the Department of the Interior, _vice_ Horace A. Taylor.

GROVER CLEVELAND.




SPECIAL SESSION MESSAGE.


EXECUTIVE MANSION, _August 8, 1893_.

_To the Congress of the United States_:

The existence of an alarming and extraordinary business situation,
involving the welfare and prosperity of all our people, has constrained
me to call together in extra session the people's representatives in
Congress, to the end that through a wise and patriotic exercise of the
legislative duty, with which they solely are charged, present evils may
be mitigated and dangers threatening the future may be averted.

Our unfortunate financial plight is not the result of untoward events
nor of conditions related to our natural resources, nor is it traceable
to any of the afflictions which frequently check national growth and
prosperity. With plenteous crops, with abundant promise of remunerative
production and manufacture, with unusual invitation to safe investment,
and with satisfactory assurance to business enterprise, suddenly
financial distrust and fear have sprung up on every side. Numerous
moneyed institutions have suspended because abundant assets were not
immediately available to meet the demands of frightened depositors.