y, with some alterations and omissions, in
the New York _Times_ of the 25th of August. It appears to have been
the purpose of the parties interested to mislead the _Times_ as to the
authorship of the article, and they secured the agency of Mr. James
McHenry, a prominent English capitalist, who called at the _Times_
office, and presented the article to Mr. Bigelow, the editor, as the
opinion of a person in the intimate confidence of the President. The
article was put in type and double leaded. When so prepared,
suspicions were aroused, and the financial editor, Mr. Norvell, made
very important corrections, taking care to omit sentences and
paragraphs that contained explicit statements as to the purposes of the
President. Some of the phrases omitted were in these words: "It may
be that further purchases of bonds will be made directly with gold."
"As gold accumulates, the less would be the premium upon it. High
prices for gold before the sale of our products would cause lower
prices of gold after the sale of products."

Among the statements made which were preserved in the article as
printed finally were these: "The President evidently intends to pay
off the 5-20s as rapidly as he may in gold"; "So far as current
movements of the Treasury are concerned, until crops are moved it is
not likely Treasury gold will be sold for currency to be locked up."

Following the appearance of this article, I received a letter from Mr.
Gould, dated the 30th of August, in which this sentence appears: "If
the New York _Times_ correctly reflects your financial policy during
the next three or four months; namely, to unloose the currency balance
at the Treasury or keep it at the lowest possible figure, and also to
refrain during the same period from selling or putting gold on the
market, thus preventing a depression of the premium at a season of the
year when the bulk of our agricultural products have to be marketed,
then I think the country peculiarly fortunate in having a financial
head who can take a broad view of the situation, and who realizes the
importance of settling the large balance of debt against us by the
export of our agricultural and mining products instead of bonds and
gold."

Of my reply to that letter, the committee say: "The brief and formal
reply of the Secretary gave Gould no clew to the purpose of the
Government."

Under date of September 20, I received a letter from Gould to which I
made no reply. Aside fro