Mr. SHERMAN. I move to take up senate bill No. 300; one of the members of the ComFinance desires to make some remarks upon it. The motion was reed to; and the Senate, as in ComWhole. resumed the consideration of the bill (S.No.300) to re few words upon this bill, and particularly upon the 3rd section, to which I have prepare an amendment that I desire to offer. In order to simplify the remarks I am about to submit, and to make the calculations they must necessarily contain more readily comprehended, I shall assume that the amount of debt to be provided for is $3,000,000,000, and now bears a uniform rate of interest at 6%., so that the proposed reduction to I 5%. would effect an annual saving of ll $30,000,000, the sum named in the 3rd sce ‘tion of the bill before us. There cannot, I presume, be any difference l of opinion among Senators as to the propriety l of making this reduction, if it is in our power to effect it with due regard to other national interests; especially if it is true, as has been stated, that the application of this annual saving to the reduction of the debt, will discharge the whole in about 36 years. This prop position, however, is not true, under the provisions of the bill as it now stands, as it is evident that $30,000,000 paid annually for 36 years on the principal of the debt, would effect a reduction of only $1,080,000,000 at the end of the period. It is true, nevertheless, that the annual payment of a sum equal to theinterest for the 1st year, together With the proposed annual 30 millions, will extinguish both principal and interest in a little more than the time named. The interest must, in any event, be paid while the debt continues, and it results that if the proposed saving of interest can be effected, the debt will be extinguished by the payment for 37 years of a sum only equal to what I have assumed to be its present annual interest. If this is so and it can be demonstrated that it is it becomes a most important and interesting inquiry whether the requisite amount of the proposed 5%. bonds can be negotiated at par, as required by the hill and the conditions of the problem, aspfast as the proceeds will be required to pay off the bonds now outstanding. On this point, although I have given the subject much consideration, my mind is not free from doubt. I propose, therefore, to consider the inducements presented by the bill to those disposed to invest in government securities, an to inquire whether our albility to fulfill them authorizes us to proffer them. I do not suppose that the proposed loan can be popularized, as was the case with some of the existing loans. It does not present to those of small means equal advantages in the way of profit. The high character of the security o ered will hardly insure it a preference with them over other modes of investment in which they have confidence, in many cases from personal knowledge. It will not draw money from the savings banks conducted under their own eyes, usually allowing an interest of 6%. The present bonds, with their interest coupons which would be paid on presentation by the nearestbanlr, and generally by the nearest merchant, had at 1st. the charm of novelty, as well as of great convenience, in sections remote from the commercial centers. But the novelty has worn off, and the knowl edge that it is somewhat perilous to hold these billets payable through a long series ofyears, and which if lost or stolen cannot be recovered if they come into the hands of an innocent holder who has paid value for them, has, in consequence, partly of the recent thefts of such securities, been pretty widely disseminated. And further, the occasion for the exercise of that patriotism which at a gloomy period in our national affairs hastened to place its little all at the disposal of the Government, has hap pily and I trust forever passed away. Again, Mr. President, the rate of interest proposed by the bill is lower than that to which the mass of our people are accustomed. In some of the western States as high as ten perduce the rate of interest on the national debt, and for fundin the same.