Grover Cleveland: Special Session Message to Congress on the Economic Crisis

Glossary

• chargeable to to be blamed on
• free silver coinage the right to coin U.S. dollars in silver as well as gold, an issue that dominated the politics of Cleveland’s time
• gold reserve gold held by federal reserve banks as a means of maintaining economic stability
• Government bonds essentially an I.O.U. from a government, which sells the bonds to investors with a promise to redeem them at a certain time and at a certain interest rate
• parity equality
• the silver-purchase law now in force the Sherman Silver Purchase Act of 1890, which was repealed in 1893
• tariff taxes on imports
• Treasury notes securities sold to investors by the federal government to finance its activities
• your honorable body Congress