Rensselaer Republican, Volume 17, Number 26, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 March 1885 — POLITICAL. [ARTICLE]

POLITICAL.

The Democratic State Convention of Michigan met at Bay City and nominated A. B. Moise, of lonia, for Supreme Judge, and Charles R. Whitmau, of Ypsilanti, for Regent of the University. The Greenback State Convention met at Lansing, and a telegraphic bargain was made with the Democrats to nominate M. W. Field for Regent, thus completing the fusion ticket .. .A close observer of events at Springfield, 111., says the Chicago Inter Ocean, predicts that neither Gen. Logan nor Col. Morrison can be elected Senator. The gentleman believes that in case a vacancy occurs Gov. • Oglesby will appoint Mi.tou Hay, of Springfield. The joiAt resolution to snbmit a prohibition amendment to the people was defeated in the Michigan Senate, 18 Republicans voting yea and 13 Fusionists voting nay. It required a two-thirds vote to pass the resolution. In the House a bill was passed restoring the death penalty for murder in the first degree. Following i 6 the reply addressed by Mr. Cleveland to the silver coinage advocates in Congress: To the Hon. A J. Warner and others, members of the Forty-eighth Congress: Gentlemen, the letter which I have had the honor to receive froni yon invites and, indeed, obliges me to (rive expression to some grave public necessities, although in advance of the moment when they would become objects of my official care and partial responsibility. Your solicitude that my judgment shall have been carefully and deliberately formed is entirely just, and I accept the suggestion in the same friendly spirit in which it has been made. It is also fully justified by the nature of the financial crisis which, under t!»e operation of the act of Congress of Feb. 28, 1878, is now close at hand. By compliance with the requt>em>nts of that law all vaults in the Federal Treasury have been and are heaped fall of silver coins whioh are now worth less than 85 per oent. of the gold dollar prescribed as the unit of value* in section 14 of the act of Feb. 12,1873, and w ich, with silver certificates rep-esentlng such coin, are receivable for all pnblic does, being thus receivable, while also constantly increasing In anantity at the ra e of $ A, <jOQ,<juo per year, it has followed of necessity that the flow of cold into the Treasury has been steadily diminishing. Silver aad silver certificates have displaced and are now dis-

placing gold, and the sum of gold In the Federal Treasury, now availably fqr the pavmcnt of the kpld obligation of the United States and for thn redemption of United States notes called “greenbaok," if not already encroached upon, is perl low ~lv near snch encroachment. These are facta which, as they do not admit of difference of opinion, call for no argument. They have been forewarned to us In the official reports of everv Secretary of the Treasury from 1-7 H till now. They are mainly affirmed in the last December report of the present Secretary Of the Treasury to the Speaker of the present House of Representatives. They appear in the official documents of this Congress, and in tho record* of the New York Clearing House, of which the Treasury is a member, and through which the talk of receipts and payments of the Federal Government and the country pass. These being the facts, onr present condition our danger, and onr duty to avert that danger, would seem to be plain. I hope you concur with me and with a great majority of our fellow-citizens, in deeming it most desirable at the present junotnre to maintain and continue In use the mass of onr gold coin as well as the mass of silver already coined This is possible by the pre-ent suspension of the purchase and coinage of silver. I am not aware that by any other method it is possible. It Is of momentous importance to prevent the two metals parting company, to prevent increasing displacement of gold by increasing the coinage of Bilver, to prevent the disnse of gold in the custom-houses of the United States in the daily business of the people, to prevent the ultimate expulsion of gold by silver. Snch a ‘financial crisis as these events would certainly were it now to follow upon so long a period of commercial depression, woul<4 thvolve the people of every city and every-State th the Union in prolonged and disastrous trouble. The revival of business enterprise and prosperity so ardently desired and apparently so near would be hopelessly postponed. Gold would be withdrawn to its hoarding places, and an unprecedented contraction in the actnat volume of our currency would speedily take place. The saddest of all, in every workshop. mill, factory, store, and on every railroad and farm, the wages of the laborer, already depressed, would suffer still further depression by the scaling down of the purchasing power of every so-called dollar paid into the hand of toil. From these impending calamities it is surely the most patriotic and grateful duty of the representatives of the people to deliver them, I am, gentlemen, with sincere respect, your fellow citizen, Gkoveb Cleveland. .. Albany, Feb. 24.