Mr. HENDRICKS. I think the Senator refers to the gentlemen on his own side of the Chamber. It has not been a controversy betweenthe Senfrom Maine and Senators on this side. It has been a controversy among the various interests, and it has been a strife as to what interest can get the better share of this bill. Everybody can see that. An amendment comes from one interest, and then a corresponding or compensating amendment must come from some other interest. It has been a system of exchanges, bargain, equalization; and what there is in the bill now I doubt very much whether the Senfrom Maine has a very clear understanding of himself; he had, no doubt, when the bill was reported to the Senate. I think he will find something to do in correcting all the inequalities in this bill if it should be referred to his committee, even if the bill should ever come back again. For the interests that I rePresent here all that I ask is equal legislation; that when a man raises some corn or some wheat or cattle or pork in the western States he shall have some fair show in the markets of the world. I do not think this Government was established to take the profits from profitable labor to build up unprofitable labor. It is an absurdity in political economy. If agriculture in this country is ly, and because of our condition and position, profitable, and some other pursuit is not profitable, I cannot understand the wisdom of taking the profits from agriculture and handing them over to build up a labor that is not profitable. But, sir, we need a revenue; we need to maintain the credit of the Government; and I think all the eastern interests are sufficiently protected when we have a revenue system adjusted with a view to the maintenance of the public credit. It seems to me that the condition of the Treasury today ought to attract the attention of Senators.% is locked up in the Treasury today about 93 millions of gold. The tariff already established has brought othe Treasury $93,000,000 of gold that no demands upon the Treasury will send out again into the channels of trade. With a currency of 8 or 900 million dollars, nearly one.millions, under your Present legislation, is locked up. Now, Senators say we must increase the tariff, because we are going to fail to meet the public obligations. Upon what statement of fact do Senators assume that? The Present tariff has been in existence 2 years. The 1st year it brought into the Treasury between 80 and 90 million dollars, and during the fiscal year ending on the 30th of June it brought in $179,000,000, $90,000,000 more than during that year could be used, and $40,000,000 more than can be required the next year. And yet Senators say they are justified in the opinion that the Present tariff will not meet the demands of the Government. The Senfrom Ohio asked the question, what will be the responsibility upon Congress should we not increase the tariff and should there be a failure to meet the demands upon the Treasury? Mr. President, I would rather meet that result than to have a revenue system that locks up $93,000,000 of gold in the public Treasury. I would rather see the government strained to meet her obligations than to see her holding in her coffers one 9th of the currency of the country. We need this gold now; we need the currency now, as I think, to keep up our trade, to keep it well alive, and I cannot vote for any tariff that proposes upon the short and unsatisfactory experiment we have had of the last bill to increase it. Mr. President, I am in favor of leaving things for a while as they are. I was not in favor of the Present banking system; but it is established; it is fixed upon the country; business is being carried on under its influence and using the currency that it furnishes; and I think it is madness at the Present time to disturb it, to agitate it. I cannot agree alto gether with many persons in the popular idea that we must rapidly return to a specie currency or a specie basis. I think that has to be done very gradually indeed. As a Democrat, of course I have been accustomed to the doctrine of a specie currency, and that if we have any paper currency it should be a currency that could. redeemed at any time in specie; but we all know that that is not now possible without bringing on a financial crisis; and my judgment is, that we had better for the Present leave the laws as they are. I would rather vote to reduce the taxes. When I see such an excess of money above the Present demands of the Government brou t into the Treasury and locked o and nobody able to tell what to do with it, would rather reduce than increase. No Senator can today tell us what to do with the gold that is in the Treasury. Some talk about authorizing the Secretary to sell it in NewYork. As soon as he does that he disturbs prices all over the country, and that is not right. There are a at many inconveniences brought about by hasty legislation. The Present condition of the Treasury, I think, is an illustration of it. Take the tax upon whisky. Everybody knows now that it is not only unjust to the interest, but it is a failure with a view to revenue. All over the country every body believes it was an unjust tax, and therefore men will cheat the Government. We all know that if the tax was one dollar a gallon we should receive twice as much revenue as we do now; but see the difficulty If we reduce it to one dollar, or to 60 or 70 cents, as perhaps it ought to be, then all the men in the country who are holding liquors are broken up and an entire interest destroyed, so far as the holders are concerned. I refer to this as an illustration of the difficulty of coming down after we have once raised the taxes to a high standard. We ought to be very careful about doing it. For these reasons I shall vote for the proposition of the Senfrom Kentucky.