Mr. SHERMAN. This is rather a singular debate to grow out of an amendment, which everybody will vote for. I Presume there is not a member in the Senate who does not see the necessity of adopting the amendment reported by o the committee. The amount approhere for temporary clerks is less than has been appropriated during the whole war. I have before me the 1st appropriation made for this purpose during the war. The amount then appropriated was $110,000, and the appropriation was almost in the very language contained in the pending amendment. It read as follows: “For temporaryclerks in the treasury Dept for the yearendingJune 30, 1863$, 110,00op: provided That the Secretary be, and he is hereby, authorized in his discretion to classify the temporary olerks so authorized according to the character of their services, and assign to such of them, as he shall see fit any compensation not exceedingthat of clerks of the 1st class.” This appropriation was made May 20, 1862, and has. continued every year from that time. Why it was omitted in the House dur:ing the Present session I cannot answer; but I am told that it grew out of a misunderstanding as to the purpose of the appropriation. appropriations in the same language for much arger amounts have been made during the war. Before the war an appropriation was always made for extra clerk hire. The last one made during a year when the expenses of the Government was very closely scrutinized, 1860, was $12,000. This is an item of appropriation that has been continued for years. Mr. President, one or 2 statements were made by the Senfrom Illinois which rather astonished me. He seems to think that the amount in the Treasury is so large as to justify a suspicion that it is held for improper purposes, or at least that it is so large as to excite comment. Now, let us see. The amount of currency held in the Treasury Dept, according to the statement laid on our tables, is $45,069, 187. Of that there is today liable to be called upon at any moment $15, 791, 454, making the actual amount of currency in the Treasury now $29, 277, 733. That is the total amount of the money in the Treasury subject to order. That is about one month's receipts of the internalrevenue Bureau, or one 12th of the annual income of the Treasury from internalrevenue. I Presume that it would be very unwise to hold a less balance than $30,000,000 at anyone time. I do not believe the ordinary operations of the Treasury could be carried on with less than one month's receipts of internalreve This money is deposited in various places all over the country, from Boston to SanFran cisco, in the course of collecting the internalrevenue, and I believe that an amount equal to this is found to be necessary to carry on the operations of the Treasury. The drafts of the Treasury Dept on the banks go through 'o.of the Treasury, and it requires at least one month in some cases to make the necessary returns, so that it seems to me the balance of currency on hand is not too large. In regard to the balance of gold, I may say that at the last session we passed an act on my own motion fixing the limit of gold at $60,000,000. The amount of gold in the Treasury is $77,000,000. The Senator said $97,000,000, but he will find from this same statement that near 20 million dollars of that amount is held for individuals, which does not belong to the Government. That is now deposited in the sub Treasury at NewYork for the use of individuals. For that money so deposited gold certificates are issued. It is not the money of the Government; but to facilitate transactions in gold that money is deposited there and cer tificates are issued, and they are counted as gold. It does not belong to the Treasury, because it belongs to private individuals, and is liable to be called for at any moment. The balance of gold in the Treasury is only $77, 361, 623. The Senfrom Maine made a remark which, I thought probably might mislead, although unintentionally soon his part, and that is, that this money could not be applied in the ordinary course of business of the Treasury Dept to the payment of the debt. Under the law the SecyTreasury has the undoubted power, and he has been exercising that power for months, to buy up and buy in the compound interest notes, and the most of those notes that have been bought in before they were due were bought under the authority given by law. During the recent stringency in the money market in NewYork some 20 million dollars, if I remember the amount correctly, at any rate many millions, of compound interest notes were taken up at parand the accrued interest, because currency was sud denly demanded; there was a Pressure for currency, and the bankers and other persons who held compound interest notes called for the money, and in pursuance of an order of the SecyTreasury I think about 20 million dollars were paid out to the holders of compound interest notes. This could be done in O.W. But the question arises, whether it would be wise in the Present condition of our money" affairs to reduce the balance of fold in the Treasury. That is a rather serious question. I doubt myself whether it would be wise to reduce the volume of gold in the Treasury. I have shown already that the amount of currency is not very large, not more than one month's income from internalrevenue, and that that balance is necessary to carry on the operations of the Treasury. No bank would be considered safe that did not keep at least about 1/3rd of its aggregate indebtedness in currency, The national banks are required by the law creating them to keep 2/5th s and in some cases 1/2 of the full amount of their deposits and circulation on hand all the time in legal tender currency. The government of the U.S. is paying out annually $300,000,000, collected from internalrevenue, and the balance now on hand subject to these calls is less than $30,000,000. certainly that is not too large a balance. Sena: tors ought not to use language which may lead the public at large to think the SecyTreasury is for some improper purpose holding large sums of money, when the actual balance in hand is probably not more than enough to carry on the operations of the Treasury. As to whether he ought to sell the gold and pay off the compound interest notes before they become due, that is a very doubtful question, indeed. It is necessary to keep a very large balance of gold on hand in anticipation of a falling off of the revenue. Every commercial man anticipates that, during the next 6 or 8 months, there will be a considerable falling off in the gold revenue on account of the large importations which have been heretofore made, and he has got to provide for the contingency of a falling off of the gold revenue. Perhaps $77,000,000 is too much. We at the last session provided that $60,000,000 of gold should be kept on hand, and all above that should be sold. If the Senator then was of the opinion that the balance could be reduced to less than $60,000,000 he certainly ought to have made his opinion known, but we heard no complaint at that time. It was then believed to be necessary always to keep on hand a half year's supply of gold in order to pay the interest on. public debt, and I believe that is little enough to be kept on hand. It is true the Government loses the interest on the gold, but it must lose that in order to avoid a possible contingency of the falling off of the gold revenue, so as to be prepared, at all events, to pay the interest on the public debt. In regard to the gold bill which passed the other day in the HoRep, I was perfectly willing, as my friendfrom Maine knows, to vote for that bill, not because I thought it had any virtue, or that it could do any good, but simply because it could do no harm, and it might satisfy the public mind. The committee thought best to report against it, and I have no complaint to make. But what was that bill? That bill did not require the selling of a dollar of gold. If that bill had required the sale of a portion of this gold it would have had some operation. That bill simply provided that in case the SecyTreasury did sell gold he should sell it in a particular way; that he should advertise 6 days and give public notice in the newspapers in NewYork that on a certain day he intended to sell some millions of dollars in gold. It did not compel him to sell gold or to apply gold in the payment or purchase of the debt, but simply provided that in case he did sell the gold he should sell it by public auction. The objection to that bill was that when he gave 6 days' notice that at a certain time he would sell a million or 2 million dollars of gold the result would be that a combination would be made among the gold brokers sud denly to reduce the price, and then the very moment it was sold they would raise the price until he was compelled to sell again. Another objection that was urged very strongly to the House bill, about the defeat of which the Senator complains, is that it did not provide for the sale of this gold did not contemplato its sale. On the contrary, the House voted down a proposition which required the SecyTreasury to sell the gold. the refused to take upon itself the responsibility of compelling the sale of gold. It seems to me that under these circumstances there is no just ground of complaint; but this matter has been lugged into the debate and the public mind is peculiarly sensitive to everything that affects our finances, because there is a stringency in the money mar ket and times are somewhat hard all over the country. The Senator has drawn in a proposition which is not yet pending before the Senate, and which, I think, he ought not to have anticipated the discussion of, and that is the proposition, which has been mentioned in the papers, to give authority to issue $100,000,000 of 4%. certificates. Let me ask the Senfrom Illinois how the SecyTreasury can pay the compound interest notes which mature from May till December? How would you do it? Would you borrow money at 6%. interest in gold to do it? The Senator perhaps will say that he would take the money on hand. I have shown that the currency on hand is not available for that purpose, because to carry on the operations of the Treasury the Secretary must have at least the amount of one month's ordinary receipts and expenditures on hand. Would you sell gold in order to pay the comund interest notes, and if so to what extent? fou could not sell more than 20 or 30 millions; nobody proposes such a thing, because according to the judgment of all men you must keep 4 or 5 or 6 months supply on hand in order to meet the contingency of a falling off of gold revenue. How.you pay the compound interest notes as they mature? You have got to provide for them. There is only one way of providing for them, either by the issue of greenbacks, which is an inflation of the currency to a large extent, or by the issue of a 5 20 gold bearing interest bond, or by the issue of some other form of security. You have not got the money to pay them in any other way. It is a simple proposition, that you have got to resort to some mode of that kind unless you have got the money on hand to pay them. You must borrow the money, and bor row it on the most favorable terms possible. I think I have said enough to prevent, the remarks of the Senfrom Illinois making an undue imPression upon the public mind, to the effect that a large amount of money is held here idle uselessly while we are borrowing and paying large sums in the way of interest for money. It seems to me that complaint cannot fairly be made, that at o: all events the exof the Treasury will require at least the Present amount of currency to be kept always on hand. The amount, I believe, is as low as it has been for a long time, I cannot say how long, because I do not like to speak positively without the figures before me; but at least a month's income and expenditure should be kept on hand in currency subject to order at any moment; and it must be remem bered, too, that the Treasury is now paying Out a.? large sum for bounties, an unfore seen and extraordinary expenditure. Some money must be kept on hand to meet the bounties. All these payments are made by drafts; and it is often the case that the amount on hand, as shown by the tables, is larger than the real balance, because of outstanding drafts not yet Presented for payment and not deducted from the cash on hand. There are many reasons, then, why the currency balance cannot be materially lessened, and I have already stated why the gold balance cannot be materially lessened, and why it is necessary to keep at least 50 or 60 million dollars of gold on hand. From the statement laid upon our table, it is impossible to meet the compound interest notes which are maturing from May until December to the amount of $140,000,000 unless either we issue green backs, which the Senator does not advocate, and which, I suppose, no one would advocate, or unless you issue 5 20 bonds and sell them, or unless you issue some other form of security or resort to some other mode of raising money. I will not anticipate the discussion of the proposition that may come from the ComFinance on that point. I only make these remarks to prevent what I coneeived an erroneous imPression in regard to the Present condition of the Treasury.