ession on August 7, 1893--The
President's Apprehension Concerning the Financial Situation--Message
from the Executive Shows an Alarming Condition of the National
Finances--Attributed to the Purchase and Coinage of Silver--Letter
to Joseph H. Walker, a Member of the Conference Committee on the
"Sherman Act"--A Bill I Have Never Regretted--Brief History of the
Passage of the Law of 1893--My Speech in the Senate Well Received
--Attacked by the "Silver Senators"--General Debate on the Financial
Legislation of the United States--Views of the "Washington Post"
on My Speech of October 17--Repeal Accomplished by the Republicans
Supporting a Democratic Administration--The Law as Enacted--Those
Who Uphold the Free Coinage of Silver--Awkward Position of the
Democratic Members--My Efforts in Behalf of McKinley in Ohio--His
Election by 81,000 Plurality--Causes of Republican Victories
Throughout the Country.

On the 30th of June, 1893, the President issued a proclamation
convening Congress in extraordinary session on the 7th of August.
In reciting the reasons for this unusual call, only resorted to in
cases of extreme urgency, he said that "the distrust and apprehension
concerning the financial situation which pervades all business
circles have already caused great loss and damage to our people,
and threaten to cripple our merchants, stop the wheels of manufacture,
bring distress and privation to our farmers, and withhold from our
workingmen the wage of labor;" that "the policy which the executive
branch of government finds embodied in unwise laws which must be
executed until repealed by Congress;" and that Congress was convened
"to the end that the people may be relived, through legislation,
from present and impending danger and distress."

Congress met in pursuance of the proclamation, and on the 8th of
August the President sent a message to each House, in which he
depicted an alarming condition of the national finances, and
attributed it to congressional legislation touching the purchase
and coinage of silver by the general government. He said:

"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."

He ascribed the evil of the times to the monthly purchase of
4,500,000 ounces of si