ngements for starting that you would be in
this city early this week, I would have remained to meet you. I am
satisfied that on your arrival you will be met by the bulls and bears
of Wall Street, and probably by merchants, too, to induce you to sell
gold, or pay the November interest in advance, on the one side, and to
hold fast on the other. The fact is, a desperate struggle is now
taking place, and each party wants the Government to help him out. I
write this letter to advise you of what I think you may expect, to put
you on your guard.

I think, from the lights before me, I would move on without change
until the present struggle is over. If you want to write me this week,
my address will be Washington, Pennsylvania. I would like to hear
your experience with the factions, at all events, if they give you time
to write. No doubt you will have a better chance to judge than I,
for I have avoided general discussion on the subject.

Yours truly,
U. S. GRANT.

Hon. GEORGE S. BOUTWELL,
_Secretary of Treasury_.

At a meeting, which was accidental, as far as the President was
concerned, on board one of Fisk and Gould's Fall River steamers, when
he was on his way to Boston, in June of that year, to attend the Peace
Jubilee, an attempt was made to commit General Grant to the policy of
holding gold. I was present on the trip with the President. What
happened on the boat may be best given in the language of Mr. Fisk and
Mr. Gould. Mr. Fisk, in his testimony before the committee, said:

"On our passage over to Boston with General Grant, we endeavored to
ascertain what his position in regard to the finances was. We went
down to supper about nine o'clock, intending while we were there to
have this thing pretty thoroughly talked up, and, if possible, to
relieve him from any idea of putting the price of gold down."

Mr. Gould's account before the committee was as follows:

"At this supper the question came up about the state of the country,
the crops, prospects ahead, etc. The President was a listener; the
other gentlemen were discussing. Some were in favor of Boutwell's
selling gold, and some were opposed to it. After they had all
interchanged their views, some one asked the President what his view
was. He remarked that he thought there was a certain amount of
fictitiousness about the prosperity of the country, and that the
bubble might as well be tapped in one way as another. . . . We
supposed from that conve