of raw material. The Missions boundary dispute between the Argentine Republic and Brazil, referred to the President of the United States as arbitrator during the term of my predecessor, and which was submitted to me for determination, resulted in an award in favor of Brazil upon the historical and documentary evidence presented, thus ending a long-protracted controversy and again demonstrating the wisdom and desirability of settling international boundary disputes by recourse to friendly arbitration. Negotiations are progressing for a revival of the United States and Chilean Claims Commission, whose work was abruptly terminated last year by the expiration of the stipulated time within which awards could be made. The resumption of specie payments by Chile is a step of great interest and importance both in its direct consequences upon her own welfare and as evincing the ascendency of sound financial principles in one of the most influential of the South American Republics. The close of the momentous struggle between China and Japan, while relieving the diplomatic agents of this Government from the delicate duty they undertook at the request of both countries of rendering such service to the subjects of either belligerent within the territorial limits of the other as our neutral position permitted, developed a domestic condition in the Chinese Empire which has caused much anxiety and called for prompt and careful attention. Either as a result of a weak control by the central Government over the provincial administrations, following a diminution of traditional governmental authority under the stress of an overwhelming national disaster, or as a manifestation upon good opportunity of the aversion of the Chinese population to all foreign ways and undertakings, there have occurred in widely separated provinces of China serious outbreaks of the old fanatical spirit against foreigners, which, unchecked by the local authorities, if not actually connived at by them, have culminated in mob attacks on foreign missionary stations, causing much destruction of property and attended with personal injuries as well as loss of life. Although but one American citizen was reported to have been actually wounded, and although the destruction of property may have fallen more heavily upon the missionaries of other nationalities than our own, it plainly behooved this Government to take the most prompt and decided action to guard against similar or perhaps more dreadful calamities befalling the hundreds of American mission stations which have grown up throughout the interior of China under the temperate rule of toleration, custom, and imperial edict. The demands of the United States and other powers for the degradation and punishment of the responsible officials of the respective cities and provinces who by neglect or otherwise had permitted uprisings, and for the adoption of stern measures by the Emperor's Government for the protection of the life and property of foreigners, were followed by the disgrace and dismissal of certain provincial officials found derelict in duty and the punishment by death of a number of those adjudged guilty of actual participation in the outrages. This Government also insisted that a special American commission should visit the province where the first disturbances occurred for the purpose of investigation. The latter commission, formed after much opposition, has gone overland from Tientsin, accompanied by a suitable Chinese escort, and by its demonstration of the readiness and ability of our Government to protect its citizens will act, it is believed, as a most influential deterrent of any similar outbreaks. The energetic steps we have thus taken are all the more likely to result in future safety to our citizens in China because the Imperial Government is, I am persuaded, entirely convinced that we desire only the liberty and protection of our own citizens and redress for any wrongs they may have suffered, and that we have no ulterior designs or objects, political or otherwise. China will not forget either our kindly service to her citizens during her late war nor the further fact that, while furnishing all the facilities at our command to further the negotiation of a peace between her and Japan, we sought no advantages and interposed no counsel. The Governments of both China and Japan have, in special dispatches transmitted through their respective diplomatic representatives, expressed in a most pleasing manner their grateful appreciation of our assistance to their citizens during the unhappy struggle and of the value of our aid in paving the way to their resumption of peaceful relations. The customary cordial relations between this country and France have been undisturbed, with the exception that a full explanation of the treatment of John L. Waller by the expeditionary military authorities of France still remains to be given. Mr. Waller, formerly United States consul at Tamatav, remained in Madagascar after his term of office expired, and was apparently successful in procuring business concessions from the Hovas of greater or less value. After the occupation of Tamatav and the declaration of martial law by the French he was arrested upon various charges, among them that of communicating military information to the enemies of France, was tried and convicted by a military tribunal, and sentenced to twenty years' imprisonment. Following the course justified by abundant precedents, this Government requested from that of France the record of the proceedings of the French tribunal which resulted in Mr. Waller's condemnation. This request has been complied with to the extent of supplying a copy of the official record, from which appear the constitution and organization of the court, the charges as formulated, and the general course and result of the trial, and by which it is shown that the accused was tried in open court and was defended by counsel; but the evidence adduced in support of the charges, which was not received by the French minister for foreign affairs till the first week in October, has thus far been withheld, the French Government taking the ground that its production in response to our demand would establish a bad precedent. The efforts of our ambassador to procure it, however, though impeded by recent changes in the French ministry, have not been relaxed, and it is confidently expected that some satisfactory solution of the matter will shortly be reached. Meanwhile it appears that Mr. Waller's confinement has every alleviation which the state of his health and all the other circumstances of the case demand or permit. In agreeable contrast to the difference above noted respecting a matter of common concern, where nothing is sought except such a mutually satisfactory outcome as the true merits of the case require, is the recent resolution of the French Chambers favoring the conclusion of a permanent treaty of arbitration between the two countries. An invitation has been extended by France to the Government and people of the United States to participate in a great international exposition at Paris in 1900 as a suitable commemoration of the close of this the world's marvelous century of progress. I heartily recommend its acceptance, together with such legislation as will adequately provide for a due representation of this Government and its people on the occasion. Our relations with the States of the German Empire are in some aspects typical of a condition of things elsewhere found in countries whose productions and trade are similar to our own. The close rivalries of competing industries; the influence of the delusive doctrine that the internal development of a nation is promoted and its wealth increased by a policy which, in undertaking to reserve its home markets for the exclusive use of its own producers, necessarily obstructs their sales in foreign markets and prevents free access to the products of the world; the desire to retain trade in time-worn ruts, regardless of the inexorable laws of new needs and changed conditions of demand and supply, and our own halting tardiness in inviting a freer exchange of commodities, and by this means imperiling our footing in the external markets naturally open to us, have created a situation somewhat injurious to American export interests, not only in Germany, where they are perhaps most noticeable, but in adjacent countries. The exports affected are largely American cattle and other food products, the reason assigned for unfavorable discrimination being that their consumption is deleterious to the public health. This is all the more irritating in view of the fact that no European state is as jealous of the excellence and wholesomeness of its exported food supplies as the United States, nor so easily able, on account of inherent soundness, to guarantee those qualities. Nor are these difficulties confined to our food products designed for exportation. Our great insurance companies, for example, having built up a vast business abroad and invested a large share of their gains in foreign countries in compliance with the local laws and regulations then existing, now find themselves within a narrowing circle of onerous and unforeseen conditions, and are confronted by the necessity of retirement from a field thus made unprofitable, if, indeed, they are not summarily expelled, as some of them have lately been from Prussia. It is not to be forgotten that international trade can not be one-sided. Its currents are alternating, and its movements should be honestly reciprocal. Without this it almost necessarily degenerates into a device to gain advantage or a contrivance to secure benefits with only the semblance of a return. In our dealings with other nations we ought to be open-handed and scrupulously fair. This should be our policy as a producing nation, and it plainly becomes us as a people who love generosity and the moral aspects of national good faith and reciprocal forbearance. These considerations should not, however, constrain us to submit to unfair discrimination nor to silently acquiesce in vexatious hindrances to the enjoyment of our share of the legitimate advantages of proper trade relations. If an examination of the situation suggests such measures on our part as would involve restrictions similar to those from which we suffer, the way to such a course is easy. It should, however, by no means be lightly entered upon, since the necessity for the inauguration of such a policy would be regretted by the best sentiment of our people and because it naturally and logically might lead to consequences of the gravest character. I take pleasure in calling to your attention the encomiums bestowed on those vessels of our new Navy which took part in the notable ceremony of the opening of the Kiel Canal. It was fitting that this extraordinary achievement of the newer German nationality should be celebrated in the presence of America's exposition of the latest developments of the world' s naval energy. Our relations with Great Britain, always intimate and important, have demanded during the past year even a greater share of consideration than is usual. Several vexatious questions were left undetermined by the decision of the Bering Sea Arbitration Tribunal. The application of the principles laid down by that august body has not been followed by the results they were intended to accomplish, either because the principles themselves lacked in breadth and definiteness or because their execution has been more or less imperfect. Much correspondence has been exchanged between the two Governments on the subject of preventing the exterminating slaughter of seals. The insufficiency of the British patrol of Bering Sea under the regulations agreed on by the two Governments has been pointed out, and yet only two British ships have been on police duty during this season in those waters. The need of a more effective enforcement of existing regulations as well as the adoption of such additional regulations as experience has shown to be absolutely necessary to carry out the intent of the award have been earnestly urged upon the British Government, but thus far without effective results. In the meantime the depletion of the seal herds by means of pelagic hunting has so alarmingly progressed that unless their slaughter is at once effectively checked their extinction within a few years seems to be a matter of absolute certainty. The understanding by which the United States was to pay and Great Britain to receive a lump sum of $425,000 in full settlement of all British claims for damages arising from our seizure of British sealing vessels unauthorized under the award of the Paris Tribunal of Arbitration was not confirmed by the last Congress, which declined to make the necessary appropriation. I am still of the opinion that this arrangement was a judicious and advantageous one for the Government, and I earnestly recommend that it be again considered and sanctioned. If, however, this does not meet with the favor of Congress, it certainly will hardly dissent from the proposition that the Government is bound by every consideration of honor and good faith to provide for the speedy adjustment of these claims by arbitration as the only other alternative. A treaty of arbitration has therefore been agreed upon, and will be immediately laid before the Senate, so that in one of the modes suggested a final settlement may be reached. Notwithstanding that Great Britain originated the proposal to enforce international rules for the prevention of collisions at sea, based on the recommendations of the Maritime Conference of Washington, and concurred in, suggesting March 11, 1895, as the date to be set by proclamation for carrying these rules into general effect, Her Majesty's Government, having encountered opposition on the part of British shipping interests, announced its inability to accept that date, which was consequently canceled. The entire matter is still in abeyance, without prospect of a better condition in the near future. The commissioners appointed to mark the international boundary in Passamaquoddy Bay according to the description of the treaty of Ghent have not yet fully agreed. The completion of the preliminary survey of that Alaskan boundary which follows the contour of the coast from the southernmost point of Prince of Wales Island until it strikes the one hundred and forty-first meridian at or near the summit of Mount St. Elias awaits further necessary appropriation, which is urgently recommended. This survey was undertaken under the provisions of the convention entered into by this country and Great Britain July 22, 1892, and the supplementary convention of February 3, 1894. As to the remaining section of the Alaskan boundary, which follows the one hundred and forty-first meridian northwardly from Mount St. Elias to the Frozen Ocean, the settlement of which involves the physical location of the meridian mentioned, no conventional agreement has yet been made. The ascertainment of a given meridian at a particular point is a work requiring much time and careful observations and surveys. Such observations and surveys were undertaken by the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey in 1890 and 1891, while similar work in the same quarters, under British auspices, is believed to give nearly coincident results; but these surveys have been independently conducted, and no international agreement to mark those or any other parts of the one hundred and forty-first meridian by permanent monuments has yet been made. In the meantime the valley of the Yukon is becoming a highway through the hitherto unexplored wilds of Alaska, and abundant mineral wealth has been discovered in that region, especially at or near the junction of the boundary meridian with the Yukon and its tributaries. In these circumstances it is expedient, and, indeed, imperative, that the jurisdictional limits of the respective Governments in this new region be speedily determined. Her Britannic Majesty's Government has proposed a joint delimitation of the one hundred and forty-first meridian by an international commission of experts, which, if Congress will authorize it and make due provision therefor, can be accomplished with no unreasonable delay. It is impossible to overlook the vital importance of continuing the work already entered upon and supplementing it by further effective measures looking to the exact location of this entire boundary line. I call attention to the unsatisfactory delimitation of the respective jurisdictions of the United States and the Dominion of Canada in the Great Lakes at the approaches to the narrow waters that connect them. The waters in question are frequented by fishermen of both nationalities and their nets are there used. Owing to the uncertainty and ignorance as to the true boundary, vexations disputes and injurious seizures of boats and nets by Canadian cruisers often occur, while any positive settlement thereof by an accepted standard is not easily to be reached. A joint commission to determine the line in those quarters on a practical basis, by measured courses following range marks on shore, is a necessity for which immediate provision should be made. It being apparent that the boundary dispute between Great Britain and the Republic of Venezuela concerning the limits of British Guiana was approaching an acute stage, a definite statement of the interest and policy of the United States as regards the controversy seemed to be required both on its own account and in view of its relations with the friendly powers directly concerned. In July last, therefore, a dispatch was addressed to our ambassador at London for communication to the British Government in which the attitude of the United States was fully and distinctly set forth. The general conclusions therein reached and formulated are in substance that the traditional and established policy of this Government is firmly opposed to a forcible increase by any European power of its territorial possessions on this continent; that this policy is as well rounded in principle as it is strongly supported by numerous precedents; that as a consequence the United States is bound to protest against the enlargement of the area of British Guiana in derogation of the rights and against the will of Venezuela; that considering the disparity in strength of Great Britain and Venezuela the territorial dispute between them can be reasonably settled only by friendly and impartial arbitration, and that the resort to such arbitration should include the whole controversy, and is not satisfied if one of the powers concerned is permitted to draw an arbitrary line through the territory in debate and to declare that it will submit to arbitration only the portion lying on one side of it. In view of these conclusions, the dispatch in question called upon the British Government for a definite answer to the question whether it would or would not submit the territorial controversy between itself and Venezuela in its entirety to impartial arbitration. The answer of the British Government has not yet been received, but is expected shortly, when further communication on the subject will probably be made to the Congress. Early in January last an uprising against the Government of Hawaii was promptly suppressed. Martial law was forthwith proclaimed and numerous arrests were made of persons suspected of being in sympathy with the Royalist party. Among these were several citizens of the United States, who were either convicted by a military court and sentenced to death, imprisonment, or fine or were deported without trial. The United States, while denying protection to such as had taken the Hawaiian oath of allegiance, insisted that martial law, though altering the forms of justice, could not supersede justice itself, and demanded stay of execution until the proceedings had been submitted to this Government and knowledge obtained therefrom that our citizens had received fair trial. The death sentences were subsequently commuted or were remitted on condition of leaving the islands. The cases of certain Americans arrested and expelled by arbitrary order without formal charge or trial have had attention, and in some instances have been found to justify remonstrance and a claim for indemnity, which Hawaii has not thus far conceded. Mr. Thurston, the Hawaiian minister, having furnished this Government abundant reason for asking that he be recalled, that course was pursued, and his successor has lately been received. The deplorable lynching of several Italian laborers in Colorado was naturally followed by international representations, and I am happy to say that the best efforts of the State in which the outrages occurred have been put forth to discover and punish the authors of this atrocious crime. The dependent families of some of the unfortunate victims invite by their deplorable condition gracious provision for their needs. These manifestations against helpless aliens may be traced through successive stages to the vicious padroni system, which, unchecked by our immigration and contract-labor statutes, controls these workers from the moment of landing on our shores and farms them out in distant and often rude regions, where their cheapening competition in the fields of bread-winning toil brings them into collision with other labor interests. While welcoming, as we should, those who seek our shores to merge themselves in our body politic and win personal competence by honest effort, we can not regard such assemblages of distinctively alien laborers, hired out in the mass to the profit of alien speculators and shipped hither and thither as the prospect of gain may dictate, as otherwise than repugnant to the spirit of our civilization, deterrent to individual advancement, and hindrances to the building up of stable communities resting upon the wholesome ambitions of the citizen and constituting the prime factor in the prosperity and progress of our nation. If legislation can reach this growing evil, it certainly should be attempted. Japan has furnished abundant evidence of her vast gain in every trait and characteristic that constitutes a nation's greatness. We have reason for congratulation in the fact that the Government of the United States, by the exchange of liberal treaty stipulations with the new Japan, was the first to recognize her wonderful advance and to extend to her the consideration and confidence due to her national enlightenment and progressive character. The boundary dispute which lately threatened to embroil Guatemala and Mexico has happily yielded to pacific counsels, and its determination has, by the joint agreement of the parties, been submitted to the sole arbitration of the United States minister to Mexico. The commission appointed under the convention of February 18, 1889, to set new monuments along the boundary between the United States and Mexico has completed its task. As a sequel to the failure of a scheme for the colonization in Mexico of negroes, mostly immigrants from Alabama under contract, a great number of these helpless and suffering people, starving and smitten with contagious disease, made their way or were assisted to the frontier, where, in wretched plight, they were quarantined by the Texas authorities. Learning of their destitute condition, I directed rations to be temporarily furnished them through the War Department. At the expiration of their quarantine they were conveyed by the railway companies at comparatively nominal rates to their homes in Alabama, upon my assurance, in the absence of any fund available for the cost of their transportation, that I would recommend to Congress an appropriation for its payment. I now strongly urge upon Congress the propriety of making such an appropriation. It should be remembered that the measures taken were dictated not only by sympathy and humanity, but by a conviction that it was not compatible with the dignity of this Government that so large a body of our dependent citizens should be thrown for relief upon the charity of a neighboring state. In last year's message I narrated at some length the jurisdictional questions then freshly arisen in the Mosquito Indian Strip of Nicaragua. Since that time, by the voluntary act of the Mosquito Nation, the territory reserved to them has been incorporated with Nicaragua, the Indians formally subjecting themselves to be governed by the general laws and regulations of the Republic instead of by their own customs and regulations, and thus availing themselves of a privilege secured to them by the treaty between Nicaragua and Great Britain of January 28, 1860. After this extension of uniform Nicaraguan administration to the Mosquito Strip, the case of the British vice-consul, Hatch, and of several of his countrymen who had been summarily expelled from Nicaragua and treated with considerable indignity provoked a claim by Great Britain upon Nicaragua for pecuniary indemnity, which, upon Nicaragua's refusal to admit liability, was enforced by Great Britain. While the sovereignty and jurisdiction of Nicaragua was in no way questioned by Great Britain, the former's arbitrary conduct in regard to British subjects furnished the ground for this proceeding. A British naval force occupied without resistance the Pacific seaport of Corinto, but was soon after withdrawn upon the promise that the sum demanded would be paid. Throughout this incident the kindly offices of the United States were invoked and were employed in favor of as peaceful a settlement and as much consideration and indulgence toward Nicaragua as were consistent with the nature of the case. Our efforts have since been made the subject of appreciative and grateful recognition by Nicaragua. The coronation of the Czar of Russia at Moscow in May next invites the ceremonial participation of the United States, and in accordance with usage and diplomatic propriety our minister to the imperial court has been directed to represent our Government on the occasion. Correspondence is on foot touching the practice of Russian consuls within the jurisdiction of the United States to interrogate citizens as to their race and religious faith, and upon ascertainment thereof to deny to Jews authentication of passports or legal documents for use in Russia. Inasmuch as such a proceeding imposes a disability which in the case of succession to property in Russia may be found to infringe the treaty rights of our citizens, and which is an obnoxious invasion of our territorial jurisdiction, it has elicited fitting remonstrance, the result of which, it is hoped, will remove the cause of complaint. The pending claims of sealing vessels of the United States seized in Russian waters remain unadjusted. Our recent convention with Russia establishing a modus vivendi as to imperial jurisdiction in such cases has prevented further difficulty of this nature. The Russian Government has welcomed in principle our suggestion for a modus vivendi, to embrace Great Britain and Japan, looking to the better preservation of seal life in the North Pacific and Bering Sea and the extension of the protected area defined by the Paris Tribunal to all Pacific waters north of the thirty-fifth parallel. It is especially noticeable that Russia favors prohibition of the use of firearms in seal hunting throughout the proposed area and a longer closed season for pelagic sealing. In my last two annual messages I called the attention of the Congress to the position we occupied as one of the parties to a treaty or agreement by which we became jointly bound with England and Germany to so interfere with the government and control of Samoa as in effect to assume the management of its affairs. On the 9th day of May, 1894, I transmitted to the Senate a special message, with accompanying documents, giving information on the subject and emphasizing the opinion I have at all times entertained, that our situation in this matter was inconsistent with the mission and traditions of our Government, in violation of the principles we profess, and in all its phases mischievous and vexatious. I again press this subject upon the attention of the Congress and ask for such legislative action or expression as will lead the way to our relief from obligations both irksome and unnatural. Cuba is again gravely disturbed. An insurrection in some respects more active than the last preceding revolt, which continued from 1868 to 1878, now exists in a large part of the eastern interior of the island, menacing even some populations on the coast. Besides deranging the commercial exchanges of the island, of which our country takes the predominant share, this flagrant condition of hostilities, by arousing sentimental sympathy and inciting adventurous support among our people, has entailed earnest effort on the part of this Government to enforce obedience to our neutrality laws and to prevent the territory of the United States from being abused as a vantage ground from which to aid those in arms against Spanish sovereignty. Whatever may be the traditional sympathy of our countrymen as individuals with a people who seem to be struggling for larger autonomy and greater freedom, deepened, as such sympathy naturally must be, in behalf of our neighbors, yet the plain duty of their Government is to observe in good faith the recognized obligations of international relationship. The performance of this duty should not be made more difficult by a disregard on the part of our citizens of the obligations growing out of their allegiance to their country, which should restrain them from violating as individuals the neutrality which the nation of which they are members is bound to observe in its relations to friendly sovereign states. Though neither the warmth of our people's sympathy with the Cuban insurgents, nor our loss and material damage consequent upon the futile endeavors thus far made to restore peace and order, nor any shock our humane sensibilities may have received from the cruelties which appear to especially characterize this sanguinary and fiercely conducted war, have in the least shaken the determination of the Government to honestly fulfill every international obligation, yet it is to be earnestly hoped on every ground that the devastation of armed conflict may speedily be stayed and order and quiet restored to the distracted island, bringing in their train the activity and thrift of peaceful pursuits. One notable instance of interference by Spain with passing American ships has occurred. On March 8 last the Allianca, while bound from Colon to New York, and following the customary track for vessels near the Cuban shore, but outside the 3-mile limit, was fired upon by a Spanish gunboat. Protest was promptly made by the United States against this act as not being justified by a state of war, nor permissible in respect of vessels on the usual paths of commerce, nor tolerable in view of the wanton peril occasioned to innocent life and property. The act was disavowed, with full expression of regret and assurance of nonrecurrence of such just cause of complaint, while the offending officer was relieved of his command. Military arrests of citizens of the United States in Cuba have occasioned frequent reclamations. Where held on criminal charges their delivery to the ordinary civil jurisdiction for trial has been demanded and obtained in conformity with treaty provisions, and where merely detained by way of military precaution under a proclaimed state of siege, without formulated accusation, their release or trial has been insisted upon. The right of American consular officers in the island to prefer protests and demands in such cases having been questioned by the insular authority, their enjoyment of the privilege stipulated by treaty for the consuls of Germany was claimed under the most-favored-nation provision of our own convention and was promptly recognized. The long-standing demand of Antonio Maximo Mora against Spain has at last been settled by the payment, on the 14th of September last, of the sum originally agreed upon in liquidation of the claim. Its distribution among the parties entitled to receive it has proceeded as rapidly as the rights of those claiming the fund could be safely determined. The enforcement of differential duties against products of this country exported to Cuba and Puerto Rico prompted the immediate claim on our part to the benefit of the minimum tariff of Spain in return for the most favorable treatment permitted by our laws as regards the production of Spanish territories. A commercial arrangement was concluded in January last securing the treatment so claimed. Vigorous protests against excessive fines imposed on our ships and merchandise by the customs officers of these islands for trivial errors have resulted in the remission of such fines in instances where the equity of the complaint was apparent, though the vexatious practice has not been wholly discontinued. Occurrences in Turkey have continued to excite concern. The reported massacres of Christians in Armenia and the development there and in other districts of a spirit of fanatic hostility to Christian influences naturally excited apprehension for the safety of the devoted men and women who, as dependents of the foreign missionary societies in the United States, reside in Turkey under the guaranty of law and usage and in the legitimate performance of their educational and religious mission. No efforts have been spared in their behalf, and their protection in person and property has been earnestly and vigorously enforced by every means within our power. I regret, however, that an attempt on our part to obtain better information concerning the true condition of affairs in the disturbed quarter of the Ottoman Empire by sending thither the United States consul at Sivas to make investigation and report was thwarted by the objections of the Turkish Government. This movement on our part was in no sense meant as a gratuitous entanglement of the United States in the so-called Eastern question nor as an officious interference with the right and duty which belong by treaty to certain great European powers calling for their intervention in political matters affecting the good government and religious freedom of the non-Mussulman subjects of the Sultan, but it arose solely from our desire to have an accurate knowledge of the conditions in our efforts to care for those entitled to our protection. The presence of our naval vessels which are now in the vicinity of the disturbed localities affords opportunities to acquire a measure of familiarity with the condition of affairs and will enable us to take suitable steps for the protection of any interests of our countrymen within reach of our ships that might be found imperiled. The Ottoman Government has lately issued an imperial irade exempting forever from taxation an American college for girls at Scutari. Repeated assurances have also been obtained by our envoy at Constantinople that similar institutions maintained and administered by our countrymen shall be secured in the enjoyment of all rights and that our citizens throughout the Empire shall be protected. The Government, however, in view of existing facts, is far from relying upon such assurances as the limit of its duty. Our minister has been vigilant and alert in affording all possible protection in individual cases where danger threatened or safety was imperiled. We have sent ships as far toward the points of actual disturbance as it is possible for them to go, where they offer refuge to those obliged to flee, and we have the promise of other powers which have ships in the neighborhood that our citizens as well as theirs will be received and protected on board those ships. On the demand of our minister orders have been issued by the Sultan that Turkish soldiers shall guard and escort to the coast American refugees. These orders have been carried out, and our latest intelligence gives assurance of the present personal safety of our citizens and missionaries. Though thus far no lives of American citizens have been sacrificed, there can be no doubt that serious loss and destruction of mission property have resulted from riotous conflicts and outrageous attacks. By treaty several of the most powerful European powers have secured a right and have assumed a duty not only in behalf of their own citizens and in furtherance of their own interests, but as agents of the Christian world. Their right is to enforce such conduct of Turkish government as will restrain fanatical brutality, and if this fails their duty is to so interfere as to insure against such dreadful occurrences in Turkey as have lately shocked civilization. The powers declare this right and this duty to be theirs alone, and it is earnestly hoped that prompt and effective action on their part will not be delayed. The new consulates at Erzerum and Harpoot, for which appropriation was made last session, have been provisionally filled by trusted employees of the Department of State. These appointees, though now in Turkey, have not yet received their exequaturs. The arbitration of the claim of the Venezuela Steam Transportation Company under the treaty of January 19, 1892, between the United States and Venezuela, resulted in an award in favor of the claimant. The Government has used its good offices toward composing the differences between Venezuela on the one hand and France and Belgium on the other growing out of the dismissal of the representatives of those powers on the ground of a publication deemed offensive to Venezuela. Although that dismissal was coupled with a cordial request that other more personally agreeable envoys be sent in their stead, a rupture of intercourse ensued and still continues. In view of the growth of our interests in foreign countries and the encouraging prospects for a general expansion of our commerce, the question of an improvement in the consular service has increased in importance and urgency. Though there is no doubt that the great body of consular officers are rendering valuable services to the trade and industries of the country, the need of some plan of appointment and control which would tend to secure a higher average of efficiency can not be denied. The importance of the subject has led the Executive to consider what steps might properly be taken without additional legislation to answer the need of a better system of consular appointments. The matter having been committed to the consideration of the Secretary of State, in pursuance of his recommendations an Executive order was issued on the 20th of September, 1895, by the terms of which it is provided that after that date any vacancy in a consulate or commercial agency with an annual salary or compensation from official fees of not more than $2,500 or less than $1,000 should be filled either by transfer or promotion from some other position under the Department of State of a character tending to qualify the incumbent for the position to be filled, or by the appointment of a person not under the Department of State, but having previously served thereunder and shown his capacity and fitness for consular duty, or by the appointment of a person who, having been selected by the President and sent to a board for examination, is found upon such examination to be qualified for the position. Posts which pay less than $1,000 being usually, on account of their small compensation, filled by selection from residents of the locality, it was not deemed practicable to put them under the new system. The compensation of $2,500 was adopted as the maximum limit in the classification for the reason that consular officers receiving more than that sum are often charged with functions and duties scarcely inferior in dignity and importance to those of diplomatic agents, and it was therefore thought best to continue their selection in the discretion of the Executive without subjecting them to examination before a board. Excluding 71 places with compensation at present less than $1,000 and 53 places above the maximum in compensation, the number of positions remaining within the scope of the order is 196. This number will undoubtedly be increased by the inclusion of consular officers whose remuneration in fees, now less than $1,000, will be augmented with the growth of our foreign commerce and a return to more favorable business conditions. In execution of the Executive order referred to the Secretary of State has designated as a board to conduct the prescribed examinations the Third Assistant Secretary of State, the Solicitor of the Department of State, and the Chief of the Consular Bureau, and has specified the subjects to which such examinations shall relate. It is not assumed that this system will prove a full measure of consular reform. It is quite probable that actual experience will show particulars in which the order already issued may be amended and demonstrate that for the best results appropriate legislation by Congress is imperatively required. In any event, these efforts to improve the consular service ought to be immediately supplemented by legislation providing for consular inspection. This has frequently been a subject of Executive recommendation, and I again urge such action by Congress as will permit the frequent and thorough inspection of consulates by officers appointed for that purpose or by persons already in the diplomatic or consular service. The expense attending such a plan would be insignificant compared with its usefulness, and I hope the legislation necessary to set it on foot will be speedily forthcoming. I am thoroughly convinced that in addition to their salaries our ambassadors and ministers at foreign courts should be provided by the Government with official residences. The salaries of these officers are comparatively small and in most cases insufficient to pay, with other necessary expenses, the cost of maintaining household establishments in keeping with their important and delicate functions. The usefulness of a nation's diplomatic representative undeniably depends much upon the appropriateness of his surroundings, and a country like ours, while avoiding unnecessary glitter and show, should be certain that it does not suffer in its relations with foreign nations through parsimony and shabbiness in its diplomatic outfit. These considerations and the other advantages of having fixed and somewhat permanent locations for our embassies would abundantly justify the moderate expenditure necessary to carry out this suggestion. As we turn from a review of our foreign relations to the contemplation of our national financial situation we are immediately aware that we approach a subject of domestic concern more important than any other that can engage our attention, and one at present in such a perplexing and delicate predicament as to require prompt and wise treatment. We may well be encouraged to earnest effort in this direction when we recall the steps already taken toward improving our economic and financial situation and when we appreciate how well the way has been prepared for further progress by an aroused and intelligent popular interest in these subjects. By command of the people a customs-revenue system designed for the protection and benefit of favored classes at the expense of the great mass of our countrymen, and which, while inefficient for the purpose of revenue, curtailed our trade relations and impeded our entrance to the markets of the world, has been superseded by a tariff policy which in principle is based upon a denial of the right of the Government to obstruct the avenues to our people's cheap living or lessen their comfort and contentment for the sake of according especial advantages to favorites, and which, while encouraging our intercourse and trade with other nations, recognizes the fact that American self-reliance, thrift, and ingenuity can build up our country's industries and develop its resources more surely than enervating paternalism. The compulsory purchase and coinage of silver by the Government, unchecked and unregulated by business conditions and heedless of our currency needs, which for more than fifteen years diluted our circulating medium, undermined confidence abroad in our financial ability, and at last culminated in distress and panic at home, has been recently stopped by the repeal of the laws which forced this reckless scheme upon the country. The things thus accomplished, notwithstanding their extreme importance and beneficent effects, fall far short of curing the monetary evils from which we suffer as a result of long indulgence in ill-advised financial expedients. The currency denominated United States notes and commonly known as greenbacks was issued in large volume during the late Civil War and was intended originally to meet the exigencies of that period. It will be seen by a reference to the debates in Congress at the time the laws were passed authorizing the issue of these notes that their advocates declared they were intended for only temporary use and to meet the emergency of war. In almost if not all the laws relating to them some provision was made contemplating their voluntary or compulsory retirement. A large quantity of them, however, were kept on foot and mingled with the currency of the country, so that at the close of the year 1874 they amounted to $381,999,073. Immediately after that date, and in January, 1875, a law was passed providing for the resumption of specie payments, by which the Secretary of the Treasury was required whenever additional circulation was issued to national banks to retire United States notes equal in amount to 80 per cent of such additional national-bank circulation until such notes were reduced to $300,000,000. This law further provided that on and after the 1st day of January, 1879, the United States notes then outstanding should be redeemed in coin, and in order to provide and prepare for such redemption the Secretary of the Treasury was authorized not only to use any surplus revenues of the Government, but to issue bonds of the United States and dispose of them for coin and to use the proceeds for the purposes contemplated by the statute. In May, 1878, and before the date thus appointed for the redemption and retirement of these notes, another statute was passed forbidding their further cancellation and retirement. Some of them had, however, been previously redeemed and canceled upon the issue of additional national-bank circulation, as permitted by the law of 1875, so that the amount outstanding at the time of the passage of the act forbidding their further retirement was $346,681,016. The law of 1878 did not stop at distinct prohibition, but contained in addition the following express provision: 
  And when any of said notes may be redeemed or be received into the Treasury under any law from any source whatever, and shall belong to the United States, they shall not be retired, canceled, or destroyed, but they shall be reissued and paid out again and kept in circulation.
 This was the condition of affairs on the 1st day of January, 1879, which had been fixed upon four years before as the date for entering upon the redemption and retirement of all these notes, and for which such abundant means had been provided. The Government was put in the anomalous situation of owing to the holders of its notes debts payable in gold on demand which could neither be retired by receiving such notes in discharge of obligations due the Government nor canceled by actual payment in gold. It was forced to redeem without redemption and to pay without acquittance. There had been issued and sold $95,500,000 of the bonds authorized by the resumption act of 1875, the proceeds of which, together with other gold in the Treasury, created a gold fund deemed sufficient to meet the demands which might be made upon it for the redemption of the outstanding United States notes. This fund, together with such other gold as might be from time to time in the Treasury available for the same purpose, has been since called our gold reserve, and $100,000,000 has been regarded as an adequate amount to accomplish its object. This fund amounted on the 1st day of January, 1879, to $114,193,360, and though thereafter constantly fluctuating it did not fall below that sum until July, 1892. In April, 1893, for the first time since its establishment, this reserve amounted to less than $100,000,000, containing at that date only $97,011,330. In the meantime, and in July, 1890, an act had been passed directing larger governmental monthly purchases of silver than had been required under previous laws, and providing that in payment for such silver Treasury notes of the United States should be issued payable on demand in gold or silver coin, at the discretion of the Secretary of the Treasury. It was, however, declared in the act to be" the established policy of the United States to maintain the two metals on a parity with each other upon the present legal ratio or such ratio as may be provided by law." In view of this declaration it was not deemed permissible for the Secretary of the Treasury to exercise the discretion in terms conferred on him by refusing to pay gold on these notes when demanded, because by such discrimination in favor of the gold dollar the so-called parity of the two metals would be destroyed and grave and dangerous consequences would be precipitated by affirming or accentuating the constantly widening disparity between their actual values under the existing ratio. It thus resulted that the Treasury notes issued in payment of silver purchases under the law of 1890 were necessarily treated as gold obligations at the option of the holder. These notes on the 1st day of November, 1893, when the law compelling the monthly purchase of silver was repealed, amounted to more than $155,000,000. The notes of this description now outstanding added to the United States notes still undiminished by redemption or cancellation constitute a volume of gold obligations amounting to nearly $500,000,000. These obligations are the instruments which ever since we had a gold reserve have been used to deplete it. This reserve, as has been stated, had fallen in April, 1893, to $97,111,330. It has from that time to the present, with very few and unimportant upward movements, steadily decreased, except as it has been temporarily replenished by the sale of bonds. Among the causes for this constant and uniform shrinkage in this fund may be mentioned the great falling off of exports under the operation of the tariff law until recently in force, which crippled our exchange of commodities with foreign nations and necessitated to some extent the payment of our balances in gold; the unnatural infusion of silver into our currency and the increasing agitation for its free and unlimited coinage, which have created apprehension as to our disposition or ability to continue gold payments; the consequent hoarding of gold at home and the stoppage of investments of foreign capital, as well as the return of our securities already sold abroad; and the high rate of foreign exchange, which induced the shipment of our gold to be drawn against as a matter of speculation. In consequence of these conditions the gold reserve on the 1st day of February, 1894, was reduced to $65,438,377, having lost more than $31,000,000 during the preceding nine months, or since April, 1893. Its replenishment being necessary and no other manner of accomplishing it being possible, resort was had to the issue and sale of bonds provided for by the resumption act of 1875. Fifty millions of these bonds were sold, yielding $58,633,295.71, which was added to the reserve fund of gold then on hand. As a result of this operation this reserve, which had suffered constant and large withdrawals in the meantime, stood on the 6th day of March, 1894, at the sum of $107,446,802. Its depletion was, however, immediately thereafter so accelerated that on the 30th day of June, 1894, it had fallen to $64,873,025, thus losing by withdrawals more than $42,000,000 in five months and dropping slightly below its situation when the sale of $50,000,000 in bonds was effected for its replenishment. This depressed condition grew worse, and on the 24th day of November, 1894, our gold reserve being reduced to $57,669,701, it became necessary to again strengthen it. This was done by another sale of bonds amounting to $50,000,000, from which there was realized $58,538,500, with which the fund was increased to $111,142,021 on the 4th day of December, 1894. Again disappointment awaited the anxious hope for relief. There was not even a lull in the exasperating withdrawals of gold. On the contrary, they grew larger and more persistent than ever. Between the 4th day of December, 1894, and early in February, 1895, a period of scarcely more than two months after the second reenforcement of our gold reserve by the sale of bonds, it had lost by such withdrawals more than $69,000,000 and had fallen to $41,340,181. Nearly $43,000,000 had been withdrawn within the month immediately preceding this situation. In anticipation of impending trouble I had on the 28th day of January, 1895, addressed a communication to the Congress fully setting forth our difficulties and dangerous position and earnestly recommending that authority be given the Secretary of the Treasury to issue bonds bearing a low rate of interest, payable by their terms in gold, for the purpose of maintaining a sufficient gold reserve and also for the redemption and cancellation of outstanding United States notes and the Treasury notes issued for the purchase of silver under the law of 1890. This recommendation did not, however, meet with legislative approval. In February, 1895, therefore, the situation was exceedingly critical. With a reserve perilously low and a refusal of Congressional aid, everything indicated that the end of gold payments by the Government was imminent. The results of prior bond issues had been exceedingly unsatisfactory, and the large withdrawals of gold immediately succeeding their public sale in open market gave rise to a reasonable suspicion that a large part of the gold paid into the Treasury upon such sales was promptly drawn out again by the presentation of United States notes or Treasury notes, and found its way to the hands of those who had only temporarily parted with it in the purchase of bonds. In this emergency, and in view of its surrounding perplexities, it became entirely apparent to those upon whom the struggle for safety was devolved not only that our gold reserve must, for the third time in less than thirteen months, be restored by another issue and sale of bonds bearing a high rate of interest and badly suited to the purpose, but that a plan must be adopted for their disposition promising better results than those realized on previous sales. An agreement was therefore made with a number of financiers and bankers whereby it was stipulated that bonds described in the resumption act of 1875, payable in coin thirty years after their date, bearing interest at the rate of 4 pet cent per annum, and amounting to about $62,000,000, should be exchanged for gold, receivable by weight, amounting to a little more than $65,000,000. This gold was to be delivered in such installments as would complete its delivery within about six months from the date of the contract, and at least one-half of the amount was to be furnished from abroad. It was also agreed by those supplying this gold that during the continuance of the contract they would by every means in their power protect the Government against gold withdrawals. The contract also provided that if Congress would authorize their issue bonds payable by their terms in gold and bearing interest at the rate of 3 per cent per annum might within ten days be substituted at par for the 4 per cent bonds described in the agreement. On the day this contract was made its terms were communicated to Congress by a special Executive message, in which it was stated that more than $16,000,000 would be saved to the Government if gold bonds bearing 3 per cent interest were authorized to be substituted for those mentioned in the contract. The Congress having declined to grant the necessary authority to secure this saving, the contract, unmodified, was carried out, resulting in a gold reserve amounting to $107,571,230 on the 8th day of July, 1895. The performance of this contract not only restored the reserve, but checked for a time the withdrawals of gold and brought on a period of restored confidence and such peace and quiet in business circles as were of the greatest possible value to every interest that affects our people. I have never had the slightest misgiving concerning the wisdom or propriety of this arrangement, and am quite willing to answer for my full share of responsibility for its promotion. I believe it averted a disaster the imminence of which was, fortunately, not at the time generally understood by our people. Though the contract mentioned stayed for a time the tide of gold withdrawal, its good results could not be permanent. Recent withdrawals have reduced the reserve from $107,571,230 on the 8th day of July, 1895, to $79,333,966. How long it will remain large enough to render its increase unnecessary is only matter of conjecture, though quite large withdrawals for shipment in the immediate future are predicted in well-informed quarters. About $16,000,000 has been withdrawn during the month of November. The foregoing statement of events and conditions develops the fact that after increasing our interest-bearing bonded indebtedness more than $162,000,000 to save our gold reserve we are nearly where we started, having now in such reserve $79,333,966, as against $65,438,377 in February, 1894, when the first bonds were issued. Though the amount of gold drawn from the Treasury appears to be very large as gathered from the facts and figures herein presented, it actually was much larger, considerable sums having been acquired by the Treasury within the several periods stated without the issue of bonds. On the 28th of January, 1895, it was reported by the Secretary of the Treasury that more than $172,000,000 of gold had been withdrawn for hoarding or shipment during the year preceding. He now reports that from January 1, 1879, to July 14, 1890, a period of more than eleven years, only a little over $28,000,000 was withdrawn, and that between July 14, 1890, the date of the passage of the law for an increased purchase of silver, and the 1st day of December, 1895, or within less than five and a half years, there was withdrawn nearly $375,000,000, making a total of more than $403,000,000 drawn from the Treasury in gold since January 1, 1879, the date fixed in 1875 for the retirement of the United States notes. Nearly $327,000,000 of the gold thus withdrawn has been paid out on these United States notes, and yet every one of the $346,000,000 is still uncanceled and ready to do service in future gold depletions. More than $76,000,000 in gold has since their creation in 1890 been paid out from the Treasury upon the notes given on the purchase of silver by the Government, and yet the whole, amounting to $155,000,000, except a little more than $16,000,000 which has been retired by exchanges for silver at the request of the holders, remains outstanding and prepared to join their older and more experienced allies in future raids upon the Treasury's gold reserve. In other words, the Government has paid in gold more than nine-tenths of its United States notes and still owes them all. It has paid in gold about one-half of its notes given for silver purchases without extinguishing by such payment one dollar of these notes. When, added to all this, we are reminded that to carry on this astound, lug financial scheme the Government has incurred a bonded indebtedness of $95,500,000 in establishing a gold reserve and of $162,315,400 in efforts to maintain it; that the annual interest charge on such bonded indebtedness is more than $11,000,000; that a continuance of our present course may result in further bond issues, and that we have suffered or are threatened with all this for the sake of supplying gold for foreign shipment or facilitating its hoarding at home, a situation is exhibited which certainly ought to arrest attention and provoke immediate legislative relief. I am convinced the only thorough and practicable remedy for our troubles is found in the retirement and cancellation of our United States notes, commonly called greenbacks, and the outstanding Treasury notes issued by the Government in payment of silver purchases under the act of 1890. I believe this could be quite readily accomplished by the exchange of these notes for United States bonds, of small as well as large denominations, bearing a low rate of interest. They should be long-term bonds, thus increasing their desirability as investments, and because their payment could be well postponed to a period far removed from present financial burdens and perplexities, when with increased prosperity and resources they would be more easily met. To further insure the cancellation of these notes and also provide a way by which gold may be added to our currency in lieu of them, a feature in the plan should be an authority given to the Secretary of the Treasury to dispose of the bonds abroad for gold if necessary to complete the contemplated redemption and cancellation, permitting him to use the proceeds of such bonds to take up and cancel any of the notes that may be in the Treasury or that may be received by the Government on any account. The increase of our bonded debt involved in this plan would be amply compensated by renewed activity and enterprise in all business circles, the restored confidence at home, the reinstated faith in our monetary strength abroad, and the stimulation of every interest and industry that would follow the cancellation of the gold-demand obligations now afflicting us. In any event, the bonds proposed would stand for the extinguishment of a troublesome indebtedness, while in the path we now follow there lurks the menace of unending bonds, with our indebtedness still undischarged and aggravated in every feature. The obligations necessary to fund this indebtedness would not equal in amount those from which we have been relieved since 1884 by anticipation and payment beyond the requirements of the sinking fund out of our surplus revenues. The currency withdrawn by the retirement of the United States notes and Treasury notes, amounting to probably less than $486,000,000, might be supplied by such gold as would be used on their retirement or by an increase in the circulation of our national banks. Though the aggregate capital of those now in existence amounts to more than $664,000,000, their outstanding circulation based on bond security amounts to only about $190,000,000. They are authorized to issue notes amounting to 90 per cent of the bonds deposited to secure their circulation, but in no event beyond the amount of their capital stock, and they are obliged to pay 1 per cent tax on the circulation they issue. I think they should be allowed to issue circulation equal to the par value of the bonds they deposit to secure it, and that the tax on their circulation should be reduced to one-fourth of 1 per cent, which would undoubtedly meet all the expense the Government incurs on their account. In addition they should be allowed to substitute or deposit in lieu of the bonds now required as security for their circulation those which would be issued for the purpose of retiring the United States notes and Treasury notes. The banks already existing, if they desired to avail themselves of the provisions of law thus modified, could issue circulation, in addition to that already outstanding, amounting to $478,000,000, which would nearly or quite equal the currency proposed to be canceled. At any rate, I should confidently expect to see the existing national banks or others to be organized avail themselves of the proposed encouragements to issue circulation and promptly fill any vacuum and supply every currency need. It has always seemed to me that the provisions of law regarding the capital of national banks, which operate as a limitation to their location, fail to make proper compensation for the suppression of State banks, which came near to the people in all sections of the country and readily furnished them with banking accommodations and facilities. Any inconvenience or embarrassment arising from these restrictions on the location of national banks might well be remedied by better adapting the present system to the creation of banks in smaller communities or by permitting banks of large capital to establish branches in such localities as would serve the people, so regulated and restrained as to secure their safe and conservative control and management. But there might not be the necessity for such an addition to the currency by new issues of bank circulation as at first glance is indicated. If we should be relieved from maintaining a gold reserve under conditions that constitute it the barometer of our solvency, and if our Treasury should no longer be the foolish purveyor of gold for nations abroad or for speculation and hoarding by our citizens at home, I should expect to see gold resume its natural and normal functions in the business affairs of the country and cease to be an object attracting the timid watch of our people and exciting their sensitive imaginations. I do not overlook the fact that the cancellation of the Treasury notes issued under the silver-purchasing act of 1890 would leave the Treasury in the actual ownership of sufficient silver, including seigniorage, to coin nearly $178,000,000 in standard dollars. It is worthy of consideration whether this might not from time to time be converted into dollars or fractional coin and slowly put into circulation, as in the judgment of the Secretary of the Treasury the necessities of the country should require. Whatever is attempted should be entered upon fully appreciating the fact that by careless, easy descent we have reached a dangerous depth, and that our ascent will not be accomplished without laborious toil and struggle. We shall be wise if we realize that we are financially ill and that our restoration to health may require heroic treatment and unpleasant remedies. In the present stage of our difficulty it is not easy to understand how the amount of our revenue receipts directly affects it. The important question is not the quantity of money received in revenue payments, but the kind of money we maintain and our ability to continue in sound financial condition. We are considering the Government's holdings of gold as related to the soundness of our money and as affecting our national credit and monetary strength. If our gold reserve had never been impaired; if no bonds had ever been issued to replenish it; if there had been no fear and timidity concerning our ability to continue gold payments; if any part of our revenues were now paid in gold, and if we could look to our gold receipts as a means of maintaining a safe reserve, the amount of our revenues would be an influential factor in the problem. But, unfortunately, all the circumstances that might lend weight to this consideration are entirely lacking. In our present predicament no gold is received by the Government in payment of revenue charges, nor would there be if the revenues were increased. The receipts of the Treasury, when not in silver certificates, consist of United States notes and Treasury notes issued for silver purchases. These forms of money are only useful to the Government in paying its current ordinary expenses, and its quantity in Government possession does not in the least contribute toward giving us that kind of safe financial standing or condition which is built on gold alone. If it is said that these notes if held by the Government can be used to obtain gold for our reserve, the answer is easy. The people draw gold from the Treasury on demand upon United States notes and Treasury notes, but the proposition that the Treasury can on demand draw gold from the people upon them would be regarded in these days with wonder and amusement; and even if this could be done there is nothing to prevent those thus parting with their gold from regaining it the next day or the next hour by the presentation of the notes they received in exchange for it. The Secretary of the Treasury might use such notes taken from a surplus revenue to buy gold in the market. Of course he could not do this without paying a premium. Private holders of gold, unlike the Government, having no parity to maintain, would not be restrained from making the best bargain possible when they furnished gold to the Treasury; but the moment the Secretary of the Treasury bought gold on any terms above par he would establish a general and universal premium upon it, thus breaking down the parity between gold and silver, which the Government is pledged to maintain, and opening the way to new and serious complications. In the meantime the premium would not remain stationary, and the absurd spectacle might be presented of a dealer selling gold to the Government and with United States notes or Treasury notes in his hand immediately clamoring for its return and a resale at a higher premium. It may be claimed that a large revenue and redundant receipts might favorably affect the situation under discussion by affording an opportunity of retaining these notes in the Treasury when received, and thus preventing their presentation for gold. Such retention to be useful ought to be at least measurably permanent; and this is precisely what is prohibited, so far as United States notes are concerned, by the law of 1878, forbidding their further retirement. That statute in so many words provides that these notes when received into the Treasury and belonging to the United States shall be "paid out again and kept in circulation." It will, moreover, be readily seen that the Government could not refuse to pay out United States notes and Treasury notes in current transactions when demanded, and insist on paying out silver alone, and still maintain the parity between that metal and the currency representing gold. Besides, the accumulation in the Treasury of currency of any kind exacted from the people through taxation is justly regarded as an evil, and it can not proceed far without vigorous protest against an unjustifiable retention of money from the business of the country and a denunciation of a scheme of taxation which proves itself to be unjust when it takes from the earnings and income of the citizen money so much in excess of the needs of Government support that large sums can be gathered and kept in the Treasury. Such a condition has heretofore in times of surplus revenue led the Government to restore currency to the people by the purchase of its unmatured bonds at a large premium and by a large increase of its deposits in national banks, and we easily remember that the abuse of Treasury accumulation has furnished a most persuasive argument in favor of legislation radically reducing our tariff taxation. Perhaps it is supposed that sufficient revenue receipts would in a sentimental way improve the situation by inspiring confidence in our solvency and allaying the fear of pecuniary exhaustion. And yet through all our struggles to maintain our gold reserve there never has been any apprehension as to our ready ability to pay our way with such money as we had, and the question whether or not our current receipts met our current expenses has not entered into the estimate of our solvency. Of course the general state of our funds, exclusive of gold, was entirely immaterial to the foreign creditor and investor. His debt could only be paid in gold, and his only concern was our ability to keep on hand that kind of money. On July 1, 1892, more than a year and a half before the first bonds were issued to replenish the gold reserve, there was a net balance in the Treasury, exclusive of such reserve, of less than $13,000,000, but the gold reserve amounted to more than $114,000,000, which was the quieting feature of the situation. It was when the stock of gold began rapidly to fall that fright supervened and our securities held abroad were returned for sale and debts owed abroad were pressed for payment. In the meantime extensive shipments of gold and other unfavorable indications caused restlessness and fright among our people at home. Thereupon the general state of our funds, exclusive of gold, became also immaterial to them, and they too drew gold from the Treasury for hoarding against all contingencies. This is plainly shown by the large increase in the proportion of gold withdrawn which was retained by our own people as time and threatening incidents progressed. During the fiscal year ending June 30, 1894, nearly $85,000,000 in gold was withdrawn from the Treasury and about $77,000,000 was sent abroad, while during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1895, over $117,000,000 was drawn out, of which only about $66,000,000 was shipped, leaving the large balance of such withdrawals to be accounted for by domestic hoarding. Inasmuch as the withdrawal of our gold has resulted largely from fright, there is nothing apparent that will prevent its continuance or recurrence, with its natural consequences, except such a change in our financial methods as will reassure the frightened and make the desire for gold less intense. It is not clear how an increase fix revenue, unless it be in gold, can satisfy those whose only anxiety is to gain gold from the Government's store. It can not, therefore, be safe to rely upon increased revenues as a cure for our present troubles. It is possible that the suggestion of increased revenue as a remedy for the difficulties we are considering may have originated in an intimation or distinct allegation that the bonds which have been issued ostensibly to replenish our gold reserve were really issued to supply insufficient revenue. Nothing can be further from the truth. Bonds were issued to obtain gold for the maintenance of our national credit. As has been shown, the gold thus obtained has been drawn again from the Treasury upon United States notes and Treasury notes. This operation would have been promptly prevented if possible; but these notes having thus been passed to the Treasury, they became the money of the Government, like any other ordinary Government funds, and there was nothing to do but to use them in paying Government expenses when needed. At no time when bonds have been issued has there been any consideration of the question of paying the expenses of Government with their proceeds. There was no necessity to consider that question. At the time of each bond issue we had a safe surplus in the Treasury for ordinary operations, exclusive of the gold in our reserve. In February, 1894, when the first issue of bonds was made, such surplus amounted to over $18,000,000; in November, when the second issue was made, it amounted to more than $42,000,000, and in February, 1895, when bonds for the third time were issued, such surplus amounted to more than $100,000,000. It now amounts to $98,072,420.30. Besides all this, the Secretary of the Treasury had no authority whatever to issue bonds to increase the ordinary revenues or pay current expenses. I can not but think there has been some confusion of ideas regarding the effects of the issue of bonds and the results of the withdrawal of gold. It was the latter process, and not the former, that, by substituting in the Treasury United States notes and Treasury notes for gold, increased by their amount the money which was in the first instance subject to ordinary Government expenditure. Although the law compelling an increased purchase of silver by the Government was passed on the 14th day of July, 1890, withdrawals of gold from the Treasury upon the notes given in payment on such purchases did not begin until October, 1891. Immediately following that date the withdrawals upon both these notes and United States notes increased very largely, and have continued to such an extent that since the passage of that law there has been more than thirteen times as much gold taken out of the Treasury upon United States notes and Treasury notes issued for silver purchases as was thus withdrawn during the eleven and a half years immediately prior thereto and after the 1st day of January, 1879, when specie payments were resumed. It is neither unfair nor unjust to charge a large share of our present financial perplexities and dangers to the operation of the laws of 1878 and 1890 compelling the purchase of silver by the Government, which not only furnished a new Treasury obligation upon which its gold could be withdrawn, but so increased the fear of an overwhelming flood of silver and a forced descent to silver payments that even the repeal of these laws did not entirely cure the evils of their existence. While I have endeavored to make a plain statement of the disordered condition of our currency and the present dangers menacing our prosperity and to suggest a way which leads to a safer financial system, I have constantly had in mind the fact that many of my countrymen, whose sincerity I do not doubt, insist that the cure for the ills now threatening us may be found in the single and simple remedy of the free coinage of silver. They contend that our mints shall be at once thrown open to the free, unlimited, and independent coinage of both gold and silver dollars of full legal-tender quality, regardless of the action of any other government and in full view of the fact that the ratio between the metals which they suggest calls for 100 cents' worth of gold in the gold dollar at the present standard and only 50 cents in intrinsic worth of silver in the silver dollar. Were there infinitely stronger reasons than can be adduced for hoping that such action would secure for us a bimetallic currency moving on lines of parity, an experiment so novel and hazardous as that proposed might well stagger those who believe that stability is an imperative condition of sound money. No government, no human contrivance or act of legislation, has ever been able to hold the two metals together in free coinage at a ratio appreciably different from that which is established in the markets of the world. Those who believe that our independent free coinage of silver at an artificial ratio with gold of 16 to 1 would restore the parity between the metals, and consequently between the coins, oppose an unsupported and improbable theory to the general belief and practice of other nations; and to the teaching of the wisest statesmen and economists of the world, both in the past and present, and, what is far more conclusive, they run counter to our own actual experiences. Twice in our earlier history our lawmakers, in attempting to establish a bimetallic currency, undertook free coinage upon a ratio which accidentally varied from the actual relative values of the two metals not more than 3 per cent. In both cases, notwithstanding greater difficulties and cost of transportation than now exist, the coins whose intrinsic worth was undervalued. in the ratio gradually and surely disappeared from our circulation and went to other countries where their real value was better recognized. Acts of Congress were impotent to create equality where natural causes decreed even a slight inequality. Twice in our recent history we have signally failed to raise by legislation the value of silver. Under an act of Congress passed in 1878 the Government was required for more than twelve years to expend annually at least $24,000,000 in the purchase of silver bullion for coinage. The act of July 14, 1890, in a still bolder effort, increased the amount of silver the Government was compelled to purchase and forced it to become the buyer annually of 54,000,000 ounces, or practically the entire product of our mines. Under both laws silver rapidly and steadily declined in value. The prophecy and the expressed hope and expectation of those in the Congress who led in the passage of the last-mentioned act that it would reestablish and maintain the former parity between the two metals are still fresh in our memory. In the light of these experiences, which accord with the experiences of other nations, there is certainly no secure ground for the belief that an act of Congress could now bridge an inequality of 50 per cent between gold and silver at our present ratio, nor is there the least possibility that our country, which has less than one-seventh of the silver money in the world, could by its action alone raise not only our own but all silver to its lost ratio with gold. Our attempt to accomplish this by the free coinage of silver at a ratio differing widely from actual relative values would be the signal for the complete departure of gold from our circulation, the immediate and large contraction of our circulating medium, and a shrinkage in the real value and monetary efficiency of all other forms of currency as they settled to the level of silver monometallism. Everyone who receives a fixed salary and every worker for wages would find the dollar in his hand ruthlessly scaled down to the point of bitter disappointment, if not to pinching privation. A change in our standard to silver monometallism would also bring on a collapse of the entire system of credit, which, when based on a standard which is recognized and adopted by the world of business, is many times more potent and useful than the entire volume of currency and is safely capable of almost indefinite expansion to meet the growth of trade and enterprise. In a self-invited struggle through darkness and uncertainty our humiliation would be increased by the consciousness that we had parted company with all the enlightened and progressive nations of the world and were desperately and hopelessly striving to meet the stress of modern commerce and competition with a debased and unsuitable currency and in association with the few weak and laggard nations which have silver alone as their standard of value. All history warns us against rash experiments which threaten violent changes in our monetary standard and the degradation of our currency. The past is full of lessons teaching not only the economic dangers but the national immorality that follow in the train of such experiments. I will not believe that the American people can be persuaded after sober deliberation to jeopardize their nation's prestige and proud standing by encouraging financial nostrums, nor that they will yield to the false allurements of cheap money when they realize that it must result in the weakening of that financial integrity and rectitude which thus far in our history has been so devotedly cherished as one of the traits of true Americanism. Our country's indebtedness, whether owing by the Government or existing between individuals, has been contracted with reference to our present standard. To decree by act of Congress that these debts shall be payable in less valuable dollars than those within the contemplation and intention of the parties when contracted would operate to transfer by the fiat of law and without compensation an amount of property and a volume of rights and interests almost incalculable. Those who advocate a blind and headlong plunge to free coinage in the name of bimetallism, and professing the belief, contrary to all experience, that we could thus establish a double standard and a concurrent circulation of both metals in our coinage, are certainly reckoning from a cloudy standpoint. Our present standard of value is the standard of the civilized world and permits the only bimetallism now possible, or at least that is within the independent reach of any single nation, however powerful that nation may be. While the value of gold as a standard is steadied by almost universal commercial and business use, it does not despise silver nor seek its banishment. Wherever this standard is maintained there is at its side in free and unquestioned circulation a volume of silver currency sometimes equaling and sometimes even exceeding it in amount both maintained at a parity notwithstanding a depreciation or fluctuation in the intrinsic value of silver. There is a vast difference between a standard of value and a currency for monetary use. The standard must necessarily be fixed and certain. The currency may be in divers forms and of various kinds. No silver-standard country has a gold currency in circulation, but an enlightened and wise system of finance secures the benefits of both gold and silver as currency and circulating medium by keeping the standard stable and all other currency at par with it. Such a system and such a standard also give free scope for the use and expansion of safe and conservative credit, so indispensable to broad and growing commercial transactions and so well substituted for the actual use of money. If a fixed and stable standard is maintained, such as the magnitude and safety of our commercial transactions and business require, the use of money itself is conveniently minimized. Every dollar of fixed and stable value has through the agency of confident credit an astonishing capacity of multiplying itself in financial work. Every unstable and fluctuating dollar fails as a basis of credit, and in its use begets gambling speculation and undermines the foundations of honest enterprise. I have ventured to express myself on this subject with earnestness and plainness of speech because I can not rid myself of the belief that there lurk in the proposition for the free coinage of silver, so strongly approved and so enthusiastically advocated by a multitude of my countrymen, a serious menace to our prosperity and an insidious temptation of our people to wander from the allegiance they owe to public and private integrity. It is because I do not distrust the good faith and sincerity of those who press this scheme that I have imperfectly but with zeal submitted my thoughts upon this momentous subject. I can not refrain from begging them to reexamine their views and beliefs in the light of patriotic reason and familiar experience and to weigh again and again the consequences of such legislation as their efforts have invited. Even the continued agitation of the subject adds greatly to the difficulties of a dangerous financial situation already forced upon us. In conclusion I especially entreat the people's representatives in the Congress, who are charged with the responsibility of inaugurating measures for the safety and prosperity of our common country, to promptly and effectively consider the ills of our critical financial plight. I have suggested a remedy which my judgment approves. I desire, however, to assure the Congress that I am prepared to cooperate with them in perfecting any other measure promising thorough and practical relief, and that I will gladly labor with them in every patriotic endeavor to further the interests and guard the welfare of our countrymen, whom in our respective places of duty we have undertaken to serve.
The present assemblage of the legislative branch of our Government occurs at a time when the interests of our people and the needs of the country give especial prominence to the condition of our foreign relations and the exigencies of our national finances. The reports of the heads of the several administrative Departments of the Government fully and plainly exhibit what has been accomplished within the scope of their respective duties and present such recommendations for the betterment of our country's condition as patriotic and intelligent labor and observation suggest. I therefore deem my executive duty adequately performed at this time by presenting to the Congress the important phases of our situation as related to our intercourse with foreign nations and a statement of the financial problems which confront us, omitting, except as they are related to these topics, any reference to departmental operations. I earnestly invite, however, not only the careful consideration but the severely critical scrutiny of the Congress and my fellow-countrymen to the reports concerning these departmental operations. If justly and fairly examined, they will furnish proof of assiduous and painstaking care for the public welfare. I press the recommendations they contain upon the respectful attention of those charged with the duty of legislation, because I believe their adoption would promote the people's good. By amendatory tariff legislation in January last the Argentine Republic, recognizing the value of the large market opened to the free importation of its wools under our last tariff act, has admitted certain products of the United States to entry at reduced duties. It is pleasing to note that the efforts we have made to enlarge the exchanges of trade on a sound basis of mutual benefit are in this instance appreciated by the country from which our woolen factories draw their needful supply of raw material. The Missions boundary dispute between the Argentine Republic and Brazil, referred to the President of the United States as arbitrator during the term of my predecessor, and which was submitted to me for determination, resulted in an award in favor of Brazil upon the historical and documentary evidence presented, thus ending a long-protracted controversy and again demonstrating the wisdom and desirability of settling international boundary disputes by recourse to friendly arbitration. Negotiations are progressing for a revival of the United States and Chilean Claims Commission, whose work was abruptly terminated last year by the expiration of the stipulated time within which awards could be made. The resumption of specie payments by Chile is a step of great interest and importance both in its direct consequences upon her own welfare and as evincing the ascendency of sound financial principles in one of the most influential of the South American Republics. The close of the momentous struggle between China and Japan, while relieving the diplomatic agents of this Government from the delicate duty they undertook at the request of both countries of rendering such service to the subjects of either belligerent within the territorial limits of the other as our neutral position permitted, developed a domestic condition in the Chinese Empire which has caused much anxiety and called for prompt and careful attention. Either as a result of a weak control by the central Government over the provincial administrations, following a diminution of traditional governmental authority under the stress of an overwhelming national disaster, or as a manifestation upon good opportunity of the aversion of the Chinese population to all foreign ways and undertakings, there have occurred in widely separated provinces of China serious outbreaks of the old fanatical spirit against foreigners, which, unchecked by the local authorities, if not actually connived at by them, have culminated in mob attacks on foreign missionary stations, causing much destruction of property and attended with personal injuries as well as loss of life. Although but one American citizen was reported to have been actually wounded, and although the destruction of property may have fallen more heavily upon the missionaries of other nationalities than our own, it plainly behooved this Government to take the most prompt and decided action to guard against similar or perhaps more dreadful calamities befalling the hundreds of American mission stations which have grown up throughout the interior of China under the temperate rule of toleration, custom, and imperial edict. The demands of the United States and other powers for the degradation and punishment of the responsible officials of the respective cities and provinces who by neglect or otherwise had permitted uprisings, and for the adoption of stern measures by the Emperor's Government for the protection of the life and property of foreigners, were followed by the disgrace and dismissal of certain provincial officials found derelict in duty and the punishment by death of a number of those adjudged guilty of actual participation in the outrages. This Government also insisted that a special American commission should visit the province where the first disturbances occurred for the purpose of investigation. The latter commission, formed after much opposition, has gone overland from Tientsin, accompanied by a suitable Chinese escort, and by its demonstration of the readiness and ability of our Government to protect its citizens will act, it is believed, as a most influential deterrent of any similar outbreaks. The energetic steps we have thus taken are all the more likely to result in future safety to our citizens in China because the Imperial Government is, I am persuaded, entirely convinced that we desire only the liberty and protection of our own citizens and redress for any wrongs they may have suffered, and that we have no ulterior designs or objects, political or otherwise. China will not forget either our kindly service to her citizens during her late war nor the further fact that, while furnishing all the facilities at our command to further the negotiation of a peace between her and Japan, we sought no advantages and interposed no counsel. The Governments of both China and Japan have, in special dispatches transmitted through their respective diplomatic representatives, expressed in a most pleasing manner their grateful appreciation of our assistance to their citizens during the unhappy struggle and of the value of our aid in paving the way to their resumption of peaceful relations. The customary cordial relations between this country and France have been undisturbed, with the exception that a full explanation of the treatment of John L. Waller by the expeditionary military authorities of France still remains to be given. Mr. Waller, formerly United States consul at Tamatav, remained in Madagascar after his term of office expired, and was apparently successful in procuring business concessions from the Hovas of greater or less value. After the occupation of Tamatav and the declaration of martial law by the French he was arrested upon various charges, among them that of communicating military information to the enemies of France, was tried and convicted by a military tribunal, and sentenced to twenty years' imprisonment. Following the course justified by abundant precedents, this Government requested from that of France the record of the proceedings of the French tribunal which resulted in Mr. Waller's condemnation. This request has been complied with to the extent of supplying a copy of the official record, from which appear the constitution and organization of the court, the charges as formulated, and the general course and result of the trial, and by which it is shown that the accused was tried in open court and was defended by counsel; but the evidence adduced in support of the charges, which was not received by the French minister for foreign affairs till the first week in October, has thus far been withheld, the French Government taking the ground that its production in response to our demand would establish a bad precedent. The efforts of our ambassador to procure it, however, though impeded by recent changes in the French ministry, have not been relaxed, and it is confidently expected that some satisfactory solution of the matter will shortly be reached. Meanwhile it appears that Mr. Waller's confinement has every alleviation which the state of his health and all the other circumstances of the case demand or permit. In agreeable contrast to the difference above noted respecting a matter of common concern, where nothing is sought except such a mutually satisfactory outcome as the true merits of the case require, is the recent resolution of the French Chambers favoring the conclusion of a permanent treaty of arbitration between the two countries. An invitation has been extended by France to the Government and people of the United States to participate in a great international exposition at Paris in 1900 as a suitable commemoration of the close of this the world's marvelous century of progress. I heartily recommend its acceptance, together with such legislation as will adequately provide for a due representation of this Government and its people on the occasion. Our relations with the States of the German Empire are in some aspects typical of a condition of things elsewhere found in countries whose productions and trade are similar to our own. The close rivalries of competing industries; the influence of the delusive doctrine that the internal development of a nation is promoted and its wealth increased by a policy which, in undertaking to reserve its home markets for the exclusive use of its own producers, necessarily obstructs their sales in foreign markets and prevents free access to the products of the world; the desire to retain trade in time-worn ruts, regardless of the inexorable laws of new needs and changed conditions of demand and supply, and our own halting tardiness in inviting a freer exchange of commodities, and by this means imperiling our footing in the external markets naturally open to us, have created a situation somewhat injurious to American export interests, not only in Germany, where they are perhaps most noticeable, but in adjacent countries. The exports affected are largely American cattle and other food products, the reason assigned for unfavorable discrimination being that their consumption is deleterious to the public health. This is all the more irritating in view of the fact that no European state is as jealous of the excellence and wholesomeness of its exported food supplies as the United States, nor so easily able, on account of inherent soundness, to guarantee those qualities. Nor are these difficulties confined to our food products designed for exportation. Our great insurance companies, for example, having built up a vast business abroad and invested a large share of their gains in foreign countries in compliance with the local laws and regulations then existing, now find themselves within a narrowing circle of onerous and unforeseen conditions, and are confronted by the necessity of retirement from a field thus made unprofitable, if, indeed, they are not summarily expelled, as some of them have lately been from Prussia. It is not to be forgotten that international trade can not be one-sided. Its currents are alternating, and its movements should be honestly reciprocal. Without this it almost necessarily degenerates into a device to gain advantage or a contrivance to secure benefits with only the semblance of a return. In our dealings with other nations we ought to be open-handed and scrupulously fair. This should be our policy as a producing nation, and it plainly becomes us as a people who love generosity and the moral aspects of national good faith and reciprocal forbearance. These considerations should not, however, constrain us to submit to unfair discrimination nor to silently acquiesce in vexatious hindrances to the enjoyment of our share of the legitimate advantages of proper trade relations. If an examination of the situation suggests such measures on our part as would involve restrictions similar to those from which we suffer, the way to such a course is easy. It should, however, by no means be lightly entered upon, since the necessity for the inauguration of such a policy would be regretted by the best sentiment of our people and because it naturally and logically might lead to consequences of the gravest character. I take pleasure in calling to your attention the encomiums bestowed on those vessels of our new Navy which took part in the notable ceremony of the opening of the Kiel Canal. It was fitting that this extraordinary achievement of the newer German nationality should be celebrated in the presence of America's exposition of the latest developments of the world' s naval energy. Our relations with Great Britain, always intimate and important, have demanded during the past year even a greater share of consideration than is usual. Several vexatious questions were left undetermined by the decision of the Bering Sea Arbitration Tribunal. The application of the principles laid down by that august body has not been followed by the results they were intended to accomplish, either because the principles themselves lacked in breadth and definiteness or because their execution has been more or less imperfect. Much correspondence has been exchanged between the two Governments on the subject of preventing the exterminating slaughter of seals. The insufficiency of the British patrol of Bering Sea under the regulations agreed on by the two Governments has been pointed out, and yet only two British ships have been on police duty during this season in those waters. The need of a more effective enforcement of existing regulations as well as the adoption of such additional regulations as experience has shown to be absolutely necessary to carry out the intent of the award have been earnestly urged upon the British Government, but thus far without effective results. In the meantime the depletion of the seal herds by means of pelagic hunting has so alarmingly progressed that unless their slaughter is at once effectively checked their extinction within a few years seems to be a matter of absolute certainty. The understanding by which the United States was to pay and Great Britain to receive a lump sum of $425,000 in full settlement of all British claims for damages arising from our seizure of British sealing vessels unauthorized under the award of the Paris Tribunal of Arbitration was not confirmed by the last Congress, which declined to make the necessary appropriation. I am still of the opinion that this arrangement was a judicious and advantageous one for the Government, and I earnestly recommend that it be again considered and sanctioned. If, however, this does not meet with the favor of Congress, it certainly will hardly dissent from the proposition that the Government is bound by every consideration of honor and good faith to provide for the speedy adjustment of these claims by arbitration as the only other alternative. A treaty of arbitration has therefore been agreed upon, and will be immediately laid before the Senate, so that in one of the modes suggested a final settlement may be reached. Notwithstanding that Great Britain originated the proposal to enforce international rules for the prevention of collisions at sea, based on the recommendations of the Maritime Conference of Washington, and concurred in, suggesting March 11, 1895, as the date to be set by proclamation for carrying these rules into general effect, Her Majesty's Government, having encountered opposition on the part of British shipping interests, announced its inability to accept that date, which was consequently canceled. The entire matter is still in abeyance, without prospect of a better condition in the near future. The commissioners appointed to mark the international boundary in Passamaquoddy Bay according to the description of the treaty of Ghent have not yet fully agreed. The completion of the preliminary survey of that Alaskan boundary which follows the contour of the coast from the southernmost point of Prince of Wales Island until it strikes the one hundred and forty-first meridian at or near the summit of Mount St. Elias awaits further necessary appropriation, which is urgently recommended. This survey was undertaken under the provisions of the convention entered into by this country and Great Britain July 22, 1892, and the supplementary convention of February 3, 1894. As to the remaining section of the Alaskan boundary, which follows the one hundred and forty-first meridian northwardly from Mount St. Elias to the Frozen Ocean, the settlement of which involves the physical location of the meridian mentioned, no conventional agreement has yet been made. The ascertainment of a given meridian at a particular point is a work requiring much time and careful observations and surveys. Such observations and surveys were undertaken by the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey in 1890 and 1891, while similar work in the same quarters, under British auspices, is believed to give nearly coincident results; but these surveys have been independently conducted, and no international agreement to mark those or any other parts of the one hundred and forty-first meridian by permanent monuments has yet been made. In the meantime the valley of the Yukon is becoming a highway through the hitherto unexplored wilds of Alaska, and abundant mineral wealth has been discovered in that region, especially at or near the junction of the boundary meridian with the Yukon and its tributaries. In these circumstances it is expedient, and, indeed, imperative, that the jurisdictional limits of the respective Governments in this new region be speedily determined. Her Britannic Majesty's Government has proposed a joint delimitation of the one hundred and forty-first meridian by an international commission of experts, which, if Congress will authorize it and make due provision therefor, can be accomplished with no unreasonable delay. It is impossible to overlook the vital importance of continuing the work already entered upon and supplementing it by further effective measures looking to the exact location of this entire boundary line. I call attention to the unsatisfactory delimitation of the respective jurisdictions of the United States and the Dominion of Canada in the Great Lakes at the approaches to the narrow waters that connect them. The waters in question are frequented by fishermen of both nationalities and their nets are there used. Owing to the uncertainty and ignorance as to the true boundary, vexations disputes and injurious seizures of boats and nets by Canadian cruisers often occur, while any positive settlement thereof by an accepted standard is not easily to be reached. A joint commission to determine the line in those quarters on a practical basis, by measured courses following range marks on shore, is a necessity for which immediate provision should be made. It being apparent that the boundary dispute between Great Britain and the Republic of Venezuela concerning the limits of British Guiana was approaching an acute stage, a definite statement of the interest and policy of the United States as regards the controversy seemed to be required both on its own account and in view of its relations with the friendly powers directly concerned. In July last, therefore, a dispatch was addressed to our ambassador at London for communication to the British Government in which the attitude of the United States was fully and distinctly set forth. The general conclusions therein reached and formulated are in substance that the traditional and established policy of this Government is firmly opposed to a forcible increase by any European power of its territorial possessions on this continent; that this policy is as well rounded in principle as it is strongly supported by numerous precedents; that as a consequence the United States is bound to protest against the enlargement of the area of British Guiana in derogation of the rights and against the will of Venezuela; that considering the disparity in strength of Great Britain and Venezuela the territorial dispute between them can be reasonably settled only by friendly and impartial arbitration, and that the resort to such arbitration should include the whole controversy, and is not satisfied if one of the powers concerned is permitted to draw an arbitrary line through the territory in debate and to declare that it will submit to arbitration only the portion lying on one side of it. In view of these conclusions, the dispatch in question called upon the British Government for a definite answer to the question whether it would or would not submit the territorial controversy between itself and Venezuela in its entirety to impartial arbitration. The answer of the British Government has not yet been received, but is expected shortly, when further communication on the subject will probably be made to the Congress. Early in January last an uprising against the Government of Hawaii was promptly suppressed. Martial law was forthwith proclaimed and numerous arrests were made of persons suspected of being in sympathy with the Royalist party. Among these were several citizens of the United States, who were either convicted by a military court and sentenced to death, imprisonment, or fine or were deported without trial. The United States, while denying protection to such as had taken the Hawaiian oath of allegiance, insisted that martial law, though altering the forms of justice, could not supersede justice itself, and demanded stay of execution until the proceedings had been submitted to this Government and knowledge obtained therefrom that our citizens had received fair trial. The death sentences were subsequently commuted or were remitted on condition of leaving the islands. The cases of certain Americans arrested and expelled by arbitrary order without formal charge or trial have had attention, and in some instances have been found to justify remonstrance and a claim for indemnity, which Hawaii has not thus far conceded. Mr. Thurston, the Hawaiian minister, having furnished this Government abundant reason for asking that he be recalled, that course was pursued, and his successor has lately been received. The deplorable lynching of several Italian laborers in Colorado was naturally followed by international representations, and I am happy to say that the best efforts of the State in which the outrages occurred have been put forth to discover and punish the authors of this atrocious crime. The dependent families of some of the unfortunate victims invite by their deplorable condition gracious provision for their needs. These manifestations against helpless aliens may be traced through successive stages to the vicious padroni system, which, unchecked by our immigration and contract-labor statutes, controls these workers from the moment of landing on our shores and farms them out in distant and often rude regions, where their cheapening competition in the fields of bread-winning toil brings them into collision with other labor interests. While welcoming, as we should, those who seek our shores to merge themselves in our body politic and win personal competence by honest effort, we can not regard such assemblages of distinctively alien laborers, hired out in the mass to the profit of alien speculators and shipped hither and thither as the prospect of gain may dictate, as otherwise than repugnant to the spirit of our civilization, deterrent to individual advancement, and hindrances to the building up of stable communities resting upon the wholesome ambitions of the citizen and constituting the prime factor in the prosperity and progress of our nation. If legislation can reach this growing evil, it certainly should be attempted. Japan has furnished abundant evidence of her vast gain in every trait and characteristic that constitutes a nation's greatness. We have reason for congratulation in the fact that the Government of the United States, by the exchange of liberal treaty stipulations with the new Japan, was the first to recognize her wonderful advance and to extend to her the consideration and confidence due to her national enlightenment and progressive character. The boundary dispute which lately threatened to embroil Guatemala and Mexico has happily yielded to pacific counsels, and its determination has, by the joint agreement of the parties, been submitted to the sole arbitration of the United States minister to Mexico. The commission appointed under the convention of February 18, 1889, to set new monuments along the boundary between the United States and Mexico has completed its task. As a sequel to the failure of a scheme for the colonization in Mexico of negroes, mostly immigrants from Alabama under contract, a great number of these helpless and suffering people, starving and smitten with contagious disease, made their way or were assisted to the frontier, where, in wretched plight, they were quarantined by the Texas authorities. Learning of their destitute condition, I directed rations to be temporarily furnished them through the War Department. At the expiration of their quarantine they were conveyed by the railway companies at comparatively nominal rates to their homes in Alabama, upon my assurance, in the absence of any fund available for the cost of their transportation, that I would recommend to Congress an appropriation for its payment. I now strongly urge upon Congress the propriety of making such an appropriation. It should be remembered that the measures taken were dictated not only by sympathy and humanity, but by a conviction that it was not compatible with the dignity of this Government that so large a body of our dependent citizens should be thrown for relief upon the charity of a neighboring state. In last year's message I narrated at some length the jurisdictional questions then freshly arisen in the Mosquito Indian Strip of Nicaragua. Since that time, by the voluntary act of the Mosquito Nation, the territory reserved to them has been incorporated with Nicaragua, the Indians formally subjecting themselves to be governed by the general laws and regulations of the Republic instead of by their own customs and regulations, and thus availing themselves of a privilege secured to them by the treaty between Nicaragua and Great Britain of January 28, 1860. After this extension of uniform Nicaraguan administration to the Mosquito Strip, the case of the British vice-consul, Hatch, and of several of his countrymen who had been summarily expelled from Nicaragua and treated with considerable indignity provoked a claim by Great Britain upon Nicaragua for pecuniary indemnity, which, upon Nicaragua's refusal to admit liability, was enforced by Great Britain. While the sovereignty and jurisdiction of Nicaragua was in no way questioned by Great Britain, the former's arbitrary conduct in regard to British subjects furnished the ground for this proceeding. A British naval force occupied without resistance the Pacific seaport of Corinto, but was soon after withdrawn upon the promise that the sum demanded would be paid. Throughout this incident the kindly offices of the United States were invoked and were employed in favor of as peaceful a settlement and as much consideration and indulgence toward Nicaragua as were consistent with the nature of the case. Our efforts have since been made the subject of appreciative and grateful recognition by Nicaragua. The coronation of the Czar of Russia at Moscow in May next invites the ceremonial participation of the United States, and in accordance with usage and diplomatic propriety our minister to the imperial court has been directed to represent our Government on the occasion. Correspondence is on foot touching the practice of Russian consuls within the jurisdiction of the United States to interrogate citizens as to their race and religious faith, and upon ascertainment thereof to deny to Jews authentication of passports or legal documents for use in Russia. Inasmuch as such a proceeding imposes a disability which in the case of succession to property in Russia may be found to infringe the treaty rights of our citizens, and which is an obnoxious invasion of our territorial jurisdiction, it has elicited fitting remonstrance, the result of which, it is hoped, will remove the because of complaint. The pending claims of sealing vessels of the United States seized in Russian waters remain unadjusted. Our recent convention with Russia establishing a modus vivendi as to imperial jurisdiction in such cases has prevented further difficulty of this nature. The Russian Government has welcomed in principle our suggestion for a modus vivendi, to embrace Great Britain and Japan, looking to the better preservation of seal life in the North Pacific and Bering Sea and the extension of the protected area defined by the Paris Tribunal to all Pacific waters north of the thirty-fifth parallel. It is especially noticeable that Russia favors prohibition of the use of firearms in seal hunting throughout the proposed area and a longer closed season for pelagic sealing. In my last two annual messages I called the attention of the Congress to the position we occupied as one of the parties to a treaty or agreement by which we became jointly bound with England and Germany to so interfere with the government and control of Samoa as in effect to assume the management of its affairs. On the 9th day of May, 1894, I transmitted to the Senate a special message, with accompanying documents, giving information on the subject and emphasizing the opinion I have at all times entertained, that our situation in this matter was inconsistent with the mission and traditions of our Government, in violation of the principles we profess, and in all its phases mischievous and vexatious. I again press this subject upon the attention of the Congress and ask for such legislative action or expression as will lead the way to our relief from obligations both irksome and unnatural. Cuba is again gravely disturbed. An insurrection in some respects more active than the last preceding revolt, which continued from 1868 to 1878, now exists in a large part of the eastern interior of the island, menacing even some populations on the coast. Besides deranging the commercial exchanges of the island, of which our country takes the predominant share, this flagrant condition of hostilities, by arousing sentimental sympathy and inciting adventurous support among our people, has entailed earnest effort on the part of this Government to enforce obedience to our neutrality laws and to prevent the territory of the United States from being abused as a vantage ground from which to aid those in arms against Spanish sovereignty. Whatever may be the traditional sympathy of our countrymen as individuals with a people who seem to be struggling for larger autonomy and greater freedom, deepened, as such sympathy naturally must be, in behalf of our neighbors, yet the plain duty of their Government is to observe in good faith the recognized obligations of international relationship. The performance of this duty should not be made more difficult by a disregard on the part of our citizens of the obligations growing out of their allegiance to their country, which should restrain them from violating as individuals the neutrality which the nation of which they are members is bound to observe in its relations to friendly sovereign states. Though neither the warmth of our people's sympathy with the Cuban insurgents, nor our loss and material damage consequent upon the futile endeavors thus far made to restore peace and order, nor any shock our humane sensibilities may have received from the cruelties which appear to especially characterize this sanguinary and fiercely conducted war, have in the least shaken the determination of the Government to honestly fulfill every international obligation, yet it is to be earnestly hoped on every ground that the devastation of armed conflict may speedily be stayed and order and quiet restored to the distracted island, bringing in their train the activity and thrift of peaceful pursuits. One notable instance of interference by Spain with passing American ships has occurred. On March 8 last the Allianca, while bound from Colon to New York, and following the customary track for vessels near the Cuban shore, but outside the 3-mile limit, was fired upon by a Spanish gunboat. Protest was promptly made by the United States against this act as not being justified by a state of war, nor permissible in respect of vessels on the usual paths of commerce, nor tolerable in view of the wanton peril occasioned to innocent life and property. The act was disavowed, with full expression of regret and assurance of nonrecurrence of such just because of complaint, while the offending officer was relieved of his command. Military arrests of citizens of the United States in Cuba have occasioned frequent reclamations. Where held on criminal charges their delivery to the ordinary civil jurisdiction for trial has been demanded and obtained in conformity with treaty provisions, and where merely detained by way of military precaution under a proclaimed state of siege, without formulated accusation, their release or trial has been insisted upon. The right of American consular officers in the island to prefer protests and demands in such cases having been questioned by the insular authority, their enjoyment of the privilege stipulated by treaty for the consuls of Germany was claimed under the most-favored-nation provision of our own convention and was promptly recognized. The long-standing demand of Antonio Maximo Mora against Spain has at last been settled by the payment, on the 14th of September last, of the sum originally agreed upon in liquidation of the claim. Its distribution among the parties entitled to receive it has proceeded as rapidly as the rights of those claiming the fund could be safely determined. The enforcement of differential duties against products of this country exported to Cuba and Puerto Rico prompted the immediate claim on our part to the benefit of the minimum tariff of Spain in return for the most favorable treatment permitted by our laws as regards the production of Spanish territories. A commercial arrangement was concluded in January last securing the treatment so claimed. Vigorous protests against excessive fines imposed on our ships and merchandise by the customs officers of these islands for trivial errors have resulted in the remission of such fines in instances where the equity of the complaint was apparent, though the vexatious practice has not been wholly discontinued. Occurrences in Turkey have continued to excite concern. The reported massacres of Christians in Armenia and the development there and in other districts of a spirit of fanatic hostility to Christian influences naturally excited apprehension for the safety of the devoted men and women who, as dependents of the foreign missionary societies in the United States, reside in Turkey under the guaranty of law and usage and in the legitimate performance of their educational and religious mission. No efforts have been spared in their behalf, and their protection in person and property has been earnestly and vigorously enforced by every means within our power. I regret, however, that an attempt on our part to obtain better information concerning the true condition of affairs in the disturbed quarter of the Ottoman Empire by sending thither the United States consul at Sivas to make investigation and report was thwarted by the objections of the Turkish Government. This movement on our part was in no sense meant as a gratuitous entanglement of the United States in the so-called Eastern question nor as an officious interference with the right and duty which belong by treaty to certain great European powers calling for their intervention in political matters affecting the good government and religious freedom of the non-Mussulman subjects of the Sultan, but it arose solely from our desire to have an accurate knowledge of the conditions in our efforts to care for those entitled to our protection. The presence of our naval vessels which are now in the vicinity of the disturbed localities affords opportunities to acquire a measure of familiarity with the condition of affairs and will enable us to take suitable steps for the protection of any interests of our countrymen within reach of our ships that might be found imperiled. The Ottoman Government has lately issued an imperial irade exempting forever from taxation an American college for girls at Scutari. Repeated assurances have also been obtained by our envoy at Constantinople that similar institutions maintained and administered by our countrymen shall be secured in the enjoyment of all rights and that our citizens throughout the Empire shall be protected. The Government, however, in view of existing facts, is far from relying upon such assurances as the limit of its duty. Our minister has been vigilant and alert in affording all possible protection in individual cases where danger threatened or safety was imperiled. We have sent ships as far toward the points of actual disturbance as it is possible for them to go, where they offer refuge to those obliged to flee, and we have the promise of other powers which have ships in the neighborhood that our citizens as well as theirs will be received and protected on board those ships. On the demand of our minister orders have been issued by the Sultan that Turkish soldiers shall guard and escort to the coast American refugees. These orders have been carried out, and our latest intelligence gives assurance of the present personal safety of our citizens and missionaries. Though thus far no lives of American citizens have been sacrificed, there can be no doubt that serious loss and destruction of mission property have resulted from riotous conflicts and outrageous attacks. By treaty several of the most powerful European powers have secured a right and have assumed a duty not only in behalf of their own citizens and in furtherance of their own interests, but as agents of the Christian world. Their right is to enforce such conduct of Turkish government as will restrain fanatical brutality, and if this fails their duty is to so interfere as to insure against such dreadful occurrences in Turkey as have lately shocked civilization. The powers declare this right and this duty to be theirs alone, and it is earnestly hoped that prompt and effective action on their part will not be delayed. The new consulates at Erzerum and Harpoot, for which appropriation was made last session, have been provisionally filled by trusted employees of the Department of State. These appointees, though now in Turkey, have not yet received their exequaturs. The arbitration of the claim of the Venezuela Steam Transportation Company under the treaty of January 19, 1892, between the United States and Venezuela, resulted in an award in favor of the claimant. The Government has used its good offices toward composing the differences between Venezuela on the one hand and France and Belgium on the other growing out of the dismissal of the representatives of those powers on the ground of a publication deemed offensive to Venezuela. Although that dismissal was coupled with a cordial request that other more personally agreeable envoys be sent in their stead, a rupture of intercourse ensued and still continues. In view of the growth of our interests in foreign countries and the encouraging prospects for a general expansion of our commerce, the question of an improvement in the consular service has increased in importance and urgency. Though there is no doubt that the great body of consular officers are rendering valuable services to the trade and industries of the country, the need of some plan of appointment and control which would tend to secure a higher average of efficiency can not be denied. The importance of the subject has led the Executive to consider what steps might properly be taken without additional legislation to answer the need of a better system of consular appointments. The matter having been committed to the consideration of the Secretary of State, in pursuance of his recommendations an Executive order was issued on the 20th of September, 1895, by the terms of which it is provided that after that date any vacancy in a consulate or commercial agency with an annual salary or compensation from official fees of not more than $2,500 or less than $1,000 should be filled either by transfer or promotion from some other position under the Department of State of a character tending to qualify the incumbent for the position to be filled, or by the appointment of a person not under the Department of State, but having previously served thereunder and shown his capacity and fitness for consular duty, or by the appointment of a person who, having been selected by the President and sent to a board for examination, is found upon such examination to be qualified for the position. Posts which pay less than $1,000 being usually, on account of their small compensation, filled by selection from residents of the locality, it was not deemed practicable to put them under the new system. The compensation of $2,500 was adopted as the maximum limit in the classification for the reason that consular officers receiving more than that sum are often charged with functions and duties scarcely inferior in dignity and importance to those of diplomatic agents, and it was therefore thought best to continue their selection in the discretion of the Executive without subjecting them to examination before a board. Excluding 71 places with compensation at present less than $1,000 and 53 places above the maximum in compensation, the number of positions remaining within the scope of the order is 196. This number will undoubtedly be increased by the inclusion of consular officers whose remuneration in fees, now less than $1,000, will be augmented with the growth of our foreign commerce and a return to more favorable business conditions. In execution of the Executive order referred to the Secretary of State has designated as a board to conduct the prescribed examinations the Third Assistant Secretary of State, the Solicitor of the Department of State, and the Chief of the Consular Bureau, and has specified the subjects to which such examinations shall relate. It is not assumed that this system will prove a full measure of consular reform. It is quite probable that actual experience will show particulars in which the order already issued may be amended and demonstrate that for the best results appropriate legislation by Congress is imperatively required. In any event, these efforts to improve the consular service ought to be immediately supplemented by legislation providing for consular inspection. This has frequently been a subject of Executive recommendation, and I again urge such action by Congress as will permit the frequent and thorough inspection of consulates by officers appointed for that purpose or by persons already in the diplomatic or consular service. The expense attending such a plan would be insignificant compared with its usefulness, and I hope the legislation necessary to set it on foot will be speedily forthcoming. I am thoroughly convinced that in addition to their salaries our ambassadors and ministers at foreign courts should be provided by the Government with official residences. The salaries of these officers are comparatively small and in most cases insufficient to pay, with other necessary expenses, the cost of maintaining household establishments in keeping with their important and delicate functions. The usefulness of a nation's diplomatic representative undeniably depends much upon the appropriateness of his surroundings, and a country like ours, while avoiding unnecessary glitter and show, should be certain that it does not suffer in its relations with foreign nations through parsimony and shabbiness in its diplomatic outfit. These considerations and the other advantages of having fixed and somewhat permanent locations for our embassies would abundantly justify the moderate expenditure necessary to carry out this suggestion. As we turn from a review of our foreign relations to the contemplation of our national financial situation we are immediately aware that we approach a subject of domestic concern more important than any other that can engage our attention, and one at present in such a perplexing and delicate predicament as to require prompt and wise treatment. We may well be encouraged to earnest effort in this direction when we recall the steps already taken toward improving our economic and financial situation and when we appreciate how well the way has been prepared for further progress by an aroused and intelligent popular interest in these subjects. By command of the people a customs-revenue system designed for the protection and benefit of favored classes at the expense of the great mass of our countrymen, and which, while inefficient for the purpose of revenue, curtailed our trade relations and impeded our entrance to the markets of the world, has been superseded by a tariff policy which in principle is based upon a denial of the right of the Government to obstruct the avenues to our people's cheap living or lessen their comfort and contentment for the sake of according especial advantages to favorites, and which, while encouraging our intercourse and trade with other nations, recognizes the fact that American self-reliance, thrift, and ingenuity can build up our country's industries and develop its resources more surely than enervating paternalism. The compulsory purchase and coinage of silver by the Government, unchecked and unregulated by business conditions and heedless of our currency needs, which for more than fifteen years diluted our circulating medium, undermined confidence abroad in our financial ability, and at last culminated in distress and panic at home, has been recently stopped by the repeal of the laws which forced this reckless scheme upon the country. The things thus accomplished, notwithstanding their extreme importance and beneficent effects, fall far short of curing the monetary evils from which we suffer as a result of long indulgence in ill-advised financial expedients. The currency denominated United States notes and commonly known as greenbacks was issued in large volume during the late Civil War and was intended originally to meet the exigencies of that period. It will be seen by a reference to the debates in Congress at the time the laws were passed authorizing the issue of these notes that their advocates declared they were intended for only temporary use and to meet the emergency of war. In almost if not all the laws relating to them some provision was made contemplating their voluntary or compulsory retirement. A large quantity of them, however, were kept on foot and mingled with the currency of the country, so that at the close of the year 1874 they amounted to $381,999,073. Immediately after that date, and in January, 1875, a law was passed providing for the resumption of specie payments, by which the Secretary of the Treasury was required whenever additional circulation was issued to national banks to retire United States notes equal in amount to 80 per cent of such additional national-bank circulation until such notes were reduced to $300,000,000. This law further provided that on and after the 1st day of January, 1879, the United States notes then outstanding should be redeemed in coin, and in order to provide and prepare for such redemption the Secretary of the Treasury was authorized not only to use any surplus revenues of the Government, but to issue bonds of the United States and dispose of them for coin and to use the proceeds for the purposes contemplated by the statute. In May, 1878, and before the date thus appointed for the redemption and retirement of these notes, another statute was passed forbidding their further cancellation and retirement. Some of them had, however, been previously redeemed and canceled upon the issue of additional national-bank circulation, as permitted by the law of 1875, so that the amount outstanding at the time of the passage of the act forbidding their further retirement was $346,681,016. The law of 1878 did not stop at distinct prohibition, but contained in addition the following express provision: And when any of said notes may be redeemed or be received into the Treasury under any law from any source whatever, and shall belong to the United States, they shall not be retired, canceled, or destroyed, but they shall be reissued and paid out again and kept in circulation. This was the condition of affairs on the 1st day of January, 1879, which had been fixed upon four years before as the date for entering upon the redemption and retirement of all these notes, and for which such abundant means had been provided. The Government was put in the anomalous situation of owing to the holders of its notes debts payable in gold on demand which could neither be retired by receiving such notes in discharge of obligations due the Government nor canceled by actual payment in gold. It was forced to redeem without redemption and to pay without acquittance. There had been issued and sold $95,500,000 of the bonds authorized by the resumption act of 1875, the proceeds of which, together with other gold in the Treasury, created a gold fund deemed sufficient to meet the demands which might be made upon it for the redemption of the outstanding United States notes. This fund, together with such other gold as might be from time to time in the Treasury available for the same purpose, has been since called our gold reserve, and $100,000,000 has been regarded as an adequate amount to accomplish its object. This fund amounted on the 1st day of January, 1879, to $114,193,360, and though thereafter constantly fluctuating it did not fall below that sum until July, 1892. In April, 1893, for the first time since its establishment, this reserve amounted to less than $100,000,000, containing at that date only $97,011,330. In the meantime, and in July, 1890, an act had been passed directing larger governmental monthly purchases of silver than had been required under previous laws, and providing that in payment for such silver Treasury notes of the United States should be issued payable on demand in gold or silver coin, at the discretion of the Secretary of the Treasury. It was, however, declared in the act to be" the established policy of the United States to maintain the two metals on a parity with each other upon the present legal ratio or such ratio as may be provided by law." In view of this declaration it was not deemed permissible for the Secretary of the Treasury to exercise the discretion in terms conferred on him by refusing to pay gold on these notes when demanded, because by such discrimination in favor of the gold dollar the so-called parity of the two metals would be destroyed and grave and dangerous consequences would be precipitated by affirming or accentuating the constantly widening disparity between their actual values under the existing ratio. It thus resulted that the Treasury notes issued in payment of silver purchases under the law of 1890 were necessarily treated as gold obligations at the option of the holder. These notes on the 1st day of November, 1893, when the law compelling the monthly purchase of silver was repealed, amounted to more than $155,000,000. The notes of this description now outstanding added to the United States notes still undiminished by redemption or cancellation constitute a volume of gold obligations amounting to nearly $500,000,000. These obligations are the instruments which ever since we had a gold reserve have been used to deplete it. This reserve, as has been stated, had fallen in April, 1893, to $97,111,330. It has from that time to the present, with very few and unimportant upward movements, steadily decreased, except as it has been temporarily replenished by the sale of bonds. Among the causes for this constant and uniform shrinkage in this fund may be mentioned the great falling off of exports under the operation of the tariff law until recently in force, which crippled our exchange of commodities with foreign nations and necessitated to some extent the payment of our balances in gold; the unnatural infusion of silver into our currency and the increasing agitation for its free and unlimited coinage, which have created apprehension as to our disposition or ability to continue gold payments; the consequent hoarding of gold at home and the stoppage of investments of foreign capital, as well as the return of our securities already sold abroad; and the high rate of foreign exchange, which induced the shipment of our gold to be drawn against as a matter of speculation. In consequence of these conditions the gold reserve on the 1st day of February, 1894, was reduced to $65,438,377, having lost more than $31,000,000 during the preceding nine months, or since April, 1893. Its replenishment being necessary and no other manner of accomplishing it being possible, resort was had to the issue and sale of bonds provided for by the resumption act of 1875. Fifty millions of these bonds were sold, yielding $58,633,295.71, which was added to the reserve fund of gold then on hand. As a result of this operation this reserve, which had suffered constant and large withdrawals in the meantime, stood on the 6th day of March, 1894, at the sum of $107,446,802. Its depletion was, however, immediately thereafter so accelerated that on the 30th day of June, 1894, it had fallen to $64,873,025, thus losing by withdrawals more than $42,000,000 in five months and dropping slightly below its situation when the sale of $50,000,000 in bonds was effected for its replenishment. This depressed condition grew worse, and on the 24th day of November, 1894, our gold reserve being reduced to $57,669,701, it became necessary to again strengthen it. This was done by another sale of bonds amounting to $50,000,000, from which there was realized $58,538,500, with which the fund was increased to $111,142,021 on the 4th day of December, 1894. Again disappointment awaited the anxious hope for relief. There was not even a lull in the exasperating withdrawals of gold. On the contrary, they grew larger and more persistent than ever. Between the 4th day of December, 1894, and early in February, 1895, a period of scarcely more than two months after the second reenforcement of our gold reserve by the sale of bonds, it had lost by such withdrawals more than $69,000,000 and had fallen to $41,340,181. Nearly $43,000,000 had been withdrawn within the month immediately preceding this situation. In anticipation of impending trouble I had on the 28th day of January, 1895, addressed a communication to the Congress fully setting forth our difficulties and dangerous position and earnestly recommending that authority be given the Secretary of the Treasury to issue bonds bearing a low rate of interest, payable by their terms in gold, for the purpose of maintaining a sufficient gold reserve and also for the redemption and cancellation of outstanding United States notes and the Treasury notes issued for the purchase of silver under the law of 1890. This recommendation did not, however, meet with legislative approval. In February, 1895, therefore, the situation was exceedingly critical. With a reserve perilously low and a refusal of Congressional aid, everything indicated that the end of gold payments by the Government was imminent. The results of prior bond issues had been exceedingly unsatisfactory, and the large withdrawals of gold immediately succeeding their public sale in open market gave rise to a reasonable suspicion that a large part of the gold paid into the Treasury upon such sales was promptly drawn out again by the presentation of United States notes or Treasury notes, and found its way to the hands of those who had only temporarily parted with it in the purchase of bonds. In this emergency, and in view of its surrounding perplexities, it became entirely apparent to those upon whom the struggle for safety was devolved not only that our gold reserve must, for the third time in less than thirteen months, be restored by another issue and sale of bonds bearing a high rate of interest and badly suited to the purpose, but that a plan must be adopted for their disposition promising better results than those realized on previous sales. An agreement was therefore made with a number of financiers and bankers whereby it was stipulated that bonds described in the resumption act of 1875, payable in coin thirty years after their date, bearing interest at the rate of 4 pet cent per annum, and amounting to about $62,000,000, should be exchanged for gold, receivable by weight, amounting to a little more than $65,000,000. This gold was to be delivered in such installments as would complete its delivery within about six months from the date of the contract, and at least one-half of the amount was to be furnished from abroad. It was also agreed by those supplying this gold that during the continuance of the contract they would by every means in their power protect the Government against gold withdrawals. The contract also provided that if Congress would authorize their issue bonds payable by their terms in gold and bearing interest at the rate of 3 per cent per annum might within ten days be substituted at par for the 4 per cent bonds described in the agreement. On the day this contract was made its terms were communicated to Congress by a special Executive message, in which it was stated that more than $16,000,000 would be saved to the Government if gold bonds bearing 3 per cent interest were authorized to be substituted for those mentioned in the contract. The Congress having declined to grant the necessary authority to secure this saving, the contract, unmodified, was carried out, resulting in a gold reserve amounting to $107,571,230 on the 8th day of July, 1895. The performance of this contract not only restored the reserve, but checked for a time the withdrawals of gold and brought on a period of restored confidence and such peace and quiet in business circles as were of the greatest possible value to every interest that affects our people. I have never had the slightest misgiving concerning the wisdom or propriety of this arrangement, and am quite willing to answer for my full share of responsibility for its promotion. I believe it averted a disaster the imminence of which was, fortunately, not at the time generally understood by our people. Though the contract mentioned stayed for a time the tide of gold withdrawal, its good results could not be permanent. Recent withdrawals have reduced the reserve from $107,571,230 on the 8th day of July, 1895, to $79,333,966. How long it will remain large enough to render its increase unnecessary is only matter of conjecture, though quite large withdrawals for shipment in the immediate future are predicted in well-informed quarters. About $16,000,000 has been withdrawn during the month of November. The foregoing statement of events and conditions develops the fact that after increasing our interest-bearing bonded indebtedness more than $162,000,000 to save our gold reserve we are nearly where we started, having now in such reserve $79,333,966, as against $65,438,377 in February, 1894, when the first bonds were issued. Though the amount of gold drawn from the Treasury appears to be very large as gathered from the facts and figures herein presented, it actually was much larger, considerable sums having been acquired by the Treasury within the several periods stated without the issue of bonds. On the 28th of January, 1895, it was reported by the Secretary of the Treasury that more than $172,000,000 of gold had been withdrawn for hoarding or shipment during the year preceding. He now reports that from January 1, 1879, to July 14, 1890, a period of more than eleven years, only a little over $28,000,000 was withdrawn, and that between July 14, 1890, the date of the passage of the law for an increased purchase of silver, and the 1st day of December, 1895, or within less than five and a half years, there was withdrawn nearly $375,000,000, making a total of more than $403,000,000 drawn from the Treasury in gold since January 1, 1879, the date fixed in 1875 for the retirement of the United States notes. Nearly $327,000,000 of the gold thus withdrawn has been paid out on these United States notes, and yet every one of the $346,000,000 is still uncanceled and ready to do service in future gold depletions. More than $76,000,000 in gold has since their creation in 1890 been paid out from the Treasury upon the notes given on the purchase of silver by the Government, and yet the whole, amounting to $155,000,000, except a little more than $16,000,000 which has been retired by exchanges for silver at the request of the holders, remains outstanding and prepared to join their older and more experienced allies in future raids upon the Treasury's gold reserve. In other words, the Government has paid in gold more than nine-tenths of its United States notes and still owes them all. It has paid in gold about one-half of its notes given for silver purchases without extinguishing by such payment one dollar of these notes. When, added to all this, we are reminded that to carry on this astound, lug financial scheme the Government has incurred a bonded indebtedness of $95,500,000 in establishing a gold reserve and of $162,315,400 in efforts to maintain it; that the annual interest charge on such bonded indebtedness is more than $11,000,000; that a continuance of our present course may result in further bond issues, and that we have suffered or are threatened with all this for the sake of supplying gold for foreign shipment or facilitating its hoarding at home, a situation is exhibited which certainly ought to arrest attention and provoke immediate legislative relief. I am convinced the only thorough and practicable remedy for our troubles is found in the retirement and cancellation of our United States notes, commonly called greenbacks, and the outstanding Treasury notes issued by the Government in payment of silver purchases under the act of 1890. I believe this could be quite readily accomplished by the exchange of these notes for United States bonds, of small as well as large denominations, bearing a low rate of interest. They should be long-term bonds, thus increasing their desirability as investments, and because their payment could be well postponed to a period far removed from present financial burdens and perplexities, when with increased prosperity and resources they would be more easily met. To further insure the cancellation of these notes and also provide a way by which gold may be added to our currency in lieu of them, a feature in the plan should be an authority given to the Secretary of the Treasury to dispose of the bonds abroad for gold if necessary to complete the contemplated redemption and cancellation, permitting him to use the proceeds of such bonds to take up and cancel any of the notes that may be in the Treasury or that may be received by the Government on any account. The increase of our bonded debt involved in this plan would be amply compensated by renewed activity and enterprise in all business circles, the restored confidence at home, the reinstated faith in our monetary strength abroad, and the stimulation of every interest and industry that would follow the cancellation of the gold-demand obligations now afflicting us. In any event, the bonds proposed would stand for the extinguishment of a troublesome indebtedness, while in the path we now follow there lurks the menace of unending bonds, with our indebtedness still undischarged and aggravated in every feature. The obligations necessary to fund this indebtedness would not equal in amount those from which we have been relieved since 1884 by anticipation and payment beyond the requirements of the sinking fund out of our surplus revenues. The currency withdrawn by the retirement of the United States notes and Treasury notes, amounting to probably less than $486,000,000, might be supplied by such gold as would be used on their retirement or by an increase in the circulation of our national banks. Though the aggregate capital of those now in existence amounts to more than $664,000,000, their outstanding circulation based on bond security amounts to only about $190,000,000. They are authorized to issue notes amounting to 90 per cent of the bonds deposited to secure their circulation, but in no event beyond the amount of their capital stock, and they are obliged to pay 1 per cent tax on the circulation they issue. I think they should be allowed to issue circulation equal to the par value of the bonds they deposit to secure it, and that the tax on their circulation should be reduced to one-fourth of 1 per cent, which would undoubtedly meet all the expense the Government incurs on their account. In addition they should be allowed to substitute or deposit in lieu of the bonds now required as security for their circulation those which would be issued for the purpose of retiring the United States notes and Treasury notes. The banks already existing, if they desired to avail themselves of the provisions of law thus modified, could issue circulation, in addition to that already outstanding, amounting to $478,000,000, which would nearly or quite equal the currency proposed to be canceled. At any rate, I should confidently expect to see the existing national banks or others to be organized avail themselves of the proposed encouragements to issue circulation and promptly fill any vacuum and supply every currency need. It has always seemed to me that the provisions of law regarding the capital of national banks, which operate as a limitation to their location, fail to make proper compensation for the suppression of State banks, which came near to the people in all sections of the country and readily furnished them with banking accommodations and facilities. Any inconvenience or embarrassment arising from these restrictions on the location of national banks might well be remedied by better adapting the present system to the creation of banks in smaller communities or by permitting banks of large capital to establish branches in such localities as would serve the people, so regulated and restrained as to secure their safe and conservative control and management. But there might not be the necessity for such an addition to the currency by new issues of bank circulation as at first glance is indicated. If we should be relieved from maintaining a gold reserve under conditions that constitute it the barometer of our solvency, and if our Treasury should no longer be the foolish purveyor of gold for nations abroad or for speculation and hoarding by our citizens at home, I should expect to see gold resume its natural and normal functions in the business affairs of the country and cease to be an object attracting the timid watch of our people and exciting their sensitive imaginations. I do not overlook the fact that the cancellation of the Treasury notes issued under the silver-purchasing act of 1890 would leave the Treasury in the actual ownership of sufficient silver, including seigniorage, to coin nearly $178,000,000 in standard dollars. It is worthy of consideration whether this might not from time to time be converted into dollars or fractional coin and slowly put into circulation, as in the judgment of the Secretary of the Treasury the necessities of the country should require. Whatever is attempted should be entered upon fully appreciating the fact that by careless, easy descent we have reached a dangerous depth, and that our ascent will not be accomplished without laborious toil and struggle. We shall be wise if we realize that we are financially ill and that our restoration to health may require heroic treatment and unpleasant remedies. In the present stage of our difficulty it is not easy to understand how the amount of our revenue receipts directly affects it. The important question is not the quantity of money received in revenue payments, but the kind of money we maintain and our ability to continue in sound financial condition. We are considering the Government's holdings of gold as related to the soundness of our money and as affecting our national credit and monetary strength. If our gold reserve had never been impaired; if no bonds had ever been issued to replenish it; if there had been no fear and timidity concerning our ability to continue gold payments; if any part of our revenues were now paid in gold, and if we could look to our gold receipts as a means of maintaining a safe reserve, the amount of our revenues would be an influential factor in the problem. But, unfortunately, all the circumstances that might lend weight to this consideration are entirely lacking. In our present predicament no gold is received by the Government in payment of revenue charges, nor would there be if the revenues were increased. The receipts of the Treasury, when not in silver certificates, consist of United States notes and Treasury notes issued for silver purchases. These forms of money are only useful to the Government in paying its current ordinary expenses, and its quantity in Government possession does not in the least contribute toward giving us that kind of safe financial standing or condition which is built on gold alone. If it is said that these notes if held by the Government can be used to obtain gold for our reserve, the answer is easy. The people draw gold from the Treasury on demand upon United States notes and Treasury notes, but the proposition that the Treasury can on demand draw gold from the people upon them would be regarded in these days with wonder and amusement; and even if this could be done there is nothing to prevent those thus parting with their gold from regaining it the next day or the next hour by the presentation of the notes they received in exchange for it. The Secretary of the Treasury might use such notes taken from a surplus revenue to buy gold in the market. Of course he could not do this without paying a premium. Private holders of gold, unlike the Government, having no parity to maintain, would not be restrained from making the best bargain possible when they furnished gold to the Treasury; but the moment the Secretary of the Treasury bought gold on any terms above par he would establish a general and universal premium upon it, thus breaking down the parity between gold and silver, which the Government is pledged to maintain, and opening the way to new and serious complications. In the meantime the premium would not remain stationary, and the absurd spectacle might be presented of a dealer selling gold to the Government and with United States notes or Treasury notes in his hand immediately clamoring for its return and a resale at a higher premium. It may be claimed that a large revenue and redundant receipts might favorably affect the situation under discussion by affording an opportunity of retaining these notes in the Treasury when received, and thus preventing their presentation for gold. Such retention to be useful ought to be at least measurably permanent; and this is precisely what is prohibited, so far as United States notes are concerned, by the law of 1878, forbidding their further retirement. That statute in so many words provides that these notes when received into the Treasury and belonging to the United States shall be "paid out again and kept in circulation." It will, moreover, be readily seen that the Government could not refuse to pay out United States notes and Treasury notes in current transactions when demanded, and insist on paying out silver alone, and still maintain the parity between that metal and the currency representing gold. Besides, the accumulation in the Treasury of currency of any kind exacted from the people through taxation is justly regarded as an evil, and it can not proceed far without vigorous protest against an unjustifiable retention of money from the business of the country and a denunciation of a scheme of taxation which proves itself to be unjust when it takes from the earnings and income of the citizen money so much in excess of the needs of Government support that large sums can be gathered and kept in the Treasury. Such a condition has heretofore in times of surplus revenue led the Government to restore currency to the people by the purchase of its unmatured bonds at a large premium and by a large increase of its deposits in national banks, and we easily remember that the abuse of Treasury accumulation has furnished a most persuasive argument in favor of legislation radically reducing our tariff taxation. Perhaps it is supposed that sufficient revenue receipts would in a sentimental way improve the situation by inspiring confidence in our solvency and allaying the fear of pecuniary exhaustion. And yet through all our struggles to maintain our gold reserve there never has been any apprehension as to our ready ability to pay our way with such money as we had, and the question whether or not our current receipts met our current expenses has not entered into the estimate of our solvency. Of course the general state of our funds, exclusive of gold, was entirely immaterial to the foreign creditor and investor. His debt could only be paid in gold, and his only concern was our ability to keep on hand that kind of money. On July 1, 1892, more than a year and a half before the first bonds were issued to replenish the gold reserve, there was a net balance in the Treasury, exclusive of such reserve, of less than $13,000,000, but the gold reserve amounted to more than $114,000,000, which was the quieting feature of the situation. It was when the stock of gold began rapidly to fall that fright supervened and our securities held abroad were returned for sale and debts owed abroad were pressed for payment. In the meantime extensive shipments of gold and other unfavorable indications caused restlessness and fright among our people at home. Thereupon the general state of our funds, exclusive of gold, became also immaterial to them, and they too drew gold from the Treasury for hoarding against all contingencies. This is plainly shown by the large increase in the proportion of gold withdrawn which was retained by our own people as time and threatening incidents progressed. During the fiscal year ending June 30, 1894, nearly $85,000,000 in gold was withdrawn from the Treasury and about $77,000,000 was sent abroad, while during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1895, over $117,000,000 was drawn out, of which only about $66,000,000 was shipped, leaving the large balance of such withdrawals to be accounted for by domestic hoarding. Inasmuch as the withdrawal of our gold has resulted largely from fright, there is nothing apparent that will prevent its continuance or recurrence, with its natural consequences, except such a change in our financial methods as will reassure the frightened and make the desire for gold less intense. It is not clear how an increase fix revenue, unless it be in gold, can satisfy those whose only anxiety is to gain gold from the Government's store. It can not, therefore, be safe to rely upon increased revenues as a cure for our present troubles. It is possible that the suggestion of increased revenue as a remedy for the difficulties we are considering may have originated in an intimation or distinct allegation that the bonds which have been issued ostensibly to replenish our gold reserve were really issued to supply insufficient revenue. Nothing can be further from the truth. Bonds were issued to obtain gold for the maintenance of our national credit. As has been shown, the gold thus obtained has been drawn again from the Treasury upon United States notes and Treasury notes. This operation would have been promptly prevented if possible; but these notes having thus been passed to the Treasury, they became the money of the Government, like any other ordinary Government funds, and there was nothing to do but to use them in paying Government expenses when needed. At no time when bonds have been issued has there been any consideration of the question of paying the expenses of Government with their proceeds. There was no necessity to consider that question. At the time of each bond issue we had a safe surplus in the Treasury for ordinary operations, exclusive of the gold in our reserve. In February, 1894, when the first issue of bonds was made, such surplus amounted to over $18,000,000; in November, when the second issue was made, it amounted to more than $42,000,000, and in February, 1895, when bonds for the third time were issued, such surplus amounted to more than $100,000,000. It now amounts to $98,072,420.30. Besides all this, the Secretary of the Treasury had no authority whatever to issue bonds to increase the ordinary revenues or pay current expenses. I can not but think there has been some confusion of ideas regarding the effects of the issue of bonds and the results of the withdrawal of gold. It was the latter process, and not the former, that, by substituting in the Treasury United States notes and Treasury notes for gold, increased by their amount the money which was in the first instance subject to ordinary Government expenditure. Although the law compelling an increased purchase of silver by the Government was passed on the 14th day of July, 1890, withdrawals of gold from the Treasury upon the notes given in payment on such purchases did not begin until October, 1891. Immediately following that date the withdrawals upon both these notes and United States notes increased very largely, and have continued to such an extent that since the passage of that law there has been more than thirteen times as much gold taken out of the Treasury upon United States notes and Treasury notes issued for silver purchases as was thus withdrawn during the eleven and a half years immediately prior thereto and after the 1st day of January, 1879, when specie payments were resumed. It is neither unfair nor unjust to charge a large share of our present financial perplexities and dangers to the operation of the laws of 1878 and 1890 compelling the purchase of silver by the Government, which not only furnished a new Treasury obligation upon which its gold could be withdrawn, but so increased the fear of an overwhelming flood of silver and a forced descent to silver payments that even the repeal of these laws did not entirely cure the evils of their existence. While I have endeavored to make a plain statement of the disordered condition of our currency and the present dangers menacing our prosperity and to suggest a way which leads to a safer financial system, I have constantly had in mind the fact that many of my countrymen, whose sincerity I do not doubt, insist that the cure for the ills now threatening us may be found in the single and simple remedy of the free coinage of silver. They contend that our mints shall be at once thrown open to the free, unlimited, and independent coinage of both gold and silver dollars of full legal-tender quality, regardless of the action of any other government and in full view of the fact that the ratio between the metals which they suggest calls for 100 cents' worth of gold in the gold dollar at the present standard and only 50 cents in intrinsic worth of silver in the silver dollar. Were there infinitely stronger reasons than can be adduced for hoping that such action would secure for us a bimetallic currency moving on lines of parity, an experiment so novel and hazardous as that proposed might well stagger those who believe that stability is an imperative condition of sound money. No government, no human contrivance or act of legislation, has ever been able to hold the two metals together in free coinage at a ratio appreciably different from that which is established in the markets of the world. Those who believe that our independent free coinage of silver at an artificial ratio with gold of 16 to 1 would restore the parity between the metals, and consequently between the coins, oppose an unsupported and improbable theory to the general belief and practice of other nations; and to the teaching of the wisest statesmen and economists of the world, both in the past and present, and, what is far more conclusive, they run counter to our own actual experiences. Twice in our earlier history our lawmakers, in attempting to establish a bimetallic currency, undertook free coinage upon a ratio which accidentally varied from the actual relative values of the two metals not more than 3 per cent. In both cases, notwithstanding greater difficulties and cost of transportation than now exist, the coins whose intrinsic worth was undervalued. in the ratio gradually and surely disappeared from our circulation and went to other countries where their real value was better recognized. Acts of Congress were impotent to create equality where natural causes decreed even a slight inequality. Twice in our recent history we have signally failed to raise by legislation the value of silver. Under an act of Congress passed in 1878 the Government was required for more than twelve years to expend annually at least $24,000,000 in the purchase of silver bullion for coinage. The act of July 14, 1890, in a still bolder effort, increased the amount of silver the Government was compelled to purchase and forced it to become the buyer annually of 54,000,000 ounces, or practically the entire product of our mines. Under both laws silver rapidly and steadily declined in value. The prophecy and the expressed hope and expectation of those in the Congress who led in the passage of the last-mentioned act that it would reestablish and maintain the former parity between the two metals are still fresh in our memory. In the light of these experiences, which accord with the experiences of other nations, there is certainly no secure ground for the belief that an act of Congress could now bridge an inequality of 50 per cent between gold and silver at our present ratio, nor is there the least possibility that our country, which has less than one-seventh of the silver money in the world, could by its action alone raise not only our own but all silver to its lost ratio with gold. Our attempt to accomplish this by the free coinage of silver at a ratio differing widely from actual relative values would be the signal for the complete departure of gold from our circulation, the immediate and large contraction of our circulating medium, and a shrinkage in the real value and monetary efficiency of all other forms of currency as they settled to the level of silver monometallism. Everyone who receives a fixed salary and every worker for wages would find the dollar in his hand ruthlessly scaled down to the point of bitter disappointment, if not to pinching privation. A change in our standard to silver monometallism would also bring on a collapse of the entire system of credit, which, when based on a standard which is recognized and adopted by the world of business, is many times more potent and useful than the entire volume of currency and is safely capable of almost indefinite expansion to meet the growth of trade and enterprise. In a self-invited struggle through darkness and uncertainty our humiliation would be increased by the consciousness that we had parted company with all the enlightened and progressive nations of the world and were desperately and hopelessly striving to meet the stress of modern commerce and competition with a debased and unsuitable currency and in association with the few weak and laggard nations which have silver alone as their standard of value. All history warns us against rash experiments which threaten violent changes in our monetary standard and the degradation of our currency. The past is full of lessons teaching not only the economic dangers but the national immorality that follow in the train of such experiments. I will not believe that the American people can be persuaded after sober deliberation to jeopardize their nation's prestige and proud standing by encouraging financial nostrums, nor that they will yield to the false allurements of cheap money when they realize that it must result in the weakening of that financial integrity and rectitude which thus far in our history has been so devotedly cherished as one of the traits of true Americanism. Our country's indebtedness, whether owing by the Government or existing between individuals, has been contracted with reference to our present standard. To decree by act of Congress that these debts shall be payable in less valuable dollars than those within the contemplation and intention of the parties when contracted would operate to transfer by the fiat of law and without compensation an amount of property and a volume of rights and interests almost incalculable. Those who advocate a blind and headlong plunge to free coinage in the name of bimetallism, and professing the belief, contrary to all experience, that we could thus establish a double standard and a concurrent circulation of both metals in our coinage, are certainly reckoning from a cloudy standpoint. Our present standard of value is the standard of the civilized world and permits the only bimetallism now possible, or at least that is within the independent reach of any single nation, however powerful that nation may be. While the value of gold as a standard is steadied by almost universal commercial and business use, it does not despise silver nor seek its banishment. Wherever this standard is maintained there is at its side in free and unquestioned circulation a volume of silver currency sometimes equaling and sometimes even exceeding it in amount both maintained at a parity notwithstanding a depreciation or fluctuation in the intrinsic value of silver. There is a vast difference between a standard of value and a currency for monetary use. The standard must necessarily be fixed and certain. The currency may be in divers forms and of various kinds. No silver-standard country has a gold currency in circulation, but an enlightened and wise system of finance secures the benefits of both gold and silver as currency and circulating medium by keeping the standard stable and all other currency at par with it. Such a system and such a standard also give free scope for the use and expansion of safe and conservative credit, so indispensable to broad and growing commercial transactions and so well substituted for the actual use of money. If a fixed and stable standard is maintained, such as the magnitude and safety of our commercial transactions and business require, the use of money itself is conveniently minimized. Every dollar of fixed and stable value has through the agency of confident credit an astonishing capacity of multiplying itself in financial work. Every unstable and fluctuating dollar fails as a basis of credit, and in its use begets gambling speculation and undermines the foundations of honest enterprise. I have ventured to express myself on this subject with earnestness and plainness of speech because I can not rid myself of the belief that there lurk in the proposition for the free coinage of silver, so strongly approved and so enthusiastically advocated by a multitude of my countrymen, a serious menace to our prosperity and an insidious temptation of our people to wander from the allegiance they owe to public and private integrity. It is because I do not distrust the good faith and sincerity of those who press this scheme that I have imperfectly but with zeal submitted my thoughts upon this momentous subject. I can not refrain from begging them to reexamine their views and beliefs in the light of patriotic reason and familiar experience and to weigh again and again the consequences of such legislation as their efforts have invited. Even the continued agitation of the subject adds greatly to the difficulties of a dangerous financial situation already forced upon us. In conclusion I especially entreat the people's representatives in the Congress, who are charged with the responsibility of inaugurating measures for the safety and prosperity of our common country, to promptly and effectively consider the ills of our critical financial plight. I have suggested a remedy which my judgment approves. I desire, however, to assure the Congress that I am prepared to cooperate with them in perfecting any other measure promising thorough and practical relief, and that I will gladly labor with them in every patriotic endeavor to further the interests and guard the welfare of our countrymen, whom in our respective places of duty we have undertaken to serve.
the present assemblage of the legislative branch of our government occurs at a time when the interests of our people and the needs of the country give especial prominence to the condition of our foreign relations and the exigencies of our national finances the reports of the heads of the several administrative departments of the government fully and plainly exhibit what has been accomplished within the scope of their respective duties and present such recommendations for the betterment of our country condition as patriotic and intelligent labor and observation suggest i therefore deem my executive duty adequately performed at this time by presenting to the congress the important phases of our situation as related to our intercourse with foreign nations and a statement of the financial problems which confront us omitting except as they are related to these topics any reference to departmental operations i earnestly invite however not only the careful consideration but the severely critical scrutiny of the congress and my to the reports concerning these departmental operations if justly and fairly examined they will furnish proof of assiduous and painstaking care for the public welfare i press the recommendations they contain upon the respectful attention of those charged with the duty of legislation because i believe their adoption would promote the people good by amendatory tariff legislation in january last the argentine republic recognizing the value of the large market opened to the free importation of its wools under our last tariff act has admitted certain products of the united states to entry at reduced duties it is pleasing to note that the efforts we have made to enlarge the exchanges of trade on a sound basis of mutual benefit are in this instance appreciated by the country from which our woolen factories draw their needful supply of raw material the missions boundary dispute between the argentine republic and brazil referred to the president of the united states as arbitrator during the term of my predecessor and which was submitted to me for determination resulted in an award in favor of brazil upon the historical and documentary evidence presented thus ending a controversy and again demonstrating the wisdom and desirability of settling international boundary disputes by recourse to friendly arbitration negotiations are progressing for a revival of the united states and chilean claims commission whose work was abruptly terminated last year by the expiration of the stipulated time within which awards could be made the resumption of specie payments by chile is a step of great interest and importance both in its direct consequences upon her own welfare and as evincing the ascendency of sound financial principles in one of the most influential of the south american republics the close of the momentous struggle between china and japan while relieving the diplomatic agents of this government from the delicate duty they undertook at the request of both countries of rendering such service to the subjects of either belligerent within the territorial limits of the other as our neutral position permitted developed a domestic condition in the chinese empire which has caused much anxiety and called for prompt and careful attention either as a result of a weak control by the central government over the provincial administrations following a diminution of traditional governmental authority under the stress of an overwhelming national disaster or as a manifestation upon good opportunity of the aversion of the chinese population to all foreign ways and undertakings there have occurred in widely separated provinces of china serious outbreaks of the old fanatical spirit against foreigners which unchecked by the local authorities if not actually connived at by them have culminated in mob attacks on foreign missionary stations causing much destruction of property and attended with personal injuries as well as loss of life although but one american citizen was reported to have been actually wounded and although the destruction of property may have fallen more heavily upon the missionaries of other nationalities than our own it plainly behooved this government to take the most prompt and decided action to guard against similar or perhaps more dreadful calamities befalling the hundreds of american mission stations which have grown up throughout the interior of china under the temperate rule of toleration custom and imperial edict the demands of the united states and other powers for the degradation and punishment of the responsible officials of the respective cities and provinces who by neglect or otherwise had permitted uprisings and for the adoption of stern measures by the emperor government for the protection of the life and property of foreigners were followed by the disgrace and dismissal of certain provincial officials found derelict in duty and the punishment by death of a number of those adjudged guilty of actual participation in the outrages this government also insisted that a special american commission should visit the province where the first disturbances occurred for the purpose of investigation the latter commission formed after much opposition has gone overland from tientsin accompanied by a suitable chinese escort and by its demonstration of the readiness and ability of our government to protect its citizens will act it is believed as a most influential deterrent of any similar outbreaks the energetic steps we have thus taken are all the more likely to result in future safety to our citizens in china because the imperial government is i am persuaded entirely convinced that we desire only the liberty and protection of our own citizens and redress for any wrongs they may have suffered and that we have no ulterior designs or objects political or otherwise china will not forget either our kindly service to her citizens during her late war nor the further fact that while furnishing all the facilities at our command to further the negotiation of a peace between her and japan we sought no advantages and interposed no counsel the governments of both china and japan have in special dispatches transmitted through their respective diplomatic representatives expressed in a most pleasing manner their grateful appreciation of our assistance to their citizens during the unhappy struggle and of the value of our aid in paving the way to their resumption of peaceful relations the customary cordial relations between this country and france have been undisturbed with the exception that a full explanation of the treatment of john waller by the expeditionary military authorities of france still remains to be given waller formerly united states consul at tamatav remained in madagascar after his term of office expired and was apparently successful in procuring business concessions from the hovas of greater or less value after the occupation of tamatav and the declaration of martial law by the french he was arrested upon various charges among them that of communicating military information to the enemies of france was tried and convicted by a military tribunal and sentenced to twenty years imprisonment following the course justified by abundant precedents this government requested from that of france the record of the proceedings of the french tribunal which resulted in waller condemnation this request has been complied with to the extent of supplying a copy of the official record from which appear the constitution and organization of the court the charges as formulated and the general course and result of the trial and by which it is shown that the accused was tried in open court and was defended by counsel but the evidence adduced in support of the charges which was not received by the french minister for foreign affairs till the first week in october has thus far been withheld the french government taking the ground that its production in response to our demand would establish a bad precedent the efforts of our ambassador to procure it however though impeded by recent changes in the french ministry have not been relaxed and it is confidently expected that some satisfactory solution of the matter will shortly be reached meanwhile it appears that waller confinement has every alleviation which the state of his health and all the other circumstances of the case demand or permit in agreeable contrast to the difference above noted respecting a matter of common concern where nothing is sought except such a mutually satisfactory outcome as the true merits of the case require is the recent resolution of the french chambers favoring the conclusion of a permanent treaty of arbitration between the two countries an invitation has been extended by france to the government and people of the united states to participate in a great international exposition at paris in 1900 as a suitable commemoration of the close of this the world marvelous century of progress i heartily recommend its acceptance together with such legislation as will adequately provide for a due representation of this government and its people on the occasion our relations with the states of the german empire are in some aspects typical of a condition of things elsewhere found in countries whose productions and trade are similar to our own the close rivalries of competing industries the influence of the delusive doctrine that the internal development of a nation is promoted and its wealth increased by a policy which in undertaking to reserve its home markets for the exclusive use of its own producers necessarily obstructs their sales in foreign markets and prevents free access to the products of the world the desire to retain trade in ruts regardless of the inexorable laws of new needs and changed conditions of demand and supply and our own halting tardiness in inviting a freer exchange of commodities and by this means imperiling our footing in the external markets naturally open to us have created a situation somewhat injurious to american export interests not only in germany where they are perhaps most noticeable but in adjacent countries the exports affected are largely american cattle and other food products the reason assigned for unfavorable discrimination being that their consumption is deleterious to the public health this is all the more irritating in view of the fact that no european state is as jealous of the excellence and wholesomeness of its exported food supplies as the united states nor so easily able on account of inherent soundness to guarantee those qualities nor are these difficulties confined to our food products designed for exportation our great insurance companies for example having built up a vast business abroad and invested a large share of their gains in foreign countries in compliance with the local laws and regulations then existing now find themselves within a narrowing circle of onerous and unforeseen conditions and are confronted by the necessity of retirement from a field thus made unprofitable if indeed they are not summarily expelled as some of them have lately been from prussia it is not to be forgotten that international trade can not be its currents are alternating and its movements should be honestly reciprocal without this it almost necessarily degenerates into a device to gain advantage or a contrivance to secure benefits with only the semblance of a return in our dealings with other nations we ought to be and scrupulously fair this should be our policy as a producing nation and it plainly becomes us as a people who love generosity and the moral aspects of national good faith and reciprocal forbearance these considerations should not however constrain us to submit to unfair discrimination nor to silently acquiesce in vexatious hindrances to the enjoyment of our share of the legitimate advantages of proper trade relations if an examination of the situation suggests such measures on our part as would involve restrictions similar to those from which we suffer the way to such a course is easy it should however by no means be lightly entered upon since the necessity for the inauguration of such a policy would be regretted by the best sentiment of our people and because it naturally and logically might lead to consequences of the gravest character i take pleasure in calling to your attention the encomiums bestowed on those vessels of our new navy which took part in the notable ceremony of the opening of the kiel canal it was fitting that this extraordinary achievement of the newer german nationality should be celebrated in the presence of america exposition of the latest developments of the world s naval energy our relations with great britain always intimate and important have demanded during the past year even a greater share of consideration than is usual several vexatious questions were left undetermined by the decision of the bering sea arbitration tribunal the application of the principles laid down by that august body has not been followed by the results they were intended to accomplish either because the principles themselves lacked in breadth and definiteness or because their execution has been more or less imperfect much correspondence has been exchanged between the two governments on the subject of preventing the exterminating slaughter of seals the insufficiency of the british patrol of bering sea under the regulations agreed on by the two governments has been pointed out and yet only two british ships have been on police duty during this season in those waters the need of a more effective enforcement of existing regulations as well as the adoption of such additional regulations as experience has shown to be absolutely necessary to carry out the intent of the award have been earnestly urged upon the british government but thus far without effective results in the meantime the depletion of the seal herds by means of pelagic hunting has so alarmingly progressed that unless their slaughter is at once effectively checked their extinction within a few years seems to be a matter of absolute certainty the understanding by which the united states was to pay and great britain to receive a lump sum of in full settlement of all british claims for damages arising from our seizure of british sealing vessels unauthorized under the award of the paris tribunal of arbitration was not confirmed by the last congress which declined to make the necessary appropriation i am still of the opinion that this arrangement was a judicious and advantageous one for the government and i earnestly recommend that it be again considered and sanctioned if however this does not meet with the favor of congress it certainly will hardly dissent from the proposition that the government is bound by every consideration of honor and good faith to provide for the speedy adjustment of these claims by arbitration as the only other alternative a treaty of arbitration has therefore been agreed upon and will be immediately laid before the senate so that in one of the modes suggested a final settlement may be reached notwithstanding that great britain originated the proposal to enforce international rules for the prevention of collisions at sea based on the recommendations of the maritime conference of washington and concurred in suggesting march 11 1895 as the date to be set by proclamation for carrying these rules into general effect her majesty government having encountered opposition on the part of british shipping interests announced its inability to accept that date which was consequently canceled the entire matter is still in abeyance without prospect of a better condition in the near future the commissioners appointed to mark the international boundary in passamaquoddy bay according to the description of the treaty of ghent have not yet fully agreed the completion of the preliminary survey of that alaskan boundary which follows the contour of the coast from the southernmost point of prince of wales island until it strikes the one hundred and meridian at or near the summit of mount elias awaits further necessary appropriation which is urgently recommended this survey was undertaken under the provisions of the convention entered into by this country and great britain july 22 1892 and the supplementary convention of february 3 1894 as to the remaining section of the alaskan boundary which follows the one hundred and meridian northwardly from mount elias to the frozen ocean the settlement of which involves the physical location of the meridian mentioned no conventional agreement has yet been made the ascertainment of a given meridian at a particular point is a work requiring much time and careful observations and surveys such observations and surveys were undertaken by the united states coast and geodetic survey in 1890 and 1891 while similar work in the same quarters under british auspices is believed to give nearly coincident results but these surveys have been independently conducted and no international agreement to mark those or any other parts of the one hundred and meridian by permanent monuments has yet been made in the meantime the valley of the yukon is becoming a highway through the hitherto unexplored wilds of alaska and abundant mineral wealth has been discovered in that region especially at or near the junction of the boundary meridian with the yukon and its tributaries in these circumstances it is expedient and indeed imperative that the jurisdictional limits of the respective governments in this new region be speedily determined her britannic majesty government has proposed a joint delimitation of the one hundred and meridian by an international commission of experts which if congress will authorize it and make due provision therefor can be accomplished with no unreasonable delay it is impossible to overlook the vital importance of continuing the work already entered upon and supplementing it by further effective measures looking to the exact location of this entire boundary line i call attention to the unsatisfactory delimitation of the respective jurisdictions of the united states and the dominion of canada in the great lakes at the approaches to the narrow waters that connect them the waters in question are frequented by fishermen of both nationalities and their nets are there used owing to the uncertainty and ignorance as to the true boundary vexations disputes and injurious seizures of boats and nets by canadian cruisers often occur while any positive settlement thereof by an accepted standard is not easily to be reached a joint commission to determine the line in those quarters on a practical basis by measured courses following range marks on shore is a necessity for which immediate provision should be made it being apparent that the boundary dispute between great britain and the republic of venezuela concerning the limits of british guiana was approaching an acute stage a definite statement of the interest and policy of the united states as regards the controversy seemed to be required both on its own account and in view of its relations with the friendly powers directly concerned in july last therefore a dispatch was addressed to our ambassador at london for communication to the british government in which the attitude of the united states was fully and distinctly set forth the general conclusions therein reached and formulated are in substance that the traditional and established policy of this government is firmly opposed to a forcible increase by any european power of its territorial possessions on this continent that this policy is as well rounded in principle as it is strongly supported by numerous precedents that as a consequence the united states is bound to protest against the enlargement of the area of british guiana in derogation of the rights and against the will of venezuela that considering the disparity in strength of great britain and venezuela the territorial dispute between them can be reasonably settled only by friendly and impartial arbitration and that the resort to such arbitration should include the whole controversy and is not satisfied if one of the powers concerned is permitted to draw an arbitrary line through the territory in debate and to declare that it will submit to arbitration only the portion lying on one side of it in view of these conclusions the dispatch in question called upon the british government for a definite answer to the question whether it would or would not submit the territorial controversy between itself and venezuela in its entirety to impartial arbitration the answer of the british government has not yet been received but is expected shortly when further communication on the subject will probably be made to the congress early in january last an uprising against the government of hawaii was promptly suppressed martial law was forthwith proclaimed and numerous arrests were made of persons suspected of being in sympathy with the royalist party among these were several citizens of the united states who were either convicted by a military court and sentenced to death imprisonment or fine or were deported without trial the united states while denying protection to such as had taken the hawaiian oath of allegiance insisted that martial law though altering the forms of justice could not supersede justice itself and demanded stay of execution until the proceedings had been submitted to this government and knowledge obtained therefrom that our citizens had received fair trial the death sentences were subsequently commuted or were remitted on condition of leaving the islands the cases of certain americans arrested and expelled by arbitrary order without formal charge or trial have had attention and in some instances have been found to justify remonstrance and a claim for indemnity which hawaii has not thus far conceded thurston the hawaiian minister having furnished this government abundant reason for asking that he be recalled that course was pursued and his successor has lately been received the deplorable lynching of several italian laborers in colorado was naturally followed by international representations and i am happy to say that the best efforts of the state in which the outrages occurred have been put forth to discover and punish the authors of this atrocious crime the dependent families of some of the unfortunate victims invite by their deplorable condition gracious provision for their needs these manifestations against helpless aliens may be traced through successive stages to the vicious padroni system which unchecked by our immigration and statutes controls these workers from the moment of landing on our shores and farms them out in distant and often rude regions where their cheapening competition in the fields of toil brings them into collision with other labor interests while welcoming as we should those who seek our shores to merge themselves in our body politic and win personal competence by honest effort we can not regard such assemblages of distinctively alien laborers hired out in the mass to the profit of alien speculators and shipped hither and thither as the prospect of gain may dictate as otherwise than repugnant to the spirit of our civilization deterrent to individual advancement and hindrances to the building up of stable communities resting upon the wholesome ambitions of the citizen and constituting the prime factor in the prosperity and progress of our nation if legislation can reach this growing evil it certainly should be attempted japan has furnished abundant evidence of her vast gain in every trait and characteristic that constitutes a nation greatness we have reason for congratulation in the fact that the government of the united states by the exchange of liberal treaty stipulations with the new japan was the first to recognize her wonderful advance and to extend to her the consideration and confidence due to her national enlightenment and progressive character the boundary dispute which lately threatened to embroil guatemala and mexico has happily yielded to pacific counsels and its determination has by the joint agreement of the parties been submitted to the sole arbitration of the united states minister to mexico the commission appointed under the convention of february 18 1889 to set new monuments along the boundary between the united states and mexico has completed its task as a sequel to the failure of a scheme for the colonization in mexico of negroes mostly immigrants from alabama under contract a great number of these helpless and suffering people starving and smitten with contagious disease made their way or were assisted to the frontier where in wretched plight they were quarantined by the texas authorities learning of their destitute condition i directed rations to be temporarily furnished them through the war department at the expiration of their quarantine they were conveyed by the railway companies at comparatively nominal rates to their homes in alabama upon my assurance in the absence of any fund available for the cost of their transportation that i would recommend to congress an appropriation for its payment i now strongly urge upon congress the propriety of making such an appropriation it should be remembered that the measures taken were dictated not only by sympathy and humanity but by a conviction that it was not compatible with the dignity of this government that so large a body of our dependent citizens should be thrown for relief upon the charity of a neighboring state in last year message i narrated at some length the jurisdictional questions then freshly arisen in the mosquito indian strip of nicaragua since that time by the voluntary act of the mosquito nation the territory reserved to them has been incorporated with nicaragua the indians formally subjecting themselves to be governed by the general laws and regulations of the republic instead of by their own customs and regulations and thus availing themselves of a privilege secured to them by the treaty between nicaragua and great britain of january 28 1860 after this extension of uniform nicaraguan administration to the mosquito strip the case of the british hatch and of several of his countrymen who had been summarily expelled from nicaragua and treated with considerable indignity provoked a claim by great britain upon nicaragua for pecuniary indemnity which upon nicaragua refusal to admit liability was enforced by great britain while the sovereignty and jurisdiction of nicaragua was in no way questioned by great britain the former arbitrary conduct in regard to british subjects furnished the ground for this proceeding a british naval force occupied without resistance the pacific seaport of corinto but was soon after withdrawn upon the promise that the sum demanded would be paid throughout this incident the kindly offices of the united states were invoked and were employed in favor of as peaceful a settlement and as much consideration and indulgence toward nicaragua as were consistent with the nature of the case our efforts have since been made the subject of appreciative and grateful recognition by nicaragua the coronation of the czar of russia at moscow in may next invites the ceremonial participation of the united states and in accordance with usage and diplomatic propriety our minister to the imperial court has been directed to represent our government on the occasion correspondence is on foot touching the practice of russian consuls within the jurisdiction of the united states to interrogate citizens as to their race and religious faith and upon ascertainment thereof to deny to jews authentication of passports or legal documents for use in russia inasmuch as such a proceeding imposes a disability which in the case of succession to property in russia may be found to infringe the treaty rights of our citizens and which is an obnoxious invasion of our territorial jurisdiction it has elicited fitting remonstrance the result of which it is hoped will remove the because of complaint the pending claims of sealing vessels of the united states seized in russian waters remain unadjusted our recent convention with russia establishing a modus vivendi as to imperial jurisdiction in such cases has prevented further difficulty of this nature the russian government has welcomed in principle our suggestion for a modus vivendi to embrace great britain and japan looking to the better preservation of seal life in the north pacific and bering sea and the extension of the protected area defined by the paris tribunal to all pacific waters north of the parallel it is especially noticeable that russia favors prohibition of the use of firearms in seal hunting throughout the proposed area and a longer closed season for pelagic sealing in my last two annual messages i called the attention of the congress to the position we occupied as one of the parties to a treaty or agreement by which we became jointly bound with england and germany to so interfere with the government and control of samoa as in effect to assume the management of its affairs on the 9th day of may 1894 i transmitted to the senate a special message with accompanying documents giving information on the subject and emphasizing the opinion i have at all times entertained that our situation in this matter was inconsistent with the mission and traditions of our government in violation of the principles we profess and in all its phases mischievous and vexatious i again press this subject upon the attention of the congress and ask for such legislative action or expression as will lead the way to our relief from obligations both irksome and unnatural cuba is again gravely disturbed an insurrection in some respects more active than the last preceding revolt which continued from 1868 to 1878 now exists in a large part of the eastern interior of the island menacing even some populations on the coast besides deranging the commercial exchanges of the island of which our country takes the predominant share this flagrant condition of hostilities by arousing sentimental sympathy and inciting adventurous support among our people has entailed earnest effort on the part of this government to enforce obedience to our neutrality laws and to prevent the territory of the united states from being abused as a vantage ground from which to aid those in arms against spanish sovereignty whatever may be the traditional sympathy of our countrymen as individuals with a people who seem to be struggling for larger autonomy and greater freedom deepened as such sympathy naturally must be in behalf of our neighbors yet the plain duty of their government is to observe in good faith the recognized obligations of international relationship the performance of this duty should not be made more difficult by a disregard on the part of our citizens of the obligations growing out of their allegiance to their country which should restrain them from violating as individuals the neutrality which the nation of which they are members is bound to observe in its relations to friendly sovereign states though neither the warmth of our people sympathy with the cuban insurgents nor our loss and material damage consequent upon the futile endeavors thus far made to restore peace and order nor any shock our humane sensibilities may have received from the cruelties which appear to especially characterize this sanguinary and fiercely conducted war have in the least shaken the determination of the government to honestly fulfill every international obligation yet it is to be earnestly hoped on every ground that the devastation of armed conflict may speedily be stayed and order and quiet restored to the distracted island bringing in their train the activity and thrift of peaceful pursuits one notable instance of interference by spain with passing american ships has occurred on march 8 last the allianca while bound from colon to new york and following the customary track for vessels near the cuban shore but outside the limit was fired upon by a spanish gunboat protest was promptly made by the united states against this act as not being justified by a state of war nor permissible in respect of vessels on the usual paths of commerce nor tolerable in view of the wanton peril occasioned to innocent life and property the act was disavowed with full expression of regret and assurance of nonrecurrence of such just because of complaint while the offending officer was relieved of his command military arrests of citizens of the united states in cuba have occasioned frequent reclamations where held on criminal charges their delivery to the ordinary civil jurisdiction for trial has been demanded and obtained in conformity with treaty provisions and where merely detained by way of military precaution under a proclaimed state of siege without formulated accusation their release or trial has been insisted upon the right of american consular officers in the island to prefer protests and demands in such cases having been questioned by the insular authority their enjoyment of the privilege stipulated by treaty for the consuls of germany was claimed under the provision of our own convention and was promptly recognized the demand of antonio maximo mora against spain has at last been settled by the payment on the 14th of september last of the sum originally agreed upon in liquidation of the claim its distribution among the parties entitled to receive it has proceeded as rapidly as the rights of those claiming the fund could be safely determined the enforcement of differential duties against products of this country exported to cuba and puerto rico prompted the immediate claim on our part to the benefit of the minimum tariff of spain in return for the most favorable treatment permitted by our laws as regards the production of spanish territories a commercial arrangement was concluded in january last securing the treatment so claimed vigorous protests against excessive fines imposed on our ships and merchandise by the customs officers of these islands for trivial errors have resulted in the remission of such fines in instances where the equity of the complaint was apparent though the vexatious practice has not been wholly discontinued occurrences in turkey have continued to excite concern the reported massacres of christians in armenia and the development there and in other districts of a spirit of fanatic hostility to christian influences naturally excited apprehension for the safety of the devoted men and women who as dependents of the foreign missionary societies in the united states reside in turkey under the guaranty of law and usage and in the legitimate performance of their educational and religious mission no efforts have been spared in their behalf and their protection in person and property has been earnestly and vigorously enforced by every means within our power i regret however that an attempt on our part to obtain better information concerning the true condition of affairs in the disturbed quarter of the ottoman empire by sending thither the united states consul at sivas to make investigation and report was thwarted by the objections of the turkish government this movement on our part was in no sense meant as a gratuitous entanglement of the united states in the eastern question nor as an officious interference with the right and duty which belong by treaty to certain great european powers calling for their intervention in political matters affecting the good government and religious freedom of the subjects of the sultan but it arose solely from our desire to have an accurate knowledge of the conditions in our efforts to care for those entitled to our protection the presence of our naval vessels which are now in the vicinity of the disturbed localities affords opportunities to acquire a measure of familiarity with the condition of affairs and will enable us to take suitable steps for the protection of any interests of our countrymen within reach of our ships that might be found imperiled the ottoman government has lately issued an imperial irade exempting forever from taxation an american college for girls at scutari repeated assurances have also been obtained by our envoy at constantinople that similar institutions maintained and administered by our countrymen shall be secured in the enjoyment of all rights and that our citizens throughout the empire shall be protected the government however in view of existing facts is far from relying upon such assurances as the limit of its duty our minister has been vigilant and alert in affording all possible protection in individual cases where danger threatened or safety was imperiled we have sent ships as far toward the points of actual disturbance as it is possible for them to go where they offer refuge to those obliged to flee and we have the promise of other powers which have ships in the neighborhood that our citizens as well as theirs will be received and protected on board those ships on the demand of our minister orders have been issued by the sultan that turkish soldiers shall guard and escort to the coast american refugees these orders have been carried out and our latest intelligence gives assurance of the present personal safety of our citizens and missionaries though thus far no lives of american citizens have been sacrificed there can be no doubt that serious loss and destruction of mission property have resulted from riotous conflicts and outrageous attacks by treaty several of the most powerful european powers have secured a right and have assumed a duty not only in behalf of their own citizens and in furtherance of their own interests but as agents of the christian world their right is to enforce such conduct of turkish government as will restrain fanatical brutality and if this fails their duty is to so interfere as to insure against such dreadful occurrences in turkey as have lately shocked civilization the powers declare this right and this duty to be theirs alone and it is earnestly hoped that prompt and effective action on their part will not be delayed the new consulates at erzerum and harpoot for which appropriation was made last session have been provisionally filled by trusted employees of the department of state these appointees though now in turkey have not yet received their exequaturs the arbitration of the claim of the venezuela steam transportation company under the treaty of january 19 1892 between the united states and venezuela resulted in an award in favor of the claimant the government has used its good offices toward composing the differences between venezuela on the one hand and france and belgium on the other growing out of the dismissal of the representatives of those powers on the ground of a publication deemed offensive to venezuela although that dismissal was coupled with a cordial request that other more personally agreeable envoys be sent in their stead a rupture of intercourse ensued and still continues in view of the growth of our interests in foreign countries and the encouraging prospects for a general expansion of our commerce the question of an improvement in the consular service has increased in importance and urgency though there is no doubt that the great body of consular officers are rendering valuable services to the trade and industries of the country the need of some plan of appointment and control which would tend to secure a higher average of efficiency can not be denied the importance of the subject has led the executive to consider what steps might properly be taken without additional legislation to answer the need of a better system of consular appointments the matter having been committed to the consideration of the secretary of state in pursuance of his recommendations an executive order was issued on the 20th of september 1895 by the terms of which it is provided that after that date any vacancy in a consulate or commercial agency with an annual salary or compensation from official fees of not more than or less than should be filled either by transfer or promotion from some other position under the department of state of a character tending to qualify the incumbent for the position to be filled or by the appointment of a person not under the department of state but having previously served thereunder and shown his capacity and fitness for consular duty or by the appointment of a person who having been selected by the president and sent to a board for examination is found upon such examination to be qualified for the position posts which pay less than being usually on account of their small compensation filled by selection from residents of the locality it was not deemed practicable to put them under the new system the compensation of was adopted as the maximum limit in the classification for the reason that consular officers receiving more than that sum are often charged with functions and duties scarcely inferior in dignity and importance to those of diplomatic agents and it was therefore thought best to continue their selection in the discretion of the executive without subjecting them to examination before a board excluding 71 places with compensation at present less than and 53 places above the maximum in compensation the number of positions remaining within the scope of the order is 196 this number will undoubtedly be increased by the inclusion of consular officers whose remuneration in fees now less than will be augmented with the growth of our foreign commerce and a return to more favorable business conditions in execution of the executive order referred to the secretary of state has designated as a board to conduct the prescribed examinations the third assistant secretary of state the solicitor of the department of state and the chief of the consular bureau and has specified the subjects to which such examinations shall relate it is not assumed that this system will prove a full measure of consular reform it is quite probable that actual experience will show particulars in which the order already issued may be amended and demonstrate that for the best results appropriate legislation by congress is imperatively required in any event these efforts to improve the consular service ought to be immediately supplemented by legislation providing for consular inspection this has frequently been a subject of executive recommendation and i again urge such action by congress as will permit the frequent and thorough inspection of consulates by officers appointed for that purpose or by persons already in the diplomatic or consular service the expense attending such a plan would be insignificant compared with its usefulness and i hope the legislation necessary to set it on foot will be speedily forthcoming i am thoroughly convinced that in addition to their salaries our ambassadors and ministers at foreign courts should be provided by the government with official residences the salaries of these officers are comparatively small and in most cases insufficient to pay with other necessary expenses the cost of maintaining household establishments in keeping with their important and delicate functions the usefulness of a nation diplomatic representative undeniably depends much upon the appropriateness of his surroundings and a country like ours while avoiding unnecessary glitter and show should be certain that it does not suffer in its relations with foreign nations through parsimony and shabbiness in its diplomatic outfit these considerations and the other advantages of having fixed and somewhat permanent locations for our embassies would abundantly justify the moderate expenditure necessary to carry out this suggestion as we turn from a review of our foreign relations to the contemplation of our national financial situation we are immediately aware that we approach a subject of domestic concern more important than any other that can engage our attention and one at present in such a perplexing and delicate predicament as to require prompt and wise treatment we may well be encouraged to earnest effort in this direction when we recall the steps already taken toward improving our economic and financial situation and when we appreciate how well the way has been prepared for further progress by an aroused and intelligent popular interest in these subjects by command of the people a system designed for the protection and benefit of favored classes at the expense of the great mass of our countrymen and which while inefficient for the purpose of revenue curtailed our trade relations and impeded our entrance to the markets of the world has been superseded by a tariff policy which in principle is based upon a denial of the right of the government to obstruct the avenues to our people cheap living or lessen their comfort and contentment for the sake of according especial advantages to favorites and which while encouraging our intercourse and trade with other nations recognizes the fact that american thrift and ingenuity can build up our country industries and develop its resources more surely than enervating paternalism the compulsory purchase and coinage of silver by the government unchecked and unregulated by business conditions and heedless of our currency needs which for more than fifteen years diluted our circulating medium undermined confidence abroad in our financial ability and at last culminated in distress and panic at home has been recently stopped by the repeal of the laws which forced this reckless scheme upon the country the things thus accomplished notwithstanding their extreme importance and beneficent effects fall far short of curing the monetary evils from which we suffer as a result of long indulgence in financial expedients the currency denominated united states notes and commonly known as greenbacks was issued in large volume during the late civil war and was intended originally to meet the exigencies of that period it will be seen by a reference to the debates in congress at the time the laws were passed authorizing the issue of these notes that their advocates declared they were intended for only temporary use and to meet the emergency of war in almost if not all the laws relating to them some provision was made contemplating their voluntary or compulsory retirement a large quantity of them however were kept on foot and mingled with the currency of the country so that at the close of the year 1874 they amounted to immediately after that date and in january 1875 a law was passed providing for the resumption of specie payments by which the secretary of the treasury was required whenever additional circulation was issued to national banks to retire united states notes equal in amount to 80 per cent of such additional circulation until such notes were reduced to this law further provided that on and after the 1st day of january 1879 the united states notes then outstanding should be redeemed in coin and in order to provide and prepare for such redemption the secretary of the treasury was authorized not only to use any surplus revenues of the government but to issue bonds of the united states and dispose of them for coin and to use the proceeds for the purposes contemplated by the statute in may 1878 and before the date thus appointed for the redemption and retirement of these notes another statute was passed forbidding their further cancellation and retirement some of them had however been previously redeemed and canceled upon the issue of additional circulation as permitted by the law of 1875 so that the amount outstanding at the time of the passage of the act forbidding their further retirement was the law of 1878 did not stop at distinct prohibition but contained in addition the following express provision and when any of said notes may be redeemed or be received into the treasury under any law from any source whatever and shall belong to the united states they shall not be retired canceled or destroyed but they shall be reissued and paid out again and kept in circulation this was the condition of affairs on the 1st day of january 1879 which had been fixed upon four years before as the date for entering upon the redemption and retirement of all these notes and for which such abundant means had been provided the government was put in the anomalous situation of owing to the holders of its notes debts payable in gold on demand which could neither be retired by receiving such notes in discharge of obligations due the government nor canceled by actual payment in gold it was forced to redeem without redemption and to pay without acquittance there had been issued and sold of the bonds authorized by the resumption act of 1875 the proceeds of which together with other gold in the treasury created a gold fund deemed sufficient to meet the demands which might be made upon it for the redemption of the outstanding united states notes this fund together with such other gold as might be from time to time in the treasury available for the same purpose has been since called our gold reserve and has been regarded as an adequate amount to accomplish its object this fund amounted on the 1st day of january 1879 to and though thereafter constantly fluctuating it did not fall below that sum until july 1892 in april 1893 for the first time since its establishment this reserve amounted to less than containing at that date only in the meantime and in july 1890 an act had been passed directing larger governmental monthly purchases of silver than had been required under previous laws and providing that in payment for such silver treasury notes of the united states should be issued payable on demand in gold or silver coin at the discretion of the secretary of the treasury it was however declared in the act to be the established policy of the united states to maintain the two metals on a parity with each other upon the present legal ratio or such ratio as may be provided by law in view of this declaration it was not deemed permissible for the secretary of the treasury to exercise the discretion in terms conferred on him by refusing to pay gold on these notes when demanded because by such discrimination in favor of the gold dollar the parity of the two metals would be destroyed and grave and dangerous consequences would be precipitated by affirming or accentuating the constantly widening disparity between their actual values under the existing ratio it thus resulted that the treasury notes issued in payment of silver purchases under the law of 1890 were necessarily treated as gold obligations at the option of the holder these notes on the 1st day of november 1893 when the law compelling the monthly purchase of silver was repealed amounted to more than the notes of this description now outstanding added to the united states notes still undiminished by redemption or cancellation constitute a volume of gold obligations amounting to nearly these obligations are the instruments which ever since we had a gold reserve have been used to deplete it this reserve as has been stated had fallen in april 1893 to it has from that time to the present with very few and unimportant upward movements steadily decreased except as it has been temporarily replenished by the sale of bonds among the causes for this constant and uniform shrinkage in this fund may be mentioned the great falling off of exports under the operation of the tariff law until recently in force which crippled our exchange of commodities with foreign nations and necessitated to some extent the payment of our balances in gold the unnatural infusion of silver into our currency and the increasing agitation for its free and unlimited coinage which have created apprehension as to our disposition or ability to continue gold payments the consequent hoarding of gold at home and the stoppage of investments of foreign capital as well as the return of our securities already sold abroad and the high rate of foreign exchange which induced the shipment of our gold to be drawn against as a matter of speculation in consequence of these conditions the gold reserve on the 1st day of february 1894 was reduced to having lost more than during the preceding nine months or since april 1893 its replenishment being necessary and no other manner of accomplishing it being possible resort was had to the issue and sale of bonds provided for by the resumption act of 1875 fifty millions of these bonds were sold yielding which was added to the reserve fund of gold then on hand as a result of this operation this reserve which had suffered constant and large withdrawals in the meantime stood on the 6th day of march 1894 at the sum of its depletion was however immediately thereafter so accelerated that on the 30th day of june 1894 it had fallen to thus losing by withdrawals more than in five months and dropping slightly below its situation when the sale of in bonds was effected for its replenishment this depressed condition grew worse and on the 24th day of november 1894 our gold reserve being reduced to it became necessary to again strengthen it this was done by another sale of bonds amounting to from which there was realized with which the fund was increased to on the 4th day of december 1894 again disappointment awaited the anxious hope for relief there was not even a lull in the exasperating withdrawals of gold on the contrary they grew larger and more persistent than ever between the 4th day of december 1894 and early in february 1895 a period of scarcely more than two months after the second reenforcement of our gold reserve by the sale of bonds it had lost by such withdrawals more than and had fallen to nearly had been withdrawn within the month immediately preceding this situation in anticipation of impending trouble i had on the 28th day of january 1895 addressed a communication to the congress fully setting forth our difficulties and dangerous position and earnestly recommending that authority be given the secretary of the treasury to issue bonds bearing a low rate of interest payable by their terms in gold for the purpose of maintaining a sufficient gold reserve and also for the redemption and cancellation of outstanding united states notes and the treasury notes issued for the purchase of silver under the law of 1890 this recommendation did not however meet with legislative approval in february 1895 therefore the situation was exceedingly critical with a reserve perilously low and a refusal of congressional aid everything indicated that the end of gold payments by the government was imminent the results of prior bond issues had been exceedingly unsatisfactory and the large withdrawals of gold immediately succeeding their public sale in open market gave rise to a reasonable suspicion that a large part of the gold paid into the treasury upon such sales was promptly drawn out again by the presentation of united states notes or treasury notes and found its way to the hands of those who had only temporarily parted with it in the purchase of bonds in this emergency and in view of its surrounding perplexities it became entirely apparent to those upon whom the struggle for safety was devolved not only that our gold reserve must for the third time in less than thirteen months be restored by another issue and sale of bonds bearing a high rate of interest and badly suited to the purpose but that a plan must be adopted for their disposition promising better results than those realized on previous sales an agreement was therefore made with a number of financiers and bankers whereby it was stipulated that bonds described in the resumption act of 1875 payable in coin thirty years after their date bearing interest at the rate of 4 pet cent per annum and amounting to about should be exchanged for gold receivable by weight amounting to a little more than this gold was to be delivered in such installments as would complete its delivery within about six months from the date of the contract and at least of the amount was to be furnished from abroad it was also agreed by those supplying this gold that during the continuance of the contract they would by every means in their power protect the government against gold withdrawals the contract also provided that if congress would authorize their issue bonds payable by their terms in gold and bearing interest at the rate of 3 per cent per annum might within ten days be substituted at par for the 4 per cent bonds described in the agreement on the day this contract was made its terms were communicated to congress by a special executive message in which it was stated that more than would be saved to the government if gold bonds bearing 3 per cent interest were authorized to be substituted for those mentioned in the contract the congress having declined to grant the necessary authority to secure this saving the contract unmodified was carried out resulting in a gold reserve amounting to on the 8th day of july 1895 the performance of this contract not only restored the reserve but checked for a time the withdrawals of gold and brought on a period of restored confidence and such peace and quiet in business circles as were of the greatest possible value to every interest that affects our people i have never had the slightest misgiving concerning the wisdom or propriety of this arrangement and am quite willing to answer for my full share of responsibility for its promotion i believe it averted a disaster the imminence of which was fortunately not at the time generally understood by our people though the contract mentioned stayed for a time the tide of gold withdrawal its good results could not be permanent recent withdrawals have reduced the reserve from on the 8th day of july 1895 to how long it will remain large enough to render its increase unnecessary is only matter of conjecture though quite large withdrawals for shipment in the immediate future are predicted in quarters about has been withdrawn during the month of november the foregoing statement of events and conditions develops the fact that after increasing our bonded indebtedness more than to save our gold reserve we are nearly where we started having now in such reserve as against in february 1894 when the first bonds were issued though the amount of gold drawn from the treasury appears to be very large as gathered from the facts and figures herein presented it actually was much larger considerable sums having been acquired by the treasury within the several periods stated without the issue of bonds on the 28th of january 1895 it was reported by the secretary of the treasury that more than of gold had been withdrawn for hoarding or shipment during the year preceding he now reports that from january 1 1879 to july 14 1890 a period of more than eleven years only a little over was withdrawn and that between july 14 1890 the date of the passage of the law for an increased purchase of silver and the 1st day of december 1895 or within less than five and a half years there was withdrawn nearly making a total of more than drawn from the treasury in gold since january 1 1879 the date fixed in 1875 for the retirement of the united states notes nearly of the gold thus withdrawn has been paid out on these united states notes and yet every one of the is still uncanceled and ready to do service in future gold depletions more than in gold has since their creation in 1890 been paid out from the treasury upon the notes given on the purchase of silver by the government and yet the whole amounting to except a little more than which has been retired by exchanges for silver at the request of the holders remains outstanding and prepared to join their older and more experienced allies in future raids upon the treasury gold reserve in other words the government has paid in gold more than of its united states notes and still owes them all it has paid in gold about of its notes given for silver purchases without extinguishing by such payment one dollar of these notes when added to all this we are reminded that to carry on this astound lug financial scheme the government has incurred a bonded indebtedness of in establishing a gold reserve and of in efforts to maintain it that the annual interest charge on such bonded indebtedness is more than that a continuance of our present course may result in further bond issues and that we have suffered or are threatened with all this for the sake of supplying gold for foreign shipment or facilitating its hoarding at home a situation is exhibited which certainly ought to arrest attention and provoke immediate legislative relief i am convinced the only thorough and practicable remedy for our troubles is found in the retirement and cancellation of our united states notes commonly called greenbacks and the outstanding treasury notes issued by the government in payment of silver purchases under the act of 1890 i believe this could be quite readily accomplished by the exchange of these notes for united states bonds of small as well as large denominations bearing a low rate of interest they should be bonds thus increasing their desirability as investments and because their payment could be well postponed to a period far removed from present financial burdens and perplexities when with increased prosperity and resources they would be more easily met to further insure the cancellation of these notes and also provide a way by which gold may be added to our currency in lieu of them a feature in the plan should be an authority given to the secretary of the treasury to dispose of the bonds abroad for gold if necessary to complete the contemplated redemption and cancellation permitting him to use the proceeds of such bonds to take up and cancel any of the notes that may be in the treasury or that may be received by the government on any account the increase of our bonded debt involved in this plan would be amply compensated by renewed activity and enterprise in all business circles the restored confidence at home the reinstated faith in our monetary strength abroad and the stimulation of every interest and industry that would follow the cancellation of the obligations now afflicting us in any event the bonds proposed would stand for the extinguishment of a troublesome indebtedness while in the path we now follow there lurks the menace of unending bonds with our indebtedness still undischarged and aggravated in every feature the obligations necessary to fund this indebtedness would not equal in amount those from which we have been relieved since 1884 by anticipation and payment beyond the requirements of the sinking fund out of our surplus revenues the currency withdrawn by the retirement of the united states notes and treasury notes amounting to probably less than might be supplied by such gold as would be used on their retirement or by an increase in the circulation of our national banks though the aggregate capital of those now in existence amounts to more than their outstanding circulation based on bond security amounts to only about they are authorized to issue notes amounting to 90 per cent of the bonds deposited to secure their circulation but in no event beyond the amount of their capital stock and they are obliged to pay 1 per cent tax on the circulation they issue i think they should be allowed to issue circulation equal to the par value of the bonds they deposit to secure it and that the tax on their circulation should be reduced to of 1 per cent which would undoubtedly meet all the expense the government incurs on their account in addition they should be allowed to substitute or deposit in lieu of the bonds now required as security for their circulation those which would be issued for the purpose of retiring the united states notes and treasury notes the banks already existing if they desired to avail themselves of the provisions of law thus modified could issue circulation in addition to that already outstanding amounting to which would nearly or quite equal the currency proposed to be canceled at any rate i should confidently expect to see the existing national banks or others to be organized avail themselves of the proposed encouragements to issue circulation and promptly fill any vacuum and supply every currency need it has always seemed to me that the provisions of law regarding the capital of national banks which operate as a limitation to their location fail to make proper compensation for the suppression of state banks which came near to the people in all sections of the country and readily furnished them with banking accommodations and facilities any inconvenience or embarrassment arising from these restrictions on the location of national banks might well be remedied by better adapting the present system to the creation of banks in smaller communities or by permitting banks of large capital to establish branches in such localities as would serve the people so regulated and restrained as to secure their safe and conservative control and management but there might not be the necessity for such an addition to the currency by new issues of bank circulation as at first glance is indicated if we should be relieved from maintaining a gold reserve under conditions that constitute it the barometer of our solvency and if our treasury should no longer be the foolish purveyor of gold for nations abroad or for speculation and hoarding by our citizens at home i should expect to see gold resume its natural and normal functions in the business affairs of the country and cease to be an object attracting the timid watch of our people and exciting their sensitive imaginations i do not overlook the fact that the cancellation of the treasury notes issued under the act of 1890 would leave the treasury in the actual ownership of sufficient silver including seigniorage to coin nearly in standard dollars it is worthy of consideration whether this might not from time to time be converted into dollars or fractional coin and slowly put into circulation as in the judgment of the secretary of the treasury the necessities of the country should require whatever is attempted should be entered upon fully appreciating the fact that by careless easy descent we have reached a dangerous depth and that our ascent will not be accomplished without laborious toil and struggle we shall be wise if we realize that we are financially ill and that our restoration to health may require heroic treatment and unpleasant remedies in the present stage of our difficulty it is not easy to understand how the amount of our revenue receipts directly affects it the important question is not the quantity of money received in revenue payments but the kind of money we maintain and our ability to continue in sound financial condition we are considering the government holdings of gold as related to the soundness of our money and as affecting our national credit and monetary strength if our gold reserve had never been impaired if no bonds had ever been issued to replenish it if there had been no fear and timidity concerning our ability to continue gold payments if any part of our revenues were now paid in gold and if we could look to our gold receipts as a means of maintaining a safe reserve the amount of our revenues would be an influential factor in the problem but unfortunately all the circumstances that might lend weight to this consideration are entirely lacking in our present predicament no gold is received by the government in payment of revenue charges nor would there be if the revenues were increased the receipts of the treasury when not in silver certificates consist of united states notes and treasury notes issued for silver purchases these forms of money are only useful to the government in paying its current ordinary expenses and its quantity in government possession does not in the least contribute toward giving us that kind of safe financial standing or condition which is built on gold alone if it is said that these notes if held by the government can be used to obtain gold for our reserve the answer is easy the people draw gold from the treasury on demand upon united states notes and treasury notes but the proposition that the treasury can on demand draw gold from the people upon them would be regarded in these days with wonder and amusement and even if this could be done there is nothing to prevent those thus parting with their gold from regaining it the next day or the next hour by the presentation of the notes they received in exchange for it the secretary of the treasury might use such notes taken from a surplus revenue to buy gold in the market of course he could not do this without paying a premium private holders of gold unlike the government having no parity to maintain would not be restrained from making the best bargain possible when they furnished gold to the treasury but the moment the secretary of the treasury bought gold on any terms above par he would establish a general and universal premium upon it thus breaking down the parity between gold and silver which the government is pledged to maintain and opening the way to new and serious complications in the meantime the premium would not remain stationary and the absurd spectacle might be presented of a dealer selling gold to the government and with united states notes or treasury notes in his hand immediately clamoring for its return and a resale at a higher premium it may be claimed that a large revenue and redundant receipts might favorably affect the situation under discussion by affording an opportunity of retaining these notes in the treasury when received and thus preventing their presentation for gold such retention to be useful ought to be at least measurably permanent and this is precisely what is prohibited so far as united states notes are concerned by the law of 1878 forbidding their further retirement that statute in so many words provides that these notes when received into the treasury and belonging to the united states shall be paid out again and kept in circulation it will moreover be readily seen that the government could not refuse to pay out united states notes and treasury notes in current transactions when demanded and insist on paying out silver alone and still maintain the parity between that metal and the currency representing gold besides the accumulation in the treasury of currency of any kind exacted from the people through taxation is justly regarded as an evil and it can not proceed far without vigorous protest against an unjustifiable retention of money from the business of the country and a denunciation of a scheme of taxation which proves itself to be unjust when it takes from the earnings and income of the citizen money so much in excess of the needs of government support that large sums can be gathered and kept in the treasury such a condition has heretofore in times of surplus revenue led the government to restore currency to the people by the purchase of its unmatured bonds at a large premium and by a large increase of its deposits in national banks and we easily remember that the abuse of treasury accumulation has furnished a most persuasive argument in favor of legislation radically reducing our tariff taxation perhaps it is supposed that sufficient revenue receipts would in a sentimental way improve the situation by inspiring confidence in our solvency and allaying the fear of pecuniary exhaustion and yet through all our struggles to maintain our gold reserve there never has been any apprehension as to our ready ability to pay our way with such money as we had and the question whether or not our current receipts met our current expenses has not entered into the estimate of our solvency of course the general state of our funds exclusive of gold was entirely immaterial to the foreign creditor and investor his debt could only be paid in gold and his only concern was our ability to keep on hand that kind of money on july 1 1892 more than a year and a half before the first bonds were issued to replenish the gold reserve there was a net balance in the treasury exclusive of such reserve of less than but the gold reserve amounted to more than which was the quieting feature of the situation it was when the stock of gold began rapidly to fall that fright supervened and our securities held abroad were returned for sale and debts owed abroad were pressed for payment in the meantime extensive shipments of gold and other unfavorable indications caused restlessness and fright among our people at home thereupon the general state of our funds exclusive of gold became also immaterial to them and they too drew gold from the treasury for hoarding against all contingencies this is plainly shown by the large increase in the proportion of gold withdrawn which was retained by our own people as time and threatening incidents progressed during the fiscal year ending june 30 1894 nearly in gold was withdrawn from the treasury and about was sent abroad while during the fiscal year ending june 30 1895 over was drawn out of which only about was shipped leaving the large balance of such withdrawals to be accounted for by domestic hoarding inasmuch as the withdrawal of our gold has resulted largely from fright there is nothing apparent that will prevent its continuance or recurrence with its natural consequences except such a change in our financial methods as will reassure the frightened and make the desire for gold less intense it is not clear how an increase fix revenue unless it be in gold can satisfy those whose only anxiety is to gain gold from the government store it can not therefore be safe to rely upon increased revenues as a cure for our present troubles it is possible that the suggestion of increased revenue as a remedy for the difficulties we are considering may have originated in an intimation or distinct allegation that the bonds which have been issued ostensibly to replenish our gold reserve were really issued to supply insufficient revenue nothing can be further from the truth bonds were issued to obtain gold for the maintenance of our national credit as has been shown the gold thus obtained has been drawn again from the treasury upon united states notes and treasury notes this operation would have been promptly prevented if possible but these notes having thus been passed to the treasury they became the money of the government like any other ordinary government funds and there was nothing to do but to use them in paying government expenses when needed at no time when bonds have been issued has there been any consideration of the question of paying the expenses of government with their proceeds there was no necessity to consider that question at the time of each bond issue we had a safe surplus in the treasury for ordinary operations exclusive of the gold in our reserve in february 1894 when the first issue of bonds was made such surplus amounted to over in november when the second issue was made it amounted to more than and in february 1895 when bonds for the third time were issued such surplus amounted to more than it now amounts to besides all this the secretary of the treasury had no authority whatever to issue bonds to increase the ordinary revenues or pay current expenses i can not but think there has been some confusion of ideas regarding the effects of the issue of bonds and the results of the withdrawal of gold it was the latter process and not the former that by substituting in the treasury united states notes and treasury notes for gold increased by their amount the money which was in the first instance subject to ordinary government expenditure although the law compelling an increased purchase of silver by the government was passed on the 14th day of july 1890 withdrawals of gold from the treasury upon the notes given in payment on such purchases did not begin until october 1891 immediately following that date the withdrawals upon both these notes and united states notes increased very largely and have continued to such an extent that since the passage of that law there has been more than thirteen times as much gold taken out of the treasury upon united states notes and treasury notes issued for silver purchases as was thus withdrawn during the eleven and a half years immediately prior thereto and after the 1st day of january 1879 when specie payments were resumed it is neither unfair nor unjust to charge a large share of our present financial perplexities and dangers to the operation of the laws of 1878 and 1890 compelling the purchase of silver by the government which not only furnished a new treasury obligation upon which its gold could be withdrawn but so increased the fear of an overwhelming flood of silver and a forced descent to silver payments that even the repeal of these laws did not entirely cure the evils of their existence while i have endeavored to make a plain statement of the disordered condition of our currency and the present dangers menacing our prosperity and to suggest a way which leads to a safer financial system i have constantly had in mind the fact that many of my countrymen whose sincerity i do not doubt insist that the cure for the ills now threatening us may be found in the single and simple remedy of the free coinage of silver they contend that our mints shall be at once thrown open to the free unlimited and independent coinage of both gold and silver dollars of full quality regardless of the action of any other government and in full view of the fact that the ratio between the metals which they suggest calls for 100 cents worth of gold in the gold dollar at the present standard and only 50 cents in intrinsic worth of silver in the silver dollar were there infinitely stronger reasons than can be adduced for hoping that such action would secure for us a bimetallic currency moving on lines of parity an experiment so novel and hazardous as that proposed might well stagger those who believe that stability is an imperative condition of sound money no government no human contrivance or act of legislation has ever been able to hold the two metals together in free coinage at a ratio appreciably different from that which is established in the markets of the world those who believe that our independent free coinage of silver at an artificial ratio with gold of 16 to 1 would restore the parity between the metals and consequently between the coins oppose an unsupported and improbable theory to the general belief and practice of other nations and to the teaching of the wisest statesmen and economists of the world both in the past and present and what is far more conclusive they run counter to our own actual experiences twice in our earlier history our lawmakers in attempting to establish a bimetallic currency undertook free coinage upon a ratio which accidentally varied from the actual relative values of the two metals not more than 3 per cent in both cases notwithstanding greater difficulties and cost of transportation than now exist the coins whose intrinsic worth was undervalued in the ratio gradually and surely disappeared from our circulation and went to other countries where their real value was better recognized acts of congress were impotent to create equality where natural causes decreed even a slight inequality twice in our recent history we have signally failed to raise by legislation the value of silver under an act of congress passed in 1878 the government was required for more than twelve years to expend annually at least in the purchase of silver bullion for coinage the act of july 14 1890 in a still bolder effort increased the amount of silver the government was compelled to purchase and forced it to become the buyer annually of ounces or practically the entire product of our mines under both laws silver rapidly and steadily declined in value the prophecy and the expressed hope and expectation of those in the congress who led in the passage of the act that it would reestablish and maintain the former parity between the two metals are still fresh in our memory in the light of these experiences which accord with the experiences of other nations there is certainly no secure ground for the belief that an act of congress could now bridge an inequality of 50 per cent between gold and silver at our present ratio nor is there the least possibility that our country which has less than of the silver money in the world could by its action alone raise not only our own but all silver to its lost ratio with gold our attempt to accomplish this by the free coinage of silver at a ratio differing widely from actual relative values would be the signal for the complete departure of gold from our circulation the immediate and large contraction of our circulating medium and a shrinkage in the real value and monetary efficiency of all other forms of currency as they settled to the level of silver monometallism everyone who receives a fixed salary and every worker for wages would find the dollar in his hand ruthlessly scaled down to the point of bitter disappointment if not to pinching privation a change in our standard to silver monometallism would also bring on a collapse of the entire system of credit which when based on a standard which is recognized and adopted by the world of business is many times more potent and useful than the entire volume of currency and is safely capable of almost indefinite expansion to meet the growth of trade and enterprise in a struggle through darkness and uncertainty our humiliation would be increased by the consciousness that we had parted company with all the enlightened and progressive nations of the world and were desperately and hopelessly striving to meet the stress of modern commerce and competition with a debased and unsuitable currency and in association with the few weak and laggard nations which have silver alone as their standard of value all history warns us against rash experiments which threaten violent changes in our monetary standard and the degradation of our currency the past is full of lessons teaching not only the economic dangers but the national immorality that follow in the train of such experiments i will not believe that the american people can be persuaded after sober deliberation to jeopardize their nation prestige and proud standing by encouraging financial nostrums nor that they will yield to the false allurements of cheap money when they realize that it must result in the weakening of that financial integrity and rectitude which thus far in our history has been so devotedly cherished as one of the traits of true americanism our country indebtedness whether owing by the government or existing between individuals has been contracted with reference to our present standard to decree by act of congress that these debts shall be payable in less valuable dollars than those within the contemplation and intention of the parties when contracted would operate to transfer by the fiat of law and without compensation an amount of property and a volume of rights and interests almost incalculable those who advocate a blind and headlong plunge to free coinage in the name of bimetallism and professing the belief contrary to all experience that we could thus establish a double standard and a concurrent circulation of both metals in our coinage are certainly reckoning from a cloudy standpoint our present standard of value is the standard of the civilized world and permits the only bimetallism now possible or at least that is within the independent reach of any single nation however powerful that nation may be while the value of gold as a standard is steadied by almost universal commercial and business use it does not despise silver nor seek its banishment wherever this standard is maintained there is at its side in free and unquestioned circulation a volume of silver currency sometimes equaling and sometimes even exceeding it in amount both maintained at a parity notwithstanding a depreciation or fluctuation in the intrinsic value of silver there is a vast difference between a standard of value and a currency for monetary use the standard must necessarily be fixed and certain the currency may be in divers forms and of various kinds no country has a gold currency in circulation but an enlightened and wise system of finance secures the benefits of both gold and silver as currency and circulating medium by keeping the standard stable and all other currency at par with it such a system and such a standard also give free scope for the use and expansion of safe and conservative credit so indispensable to broad and growing commercial transactions and so well substituted for the actual use of money if a fixed and stable standard is maintained such as the magnitude and safety of our commercial transactions and business require the use of money itself is conveniently minimized every dollar of fixed and stable value has through the agency of confident credit an astonishing capacity of multiplying itself in financial work every unstable and fluctuating dollar fails as a basis of credit and in its use begets gambling speculation and undermines the foundations of honest enterprise i have ventured to express myself on this subject with earnestness and plainness of speech because i can not rid myself of the belief that there lurk in the proposition for the free coinage of silver so strongly approved and so enthusiastically advocated by a multitude of my countrymen a serious menace to our prosperity and an insidious temptation of our people to wander from the allegiance they owe to public and private integrity it is because i do not distrust the good faith and sincerity of those who press this scheme that i have imperfectly but with zeal submitted my thoughts upon this momentous subject i can not refrain from begging them to reexamine their views and beliefs in the light of patriotic reason and familiar experience and to weigh again and again the consequences of such legislation as their efforts have invited even the continued agitation of the subject adds greatly to the difficulties of a dangerous financial situation already forced upon us in conclusion i especially entreat the people representatives in the congress who are charged with the responsibility of inaugurating measures for the safety and prosperity of our common country to promptly and effectively consider the ills of our critical financial plight i have suggested a remedy which my judgment approves i desire however to assure the congress that i am prepared to cooperate with them in perfecting any other measure promising thorough and practical relief and that i will gladly labor with them in every patriotic endeavor to further the interests and guard the welfare of our countrymen whom in our respective places of duty we have undertaken to serve
present assemblage legislative branch government occurs time interests people needs country give especial prominence condition foreign relations exigencies national finances reports heads several administrative departments government fully plainly exhibit accomplished within scope respective duties present recommendations betterment country condition patriotic intelligent labor observation suggest therefore deem executive duty adequately performed time presenting congress important phases situation related intercourse foreign nations statement financial problems confront us omitting except related topics reference departmental operations earnestly invite however careful consideration severely critical scrutiny congress reports concerning departmental operations justly fairly examined furnish proof assiduous painstaking care public welfare press recommendations contain upon respectful attention charged duty legislation believe adoption would promote people good amendatory tariff legislation january last argentine republic recognizing value large market opened free importation wools last tariff act admitted certain products united states entry reduced duties pleasing note efforts made enlarge exchanges trade sound basis mutual benefit instance appreciated country woolen factories draw needful supply raw material missions boundary dispute argentine republic brazil referred president united states arbitrator term predecessor submitted determination resulted award favor brazil upon historical documentary evidence presented thus ending controversy demonstrating wisdom desirability settling international boundary disputes recourse friendly arbitration negotiations progressing revival united states chilean claims commission whose work abruptly terminated last year expiration stipulated time within awards could made resumption specie payments chile step great interest importance direct consequences upon welfare evincing ascendency sound financial principles one influential south american republics close momentous struggle china japan relieving diplomatic agents government delicate duty undertook request countries rendering service subjects either belligerent within territorial limits neutral position permitted developed domestic condition chinese empire caused much anxiety called prompt careful attention either result weak control central government provincial administrations following diminution traditional governmental authority stress overwhelming national disaster manifestation upon good opportunity aversion chinese population foreign ways undertakings occurred widely separated provinces china serious outbreaks old fanatical spirit foreigners unchecked local authorities actually connived culminated mob attacks foreign missionary stations causing much destruction property attended personal injuries well loss life although one american citizen reported actually wounded although destruction property may fallen heavily upon missionaries nationalities plainly behooved government take prompt decided action guard similar perhaps dreadful calamities befalling hundreds american mission stations grown throughout interior china temperate rule toleration custom imperial edict demands united states powers degradation punishment responsible officials respective cities provinces neglect otherwise permitted uprisings adoption stern measures emperor government protection life property foreigners followed disgrace dismissal certain provincial officials found derelict duty punishment death number adjudged guilty actual participation outrages government also insisted special american commission visit province first disturbances occurred purpose investigation latter commission formed much opposition gone overland tientsin accompanied suitable chinese escort demonstration readiness ability government protect citizens act believed influential deterrent similar outbreaks energetic steps thus taken likely result future safety citizens china imperial government persuaded entirely convinced desire liberty protection citizens redress wrongs may suffered ulterior designs objects political otherwise china forget either kindly service citizens late war fact furnishing facilities command negotiation peace japan sought advantages interposed counsel governments china japan special dispatches transmitted respective diplomatic representatives expressed pleasing manner grateful appreciation assistance citizens unhappy struggle value aid paving way resumption peaceful relations customary cordial relations country france undisturbed exception full explanation treatment john waller expeditionary military authorities france still remains given waller formerly united states consul tamatav remained madagascar term office expired apparently successful procuring business concessions hovas greater less value occupation tamatav declaration martial law french arrested upon various charges among communicating military information enemies france tried convicted military tribunal sentenced twenty years imprisonment following course justified abundant precedents government requested france record proceedings french tribunal resulted waller condemnation request complied extent supplying copy official record appear constitution organization court charges formulated general course result trial shown accused tried open court defended counsel evidence adduced support charges received french minister foreign affairs till first week october thus far withheld french government taking ground production response demand would establish bad precedent efforts ambassador procure however though impeded recent changes french ministry relaxed confidently expected satisfactory solution matter shortly reached meanwhile appears waller confinement every alleviation state health circumstances case demand permit agreeable contrast difference noted respecting matter common concern nothing sought except mutually satisfactory outcome true merits case require recent resolution french chambers favoring conclusion permanent treaty arbitration two countries invitation extended france government people united states participate great international exposition paris 1900 suitable commemoration close world marvelous century progress heartily recommend acceptance together legislation adequately provide due representation government people occasion relations states german empire aspects typical condition things elsewhere found countries whose productions trade similar close rivalries competing industries influence delusive doctrine internal development nation promoted wealth increased policy undertaking reserve home markets exclusive use producers necessarily obstructs sales foreign markets prevents free access products world desire retain trade ruts regardless inexorable laws new needs changed conditions demand supply halting tardiness inviting freer exchange commodities means imperiling footing external markets naturally open us created situation somewhat injurious american export interests germany perhaps noticeable adjacent countries exports affected largely american cattle food products reason assigned unfavorable discrimination consumption deleterious public health irritating view fact european state jealous excellence wholesomeness exported food supplies united states easily able account inherent soundness guarantee qualities difficulties confined food products designed exportation great insurance companies example built vast business abroad invested large share gains foreign countries compliance local laws regulations existing find within narrowing circle onerous unforeseen conditions confronted necessity retirement field thus made unprofitable indeed summarily expelled lately prussia forgotten international trade currents alternating movements honestly reciprocal without almost necessarily degenerates device gain advantage contrivance secure benefits semblance return dealings nations ought scrupulously fair policy producing nation plainly becomes us people love generosity moral aspects national good faith reciprocal forbearance considerations however constrain us submit unfair discrimination silently acquiesce vexatious hindrances enjoyment share legitimate advantages proper trade relations examination situation suggests measures part would involve restrictions similar suffer way course easy however means lightly entered upon since necessity inauguration policy would regretted best sentiment people naturally logically might lead consequences gravest character take pleasure calling attention encomiums bestowed vessels new navy took part notable ceremony opening kiel canal fitting extraordinary achievement newer german nationality celebrated presence america exposition latest developments world naval energy relations great britain always intimate important demanded past year even greater share consideration usual several vexatious questions left undetermined decision bering sea arbitration tribunal application principles laid august body followed results intended accomplish either principles lacked breadth definiteness execution less imperfect much correspondence exchanged two governments subject preventing exterminating slaughter seals insufficiency british patrol bering sea regulations agreed two governments pointed yet two british ships police duty season waters need effective enforcement existing regulations well adoption additional regulations experience shown absolutely necessary carry intent award earnestly urged upon british government thus far without effective results meantime depletion seal herds means pelagic hunting alarmingly progressed unless slaughter effectively checked extinction within years seems matter absolute certainty understanding united states pay great britain receive lump sum full settlement british claims damages arising seizure british sealing vessels unauthorized award paris tribunal arbitration confirmed last congress declined make necessary appropriation still opinion arrangement judicious advantageous one government earnestly recommend considered sanctioned however meet favor congress certainly hardly dissent proposition government bound every consideration honor good faith provide speedy adjustment claims arbitration alternative treaty arbitration therefore agreed upon immediately laid senate one modes suggested final settlement may reached notwithstanding great britain originated proposal enforce international rules prevention collisions sea based recommendations maritime conference washington concurred suggesting march 11 1895 date set proclamation carrying rules general effect majesty government encountered opposition part british shipping interests announced inability accept date consequently canceled entire matter still abeyance without prospect better condition near future commissioners appointed mark international boundary passamaquoddy bay according description treaty ghent yet fully agreed completion preliminary survey alaskan boundary follows contour coast southernmost point prince wales island strikes one hundred meridian near summit mount elias awaits necessary appropriation urgently recommended survey undertaken provisions convention entered country great britain july 22 1892 supplementary convention february 3 1894 remaining section alaskan boundary follows one hundred meridian northwardly mount elias frozen ocean settlement involves physical location meridian mentioned conventional agreement yet made ascertainment given meridian particular point work requiring much time careful observations surveys observations surveys undertaken united states coast geodetic survey 1890 1891 similar work quarters british auspices believed give nearly coincident results surveys independently conducted international agreement mark parts one hundred meridian permanent monuments yet made meantime valley yukon becoming highway hitherto unexplored wilds alaska abundant mineral wealth discovered region especially near junction boundary meridian yukon tributaries circumstances expedient indeed imperative jurisdictional limits respective governments new region speedily determined britannic majesty government proposed joint delimitation one hundred meridian international commission experts congress authorize make due provision therefor accomplished unreasonable delay impossible overlook vital importance continuing work already entered upon supplementing effective measures looking exact location entire boundary line call attention unsatisfactory delimitation respective jurisdictions united states dominion canada great lakes approaches narrow waters connect waters question frequented fishermen nationalities nets used owing uncertainty ignorance true boundary vexations disputes injurious seizures boats nets canadian cruisers often occur positive settlement thereof accepted standard easily reached joint commission determine line quarters practical basis measured courses following range marks shore necessity immediate provision made apparent boundary dispute great britain republic venezuela concerning limits british guiana approaching acute stage definite statement interest policy united states regards controversy seemed required account view relations friendly powers directly concerned july last therefore dispatch addressed ambassador london communication british government attitude united states fully distinctly set forth general conclusions therein reached formulated substance traditional established policy government firmly opposed forcible increase european power territorial possessions continent policy well rounded principle strongly supported numerous precedents consequence united states bound protest enlargement area british guiana derogation rights venezuela considering disparity strength great britain venezuela territorial dispute reasonably settled friendly impartial arbitration resort arbitration include whole controversy satisfied one powers concerned permitted draw arbitrary line territory debate declare submit arbitration portion lying one side view conclusions dispatch question called upon british government definite answer question whether would would submit territorial controversy venezuela entirety impartial arbitration answer british government yet received expected shortly communication subject probably made congress early january last uprising government hawaii promptly suppressed martial law forthwith proclaimed numerous arrests made persons suspected sympathy royalist party among several citizens united states either convicted military court sentenced death imprisonment fine deported without trial united states denying protection taken hawaiian oath allegiance insisted martial law though altering forms justice could supersede justice demanded stay execution proceedings submitted government knowledge obtained therefrom citizens received fair trial death sentences subsequently commuted remitted condition leaving islands cases certain americans arrested expelled arbitrary order without formal charge trial attention instances found justify remonstrance claim indemnity hawaii thus far conceded thurston hawaiian minister furnished government abundant reason asking recalled course pursued successor lately received deplorable lynching several italian laborers colorado naturally followed international representations happy say best efforts state outrages occurred put forth discover punish authors atrocious crime dependent families unfortunate victims invite deplorable condition gracious provision needs manifestations helpless aliens may traced successive stages vicious padroni system unchecked immigration statutes controls workers moment landing shores farms distant often rude regions cheapening competition fields toil brings collision labor interests welcoming seek shores merge body politic win personal competence honest effort regard assemblages distinctively alien laborers hired mass profit alien speculators shipped hither thither prospect gain may dictate otherwise repugnant spirit civilization deterrent individual advancement hindrances building stable communities resting upon wholesome ambitions citizen constituting prime factor prosperity progress nation legislation reach growing evil certainly attempted japan furnished abundant evidence vast gain every trait characteristic constitutes nation greatness reason congratulation fact government united states exchange liberal treaty stipulations new japan first recognize wonderful advance extend consideration confidence due national enlightenment progressive character boundary dispute lately threatened embroil guatemala mexico happily yielded pacific counsels determination joint agreement parties submitted sole arbitration united states minister mexico commission appointed convention february 18 1889 set new monuments along boundary united states mexico completed task sequel failure scheme colonization mexico negroes mostly immigrants alabama contract great number helpless suffering people starving smitten contagious disease made way assisted frontier wretched plight quarantined texas authorities learning destitute condition directed rations temporarily furnished war department expiration quarantine conveyed railway companies comparatively nominal rates homes alabama upon assurance absence fund available cost transportation would recommend congress appropriation payment strongly urge upon congress propriety making appropriation remembered measures taken dictated sympathy humanity conviction compatible dignity government large body dependent citizens thrown relief upon charity neighboring state last year message narrated length jurisdictional questions freshly arisen mosquito indian strip nicaragua since time voluntary act mosquito nation territory reserved incorporated nicaragua indians formally subjecting governed general laws regulations republic instead customs regulations thus availing privilege secured treaty nicaragua great britain january 28 1860 extension uniform nicaraguan administration mosquito strip case british hatch several countrymen summarily expelled nicaragua treated considerable indignity provoked claim great britain upon nicaragua pecuniary indemnity upon nicaragua refusal admit liability enforced great britain sovereignty jurisdiction nicaragua way questioned great britain former arbitrary conduct regard british subjects furnished ground proceeding british naval force occupied without resistance pacific seaport corinto soon withdrawn upon promise sum demanded would paid throughout incident kindly offices united states invoked employed favor peaceful settlement much consideration indulgence toward nicaragua consistent nature case efforts since made subject appreciative grateful recognition nicaragua coronation czar russia moscow may next invites ceremonial participation united states accordance usage diplomatic propriety minister imperial court directed represent government occasion correspondence foot touching practice russian consuls within jurisdiction united states interrogate citizens race religious faith upon ascertainment thereof deny jews authentication passports legal documents use russia inasmuch proceeding imposes disability case succession property russia may found infringe treaty rights citizens obnoxious invasion territorial jurisdiction elicited fitting remonstrance result hoped remove complaint pending claims sealing vessels united states seized russian waters remain unadjusted recent convention russia establishing modus vivendi imperial jurisdiction cases prevented difficulty nature russian government welcomed principle suggestion modus vivendi embrace great britain japan looking better preservation seal life north pacific bering sea extension protected area defined paris tribunal pacific waters north parallel especially noticeable russia favors prohibition use firearms seal hunting throughout proposed area longer closed season pelagic sealing last two annual messages called attention congress position occupied one parties treaty agreement became jointly bound england germany interfere government control samoa effect assume management affairs 9th day may 1894 transmitted senate special message accompanying documents giving information subject emphasizing opinion times entertained situation matter inconsistent mission traditions government violation principles profess phases mischievous vexatious press subject upon attention congress ask legislative action expression lead way relief obligations irksome unnatural cuba gravely disturbed insurrection respects active last preceding revolt continued 1868 1878 exists large part eastern interior island menacing even populations coast besides deranging commercial exchanges island country takes predominant share flagrant condition hostilities arousing sentimental sympathy inciting adventurous support among people entailed earnest effort part government enforce obedience neutrality laws prevent territory united states abused vantage ground aid arms spanish sovereignty whatever may traditional sympathy countrymen individuals people seem struggling larger autonomy greater freedom deepened sympathy naturally must behalf neighbors yet plain duty government observe good faith recognized obligations international relationship performance duty made difficult disregard part citizens obligations growing allegiance country restrain violating individuals neutrality nation members bound observe relations friendly sovereign states though neither warmth people sympathy cuban insurgents loss material damage consequent upon futile endeavors thus far made restore peace order shock humane sensibilities may received cruelties appear especially characterize sanguinary fiercely conducted war least shaken determination government honestly fulfill every international obligation yet earnestly hoped every ground devastation armed conflict may speedily stayed order quiet restored distracted island bringing train activity thrift peaceful pursuits one notable instance interference spain passing american ships occurred march 8 last allianca bound colon new york following customary track vessels near cuban shore outside limit fired upon spanish gunboat protest promptly made united states act justified state war permissible respect vessels usual paths commerce tolerable view wanton peril occasioned innocent life property act disavowed full expression regret assurance nonrecurrence complaint offending officer relieved command military arrests citizens united states cuba occasioned frequent reclamations held criminal charges delivery ordinary civil jurisdiction trial demanded obtained conformity treaty provisions merely detained way military precaution proclaimed state siege without formulated accusation release trial insisted upon right american consular officers island prefer protests demands cases questioned insular authority enjoyment privilege stipulated treaty consuls germany claimed provision convention promptly recognized demand antonio maximo mora spain last settled payment 14th september last sum originally agreed upon liquidation claim distribution among parties entitled receive proceeded rapidly rights claiming fund could safely determined enforcement differential duties products country exported cuba puerto rico prompted immediate claim part benefit minimum tariff spain return favorable treatment permitted laws regards production spanish territories commercial arrangement concluded january last securing treatment claimed vigorous protests excessive fines imposed ships merchandise customs officers islands trivial errors resulted remission fines instances equity complaint apparent though vexatious practice wholly discontinued occurrences turkey continued excite concern reported massacres christians armenia development districts spirit fanatic hostility christian influences naturally excited apprehension safety devoted men women dependents foreign missionary societies united states reside turkey guaranty law usage legitimate performance educational religious mission efforts spared behalf protection person property earnestly vigorously enforced every means within power regret however attempt part obtain better information concerning true condition affairs disturbed quarter ottoman empire sending thither united states consul sivas make investigation report thwarted objections turkish government movement part sense meant gratuitous entanglement united states eastern question officious interference right duty belong treaty certain great european powers calling intervention political matters affecting good government religious freedom subjects sultan arose solely desire accurate knowledge conditions efforts care entitled protection presence naval vessels vicinity disturbed localities affords opportunities acquire measure familiarity condition affairs enable us take suitable steps protection interests countrymen within reach ships might found imperiled ottoman government lately issued imperial irade exempting forever taxation american college girls scutari repeated assurances also obtained envoy constantinople similar institutions maintained administered countrymen shall secured enjoyment rights citizens throughout empire shall protected government however view existing facts far relying upon assurances limit duty minister vigilant alert affording possible protection individual cases danger threatened safety imperiled sent ships far toward points actual disturbance possible go offer refuge obliged flee promise powers ships neighborhood citizens well received protected board ships demand minister orders issued sultan turkish soldiers shall guard escort coast american refugees orders carried latest intelligence gives assurance present personal safety citizens missionaries though thus far lives american citizens sacrificed doubt serious loss destruction mission property resulted riotous conflicts outrageous attacks treaty several powerful european powers secured right assumed duty behalf citizens furtherance interests agents christian world right enforce conduct turkish government restrain fanatical brutality fails duty interfere insure dreadful occurrences turkey lately shocked civilization powers declare right duty alone earnestly hoped prompt effective action part delayed new consulates erzerum harpoot appropriation made last session provisionally filled trusted employees department state appointees though turkey yet received exequaturs arbitration claim venezuela steam transportation company treaty january 19 1892 united states venezuela resulted award favor claimant government used good offices toward composing differences venezuela one hand france belgium growing dismissal representatives powers ground publication deemed offensive venezuela although dismissal coupled cordial request personally agreeable envoys sent stead rupture intercourse ensued still continues view growth interests foreign countries encouraging prospects general expansion commerce question improvement consular service increased importance urgency though doubt great body consular officers rendering valuable services trade industries country need plan appointment control would tend secure higher average efficiency denied importance subject led executive consider steps might properly taken without additional legislation answer need better system consular appointments matter committed consideration secretary state pursuance recommendations executive order issued 20th september 1895 terms provided date vacancy consulate commercial agency annual salary compensation official fees less filled either transfer promotion position department state character tending qualify incumbent position filled appointment person department state previously served thereunder shown capacity fitness consular duty appointment person selected president sent board examination found upon examination qualified position posts pay less usually account small compensation filled selection residents locality deemed practicable put new system compensation adopted maximum limit classification reason consular officers receiving sum often charged functions duties scarcely inferior dignity importance diplomatic agents therefore thought best continue selection discretion executive without subjecting examination board excluding 71 places compensation present less 53 places maximum compensation number positions remaining within scope order 196 number undoubtedly increased inclusion consular officers whose remuneration fees less augmented growth foreign commerce return favorable business conditions execution executive order referred secretary state designated board conduct prescribed examinations third assistant secretary state solicitor department state chief consular bureau specified subjects examinations shall relate assumed system prove full measure consular reform quite probable actual experience show particulars order already issued may amended demonstrate best results appropriate legislation congress imperatively required event efforts improve consular service ought immediately supplemented legislation providing consular inspection frequently subject executive recommendation urge action congress permit frequent thorough inspection consulates officers appointed purpose persons already diplomatic consular service expense attending plan would insignificant compared usefulness hope legislation necessary set foot speedily forthcoming thoroughly convinced addition salaries ambassadors ministers foreign courts provided government official residences salaries officers comparatively small cases insufficient pay necessary expenses cost maintaining household establishments keeping important delicate functions usefulness nation diplomatic representative undeniably depends much upon appropriateness surroundings country like avoiding unnecessary glitter show certain suffer relations foreign nations parsimony shabbiness diplomatic outfit considerations advantages fixed somewhat permanent locations embassies would abundantly justify moderate expenditure necessary carry suggestion turn review foreign relations contemplation national financial situation immediately aware approach subject domestic concern important engage attention one present perplexing delicate predicament require prompt wise treatment may well encouraged earnest effort direction recall steps already taken toward improving economic financial situation appreciate well way prepared progress aroused intelligent popular interest subjects command people system designed protection benefit favored classes expense great mass countrymen inefficient purpose revenue curtailed trade relations impeded entrance markets world superseded tariff policy principle based upon denial right government obstruct avenues people cheap living lessen comfort contentment sake according especial advantages favorites encouraging intercourse trade nations recognizes fact american thrift ingenuity build country industries develop resources surely enervating paternalism compulsory purchase coinage silver government unchecked unregulated business conditions heedless currency needs fifteen years diluted circulating medium undermined confidence abroad financial ability last culminated distress panic home recently stopped repeal laws forced reckless scheme upon country things thus accomplished notwithstanding extreme importance beneficent effects fall far short curing monetary evils suffer result long indulgence financial expedients currency denominated united states notes commonly known greenbacks issued large volume late civil war intended originally meet exigencies period seen reference debates congress time laws passed authorizing issue notes advocates declared intended temporary use meet emergency war almost laws relating provision made contemplating voluntary compulsory retirement large quantity however kept foot mingled currency country close year 1874 amounted immediately date january 1875 law passed providing resumption specie payments secretary treasury required whenever additional circulation issued national banks retire united states notes equal amount 80 per cent additional circulation notes reduced law provided 1st day january 1879 united states notes outstanding redeemed coin order provide prepare redemption secretary treasury authorized use surplus revenues government issue bonds united states dispose coin use proceeds purposes contemplated statute may 1878 date thus appointed redemption retirement notes another statute passed forbidding cancellation retirement however previously redeemed canceled upon issue additional circulation permitted law 1875 amount outstanding time passage act forbidding retirement law 1878 stop distinct prohibition contained addition following express provision said notes may redeemed received treasury law source whatever shall belong united states shall retired canceled destroyed shall reissued paid kept circulation condition affairs 1st day january 1879 fixed upon four years date entering upon redemption retirement notes abundant means provided government put anomalous situation owing holders notes debts payable gold demand could neither retired receiving notes discharge obligations due government canceled actual payment gold forced redeem without redemption pay without acquittance issued sold bonds authorized resumption act 1875 proceeds together gold treasury created gold fund deemed sufficient meet demands might made upon redemption outstanding united states notes fund together gold might time time treasury available purpose since called gold reserve regarded adequate amount accomplish object fund amounted 1st day january 1879 though thereafter constantly fluctuating fall sum july 1892 april 1893 first time since establishment reserve amounted less containing date meantime july 1890 act passed directing larger governmental monthly purchases silver required previous laws providing payment silver treasury notes united states issued payable demand gold silver coin discretion secretary treasury however declared act established policy united states maintain two metals parity upon present legal ratio ratio may provided law view declaration deemed permissible secretary treasury exercise discretion terms conferred refusing pay gold notes demanded discrimination favor gold dollar parity two metals would destroyed grave dangerous consequences would precipitated affirming accentuating constantly widening disparity actual values existing ratio thus resulted treasury notes issued payment silver purchases law 1890 necessarily treated gold obligations option holder notes 1st day november 1893 law compelling monthly purchase silver repealed amounted notes description outstanding added united states notes still undiminished redemption cancellation constitute volume gold obligations amounting nearly obligations instruments ever since gold reserve used deplete reserve stated fallen april 1893 time present unimportant upward movements steadily decreased except temporarily replenished sale bonds among causes constant uniform shrinkage fund may mentioned great falling exports operation tariff law recently force crippled exchange commodities foreign nations necessitated extent payment balances gold unnatural infusion silver currency increasing agitation free unlimited coinage created apprehension disposition ability continue gold payments consequent hoarding gold home stoppage investments foreign capital well return securities already sold abroad high rate foreign exchange induced shipment gold drawn matter speculation consequence conditions gold reserve 1st day february 1894 reduced lost preceding nine months since april 1893 replenishment necessary manner accomplishing possible resort issue sale bonds provided resumption act 1875 fifty millions bonds sold yielding added reserve fund gold hand result operation reserve suffered constant large withdrawals meantime stood 6th day march 1894 sum depletion however immediately thereafter accelerated 30th day june 1894 fallen thus losing withdrawals five months dropping slightly situation sale bonds effected replenishment depressed condition grew worse 24th day november 1894 gold reserve reduced became necessary strengthen done another sale bonds amounting realized fund increased 4th day december 1894 disappointment awaited anxious hope relief even lull exasperating withdrawals gold contrary grew larger persistent ever 4th day december 1894 early february 1895 period scarcely two months second reenforcement gold reserve sale bonds lost withdrawals fallen nearly withdrawn within month immediately preceding situation anticipation impending trouble 28th day january 1895 addressed communication congress fully setting forth difficulties dangerous position earnestly recommending authority given secretary treasury issue bonds bearing low rate interest payable terms gold purpose maintaining sufficient gold reserve also redemption cancellation outstanding united states notes treasury notes issued purchase silver law 1890 recommendation however meet legislative approval february 1895 therefore situation exceedingly critical reserve perilously low refusal congressional aid everything indicated end gold payments government imminent results prior bond issues exceedingly unsatisfactory large withdrawals gold immediately succeeding public sale open market gave rise reasonable suspicion large part gold paid treasury upon sales promptly drawn presentation united states notes treasury notes found way hands temporarily parted purchase bonds emergency view surrounding perplexities became entirely apparent upon struggle safety devolved gold reserve must third time less thirteen months restored another issue sale bonds bearing high rate interest badly suited purpose plan must adopted disposition promising better results realized previous sales agreement therefore made number financiers bankers whereby stipulated bonds described resumption act 1875 payable coin thirty years date bearing interest rate 4 pet cent per annum amounting exchanged gold receivable weight amounting little gold delivered installments would complete delivery within six months date contract least amount furnished abroad also agreed supplying gold continuance contract would every means power protect government gold withdrawals contract also provided congress would authorize issue bonds payable terms gold bearing interest rate 3 per cent per annum might within ten days substituted par 4 per cent bonds described agreement day contract made terms communicated congress special executive message stated would saved government gold bonds bearing 3 per cent interest authorized substituted mentioned contract congress declined grant necessary authority secure saving contract unmodified carried resulting gold reserve amounting 8th day july 1895 performance contract restored reserve checked time withdrawals gold brought period restored confidence peace quiet business circles greatest possible value every interest affects people never slightest misgiving concerning wisdom propriety arrangement quite willing answer full share responsibility promotion believe averted disaster imminence fortunately time generally understood people though contract mentioned stayed time tide gold withdrawal good results could permanent recent withdrawals reduced reserve 8th day july 1895 long remain large enough render increase unnecessary matter conjecture though quite large withdrawals shipment immediate future predicted quarters withdrawn month november foregoing statement events conditions develops fact increasing bonded indebtedness save gold reserve nearly started reserve february 1894 first bonds issued though amount gold drawn treasury appears large gathered facts figures herein presented actually much larger considerable sums acquired treasury within several periods stated without issue bonds 28th january 1895 reported secretary treasury gold withdrawn hoarding shipment year preceding reports january 1 1879 july 14 1890 period eleven years little withdrawn july 14 1890 date passage law increased purchase silver 1st day december 1895 within less five half years withdrawn nearly making total drawn treasury gold since january 1 1879 date fixed 1875 retirement united states notes nearly gold thus withdrawn paid united states notes yet every one still uncanceled ready service future gold depletions gold since creation 1890 paid treasury upon notes given purchase silver government yet whole amounting except little retired exchanges silver request holders remains outstanding prepared join older experienced allies future raids upon treasury gold reserve words government paid gold united states notes still owes paid gold notes given silver purchases without extinguishing payment one dollar notes added reminded carry astound lug financial scheme government incurred bonded indebtedness establishing gold reserve efforts maintain annual interest charge bonded indebtedness continuance present course may result bond issues suffered threatened sake supplying gold foreign shipment facilitating hoarding home situation exhibited certainly ought arrest attention provoke immediate legislative relief convinced thorough practicable remedy troubles found retirement cancellation united states notes commonly called greenbacks outstanding treasury notes issued government payment silver purchases act 1890 believe could quite readily accomplished exchange notes united states bonds small well large denominations bearing low rate interest bonds thus increasing desirability investments payment could well postponed period far removed present financial burdens perplexities increased prosperity resources would easily met insure cancellation notes also provide way gold may added currency lieu feature plan authority given secretary treasury dispose bonds abroad gold necessary complete contemplated redemption cancellation permitting use proceeds bonds take cancel notes may treasury may received government account increase bonded debt involved plan would amply compensated renewed activity enterprise business circles restored confidence home reinstated faith monetary strength abroad stimulation every interest industry would follow cancellation obligations afflicting us event bonds proposed would stand extinguishment troublesome indebtedness path follow lurks menace unending bonds indebtedness still undischarged aggravated every feature obligations necessary fund indebtedness would equal amount relieved since 1884 anticipation payment beyond requirements sinking fund surplus revenues currency withdrawn retirement united states notes treasury notes amounting probably less might supplied gold would used retirement increase circulation national banks though aggregate capital existence amounts outstanding circulation based bond security amounts authorized issue notes amounting 90 per cent bonds deposited secure circulation event beyond amount capital stock obliged pay 1 per cent tax circulation issue think allowed issue circulation equal par value bonds deposit secure tax circulation reduced 1 per cent would undoubtedly meet expense government incurs account addition allowed substitute deposit lieu bonds required security circulation would issued purpose retiring united states notes treasury notes banks already existing desired avail provisions law thus modified could issue circulation addition already outstanding amounting would nearly quite equal currency proposed canceled rate confidently expect see existing national banks others organized avail proposed encouragements issue circulation promptly fill vacuum supply every currency need always seemed provisions law regarding capital national banks operate limitation location fail make proper compensation suppression state banks came near people sections country readily furnished banking accommodations facilities inconvenience embarrassment arising restrictions location national banks might well remedied better adapting present system creation banks smaller communities permitting banks large capital establish branches localities would serve people regulated restrained secure safe conservative control management might necessity addition currency new issues bank circulation first glance indicated relieved maintaining gold reserve conditions constitute barometer solvency treasury longer foolish purveyor gold nations abroad speculation hoarding citizens home expect see gold resume natural normal functions business affairs country cease object attracting timid watch people exciting sensitive imaginations overlook fact cancellation treasury notes issued act 1890 would leave treasury actual ownership sufficient silver including seigniorage coin nearly standard dollars worthy consideration whether might time time converted dollars fractional coin slowly put circulation judgment secretary treasury necessities country require whatever attempted entered upon fully appreciating fact careless easy descent reached dangerous depth ascent accomplished without laborious toil struggle shall wise realize financially ill restoration health may require heroic treatment unpleasant remedies present stage difficulty easy understand amount revenue receipts directly affects important question quantity money received revenue payments kind money maintain ability continue sound financial condition considering government holdings gold related soundness money affecting national credit monetary strength gold reserve never impaired bonds ever issued replenish fear timidity concerning ability continue gold payments part revenues paid gold could look gold receipts means maintaining safe reserve amount revenues would influential factor problem unfortunately circumstances might lend weight consideration entirely lacking present predicament gold received government payment revenue charges would revenues increased receipts treasury silver certificates consist united states notes treasury notes issued silver purchases forms money useful government paying current ordinary expenses quantity government possession least contribute toward giving us kind safe financial standing condition built gold alone said notes held government used obtain gold reserve answer easy people draw gold treasury demand upon united states notes treasury notes proposition treasury demand draw gold people upon would regarded days wonder amusement even could done nothing prevent thus parting gold regaining next day next hour presentation notes received exchange secretary treasury might use notes taken surplus revenue buy gold market course could without paying premium private holders gold unlike government parity maintain would restrained making best bargain possible furnished gold treasury moment secretary treasury bought gold terms par would establish general universal premium upon thus breaking parity gold silver government pledged maintain opening way new serious complications meantime premium would remain stationary absurd spectacle might presented dealer selling gold government united states notes treasury notes hand immediately clamoring return resale higher premium may claimed large revenue redundant receipts might favorably affect situation discussion affording opportunity retaining notes treasury received thus preventing presentation gold retention useful ought least measurably permanent precisely prohibited far united states notes concerned law 1878 forbidding retirement statute many words provides notes received treasury belonging united states shall paid kept circulation moreover readily seen government could refuse pay united states notes treasury notes current transactions demanded insist paying silver alone still maintain parity metal currency representing gold besides accumulation treasury currency kind exacted people taxation justly regarded evil proceed far without vigorous protest unjustifiable retention money business country denunciation scheme taxation proves unjust takes earnings income citizen money much excess needs government support large sums gathered kept treasury condition heretofore times surplus revenue led government restore currency people purchase unmatured bonds large premium large increase deposits national banks easily remember abuse treasury accumulation furnished persuasive argument favor legislation radically reducing tariff taxation perhaps supposed sufficient revenue receipts would sentimental way improve situation inspiring confidence solvency allaying fear pecuniary exhaustion yet struggles maintain gold reserve never apprehension ready ability pay way money question whether current receipts met current expenses entered estimate solvency course general state funds exclusive gold entirely immaterial foreign creditor investor debt could paid gold concern ability keep hand kind money july 1 1892 year half first bonds issued replenish gold reserve net balance treasury exclusive reserve less gold reserve amounted quieting feature situation stock gold began rapidly fall fright supervened securities held abroad returned sale debts owed abroad pressed payment meantime extensive shipments gold unfavorable indications caused restlessness fright among people home thereupon general state funds exclusive gold became also immaterial drew gold treasury hoarding contingencies plainly shown large increase proportion gold withdrawn retained people time threatening incidents progressed fiscal year ending june 30 1894 nearly gold withdrawn treasury sent abroad fiscal year ending june 30 1895 drawn shipped leaving large balance withdrawals accounted domestic hoarding inasmuch withdrawal gold resulted largely fright nothing apparent prevent continuance recurrence natural consequences except change financial methods reassure frightened make desire gold less intense clear increase fix revenue unless gold satisfy whose anxiety gain gold government store therefore safe rely upon increased revenues cure present troubles possible suggestion increased revenue remedy difficulties considering may originated intimation distinct allegation bonds issued ostensibly replenish gold reserve really issued supply insufficient revenue nothing truth bonds issued obtain gold maintenance national credit shown gold thus obtained drawn treasury upon united states notes treasury notes operation would promptly prevented possible notes thus passed treasury became money government like ordinary government funds nothing use paying government expenses needed time bonds issued consideration question paying expenses government proceeds necessity consider question time bond issue safe surplus treasury ordinary operations exclusive gold reserve february 1894 first issue bonds made surplus amounted november second issue made amounted february 1895 bonds third time issued surplus amounted amounts besides secretary treasury authority whatever issue bonds increase ordinary revenues pay current expenses think confusion ideas regarding effects issue bonds results withdrawal gold latter process former substituting treasury united states notes treasury notes gold increased amount money first instance subject ordinary government expenditure although law compelling increased purchase silver government passed 14th day july 1890 withdrawals gold treasury upon notes given payment purchases begin october 1891 immediately following date withdrawals upon notes united states notes increased largely continued extent since passage law thirteen times much gold taken treasury upon united states notes treasury notes issued silver purchases thus withdrawn eleven half years immediately prior thereto 1st day january 1879 specie payments resumed neither unfair unjust charge large share present financial perplexities dangers operation laws 1878 1890 compelling purchase silver government furnished new treasury obligation upon gold could withdrawn increased fear overwhelming flood silver forced descent silver payments even repeal laws entirely cure evils existence endeavored make plain statement disordered condition currency present dangers menacing prosperity suggest way leads safer financial system constantly mind fact many countrymen whose sincerity doubt insist cure ills threatening us may found single simple remedy free coinage silver contend mints shall thrown open free unlimited independent coinage gold silver dollars full quality regardless action government full view fact ratio metals suggest calls 100 cents worth gold gold dollar present standard 50 cents intrinsic worth silver silver dollar infinitely stronger reasons adduced hoping action would secure us bimetallic currency moving lines parity experiment novel hazardous proposed might well stagger believe stability imperative condition sound money government human contrivance act legislation ever able hold two metals together free coinage ratio appreciably different established markets world believe independent free coinage silver artificial ratio gold 16 1 would restore parity metals consequently coins oppose unsupported improbable theory general belief practice nations teaching wisest statesmen economists world past present far conclusive run counter actual experiences twice earlier history lawmakers attempting establish bimetallic currency undertook free coinage upon ratio accidentally varied actual relative values two metals 3 per cent cases notwithstanding greater difficulties cost transportation exist coins whose intrinsic worth undervalued ratio gradually surely disappeared circulation went countries real value better recognized acts congress impotent create equality natural causes decreed even slight inequality twice recent history signally failed raise legislation value silver act congress passed 1878 government required twelve years expend annually least purchase silver bullion coinage act july 14 1890 still bolder effort increased amount silver government compelled purchase forced become buyer annually ounces practically entire product mines laws silver rapidly steadily declined value prophecy expressed hope expectation congress led passage act would reestablish maintain former parity two metals still fresh memory light experiences accord experiences nations certainly secure ground belief act congress could bridge inequality 50 per cent gold silver present ratio least possibility country less silver money world could action alone raise silver lost ratio gold attempt accomplish free coinage silver ratio differing widely actual relative values would signal complete departure gold circulation immediate large contraction circulating medium shrinkage real value monetary efficiency forms currency settled level silver monometallism everyone receives fixed salary every worker wages would find dollar hand ruthlessly scaled point bitter disappointment pinching privation change standard silver monometallism would also bring collapse entire system credit based standard recognized adopted world business many times potent useful entire volume currency safely capable almost indefinite expansion meet growth trade enterprise struggle darkness uncertainty humiliation would increased consciousness parted company enlightened progressive nations world desperately hopelessly striving meet stress modern commerce competition debased unsuitable currency association weak laggard nations silver alone standard value history warns us rash experiments threaten violent changes monetary standard degradation currency past full lessons teaching economic dangers national immorality follow train experiments believe american people persuaded sober deliberation jeopardize nation prestige proud standing encouraging financial nostrums yield false allurements cheap money realize must result weakening financial integrity rectitude thus far history devotedly cherished one traits true americanism country indebtedness whether owing government existing individuals contracted reference present standard decree act congress debts shall payable less valuable dollars within contemplation intention parties contracted would operate transfer fiat law without compensation amount property volume rights interests almost incalculable advocate blind headlong plunge free coinage name bimetallism professing belief contrary experience could thus establish double standard concurrent circulation metals coinage certainly reckoning cloudy standpoint present standard value standard civilized world permits bimetallism possible least within independent reach single nation however powerful nation may value gold standard steadied almost universal commercial business use despise silver seek banishment wherever standard maintained side free unquestioned circulation volume silver currency sometimes equaling sometimes even exceeding amount maintained parity notwithstanding depreciation fluctuation intrinsic value silver vast difference standard value currency monetary use standard must necessarily fixed certain currency may divers forms various kinds country gold currency circulation enlightened wise system finance secures benefits gold silver currency circulating medium keeping standard stable currency par system standard also give free scope use expansion safe conservative credit indispensable broad growing commercial transactions well substituted actual use money fixed stable standard maintained magnitude safety commercial transactions business require use money conveniently minimized every dollar fixed stable value agency confident credit astonishing capacity multiplying financial work every unstable fluctuating dollar fails basis credit use begets gambling speculation undermines foundations honest enterprise ventured express subject earnestness plainness speech rid belief lurk proposition free coinage silver strongly approved enthusiastically advocated multitude countrymen serious menace prosperity insidious temptation people wander allegiance owe public private integrity distrust good faith sincerity press scheme imperfectly zeal submitted thoughts upon momentous subject refrain begging reexamine views beliefs light patriotic reason familiar experience weigh consequences legislation efforts invited even continued agitation subject adds greatly difficulties dangerous financial situation already forced upon us conclusion especially entreat people representatives congress charged responsibility inaugurating measures safety prosperity common country promptly effectively consider ills critical financial plight suggested remedy judgment approves desire however assure congress prepared cooperate perfecting measure promising thorough practical relief gladly labor every patriotic endeavor interests guard welfare countrymen respective places duty undertaken serve
present assemblage legislative branch government occur time interest people need country give especial prominence condition foreign relation exigency national finance report head several administrative department government fully plainly exhibit accomplish within scope respective duty present recommendation betterment country condition patriotic intelligent labor observation suggest therefore deem executive duty adequately perform time present congress important phase situation related intercourse foreign nation statement financial problem confront u omit except related topic reference departmental operation earnestly invite however careful consideration severely critical scrutiny congress report concern departmental operation justly fairly examine furnish proof assiduous painstaking care public welfare press recommendation contain upon respectful attention charge duty legislation believe adoption would promote people good amendatory tariff legislation january last argentine republic recognize value large market open free importation wool last tariff act admit certain product unite state entry reduce duty please note effort make enlarge exchange trade sound basis mutual benefit instance appreciate country woolen factory draw needful supply raw material mission boundary dispute argentine republic brazil refer president united state arbitrator term predecessor submit determination result award favor brazil upon historical documentary evidence present thus end controversy demonstrate wisdom desirability settle international boundary dispute recourse friendly arbitration negotiation progress revival united state chilean claim commission whose work abruptly terminate last year expiration stipulate time within award could make resumption specie payment chile step great interest importance direct consequence upon welfare evince ascendency sound financial principle one influential south american republic close momentous struggle china japan relieve diplomatic agent government delicate duty undertook request country render service subject either belligerent within territorial limit neutral position permit developed domestic condition chinese empire cause much anxiety call prompt careful attention either result weak control central government provincial administration follow diminution traditional governmental authority stress overwhelming national disaster manifestation upon good opportunity aversion chinese population foreign way undertaking occur widely separate province china serious outbreak old fanatical spirit foreigner unchecked local authority actually connive culminated mob attack foreign missionary station cause much destruction property attend personal injury well loss life although one american citizen report actually wound although destruction property may fall heavily upon missionary nationality plainly behoove government take prompt decide action guard similar perhaps dreadful calamity befall hundred american mission station grow throughout interior china temperate rule toleration custom imperial edict demand united state power degradation punishment responsible official respective city province neglect otherwise permit uprisings adoption stern measure emperor government protection life property foreigner follow disgrace dismissal certain provincial official find derelict duty punishment death number adjudge guilty actual participation outrage government also insist special american commission visit province first disturbance occur purpose investigation latter commission form much opposition go overland tientsin accompany suitable chinese escort demonstration readiness ability government protect citizen act believe influential deterrent similar outbreak energetic step thus take likely result future safety citizen china imperial government persuade entirely convinced desire liberty protection citizen redress wrong may suffer ulterior design object political otherwise china forget either kindly service citizen late war fact furnish facility command negotiation peace japan seek advantage interpose counsel government china japan special dispatch transmit respective diplomatic representative express please manner grateful appreciation assistance citizen unhappy struggle value aid pave way resumption peaceful relation customary cordial relation country france undisturbed exception full explanation treatment john waller expeditionary military authority france still remain give waller formerly united state consul tamatav remain madagascar term office expire apparently successful procure business concession hovas great less value occupation tamatav declaration martial law french arrest upon various charge among communicate military information enemy france try convicted military tribunal sentence twenty year imprisonment follow course justified abundant precedent government request france record proceedings french tribunal result waller condemnation request comply extent supply copy official record appear constitution organization court charge formulate general course result trial show accuse tried open court defend counsel evidence adduce support charge receive french minister foreign affair till first week october thus far withheld french government take ground production response demand would establish bad precedent effort ambassador procure however though impeded recent change french ministry relax confidently expect satisfactory solution matter shortly reach meanwhile appear waller confinement every alleviation state health circumstance case demand permit agreeable contrast difference note respecting matter common concern nothing seek except mutually satisfactory outcome true merit case require recent resolution french chamber favor conclusion permanent treaty arbitration two country invitation extend france government people united state participate great international exposition paris 1900 suitable commemoration close world marvelous century progress heartily recommend acceptance together legislation adequately provide due representation government people occasion relation state german empire aspects typical condition thing elsewhere find country whose production trade similar close rivalry compete industry influence delusive doctrine internal development nation promote wealth increase policy undertaking reserve home market exclusive use producer necessarily obstruct sale foreign market prevents free access product world desire retain trade rut regardless inexorable law new need change condition demand supply halt tardiness invite free exchange commodity mean imperil foot external market naturally open u create situation somewhat injurious american export interest germany perhaps noticeable adjacent country export affect largely american cattle food product reason assign unfavorable discrimination consumption deleterious public health irritate view fact european state jealous excellence wholesomeness export food supply unite state easily able account inherent soundness guarantee quality difficulty confine food product design exportation great insurance company example build vast business abroad invest large share gain foreign country compliance local law regulation exist find within narrow circle onerous unforeseen condition confront necessity retirement field thus make unprofitable indeed summarily expel lately prussia forget international trade current alternate movement honestly reciprocal without almost necessarily degenerate device gain advantage contrivance secure benefit semblance return dealing nation ought scrupulously fair policy produce nation plainly become u people love generosity moral aspect national good faith reciprocal forbearance consideration however constrain u submit unfair discrimination silently acquiesce vexatious hindrance enjoyment share legitimate advantage proper trade relation examination situation suggest measure part would involve restriction similar suffer way course easy however mean lightly enter upon since necessity inauguration policy would regret best sentiment people naturally logically might lead consequence grave character take pleasure call attention encomium bestow vessel new navy take part notable ceremony open kiel canal fitting extraordinary achievement new german nationality celebrate presence america exposition late development world naval energy relation great britain always intimate important demand past year even great share consideration usual several vexatious question leave undetermined decision bering sea arbitration tribunal application principle lay august body follow result intend accomplish either principle lack breadth definiteness execution less imperfect much correspondence exchange two government subject prevent exterminate slaughter seal insufficiency british patrol bering sea regulation agree two government point yet two british ship police duty season water need effective enforcement exist regulation well adoption additional regulation experience show absolutely necessary carry intent award earnestly urge upon british government thus far without effective result meantime depletion seal herd mean pelagic hunt alarmingly progress unless slaughter effectively check extinction within year seem matter absolute certainty understand united state pay great britain receive lump sum full settlement british claim damage arise seizure british sealing vessel unauthorized award paris tribunal arbitration confirm last congress decline make necessary appropriation still opinion arrangement judicious advantageous one government earnestly recommend consider sanctioned however meet favor congress certainly hardly dissent proposition government bound every consideration honor good faith provide speedy adjustment claim arbitration alternative treaty arbitration therefore agree upon immediately lay senate one mode suggest final settlement may reach notwithstanding great britain originate proposal enforce international rule prevention collision sea base recommendation maritime conference washington concur suggest march 11 1895 date set proclamation carry rule general effect majesty government encounter opposition part british shipping interest announce inability accept date consequently cancel entire matter still abeyance without prospect good condition near future commissioner appoint mark international boundary passamaquoddy bay accord description treaty ghent yet fully agree completion preliminary survey alaskan boundary follow contour coast southernmost point prince wale island strike one hundred meridian near summit mount elias awaits necessary appropriation urgently recommend survey undertaken provision convention enter country great britain july 22 1892 supplementary convention february 3 1894 remain section alaskan boundary follow one hundred meridian northwardly mount elias frozen ocean settlement involve physical location meridian mention conventional agreement yet make ascertainment give meridian particular point work require much time careful observation survey observation survey undertaken united state coast geodetic survey 1890 1891 similar work quarter british auspex believe give nearly coincident result survey independently conduct international agreement mark part one hundred meridian permanent monument yet make meantime valley yukon become highway hitherto unexplored wild alaska abundant mineral wealth discover region especially near junction boundary meridian yukon tributary circumstance expedient indeed imperative jurisdictional limit respective government new region speedily determine britannic majesty government propose joint delimitation one hundred meridian international commission expert congress authorize make due provision therefor accomplish unreasonable delay impossible overlook vital importance continue work already enter upon supplement effective measure look exact location entire boundary line call attention unsatisfactory delimitation respective jurisdiction united state dominion canada great lake approach narrow water connect water question frequent fisherman nationality net use owe uncertainty ignorance true boundary vexation dispute injurious seizure boat net canadian cruiser often occur positive settlement thereof accept standard easily reach joint commission determine line quarter practical basis measure course follow range mark shore necessity immediate provision make apparent boundary dispute great britain republic venezuela concern limit british guiana approach acute stage definite statement interest policy unite state regard controversy seem required account view relation friendly power directly concern july last therefore dispatch address ambassador london communication british government attitude united state fully distinctly set forth general conclusion therein reach formulated substance traditional establish policy government firmly oppose forcible increase european power territorial possession continent policy well round principle strongly support numerous precedent consequence united state bound protest enlargement area british guiana derogation right venezuela consider disparity strength great britain venezuela territorial dispute reasonably settle friendly impartial arbitration resort arbitration include whole controversy satisfy one power concern permit draw arbitrary line territory debate declare submit arbitration portion lie one side view conclusion dispatch question call upon british government definite answer question whether would would submit territorial controversy venezuela entirety impartial arbitration answer british government yet receive expect shortly communication subject probably make congress early january last uprising government hawaii promptly suppress martial law forthwith proclaim numerous arrest make person suspect sympathy royalist party among several citizen united state either convict military court sentence death imprisonment fine deport without trial united state deny protection take hawaiian oath allegiance insist martial law though alter form justice could supersede justice demand stay execution proceeding submit government knowledge obtain therefrom citizen receive fair trial death sentence subsequently commute remitted condition leave island case certain american arrest expelled arbitrary order without formal charge trial attention instance find justify remonstrance claim indemnity hawaii thus far conceded thurston hawaiian minister furnished government abundant reason ask recall course pursue successor lately receive deplorable lynching several italian laborer colorado naturally follow international representation happy say best effort state outrage occur put forth discover punish author atrocious crime dependent family unfortunate victim invite deplorable condition gracious provision need manifestation helpless alien may trace successive stage vicious padroni system unchecked immigration statute control worker moment land shore farm distant often rude region cheapen competition field toil brings collision labor interest welcome seek shore merge body politic win personal competence honest effort regard assemblages distinctively alien laborer hire mass profit alien speculator ship hither thither prospect gain may dictate otherwise repugnant spirit civilization deterrent individual advancement hindrance build stable community rest upon wholesome ambition citizen constitute prime factor prosperity progress nation legislation reach grow evil certainly attempt japan furnish abundant evidence vast gain every trait characteristic constitutes nation greatness reason congratulation fact government unite state exchange liberal treaty stipulation new japan first recognize wonderful advance extend consideration confidence due national enlightenment progressive character boundary dispute lately threaten embroil guatemala mexico happily yield pacific counsel determination joint agreement party submit sole arbitration united state minister mexico commission appoint convention february 18 1889 set new monument along boundary united state mexico complete task sequel failure scheme colonization mexico negro mostly immigrant alabama contract great number helpless suffer people starve smitten contagious disease make way assist frontier wretched plight quarantine texas authority learn destitute condition direct ration temporarily furnish war department expiration quarantine convey railway company comparatively nominal rate home alabama upon assurance absence fund available cost transportation would recommend congress appropriation payment strongly urge upon congress propriety make appropriation remember measure take dictate sympathy humanity conviction compatible dignity government large body dependent citizen thrown relief upon charity neighbor state last year message narrate length jurisdictional question freshly arise mosquito indian strip nicaragua since time voluntary act mosquito nation territory reserve incorporated nicaragua indian formally subject govern general law regulation republic instead custom regulation thus avail privilege secure treaty nicaragua great britain january 28 1860 extension uniform nicaraguan administration mosquito strip case british hatch several countryman summarily expel nicaragua treat considerable indignity provoke claim great britain upon nicaragua pecuniary indemnity upon nicaragua refusal admit liability enforce great britain sovereignty jurisdiction nicaragua way question great britain former arbitrary conduct regard british subject furnish ground proceed british naval force occupy without resistance pacific seaport corinto soon withdraw upon promise sum demand would pay throughout incident kindly office united state invoke employ favor peaceful settlement much consideration indulgence toward nicaragua consistent nature case effort since make subject appreciative grateful recognition nicaragua coronation czar russia moscow may next invite ceremonial participation united state accordance usage diplomatic propriety minister imperial court direct represent government occasion correspondence foot touch practice russian consul within jurisdiction united state interrogate citizen race religious faith upon ascertainment thereof deny jew authentication passport legal document use russia inasmuch proceeding imposes disability case succession property russia may find infringe treaty right citizens obnoxious invasion territorial jurisdiction elicit fitting remonstrance result hop remove complaint pending claim seal vessel unite state seize russian water remain unadjusted recent convention russia establish modus vivendi imperial jurisdiction case prevent difficulty nature russian government welcome principle suggestion modus vivendi embrace great britain japan look good preservation seal life north pacific bering sea extension protect area define paris tribunal pacific water north parallel especially noticeable russia favor prohibition use firearm seal hunt throughout propose area longer close season pelagic seal last two annual message call attention congress position occupy one party treaty agreement become jointly bind england germany interfere government control samoa effect assume management affair 9th day may 1894 transmitted senate special message accompany document give information subject emphasizing opinion time entertained situation matter inconsistent mission tradition government violation principle profess phase mischievous vexatious press subject upon attention congress ask legislative action expression lead way relief obligation irksome unnatural cuba gravely disturbed insurrection respect active last preceding revolt continue 1868 1878 exists large part eastern interior island menace even population coast besides derange commercial exchange island country take predominant share flagrant condition hostility arouse sentimental sympathy incite adventurous support among people entail earnest effort part government enforce obedience neutrality law prevent territory united state abused vantage ground aid arm spanish sovereignty whatever may traditional sympathy countryman individual people seem struggle large autonomy great freedom deepen sympathy naturally must behalf neighbor yet plain duty government observe good faith recognize obligation international relationship performance duty make difficult disregard part citizen obligation grow allegiance country restrain violating individual neutrality nation member bind observe relation friendly sovereign state though neither warmth people sympathy cuban insurgent loss material damage consequent upon futile endeavor thus far make restore peace order shock humane sensibility may receive cruelty appear especially characterize sanguinary fiercely conducted war least shaken determination government honestly fulfill every international obligation yet earnestly hop every ground devastation arm conflict may speedily stay order quiet restore distracted island bring train activity thrift peaceful pursuits one notable instance interference spain passing american ship occur march 8 last allianca bound colon new york follow customary track vessel near cuban shore outside limit fire upon spanish gunboat protest promptly make united state act justified state war permissible respect vessel usual path commerce tolerable view wanton peril occasion innocent life property act disavow full expression regret assurance nonrecurrence complaint offend officer relieve command military arrest citizen united state cuba occasion frequent reclamation hold criminal charge delivery ordinary civil jurisdiction trial demand obtain conformity treaty provision merely detain way military precaution proclaim state siege without formulate accusation release trial insist upon right american consular officer island prefer protest demand case question insular authority enjoyment privilege stipulate treaty consul germany claim provision convention promptly recognize demand antonio maximo mora spain last settled payment 14th september last sum originally agree upon liquidation claim distribution among party entitle receive proceed rapidly right claim fund could safely determine enforcement differential duty product country export cuba puerto rico prompt immediate claim part benefit minimum tariff spain return favorable treatment permit law regard production spanish territory commercial arrangement conclude january last securing treatment claim vigorous protest excessive fine impose ship merchandise custom officer islands trivial error result remission fine instance equity complaint apparent though vexatious practice wholly discontinue occurrence turkey continue excite concern report massacre christian armenia development district spirit fanatic hostility christian influence naturally excite apprehension safety devote men woman dependent foreign missionary society unite state reside turkey guaranty law usage legitimate performance educational religious mission effort spar behalf protection person property earnestly vigorously enforce every mean within power regret however attempt part obtain good information concern true condition affair disturb quarter ottoman empire send thither united state consul sivas make investigation report thwart objection turkish government movement part sense mean gratuitous entanglement united state eastern question officious interference right duty belong treaty certain great european power call intervention political matter affect good government religious freedom subject sultan arose solely desire accurate knowledge condition effort care entitle protection presence naval vessel vicinity disturb locality affords opportunity acquire measure familiarity condition affair enable u take suitable step protection interest countryman within reach ship might find imperiled ottoman government lately issue imperial irade exempt forever taxation american college girl scutari repeat assurance also obtain envoy constantinople similar institution maintain administered countryman shall secure enjoyment right citizen throughout empire shall protect government however view exist fact far rely upon assurance limit duty minister vigilant alert afford possible protection individual case danger threaten safety imperil send ship far toward point actual disturbance possible go offer refuge oblige flee promise power ship neighborhood citizen well receive protect board ship demand minister order issue sultan turkish soldier shall guard escort coast american refugee order carry late intelligence give assurance present personal safety citizen missionary though thus far live american citizen sacrifice doubt serious loss destruction mission property result riotous conflict outrageous attack treaty several powerful european power secure right assume duty behalf citizen furtherance interest agent christian world right enforce conduct turkish government restrain fanatical brutality fail duty interfere insure dreadful occurrence turkey lately shock civilization power declare right duty alone earnestly hop prompt effective action part delay new consulate erzerum harpoot appropriation make last session provisionally fill trusted employee department state appointee though turkey yet receive exequaturs arbitration claim venezuela steam transportation company treaty january 19 1892 united state venezuela result award favor claimant government use good office toward compose difference venezuela one hand france belgium grow dismissal representative power grind publication deem offensive venezuela although dismissal couple cordial request personally agreeable envoys send stead rupture intercourse ensue still continue view growth interest foreign country encourage prospect general expansion commerce question improvement consular service increase importance urgency though doubt great body consular officer render valuable service trade industry country need plan appointment control would tend secure high average efficiency deny importance subject lead executive consider step might properly take without additional legislation answer need good system consular appointment matter commit consideration secretary state pursuance recommendation executive order issue 20th september 1895 term provide date vacancy consulate commercial agency annual salary compensation official fee less fill either transfer promotion position department state character tend qualify incumbent position fill appointment person department state previously serve thereunder show capacity fitness consular duty appointment person select president send board examination find upon examination qualify position post pay less usually account small compensation fill selection resident locality deem practicable put new system compensation adopt maximum limit classification reason consular officer receive sum often charge function duty scarcely inferior dignity importance diplomatic agent therefore think best continue selection discretion executive without subject examination board exclude 71 place compensation present less 53 place maximum compensation number position remain within scope order 196 number undoubtedly increase inclusion consular officer whose remuneration fee less augmented growth foreign commerce return favorable business condition execution executive order refer secretary state designate board conduct prescribe examination third assistant secretary state solicitor department state chief consular bureau specify subject examination shall relate assumed system prove full measure consular reform quite probable actual experience show particulars order already issue may amend demonstrate best result appropriate legislation congress imperatively require event effort improve consular service ought immediately supplement legislation provide consular inspection frequently subject executive recommendation urge action congress permit frequent thorough inspection consulate officer appoint purpose person already diplomatic consular service expense attend plan would insignificant compare usefulness hope legislation necessary set foot speedily forthcoming thoroughly convince addition salary ambassador minister foreign court provide government official residence salaries officer comparatively small case insufficient pay necessary expense cost maintain household establishment keep important delicate function usefulness nation diplomatic representative undeniably depend much upon appropriateness surroundings country like avoid unnecessary glitter show certain suffer relation foreign nation parsimony shabbiness diplomatic outfit consideration advantage fix somewhat permanent location embassy would abundantly justify moderate expenditure necessary carry suggestion turn review foreign relation contemplation national financial situation immediately aware approach subject domestic concern important engage attention one present perplex delicate predicament require prompt wise treatment may well encourage earnest effort direction recall step already take toward improve economic financial situation appreciate well way prepared progress arouse intelligent popular interest subject command people system design protection benefit favor class expense great mass countryman inefficient purpose revenue curtail trade relation impede entrance market world supersede tariff policy principle base upon denial right government obstruct avenue people cheap live lessen comfort contentment sake accord especial advantage favorites encourage intercourse trade nation recognize fact american thrift ingenuity build country industry develop resource surely enervate paternalism compulsory purchase coinage silver government unchecked unregulated business condition heedless currency need fifteen year dilute circulate medium undermine confidence abroad financial ability last culminated distress panic home recently stop repeal law force reckless scheme upon country thing thus accomplish notwithstanding extreme importance beneficent effect fall far short cure monetary evil suffer result long indulgence financial expedient currency denominate united state note commonly know greenback issue large volume late civil war intend originally meet exigency period see reference debate congress time law pass authorize issue note advocate declare intend temporary use meet emergency war almost law relate provision make contemplate voluntary compulsory retirement large quantity however keep foot mingled currency country close year 1874 amount immediately date january 1875 law pass provide resumption specie payment secretary treasury require whenever additional circulation issue national bank retire united state note equal amount 80 per cent additional circulation note reduce law provide 1st day january 1879 united state note outstanding redeem coin order provide prepare redemption secretary treasury authorize use surplus revenue government issue bond united state dispose coin use proceeds purpose contemplate statute may 1878 date thus appoint redemption retirement note another statute pass forbid cancellation retirement however previously redeem cancel upon issue additional circulation permit law 1875 amount outstanding time passage act forbid retirement law 1878 stop distinct prohibition contain addition follow express provision say note may redeem received treasury law source whatever shall belong united state shall retire cancel destroyed shall reissue pay kept circulation condition affair 1st day january 1879 fix upon four year date enter upon redemption retirement note abundant mean provided government put anomalous situation owe holder note debt payable gold demand could neither retire receive note discharge obligation due government cancel actual payment gold force redeem without redemption pay without acquittance issue sold bond authorize resumption act 1875 proceed together gold treasury create gold fund deem sufficient meet demand might make upon redemption outstanding united state note fund together gold might time time treasury available purpose since call gold reserve regard adequate amount accomplish object fund amount 1st day january 1879 though thereafter constantly fluctuate fall sum july 1892 april 1893 first time since establishment reserve amount less contain date meantime july 1890 act pass direct large governmental monthly purchase silver require previous law provide payment silver treasury note united state issue payable demand gold silver coin discretion secretary treasury however declare act establish policy unite state maintain two metal parity upon present legal ratio ratio may provide law view declaration deem permissible secretary treasury exercise discretion term confer refuse pay gold note demand discrimination favor gold dollar parity two metal would destroy grave dangerous consequence would precipitate affirm accentuate constantly widen disparity actual value exist ratio thus result treasury note issue payment silver purchase law 1890 necessarily treat gold obligation option holder note 1st day november 1893 law compel monthly purchase silver repeal amounted note description outstanding add united state note still undiminished redemption cancellation constitute volume gold obligation amount nearly obligation instrument ever since gold reserve use deplete reserve state fall april 1893 time present unimportant upward movement steadily decrease except temporarily replenish sale bond among cause constant uniform shrinkage fund may mention great fall export operation tariff law recently force cripple exchange commodity foreign nation necessitate extent payment balance gold unnatural infusion silver currency increase agitation free unlimited coinage create apprehension disposition ability continue gold payment consequent hoard gold home stoppage investment foreign capital well return security already sell abroad high rate foreign exchange induce shipment gold drawn matter speculation consequence condition gold reserve 1st day february 1894 reduce lose precede nine month since april 1893 replenishment necessary manner accomplish possible resort issue sale bond provide resumption act 1875 fifty million bond sell yielding add reserve fund gold hand result operation reserve suffer constant large withdrawal meantime stand 6th day march 1894 sum depletion however immediately thereafter accelerated 30th day june 1894 fallen thus lose withdrawal five month drop slightly situation sale bond effect replenishment depress condition grow bad 24th day november 1894 gold reserve reduce become necessary strengthen do another sale bond amount realize fund increase 4th day december 1894 disappointment await anxious hope relief even lull exasperate withdrawal gold contrary grow large persistent ever 4th day december 1894 early february 1895 period scarcely two month second reenforcement gold reserve sale bond lose withdrawal fall nearly withdrawn within month immediately precede situation anticipation impend trouble 28th day january 1895 address communication congress fully set forth difficulty dangerous position earnestly recommend authority give secretary treasury issue bond bear low rate interest payable term gold purpose maintain sufficient gold reserve also redemption cancellation outstanding united state note treasury note issue purchase silver law 1890 recommendation however meet legislative approval february 1895 therefore situation exceedingly critical reserve perilously low refusal congressional aid everything indicated end gold payment government imminent result prior bond issue exceedingly unsatisfactory large withdrawal gold immediately succeed public sale open market give rise reasonable suspicion large part gold pay treasury upon sale promptly draw presentation united state note treasury note find way hand temporarily part purchase bond emergency view surround perplexity become entirely apparent upon struggle safety devolve gold reserve must third time less thirteen month restore another issue sale bond bear high rate interest badly suit purpose plan must adopt disposition promise good result realize previous sale agreement therefore make number financier banker whereby stipulate bond describe resumption act 1875 payable coin thirty year date bearing interest rate 4 pet cent per annum amount exchange gold receivable weight amount little gold deliver installment would complete delivery within six month date contract least amount furnish abroad also agree supply gold continuance contract would every mean power protect government gold withdrawal contract also provide congress would authorize issue bond payable term gold bear interest rate 3 per cent per annum might within ten day substitute par 4 per cent bond describe agreement day contract make term communicate congress special executive message state would save government gold bond bear 3 per cent interest authorize substitute mention contract congress decline grant necessary authority secure save contract unmodified carry result gold reserve amount 8th day july 1895 performance contract restore reserve check time withdrawal gold brought period restore confidence peace quiet business circle greatest possible value every interest affect people never slightest misgive concern wisdom propriety arrangement quite willing answer full share responsibility promotion believe avert disaster imminence fortunately time generally understood people though contract mention stayed time tide gold withdrawal good result could permanent recent withdrawal reduce reserve 8th day july 1895 long remain large enough render increase unnecessary matter conjecture though quite large withdrawal shipment immediate future predict quarter withdraw month november foregoing statement event condition develop fact increase bond indebtedness save gold reserve nearly start reserve february 1894 first bond issue though amount gold drawn treasury appear large gathered fact figure herein present actually much large considerable sum acquire treasury within several period state without issue bond 28th january 1895 report secretary treasury gold withdrawn hoard shipment year precede report january 1 1879 july 14 1890 period eleven year little withdrawn july 14 1890 date passage law increase purchase silver 1st day december 1895 within less five half year withdraw nearly make total drawn treasury gold since january 1 1879 date fix 1875 retirement united state note nearly gold thus withdrawn pay united state note yet every one still uncanceled ready service future gold depletion gold since creation 1890 pay treasury upon note give purchase silver government yet whole amount except little retired exchange silver request holder remain outstanding prepared join older experience ally future raid upon treasury gold reserve word government pay gold united state note still owe pay gold note give silver purchase without extinguish payment one dollar note add remind carry astound lug financial scheme government incur bond indebtedness establish gold reserve effort maintain annual interest charge bond indebtedness continuance present course may result bond issue suffer threatened sake supply gold foreign shipment facilitate hoard home situation exhibit certainly ought arrest attention provoke immediate legislative relief convince thorough practicable remedy trouble find retirement cancellation united state note commonly call greenback outstanding treasury note issued government payment silver purchase act 1890 believe could quite readily accomplished exchange note united state bond small well large denomination bear low rate interest bond thus increase desirability investment payment could well postpone period far remove present financial burden perplexity increase prosperity resource would easily meet insure cancellation note also provide way gold may add currency lieu feature plan authority give secretary treasury dispose bond abroad gold necessary complete contemplate redemption cancellation permit use proceeds bond take cancel note may treasury may receive government account increase bond debt involve plan would amply compensated renew activity enterprise business circle restore confidence home reinstate faith monetary strength abroad stimulation every interest industry would follow cancellation obligation afflict u event bond propose would stand extinguishment troublesome indebtedness path follow lurks menace unending bond indebtedness still undischarged aggravate every feature obligation necessary fund indebtedness would equal amount relieve since 1884 anticipation payment beyond requirement sink fund surplus revenue currency withdraw retirement united state note treasury note amount probably less might supply gold would use retirement increase circulation national bank though aggregate capital existence amount outstanding circulation base bond security amount authorize issue note amount 90 per cent bond deposit secure circulation event beyond amount capital stock oblige pay 1 per cent tax circulation issue think allow issue circulation equal par value bond deposit secure tax circulation reduce 1 per cent would undoubtedly meet expense government incurs account addition allow substitute deposit lieu bond require security circulation would issue purpose retire united state note treasury note bank already exist desire avail provision law thus modify could issue circulation addition already outstanding amount would nearly quite equal currency propose cancel rate confidently expect see existing national bank others organize avail propose encouragement issue circulation promptly fill vacuum supply every currency need always seem provision law regard capital national bank operate limitation location fail make proper compensation suppression state bank come near people section country readily furnish banking accommodation facility inconvenience embarrassment arise restriction location national bank might well remedied good adapt present system creation bank small community permit bank large capital establish branch locality would serve people regulate restrained secure safe conservative control management might necessity addition currency new issue bank circulation first glance indicate relieve maintain gold reserve condition constitute barometer solvency treasury longer foolish purveyor gold nation abroad speculation hoard citizen home expect see gold resume natural normal function business affair country cease object attract timid watch people excite sensitive imagination overlook fact cancellation treasury note issue act 1890 would leave treasury actual ownership sufficient silver include seigniorage coin nearly standard dollar worthy consideration whether might time time convert dollar fractional coin slowly put circulation judgment secretary treasury necessity country require whatever attempt enter upon fully appreciate fact careless easy descent reach dangerous depth ascent accomplish without laborious toil struggle shall wise realize financially ill restoration health may require heroic treatment unpleasant remedy present stage difficulty easy understand amount revenue receipt directly affect important question quantity money receive revenue payment kind money maintain ability continue sound financial condition consider government holding gold related soundness money affect national credit monetary strength gold reserve never impair bond ever issue replenish fear timidity concern ability continue gold payment part revenue pay gold could look gold receipt mean maintain safe reserve amount revenue would influential factor problem unfortunately circumstance might lend weight consideration entirely lack present predicament gold receive government payment revenue charge would revenues increase receipts treasury silver certificate consist united state note treasury note issue silver purchase form money useful government pay current ordinary expense quantity government possession least contribute toward give u kind safe financial stand condition build gold alone say note hold government use obtain gold reserve answer easy people draw gold treasury demand upon united state note treasury note proposition treasury demand draw gold people upon would regard day wonder amusement even could do nothing prevent thus part gold regain next day next hour presentation note receive exchange secretary treasury might use note take surplus revenue buy gold market course could without pay premium private holder gold unlike government parity maintain would restrain make best bargain possible furnished gold treasury moment secretary treasury buy gold term par would establish general universal premium upon thus break parity gold silver government pledge maintain open way new serious complication meantime premium would remain stationary absurd spectacle might present dealer sell gold government united state note treasury note hand immediately clamor return resale high premium may claim large revenue redundant receipt might favorably affect situation discussion afford opportunity retain note treasury receive thus prevent presentation gold retention useful ought least measurably permanent precisely prohibit far united state note concerned law 1878 forbid retirement statute many word provide note receive treasury belong united state shall pay kept circulation moreover readily see government could refuse pay united state note treasury note current transaction demand insist pay silver alone still maintain parity metal currency represent gold besides accumulation treasury currency kind exact people taxation justly regard evil proceed far without vigorous protest unjustifiable retention money business country denunciation scheme taxation prove unjust take earnings income citizen money much excess needs government support large sum gather kept treasury condition heretofore time surplus revenue lead government restore currency people purchase unmatured bond large premium large increase deposit national bank easily remember abuse treasury accumulation furnish persuasive argument favor legislation radically reduce tariff taxation perhaps suppose sufficient revenue receipt would sentimental way improve situation inspire confidence solvency allay fear pecuniary exhaustion yet struggle maintain gold reserve never apprehension ready ability pay way money question whether current receipt meet current expense enter estimate solvency course general state fund exclusive gold entirely immaterial foreign creditor investor debt could pay gold concern ability keep hand kind money july 1 1892 year half first bond issue replenish gold reserve net balance treasury exclusive reserve less gold reserve amount quieting feature situation stock gold begin rapidly fall fright supervene security hold abroad return sale debt owe abroad pressed payment meantime extensive shipment gold unfavorable indication cause restlessness fright among people home thereupon general state fund exclusive gold become also immaterial draw gold treasury hoard contingency plainly show large increase proportion gold withdrawn retain people time threaten incident progress fiscal year end june 30 1894 nearly gold withdrawn treasury send abroad fiscal year end june 30 1895 drawn ship leave large balance withdrawal account domestic hoarding inasmuch withdrawal gold result largely fright nothing apparent prevent continuance recurrence natural consequence except change financial method reassure frighten make desire gold less intense clear increase fix revenue unless gold satisfy whose anxiety gain gold government store therefore safe rely upon increase revenue cure present trouble possible suggestion increase revenue remedy difficulty consider may originate intimation distinct allegation bond issue ostensibly replenish gold reserve really issue supply insufficient revenue nothing truth bond issue obtain gold maintenance national credit show gold thus obtain drawn treasury upon united state note treasury note operation would promptly prevent possible note thus pass treasury become money government like ordinary government fund nothing use pay government expense need time bond issue consideration question pay expense government proceeds necessity consider question time bond issue safe surplus treasury ordinary operation exclusive gold reserve february 1894 first issue bond make surplus amounted november second issue make amount february 1895 bond third time issue surplus amounted amount besides secretary treasury authority whatever issue bond increase ordinary revenue pay current expense think confusion idea regard effect issue bond result withdrawal gold latter process former substitute treasury united state note treasury note gold increase amount money first instance subject ordinary government expenditure although law compelling increase purchase silver government pass 14th day july 1890 withdrawal gold treasury upon note give payment purchase begin october 1891 immediately follow date withdrawal upon note united state note increase largely continue extent since passage law thirteen time much gold take treasury upon united state note treasury note issue silver purchase thus withdraw eleven half year immediately prior thereto 1st day january 1879 specie payment resume neither unfair unjust charge large share present financial perplexity danger operation law 1878 1890 compel purchase silver government furnish new treasury obligation upon gold could withdraw increase fear overwhelm flood silver force descent silver payment even repeal law entirely cure evil existence endeavor make plain statement disorder condition currency present danger menace prosperity suggest way lead safer financial system constantly mind fact many countryman whose sincerity doubt insist cure ill threaten u may find single simple remedy free coinage silver contend mint shall throw open free unlimited independent coinage gold silver dollar full quality regardless action government full view fact ratio metal suggest call 100 cent worth gold gold dollar present standard 50 cent intrinsic worth silver silver dollar infinitely strong reason adduce hop action would secure u bimetallic currency move line parity experiment novel hazardous propose might well stagger believe stability imperative condition sound money government human contrivance act legislation ever able hold two metal together free coinage ratio appreciably different establish market world believe independent free coinage silver artificial ratio gold 16 1 would restore parity metal consequently coin oppose unsupported improbable theory general belief practice nation teach wise statesman economist world past present far conclusive run counter actual experience twice earlier history lawmaker attempt establish bimetallic currency undertake free coinage upon ratio accidentally vary actual relative value two metal 3 per cent case notwithstanding great difficulty cost transportation exist coin whose intrinsic worth undervalue ratio gradually surely disappeared circulation go country real value well recognize act congress impotent create equality natural cause decree even slight inequality twice recent history signally fail raise legislation value silver act congress pass 1878 government require twelve year expend annually least purchase silver bullion coinage act july 14 1890 still bolder effort increase amount silver government compel purchase force become buyer annually ounces practically entire product mine law silver rapidly steadily decline value prophecy express hope expectation congress lead passage act would reestablish maintain former parity two metal still fresh memory light experience accord experience nation certainly secure ground belief act congress could bridge inequality 50 per cent gold silver present ratio least possibility country less silver money world could action alone raise silver lose ratio gold attempt accomplish free coinage silver ratio differ widely actual relative value would signal complete departure gold circulation immediate large contraction circulate medium shrinkage real value monetary efficiency form currency settle level silver monometallism everyone receive fix salary every worker wage would find dollar hand ruthlessly scale point bitter disappointment pinch privation change standard silver monometallism would also bring collapse entire system credit base standard recognize adopt world business many time potent useful entire volume currency safely capable almost indefinite expansion meet growth trade enterprise struggle darkness uncertainty humiliation would increase consciousness part company enlighten progressive nation world desperately hopelessly strive meet stress modern commerce competition debase unsuitable currency association weak laggard nation silver alone standard value history warn u rash experiment threaten violent change monetary standard degradation currency past full lesson teach economic danger national immorality follow train experiment believe american people persuade sober deliberation jeopardize nation prestige proud stand encouraging financial nostrum yield false allurement cheap money realize must result weaken financial integrity rectitude thus far history devotedly cherish one trait true americanism country indebtedness whether owe government exist individual contract reference present standard decree act congress debt shall payable less valuable dollar within contemplation intention party contract would operate transfer fiat law without compensation amount property volume right interest almost incalculable advocate blind headlong plunge free coinage name bimetallism profess belief contrary experience could thus establish double standard concurrent circulation metal coinage certainly reckon cloudy standpoint present standard value standard civilize world permit bimetallism possible least within independent reach single nation however powerful nation may value gold standard steady almost universal commercial business use despise silver seek banishment wherever standard maintain side free unquestioned circulation volume silver currency sometimes equal sometimes even exceed amount maintain parity notwithstanding depreciation fluctuation intrinsic value silver vast difference standard value currency monetary use standard must necessarily fix certain currency may divers form various kind country gold currency circulation enlighten wise system finance secure benefit gold silver currency circulate medium keep standard stable currency par system standard also give free scope use expansion safe conservative credit indispensable broad grow commercial transaction well substitute actual use money fix stable standard maintain magnitude safety commercial transaction business require use money conveniently minimize every dollar fix stable value agency confident credit astonish capacity multiply financial work every unstable fluctuate dollar fails basis credit use begets gamble speculation undermines foundation honest enterprise venture express subject earnestness plainness speech rid belief lurk proposition free coinage silver strongly approve enthusiastically advocate multitude countryman serious menace prosperity insidious temptation people wander allegiance owe public private integrity distrust good faith sincerity press scheme imperfectly zeal submit thought upon momentous subject refrain beg reexamine view belief light patriotic reason familiar experience weigh consequence legislation effort invite even continue agitation subject add greatly difficulty dangerous financial situation already force upon u conclusion especially entreat people representative congress charge responsibility inaugurate measure safety prosperity common country promptly effectively consider ill critical financial plight suggest remedy judgment approves desire however assure congress prepared cooperate perfecting measure promise thorough practical relief gladly labor every patriotic endeavor interest guard welfare countryman respective place duty undertaken serve