Mr. SHERMAN of Ohio addressed the Senate in explanation and support of the bill. [His speech will be published in the Appendix.] Speech entitled Funding of the National Debt. May 22, 1866. The senatehaving under consideration the hill (8. No. 300)to reduce the rate of intereston thenational debt, and for funding the same. Mr. SHERMAN said: Mr. PresIDENT: This bill came to us in the usual mode from the SecyTreasury, and its purpose is to facilitate the negotiation of a 5%. loan. It has been with me, during the present session of Congress, an earnest desire to see the interest on the debt of the U.S. reduced to not exceeding the rate of 5%.; but the SecyTreasury, as will be gathered from his public documents, hesitated somewhat as to whether he could negotiate a loan bearing that rate of interest. After full consideration, however, he presented this bill as containing the terms upon which, in his judgment, this loan could e negotiated. It came to us, and by general consent was re ported to the Senate, printed for the purpose subsequentl considered by the committee, and reported. ts history is now known to the Senate. Before considering the specific terms of the bill, it will be necessary for me to state the condition of the public debt. by the statement laid on our tables on the lst of In, it up ears that the ascertained debt of the U.S. at that time was $2,827,076,871; and from that may be properly deducted the amount of money, coin, an currency on hand of $137,987,028.82. To this aggregate must be necessarily added quite a number of items, some of which have been acted upon at the present session of Congress, and some of which will be acted upon before our adjournment, the mere statement of which will show the Senate the probable condition of the public debt within the next year or two. The lareest sum, proba bly, that will be required, or flintis now pending before us, is the bill introduced from the ComMilAffrs for the equalization of bounties, which will take, if passed, near $200,000,000. What will be the fate of that measure I have no means of knowin. The Pacilic railroad, now being constructed, will probably cost in the course of the next 5 years somethinglike $50,000,000, and over $100,000,000 in the a egate. If the various branches that are entitled to bount should comply with the terms of the law by uilding. each of them, 100 miles during the year, it will take $6, 400,000; but the presumption is that some of those branches Will, fail to comply with the law. In the settlements with the States for expenses incurred for the military service in an irregular way, we have already appropriated I think about ten million dollars to the States of Missouri, Kansas, Pennsylvania, and West Vrginia, and there are other claims of the same character which will be presented by other States. I am told that Indiana, Kentucky perhaps, and Ohio will have such claims. Ohio has a claim of that kind growing out. of the Morgan raid. The probability is that this class of claims now unadjusted but not disputed, the principle having been settled, will take $20,000,000. The largest yet allowed was to the State of Missouri, which I think amounted to some 7 or 8 millions.