ur people, has constrained
me to call together in extra session the people's representatives in
Congress, to the end that through a wise and patriotic exercise of the
legislative duty, with which they solely are charged, present evils may
be mitigated and dangers threatening the future may be averted.

Our unfortunate financial plight is not the result of untoward events
nor of conditions related to our natural resources, nor is it traceable
to any of the afflictions which frequently check national growth and
prosperity. With plenteous crops, with abundant promise of remunerative
production and manufacture, with unusual invitation to safe investment,
and with satisfactory assurance to business enterprise, suddenly
financial distrust and fear have sprung up on every side. Numerous
moneyed institutions have suspended because abundant assets were not
immediately available to meet the demands of frightened depositors.
Surviving corporations and individuals are content to keep in hand the
money they are usually anxious to loan, and those engaged in legitimate
business are surprised to find that the securities they offer for loans,
though heretofore satisfactory, are no longer accepted. Values supposed
to be fixed are fast becoming conjectural, and loss and failure have
invaded every branch of business.

I believe these things are principally chargeable to Congressional
legislation touching the purchase and coinage of silver by the General
Government.

This legislation is embodied in a statute passed on the 14th day of
July, 1890, which was the culmination of much agitation on the subject
involved, and which may be considered a truce, after a long struggle,
between the advocates of free silver coinage and those intending to be
more conservative.

Undoubtedly the monthly purchases by the Government of 4,500,000
ounces of silver, enforced under that statute, were regarded by those
interested in silver production as a certain guaranty of its increase in
price. The result, however, has been entirely different, for immediately
following a spasmodic and slight rise the price of silver began to fall
after the passage of the act, and has since reached the lowest point
ever known. This disappointing result has led to renewed and persistent
effort in the direction of free silver coinage.

Meanwhile not only are the evil effects of the operation of the present
law constantly accumulating, but the result to which its execution must