Mr. GUTHRIE. Mr. Presicut, I feel in clined to vote for this postponement. The present existing tariff is surely high enough. uder the tariff as it stands we have collected during the last year $170,000,000. That is almost double the amount of tariff duties that we collected in prosperous times before the war. I do not object to the amount; I do not desire to see it reduced until I can see a fair expectation of our funding our national debt, to provide for its interest, and to commence the work of reduction. I understand that this new tariff bill goes upon the predication that the tariff is too low; that we are importing too many goods that we are obtaining too much money, and that we will repress the importations by an increase of duties. It will have that effect, in myjndgment, and if we pass it we shall not get as much from this tariff b nearly one half, if not quite, as we get an or the existing tariff. I do not see how we can spare the money in the present exigeney of the times. Gentlemen may lament over the exportation of the specie that we have taken from our mines. I have no lamentations for that. It is the product of labor; it is part of our national income; and we have as much right to seize upon that to pay for our foreign importations as any production of the Northwest or an production of the South or the accumulate wealth and hoardings of the North. They are all within the range of the annual production of' the country. I desire to have this bill postponed because I want to see the operation of the tax bill and the reductions that we have made there, and how a large and increased tariff, such as this is, reducing our income from importations, will square with the means that we have provided to pay our interest, how it. will affect the fundin of our debt, and how it will operate upon that interest. I cannot see that it is going to operate in any way beneficially to the great consuming interests. If this tariff reduces the foreign importations, to some extent it will increase the consumption of domestic manufactures and reductions; but will it cheapen them] No, or the price will be put.on to bring them just within the tariffthat you impose upon them, and the great consuming interests of the U.S. will fail to be relieved, though the Government will be relieved of theincome shat we had for the payment of the national ebt. I think we should be careful in investigating the bearin of' this measure, not only in connection with the new tax bill and the reduction of the revenue, but in relation to the different sections of the country. Having relieved railroad iron from the domestic tax im osed upon our manufactures, I do not want them to put more than that on the price of their domestic article by increasing that duty. I believe the can live and prosper under the present tari. Besides, there are a great many goods in this country, and if we increase the tariff the importers will claim the ndvance; they will exact it; and we shall be legislating it into their pockets. This matter of interfering with the tax laws materially, as this bill does, is a very serious thing to the commerce and trade of the country. What is to be the effect of peace upon our foreign commerce? It. has been substantially broken and destroyed during the war. Besides, I want to go home. I am one of those “ childish ” men that the Gentfrom Ohiomentions. I do not think it will do me any harm to go home and breathe my native air, and talk with my constituents on the subject of this tariff. I have always inculcated the doctrine that the national debt should be aid, that the honor of the nation is involved in it, and that provision should be made for if: certain and sure. We should never set upon any other calculation than that every dollar of it is to be paid, for the honor and credit of the nation are involved. I want, even in this thing, to have an opportunity to say to my constituents, “So far as my voice could be raised in favor of the payment of the national debt and the savin of the honor of the Union I have discharge my duty.” I want to bring to their attention the bearings that this extravagant tariff, as I believe, shutting up our ports and destroying and limiting our foreign trade, will have upon their future interests. Sir, I want. the U.S. to compete for the commerce of the world as she did before. Her sails whit ened every sea; her ships reached every country, and obtained for us that proportion of wealth to which we were entitled as a great, industrious, commercial people in comparison with other nations. I do not think it will do us an harm or the country any harm to postpone the consideration of this measure until the next session. The Gentfrom Ohio thinks we are shirking our duty if we postpone it, and that we are ready to consider it. If gentlemen had been as hasty in settling the great point of interest, the restoration of all the States to their relations with the Union, they would not deny as 3 months more about this thing; they would consider that we needed it for its proper consideration. We have been thinking about other things during the year than the question of the tari, except, perhaps, some new gentlemen who have brought it in in the other House, where the bill was bound to originate. I am sure it will do us no harm to postpone it and consider it, and it will do the country no harm. I believe it will result in a materia modification of this measure to the great interests of the peoplle and the commerce of the country.