refore made with a number of financiers and bankers whereby it was
stipulated that bonds described in the resumption act of 1875, payable
in coin thirty years after their date, bearing interest at the rate of
4 per cent per annum, and amounting to about $62,000,000, should be
exchanged for gold, receivable by weight, amounting to a little more
than $65,000,000.

This gold was to be delivered in such installments as would complete
its delivery within about six months from the date of the contract, and
at least one-half of the amount was to be furnished from abroad. It was
also agreed by those supplying this gold that during the continuance
of the contract they would by every means in their power protect the
Government against gold withdrawals. The contract also provided that
if Congress would authorize their issue bonds payable by their terms
in gold and bearing interest at the rate of 3 per cent per annum might
within ten days be substituted at par for the 4 per cent bonds described
in the agreement.

On the day this contract was made its terms were communicated to
Congress by a special Executive message,[27] in which it was stated that
more than $16,000,000 would be saved to the Government if gold bonds
bearing 3 per cent interest were authorized to be substituted for those
mentioned in the contract.

The Congress having declined to grant the necessary authority to secure
this saving, the contract, unmodified, was carried out, resulting in a
gold reserve amounting to $107,571,230 on the 8th day of July, 1895.
The performance of this contract not only restored the reserve, but
checked for a time the withdrawals of gold and brought on a period of
restored confidence and such peace and quiet in business circles as
were of the greatest possible value to every interest that affects our
people. I have never had the slightest misgiving concerning the wisdom
or propriety of this arrangement, and am quite willing to answer for
my full share of responsibility for its promotion. I believe it averted
a disaster the imminence of which was, fortunately, not at the time
generally understood by our people.

Though the contract mentioned stayed for a time the tide of gold
withdrawal, its good results could not be permanent. Recent withdrawals
have reduced the reserve from $107,571,230 on the 8th day of July, 1895,
to $79,333,966. How long it will remain large enough to render its
increase unnecessary is only matter of conjecture, t