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Show SAM. UK I' j .5. TILDES. His teller of Aecqi1;tix-. Ai.haNY, July tU. 1 S7i. (,'rn!l:m-i: When 1 hrnl thu lninor to rureivo the pi'monn delivery til your letliT en WAvU nf the tii-iiio-onitiR nntionul coiivciimm, heltl nn the 2'Jlh dny of Juno m .t. l-ouiw, ml vising mo of my iiomiinitioti nn tin' oiviulidiiio of the constituency repre-stMUl repre-stMUl hv that boilv fnr the ollU e of pn-xKlentol the United Suicw, J tiwered that ot my c-nrlicni cotirom enre, tin (I in conformity with iwtiRe, I would prcpf.ro ami transmit to you my iieo-punee. 1 now aviiil niym-ll of the rirnt interval in uinivoidahlo oc cupulinnd to fu Hi I Unit onntimciiL, Tho convention, bsforo nniking ito mmiiniitions, sidopttxl :i declnrnlion of principles wide!), tin a whole, eouina to me h wibo exposition ot THE NHCKSdlTIEd OF OLMt COUNTRY and of reforms needed to bruit; I'M' It government to i' true functions, to renloro llio purity of the julininH' ra-lion ra-lion and lo renew the prosperity of tlie people; but some ol these, reforms .iri ao u yent that they claim more ;!um a p.isiu approval. Tuo tui-eessity tui-eessity of ruforin in tho publio expense, ex-pense, federal, atat and municip tl, and thtj modca of federal luxation, lnive justified all Hie prominence iven to it iu the uechmuioiLof tho Ht. Ixmis convention. The prosmit deprebtun in nil business and indns- I in s ol tin- people which is depriving , labor ot employment and carry inn want iuto so in any Iwinea has principnl c-iLiae iu execaa'tve government govern-ment consuuipti m under illusions of specious prosperity, engendered by a (alse policy. FEDEltAL GOVERNMENT WASTE OF CAPITAL CAP-ITAL hac biren Roing on ever uinco 1SG5, which could only end in univerdul ilia-aater. ilia-aater. Federal um a in the last eleven years reach the gigantic sum of forty-live forty-live hundred millions Local taxation hub amounted to two thfWU us much more. Thu vast areyale is not les tlmn seventy five hiindnd millions. T e enormous taxation that followed the civil conflict hud greatly impaired our agyreyaie wealth, and had nmde prompt reduction ol expense indi-- omsioie, hni w.i3 am'avnteu by moat unscietil ti? mid ill-ailjiifti-d methoos of liixalion llial increased tlie sacri-ucei sacri-ucei ol the people lar beyond the reeeipw of tliy treasury. It was aggravated by ft financial policy wuich tendtd lo diminish the energy, rtbili and economy ol production, and ihe frugality ol privnle coudiiniption, and induced a miscalculation in basi-ue.-s unii an unreiuunerutive use ol capital and labor. Even in prosperous prosper-ous times the daily wants of industrious indus-trious communities pres closely upon Iheir daily earnings. The margin of possible national savings is at test a small per centage oq uatioual earnings earn-ings yet now lor these eleven years government consumption has been a larger portion of national earnings than the whole people can possibly save, even in prosperous limes, for all new investments. The consequences ol these errors are now present in public calamity, but they were never doubtful, never invisible. 1'hey were necawary and inevitable in-evitable and were foreseen and depicted de-picted when the waves of that Geiiti-ous Geiiti-ous prosperity ran highest. In a speech made by me on the 24th of September, 1SCS, it was said of these tales, They bear heavily on every man's means, upon eery industry and upon every business in the country, coun-try, and-year by year they use destined des-tined to press more heavily unless we arrest tho system that gives use to them. It was comparatively easy when values were doubling under repeated issued ot leu! tender paper money to pay out of tbe frotn ot our growing and apparent wealth, these uxew, but when values recede and sink towards their national scale, the taxgatherer takes from us not only our income, not only our pnfiuj, but also a portion of our capital. X do ' not wish to exaggerate or alarm, I simply say that we cannot a fiord the costly policy of the rad-cul majority ol 0-.ngrets; we cannot aitord that policy towards tlie soutu; we cannot afford the magnificent and oppressive cen tralism into which our government is being converted; we cannot aflbrd the present magnificent scale of taxation. taxa-tion. To the secretary of the treasury, I out-lir i,. lSlln " Ihppa ii nr.1 ft laid early in lSbo, " there is not a c oyal road tor government more than , 1 or an individual or corporation, r IV hat you want to do now is to cut C iown your expanses and live within S four income. I would give all the egerdemain of finance and financier- ( ng; I would give the whole of i for ( :ue old home-made maxim, 'live i within your income.' " ' This reform wdl be resisted at every step, but it must be pressed persi.-it- 1 enily. We nee to day tbe immediate " representatives of the people in one i branch ot congress while struggling i to redueo expenditures, compelled to con trout tho menace ol the senate and executive, that uuless objectionable objection-able appropriations be consented to the operations of government thereunder there-under shall sutler detriment or cease. 1 tn my judgment an amendment to the constitution ought to be devised separating into distinct bii!3 appropriations appro-priations lor various departments of public Bervice, and excluding from each bill all appropriations for othor objects and al independent legislation. legisla-tion. Iu thft way alone can the ro visory power of each ot the two lious-s and of the executive be preserved pre-served and exempted Iroru moral distress, dis-tress, which often compels assent to objectionable appropriations rather than stop the wheels of government An accetisory cause, enhancing distress dis-tress in busmefs, is to be found in the systematic oud unsupporlnble mis-government mis-government imposed upon the stales W tbo south Besides the ordinary i fleets of ignorant and dishonest ad-liiDistration, ad-liiDistration, it has infiicted on them enormous issues ot frauduliint bonds, tho scanty avails ot which were wasted or stolen, and the oxiatenco of which is a public discredit, dis-credit, tending to bankruptcy or repudiation. re-pudiation. Taxes, generally opores sive, in some instances baveconfis cated the entire income of property, and totally destroyed its market value. It islmpossibie that Uieae evils should uot react on the prosperity of the whole country. Nobler motives 0' humanity concur with the material interest of all in requiring every ob tttacle to be removed to a complete and durable reconciliation between kindred populations once unnaturally, estranged, on tbo basis recogmien by the St. Louie platform of the con-etitu.ion con-etitu.ion of tbe Uoiled 8uub, with iu amendments universally accepted as a fiuul seit lament oi conooversies which i engendered civil war; but in aid of a reaoit eo beneficent, ihe moral inllu-enco inllu-enco of good citizen as well ai every eovernment authority, ought to be tru.sled not alono to maintain their just eiiiality beloro the law, but likewise like-wise to Gstfti'llHli a Ronlial fraternity and good will among citizens, whatever what-ever their race or color, who are now uuited in tho one destiny of a coin in in (te'i government. If the duly nliall bn acsined to mo 1 nhould not lull lo exercise the powers with which ihe laws and constitution of our coun-hy coun-hy cioi.nj its tiliitif magistrate, and to protect it citizen, whatever their louuei cond.iiuii, i.t overy political and personal right Kl form i- necessary, declares thu St. L n ;s convt iition, lo eatuhlish a sound currency, restore public credit and maintain the nuti-j-ml honor, and it goes nn lo demand a judicious tyttcm f puhlic ecoiioiiKca, by ollluial re-ireiicliinrut re-ireiicliinrut and by u wise finance, whicli snail enuble tlm nuHon soon to awiire f lie whole word of its perfect ability and its perfeet rend mess lo meet any of its promises at tlie call of the creditor, entitled lo payment. The object demanded by the convention conven-tion is H r SUMPTION OF SPECIF PAYMENTS' on legal tender notes of the Uuited StiUes that would not only renlore public credit and maintain national honor, Lut it would establish a sound currency for the people. The methods by which this object is to be pursued and the means by which it is lo lie ittained are disclosed by what theci ivenlion demanded for 'he future, fu-ture, anil by what it denounced in tlie past. The resumption of epecie payments pay-ments by the government of the United Stales on its legal tender notes, would establish specie payments by all banks on all their notes. An offi cial statement made on the 12th of May, dhows tbe amount ot b-ink notee tu be three hundred million dollais, less- twenty million dollars held by themselves. Against thee two hundred and eighty millions of note, the banks held one hundred and forty-one ui ill ions of legal lender notes, or more thuu 50 per cent, of their amount, but they also held on deposit in the federal treasury as security se-curity for the-e notes, bonds of the United States worth in gold about three hundred and Bixty millions, available, and current in all foreign money markets. In resuming, thu banks, even it were possible for their notes to be presented Kir payment, u-mu 1,1 Kiv, ti l.nnilrtvl millinrw sp cie. funds to pay two hundred and eighty millions of notes, without contracting con-tracting their loans to their customers or calling on any private director direc-tor tor piyment. Suspended banks undertaking to resume have usually been obliged lo collect tioiu needy borrowers the means to redeem excessive issues and to provide reserves, A vague idea of d ist ress is therefore often associated with toe process of resumption, but tlie conditions which caused distress in former instances do not now exist. The government has only to make ; good its own promises and the banks can take care ot themselves without distressing anybody.- Government is, theiefore, the sole delinquent. Tbe amount ot legal tender notes of the United States now outstanding is less than thirty seven millions of dollars, , besides thirty-four millions fractional currency. How shall government make these notes at all times as good as specie? It has to provide in reference refer-ence to the mass which would be kept iu use by the wauls of business a central reserve of coin adequate to the adjustment of temporary lluctua-lions lluctua-lions of international balances, and as a guarantee against transient loans artificially crpated by a panic or by speculation; it has also to provide for 'he payment in coin ot such fractional frac-tional currency as maybe presented lor redemption, and such inconsiderable inconsider-able portions ot legal tender? at individuals indi-viduals may from time to time desire to converi lor epecial use or in order to lay by in coin their little stores of money. To make the coin now in the treasury available tor the objects of this reserve, to gradually strengthen streng-then and enlarge that reserve and to provido for such other ' exceptional demands for coin as may arise, does not seem to me a work of difficulty. If wisely planned and pursued it ought not to cost any sacrifice to the business ol the oountry. It should, on the .contrary, revivo hope and confidence. T..ecoin in the treasury on the UOth of June, including what is, held against coin certificates! amounted to nearly seventy four millions. Tho current of precious metals which has floWn' out ot our country for eleven vears. trom 'Julv 1, 1 805, to Juno 30, 1876, averaniog i nearly $70,000,000 a year, was- $SBG,-000,001) $SBG,-000,001) iu the whole period, of 'which I $017,000,000 were the ' product of our t own mines. To amasa the requisite i quantity by intercepting from ; the I current flowing out of the country and by acquiring from stocks which : exist abroad without disturbing the equilibrium of foreign money markets, mar-kets, is a result lo be easily worked out by practical knowledge and judg- i ment. With respect to whatever surplus of legal tenders .the wants of business may tail to keep in use and which, iu order lo save interest, will be retained lor redemption, they can lither be pnid or they can be funded. Whether they continue as currency or are absorbed iuto the vast mass ol securities held as investments, in merely a question of the rate of interest inter-est they will draw, Even f they were'io remain in the present form, and government weie to agree to pay on tbem a rale of interest making them a disirable investment, they would cease to circulate, and taKe their place with government, state, municipal and other corporate and private bonds, ot which a thousand million exist among us. In the perfect per-fect ease with whicn they oan be changed from currency into invest ment lies the only danger to be guarded against. In the adoption of general measures intended to remove a clearly ascertained surplus- That is tho withdrawal of any which is not a pemiauenl excess beyond the wants ot business. Even more mischievous wouid be any moasure which affected public imagination with the fear of an apprehended scarcity in acom munity where credit is so much used. The fluctuations of values and vicissitudes vicissi-tudes in business are largely caused by the temporary beliefs ot men, even Oeforo these -beliefs can conform to ascertained realities. The amount of necessary currency at a glv( u time cannot be determined arbitrarily ,aud should not be assumed on conjecture. That is, the amount is subject W permanent and temporary changes. An enlargement of it, which seemed to be durable, happened at the he-ginning he-ginning of lha civil war by a substituted substi-tuted use of currency in the place ol 'individual credits. It varies with e'erUin states of bueiaewa. Jt fluctuates fluctu-ates at different seasons. For instance: Wneu buyers of grain and other agricultural product begin t?ieir operations, they usually need to bor row capital or circulating ciedits, by which to make purchases, and want t: ene funds iu currency, capable of being distributed in small Bums among uumorous sellers. The additional addi-tional nued of currency at such times is o or more p:r cent, of tiio whole i volumo, anil if a surplus beyond what i is rcquircil for ordinary iho does not ' happen to have been on hand at the money centres, a scarcity of currency ensues, and also a stringency in the loan market. It was in re lure nee lo such experience) that in a disciiHsiou ot this subject in my annual meMage to the Now York legislature in January, Janu-ary, 1875, the suggestion was made that the federal government is bound to redeem overy portion of its issues which the public does not wish to use. Having assumed to mouopolizo the supply of currency, and enacted exclusions against everybody else, it is bound lo luruiah all which the wants of business require. The system sys-tem should passively allow the volume of circulating credits to ebb and flow according to the ever-changing wants ot business. It should imitate as c'oseiy as possible the natural laws of trade which it has superceded by a rti fiVial contrivances; and iu a uisnwsion iu my nussage of January, lS7d, it w;li said '.hat resumption , should be euVcted by such measures us would kop the aggregate amount of currency self adjusting during all the processes, without creating at any time an artificial scarcity and without exciting public imagination with alarms which impair confidence, contract tho whole large machinery of credit and disturb tlie natural operations of business. Public economies, official retrenchment retrench-ment and wise finance aro means a-'nich the St. Louis convention indicates indi-cates as the provisions for resources and redemptions. The best resource is a reduclion of expenses of government govern-ment below its income, for that irn poses no new charge on Ihe people. If, liowaver, the improvidence and waste which have conducted us to a period of tailing revenues, oblige us to supplement sup-plement the resul'a of economies aod retrenchments by some resort to loans we should not hesitate. The government govern-ment ought not to speculate on its own dishonor in order to save interest on its broken promises, which it till compels private dealers to accept at a fictitious par. 'Ihe highest national honor is not only right, but would nmvo nrnHtiihlp flf ll.o nnhll ,oht $'JS5, 000,000 bear interest at six per cent, in gold, and $712 000,000 at five per cent in gold. The average interest inter-est is 5 5S per cent. A financial policy pol-icy which should secure tho highest credit wisely availed of, ought gradually gradu-ally to obtain a reductiou of one per cent, interest on most of the loans. A saving of one per cent, on the average would be $17,000,000 a year in gold. That saving, regularly invested at 4j per cent, would in less than thirty-eight thirty-eight years extinguish the principal. The whole $1,700,000,000 of funded debt might be pid by this saving alone, without cost to the people. Even wheD preparation shall have been matured for redemption, the exact date would have to be chosen with reference to the existing slate of trade and credit operations inour own country, the course of foreign commerce com-merce and the condition of exchanges with other nations. The specific measures and actual date are matters of detail having relarence to ever-changing ever-changing conditions. They belong to the domain of practical administrative statesmanship. Tbe captain of the teamer about starting trom New York to Liverpool does not assemble a counsel over his ocean chart. A human intelligence must be at the helm to watch the shifting forces of the waters and the winds, to feel the elements day by day, and guide to a mastery over tbem. Such preparations prepara-tions are everything; without them a legislative command, fixing a day and an official promise are shams. Among thoughtful men whose judgment will at least sway public opinion, an attempt to acton such command or such promise without- preparation would end in new suspensions. It would be a freh calamity, prolific of confusion, distrust and distress. The act ot coneress of July 14th, 1S75 enacted that on and ahr the 1st of January, -1S79, the secretary of the treasury shall redeem in coin the legal tender notes of tlie United States on presentation at the office of the assistaut treasurer in the city of New York.' It authorizes the secretary to prepare and provide for such resumption resump-tion of specie payments by tbe use of any surplus' revenues not otherwise (aonrooriated. and bv issainf. in his discretion, certain cl.is.jes of bonds. More than one and a half of the 1 tour yeara have passed. Congress md the president have couiinued aver since to unite in acts which have legislated out of existence overy possible surplus applicable to this purpose. The coin in tlie treasury claimed to helong to the government had on the 30th of July fallen to loss than $45,000,000, against $59,000,-000 $59,000,-000 on the lstof January, 1875, and the availability of part of this sum is said lo be questionable. Tlie revenues are falling lusler than the appropriations appropria-tions and expenditures are reduced, leaving the treasury with diminishing resources. The secretary has' done nothing under his power to issue the bonds. The legislative command and the olficia! promise, fixing a day for resumption, have been made, hut there has boon no progress; there have been eteps back. Tliero is no necromancy in the operations of government gov-ernment ; the homely maxims of yvery day U:e are the best standard of its conduct. A debtjr who should promise to pay a loan out of surplus intome,"and yet be seen every day spending all he could lay his hands on in riotous living, would loso alt character for honesty, and his oiler of a new promise or hia profession as to the value of an old promise, would alike provoke deriaioo. Tho St. Louis platform denounces the failure tor eleven years to make good the promises of the legal tender notes, t denounces tho omiwion to accumulate any reserce for their redemption. re-demption. It denounces tbe conduct which during eleven years of peace has made no advance towards re sumption; no preparations for re Lumntion, but instead has obstructed resumption by wasting our resources and exhausting all our surplus income, in-come, and while professing to intend speed i ly to resume specie payments has annually enacted fresh hindrances thereto, and having first denounced the barrenness of the promise of a day ot resumption, it next denounces that bairen promise as a hindrance to resumption. It then demands its rep&tl.atid alo demands the eotab lisnment of a judicious system ol preparation pre-paration for resumption. It cannot be doubted that the substitution sub-stitution of a system of preparation without tle pioniHo of ft day for resumption re-sumption would be the gain of Ihe s-.ii-suinoe ot resumption in exchange fur its shadow. Nor is the denunciation denuncia-tion unmerited of that improvidence which in eleven years since the p-aco has consumed ? I .GOt.,000 000, and yet could not afford to give the ponplo a sound and staple currency. Two and a half per cent, on the expei di-tures di-tures of these eleven years, or less, would have provided all the additional addition-al coin needful lo resumption. Too distress now felt by tho people in all their business and industries, though it has its principal cause in the enormous enor-mous wasto of capital occasioned by the false policies ot our government, been greatly aggravated by ihe mismanagement of ir.e enr-n-ncy. Uncertainly is tho prolific ptrent of mischiefs in all business. .Never were it evils more tell than now. Men do nothing because they are unable to make any caleul itinn- on which they can safely rely. Tuey undertake nothing hecausj they am at a lo.-w in everything they would attempt. Tiiev stop and wish. I he merchant dares not buy tor the future consumption ot his customers; the manufacturer darej not ma-! fabrics which may not refund hi? out lay. He tdiuls his factory and discharges dis-charges hia workmen. Capitalists cannot lend on security they consider unsafe, and their funds lie almost without interest. Men with enterprise enter-prise who have creditors to pk'dgo will not borrow. Consumption has fallen below tbo natural limits of reasonable economy. The pi ices of many things are under their rane in frugal Bpccie paying times, before the civil war. Vast masses of currency lie in hands unused. A year and a half ago legal tenders were at their largest volume ant the $1-, 000, 000 since retired have been replaced by fresh is-uea of $10,000,000 of hank notes. In tho me-intime the banks havo 1 cen surrendering alio it four million dollars of notes per month because they cannot find prontible use for so nriny of their mtes. The publio mind will no longer accept ahama. It has sufiercd enough from illusions Insincere policy increases distrust and an unstable policy increases in-creases uncertainty. The people need to know thit the government is mov ing in the direction of ultimate safety and prosperity, and that it ia doing so through prudent and safe conservative methods, which wi'l be sure lo inflint no new sn critic"! on the buainesj of the country. Then the inspiration ot new hope and well-founded confidence will hasten the restoring nrocess of nature and prosperity will begin to return. The St. Louis convention concluded its expression in recard to tbe currency cur-rency by a declaration of its convictions convic-tions as to the practical results of the system of preparations; "We believe such a system. '-well devised, and, above all, entrusted to competent hands for execution, creating cre-ating at no lime au artificial scarcity of currency, and at uo time alarming the public mind into a withdrawal of that vaster machinery of credit by which 93 per cent, of all business transactions are performed a system open, public, and inspiring general confidence, would from the day of its adoption, bring heiling on its wings to all our harrassed industries, set in motion tlie wheels of commerce, manufactures and the mechanic arts, restore employment to labor and renew, re-new, in all its natural sources, the prosperity of the people." The government of the United States, in my opinion, can advance to resumption of specie payment ou its legal tender njtes by gradual and safe processes lending to relieve the E resent business distress. It charged y Ihe people with the administration of the executive- office, I Bhould deem it my duty ro to exercise tho powers with which it has been or may be invested by congress as best" and soonest to conduct the country to that beneficent result. i The convention juslly affirms that reform is unnecessary iu the civil service; necessary to its purification; necessary to iw economy and efficiency; effi-ciency; necessary in order that lue ordinary employment of public busi ness may not be a prize fought for at the ballot box, or a brief reward or parly zeal, instead of posts of honor assigned tor proved ctmpstency and held for fidelity ia publio employ. The convention wisely allowed that reform is necessary even more in the higher grades of public service. The president, vice president, judges, senators, representatives, cabinet officers; these, and all others are not private perquisites they are pubhc trusts. ' Two evils infest tbe official service of the federal Government. One is the prevalent and demoralizing notion no-tion that the public service exists, not for the business and benefit of the whole people, but for the interest ot olfice-holdeis who are, in truth,! but servants of the people. Under the influence of this pernicious error the public employed have been multiplied, multi-plied, Iho numbers of thoso gathered into the ranks of office-'noldora have been steadily increased beyond iany possible requirement of the public business, while inefficionoy, peculation, pecula-tion, fraud and malversation of public business, from ui:;h places of power to the lowest, have overspread the whole service liko a leprosy. Tho other evil is the organization of the official class into a body of political po-litical mercenaries, governing caucuses cau-cuses and directing the nominations of their own party, and attemp';"! lo carry the elections of tho peuj by undue inlluenco and by an immense corrupting fund systematically collected col-lected from the salaries or fees of officeholder The official class in other countries, sometimes by its own weight aud sometimes by au alliance with the army, has been abio to rule Ihe unorganised masses even under universal suffrage. Here it has already al-ready grown into a gigantic power, capable ol stifling the inspirations ol a sound public opinion, and of resisting resist-ing an easy change of administration until miegovernment becomes intolerable intoler-able and publio spirit has been stung tQ the pitch of a civil revolution. The firs', step in reform is the elevation eleva-tion of thu standard by which the appointing ap-pointing power selects agent? to execute exe-cute othciai liusts. Next in importance im-portance is a conscientious fidelity in the exercise of authoruy, to hold to aocount and displace insubordinates. The public interest in an honest, skillful performance of official trust uiiiit not bo sacrificed to the usMiruci ot the incumbent. After ilvse im mediate steps which will insure the exhibition of heller examples, wo may wisely go on to tlie abolition of on-necessary on-necessary offices, and finally lo a patient, careful organization of a better bet-ter civil service system under test, wherovcr practicable, of proved com potency and fidelity. While much may be accomplished by these methods it might er.ccurngo a delusive Gxperution if I withheld here the expression of my conviction Ih it no return! of (lie civil Bervtee in thin : country will be comi.Iete and permanent per-manent until its chief magistrate, is : constitutionally disqualified for reelec tion, experience having repeatedly lei nosed ihe futility of a self-imposed j riminclion by candidates or inc im bent. By this solemnity oniy can he bQ etleetually delivered from his greatest great-est temptation lo mis'tw? the power and patronage with which the executive execu-tive is necessarily charged. E lucated m the belief that it U the first duty of a citizen of the republic to tako his fair allotment of ero and trouble in puhlic affairs. I have for f- r y years as a private citiz-n, folfi led that duty. Though occupied in au un u-ual degree during all that period with the concerns of the government, . I have never acquired the habit ot ; otficial life. When a year an1 a half j ago I entered my present tru-t, ;t w m in order to consummate reforms to j which I had already devob-d .n-vera I years of my life. Knowing as I do, therefore, fr.-jin fresh experience, how great the difference is between going through an official routine and working work-ing out a reform of systems and policies, poli-cies, it is impossible for me to con template what needs to be done in tlie 'ederal administration without an anxious sense of the difficulties o! the undertaking. If suramoneti by the suffrages ot my countrymen to attempt at-tempt this work, I shall endeavor, with Gal's help, to bean efficient instrument ol their will. (Signed) Samuel J. Tilkn. To General J. McClernand, chairman, General W. B. Franklin, Hon. J. J. Abbott, Hon II. J. Soaiinhor.-t, iron. H. J. Redficld, Hon. F. S. Lyon, and others ol the committee. |