But
it is perfectly apparent that a line of action in regard to our currency
can not wisely be settled upon or persisted in without considering the
attitude on the subject of other countries with whom we maintain
intercourse through commerce, trade, and travel. An acknowledgment of
this fact is found in the act by virtue of which our silver is
compulsorily coined. It provides that--
The President shall invite the governments of the countries composing
the Latin Union, so called, and of such other European nations as he may
deem advisable, to join the United States in a conference to adopt a
common ratio between gold and silver for the purpose of establishing
internationally the use of bimetallic money and securing fixity of
relative value between those metals.
This conference absolutely failed, and a similar fate has awaited all
subsequent efforts in the same direction. And still we continue our
coinage of silver at a ratio different from that of any other nation.
The most vital part of the silver-coinage act remains inoperative and
unexecuted, and without an ally or friend we battle upon the silver
field in an illogical and losing contest.
To give full effect to the design of Congress on this subject I have
made careful and earnest endeavor since the adjournment of the last
Congress.
To this end I delegated a gentleman well instructed in fiscal science
to proceed to the financial centers of Europe and, in conjunction
with our ministers to England, France, and Germany, to obtain a full
knowledge of the attitude and intent of those governments in respect of
the establishment of such an international ratio as would procure free
coinage of both metals at the mints of those countries and our own.
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