Government for the redemption of other notes, for this fund has already
been subjected to the payment of new obligations amounting to about
$150,000,000 on account of silver purchases, and has as a consequence
for the first time since its creation been encroached upon.

We have thus made the depletion of our gold easy and have tempted other
and more appreciative nations to add it to their stock. That the
opportunity we have offered has not been neglected is shown by the large
amounts of gold which have been recently drawn from our Treasury and
exported to increase the financial strength of foreign nations. The
excess of exports of gold over its imports for the year ending June 30,
1893, amounted to more than $87,500,000.

Between the 1st day of July, 1890, and the 15th day of July, 1893, the
gold coin and bullion in our Treasury decreased more than $132,000,000,
while during the same period the silver coin and bullion in the Treasury
increased more than $147,000,000. Unless Government bonds are to be
constantly issued and sold to replenish our exhausted gold, only to be
again exhausted, it is apparent that the operation of the
silver-purchase law now in force leads in the direction of the entire
substitution of silver for the gold in the Government Treasury, and that
this must be followed by the payment of all Government obligations in
depreciated silver.

At this stage gold and silver must part company and the Government must
fail in its established policy to maintain the two metals on a parity
with each other. Given over to the exclusive use of a currency greatly
depreciated according to the standard of the commercial world, we could
no longer claim a place among nations of the first class, nor could our
Government claim a performance of its obligation, so far as such an