was realized $58,538,500, with which the fund was increased
to $111,142,021 on the 4th day of December, 1894.

Again disappointment awaited the anxious hope for relief. There was not
even a lull in the exasperating withdrawals of gold. On the contrary,
they grew larger and more persistent than ever. Between the 4th day of
December, 1894, and early in February, 1895, a period of scarcely more
than two months after the second reenforcement of our gold reserve by
the sale of bonds, it had lost by such withdrawals more than $69,000,000
and had fallen to $41,340,181. Nearly $43,000,000 had been withdrawn
within the month immediately preceding this situation.

In anticipation of impending trouble I had on the 28th day of January,
1895, addressed a communication[26] to the Congress fully setting forth
our difficulties and dangerous position and earnestly recommending that
authority be given the Secretary of the Treasury to issue bonds bearing
a low rate of interest, payable by their terms in gold, for the purpose
of maintaining a sufficient gold reserve and also for the redemption and
cancellation of outstanding United States notes and the Treasury notes
issued for the purchase of silver under the law of 1890. This
recommendation did not, however, meet with legislative approval.

In February, 1895, therefore, the situation was exceedingly critical.
With a reserve perilously low and a refusal of Congressional aid,
everything indicated that the end of gold payments by the Government
was imminent. The results of prior bond issues had been exceedingly
unsatisfactory, and the large withdrawals of gold immediately succeeding
their public sale in open market gave rise to a reasonable suspicion
that a large part of the gold paid into the Treasury upon such sales was
promptly drawn out again by the presentation of United States notes or
Treasury notes, and found its way to the hands of those who had only
temporarily parted with it in the purchase of bonds.

In this emergency, and in view of its surrounding perplexities, it
became entirely apparent to those upon whom the struggle for safety was
devolved not only that our gold reserve must, for the third time in less
than thirteen months, be restored by another issue and sale of bonds
bearing a high rate of interest and badly suited to the purpose, but
that a plan must be adopted for their disposition promising better
results than those realized on previous sales. An agreement was
the