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. By
my direction our consul-general at Paris has given close attention to
the proceedings of the congress of the Latin Union, in order to indicate
our interest in its objects and report its action.

It may be said in brief, as the result of these efforts, that the
attitude of the leading powers remains substantially unchanged since the
monetary conference of 1881, nor is it to be questioned that the views
of these governments are in each instance supported by the weight of
public opinion.

The steps thus taken have therefore only more fully demonstrated the
uselessness of further attempts at present to arrive at any agreement on
the subject with other nations.

In the meantime we are accumulating silver coin, based upon our own
peculiar ratio, to such an extent, and assuming so heavy a burden to be
provided for in any international negotiations, as will render us an
undesirable party to any future monetary conference of nations.

It is a significant fact that four of the five countries composing the
Latin Union mentioned in our coinage act, embarrassed with their silver
currency, have just completed an agreement among themselves that no more
silver shall be coined by their respective Governments and that such as
has been already coined and in circulation shall be redeemed in gold
by the country of its coinage. The resort to this expedient by these
countries may well arrest the attention of those who suppose that we
can succeed without shock or injury in the attempt to circulate upon
its merits all the silver we may coin under the provisions of our
silver-coinage act.

The condition in which our Treasury may be placed by a persistence in
our present course is a matter of concern to every patriotic citizen who
does not desire his Government to pay in silver such of its obligations
as should be paid in gold. Nor should our condition be such as to oblige
us, in a prudent management of our affairs, to discontinue the calling