crop we have
ever gathered in this country since the world was born.

'In every part of our country, with but few exceptions, and only
as to certain crops, are crops greater than ever before, and you
will have to buy and sell them.

'The only point of an unpleasant nature, that occurs to me, affecting
the industrial interests which you so largely represent, is the
misfortune which has befallen large portions of the south, where
yellow fever, one of the worst enemies of human life, now has spread
a pall of distress among our southern brethren. I am glad, fellow-
citizens, that you are doing something to contribute to the relief
of their sufferings, because business men, above all others, are
to be humane and generous to those who are in distress.

'That this will, to some extent, affect the business of gathering
cotton, I have no doubt will occur to you all, but you can only
hope that it will be but a brief season until the frost will
dissipate the distress of the south and the cotton crop may be
safely gathered.

'There is another thing I can congratulate you upon as business
men, that is--our currency is soon to be based upon the solid money
of the world. I do not want to talk politics to you, and I do not
intend to do so, but I suppose it is the common desire of all men
engaged in business to have a stable, certain standard of value,
and although you and I may differ as to the best means of obtaining
it, and as to whether the means that have been adopted have been
the proper means, yet I believe the merchants of Cincinnati desire
that their money shall be as good as the money of any country with
which we trade. And that, I think, will soon be accomplished.

'Now, gentlemen, I do not know that there is any other topic on
which you desire to hear from me. I take a hopeful view of our
business affairs. I think all the signs of the times are hopeful.
I think it a hopeful fact that, after this week, there will be an
end of bankruptcies, that all men who believe that they are not in
a condition to pay their debts will have taken the benefit of the
law provided for their relief, and, after Saturday next, we will
all stand upon a better basis--on the basis of our property and
our deserved credit.

'It has been the habit, you know, of one of your able and influential
journals to charge me with all the bankruptcies of the country.
If a grocer could not sell goods enough to pay expenses, and a
saloon keeper could