bted whether resumption would be effective without a gradual
retirement of United States notes, a measure that Congress would
not agree to. Congress repealed even the limited retirement of
such notes provided for by the resumption act. Secretary Morrill,
of Maine, my immediate predecessor, was in hearty sympathy with
the policy of Congress, of which he had been a useful Senator, and
but for his failing health would have been an efficient secretary.
Upon my assuming the duties of secretary, and for some time before,
he had been confined by illness to his lodgings in Washington.
The treasury department was then well organized. Most of the
principal officers had been long in the service. But few changes
were made by President Hayes or by myself, and only as vacancies
occurred or as incompetency was demonstrated. The following loan
contract was in force at the beginning of my administration of the
treasury department:

"This agreement, entered into this 24th day of August, in the year
of our Lord, 1876, between the Secretary of the Treasury of the
United States of America, of the first part, and Messrs. August
Belmont & Co., of New York, in behalf of Messrs. N. M. Rothschild
& Sons, of London, England, and associates, and Messrs. J. & W.
Seligman & Co., of New York, for themselves and associates, and
Messrs. Drexel, Morgan & Co., on behalf of Messrs. J. S. Morgan &
Co., of London, England, and Messrs. Morton, Bliss & Co., of New
York, representing the First National Bank of the city of New York,
the American Exchange National Bank of New York, the Merchants'
National Bank of New York, the Third National Bank of New York,
Messrs. Kuhn, Loeb & Co., of New York, the Bank of New York National
Banking Association, and Messrs. Morton, Rose & Co., of London,
and themselves, of the second part:

"Witnesseth, That the said Messrs. August Belmont & Co. of New
York, on behalf of Messrs. N. M. Rothschild & Sons and associates,
hereby agrees to purchase from the Secretary of the Treasury sixteen
million five hundred thousand dollars ($16,500,000) of the United
States bonds known as the four and a half per cent. funded loan of
1891, issued under the acts of July 14, 1870, and January 20, 1871;
and that Messrs. J. & W. Seligman & Co., for themselves and their
associates, hereby agree to purchase from the Secretary of the
Treasury six million seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars
($6,750,000) of the bonds hereinbefore described;