By proclamation bearing date the 5th day of March 1897, the President summoned both houses of Congreess to convene in extraordinary session "for the consideration of the general welfare of the United States, and to take such action as might seem necessary and expedient to them on certain measures which he should recommend to their consideration, measures of vital import to the welfare and happiness of the people, if not to the very existence of the Union and the continuance of their enjoyment of the liberties achieved by the fathers of the Republic."
While awaiting the day set for the coming together of the Congress, the "Great Friend of the Common People" came suddenly face to face with the first serious business of his Administration.
Fifty thousand people tramped the streets of Washington without bread or shelter. Many had come in quest of office, lured on by the solemn pronouncement of their candidate that there should be at once a clean sweep of these barnacles of the ship of State and so complete had been their confidence in their glorious young captain, that they had literally failed to provide themselves with either "purse or script or shoes," and now stood hungry and footsore at his gate, begging for a crust of bread. But most of those making up this vast multitude were "the unarmed warriors of peaceful armies" like the one once led by the redoubtable Coxey, decoyed from farm and hamlet and
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