Mr. SHERMAN. I offer another amendment, to insert this as an additional section: Abife: That from and after the 1st day of anuary. ls‘til.thelawlnl moneyrequired to beheld onhand by the national banking associations under the 31st section of the act ontitlod “An act to provide a national currencysecuredby a pledzeof U.S.bonds, and to providefor the circulation and redemption thcrootff approved Juno 3, es1t 8b6e4as.rhinagll not consistin wholeor in part of internotesor bonds. I will new state, so that the Senate may understand it distinctl, the effectof these amendments, for this is tolast of them. The 1st and 2nd sections of the bill, as originally reported, contained an authority to issue a new 5%. loan, to be sold at not less than par, upon certain conditions and stipulations. As this gave rise to controversy and debate, not only in the committee, but in the Senate, and as it was believed that the SecyTreasury had power sulIicient at least to get along under the act that we passed in March last, the 1st and 2nd sections are stricken out. Probably at the next session I may seek to confine the SecyTreasury to a simple loan at 5%.; but at present we leave him to the law as it was passed in the s rin. pTh5 3rd section provided for the fundin. That has been somewhat changed by an amen ment already adopted. The 4th section provided for the outstanding 7 30 Treasury notes due next year and the year following, and required the notice to be given of the exercise of the option contained in those Treasury notes. The term of the notice is now 4 months instead of 6 months. The amendment now pendin is an important one, and the Senate should be aware of its nature before it is acted upon. Under the present law, I think erroneously, they have got in the habit of regarding the compound interest notes as a part of the reserve fund which the banks are re aired to hold on hand to redeem the nationa bank notes; and these compound interest notes have been held as a reserve, instead of the U.S. notes. The law and I think upon that we agree contemplated that nothing but U.S. notes and coin should be hed as the reserve. That was the opinion of the ComFinance; and I think it is the opinion of the SecyTreasury. At any rate, a different construction has been acted upon by the Comptroller of the Currency from time to time; and the Secretary, although desirous of making the change, does not feel that he would be justified in making a change now by mere construction, and therefore submits it to Congress. The effect of this amendment will be, that alter the 1st of Janu ary next compound interest notes cannot be held by the national banks as a part of their reserve, but they will be compelled to dispose of those now held by them between this and the 1st of January, and keep in place of them U.S. notes. The tendency will be to reduce or retire from circulation so many U.S. notes as will be required to be held by the banks for their reserve. Another amendment authorizes the SecyTreasury to sell in open market gold in excess of 50 millions, with a view to be applied to a reduction of U.S. notes. That amendment has already been adopted, and it is not necessary for me to state anything further than that the effect will be to avoid all the controversy about the sale of gold in the market, about which there has been a good deal of controversy.