Editing Grover Cleveland (section)

===Silver===
One of the most volatile issues of the 1880s was whether the currency should be backed by [[Bimetallism|gold and silver]], or by [[gold standard|gold alone]].<ref>Jeffers, 157–158</ref> The issue cut across party lines, with Western Republicans and Southern Democrats joining in the call for the free coinage of silver, and both parties' representatives in the northeast holding firm for the [[gold standard]].<ref name="nevins201">Nevins, 201–205; Graff, 102–103</ref> Because silver was worth less than its legal equivalent in gold, taxpayers paid their government bills in silver, while international creditors demanded payment in gold, resulting in a depletion of the nation's gold supply.<ref name="nevins201" />

Cleveland and Treasury Secretary [[Daniel Manning]] stood firmly on the side of the gold standard, and tried to reduce the amount of silver that the government was required to coin under the [[Bland–Allison Act]] of 1878.<ref>Nevins, 269</ref> Cleveland unsuccessfully appealed to Congress to repeal this law before he was inaugurated.<ref>Tugwell, 110</ref> Angered Westerners and Southerners advocated for cheap money to help their poorer constituents.<ref>Nevins, 268</ref> In reply, one of the foremost silverites, [[Richard P. Bland]], introduced a bill in 1886 that would require the government to coin unlimited amounts of silver, inflating the then-deflating currency.<ref name="nevins273">Nevins, 273</ref> While Bland's bill was defeated, so was a bill the administration favored that would repeal any silver coinage requirement.<ref name="nevins273" /> The result was a retention of the ''status quo'', and a postponement of the resolution of the free-silver issue.<ref>Nevins, 277–279</ref>