78, the secretary
entered into a contract with certain bankers in New York and London
--the parties to the previous contract of June 9, 1877, already
communicated to Congress--for the sale of $50,000,000 four and a
half per cent. bonds for resumption purposes. The bonds were sold
at a premium of one and a half per cent. and accrued interest, less
a commission of one-half of one per cent. The contract has been
fulfilled, and the net proceeds, $50,500,000, have been paid into
the treasury in gold coin. The $5,500,000 coin paid on the Halifax
award have been replaced by the sale of that amount of four per
cent. bonds sold for resumption purposes, making the aggregate
amount of bonds sold for these purposes, $95,500,000, of which
$65,000,000 were four and a half per cent. bonds, and $30,500,000
four per cent. bonds. To this has been added the surplus revenue
from time to time. The amount of coin held in the treasury on the
23rd day of November last, in excess of coin sufficient to pay all
accrued coin liabilities, was $141,888,100, and constitutes the
coin reserve prepared for resumption purposes. This sum will be
diminished somewhat on the 1st of January next, by reason of the
large amount of interest accruing on that day in excess of the coin
revenue received meanwhile.

"In anticipation of resumption, and in view of the fact that the
redemption of United States notes is mandatory only at the office
of the assistant treasurer in the city of New York, it was deemed
important to secure the co-operation of the associated banks of
that city in the ready collection of drafts on those banks and in
the payment of treasury drafts held by them. A satisfactory
arrangement has been made by which all drafts on the banks held by
the treasury are to be paid at the clearing house, and all drafts
on the treasury held by them are to be paid to the clearing house
at the office of the assistant treasurer, in United States notes;
and, after the 1st of January, United States notes are to be received
by them as coin. This will greatly lessen the risk and labor of
collections both to the treasury and the banks.

"Every step in these preparations for resumption has been accompanied
with increased business and confidence. The accumulation of coin,
instead of increasing its price, as was feared by many, has steadily
reduced its premium on the market. The depressing and ruinous
losses that followed the panic of 1873 had not diminished