e sum of $637,350,000, to be provided
for and funded at the option of the government, at such rate of
interest as may be deemed advisable by Congress and can practicably
be obtained.

"The sums that we are dealing with are enormous, affecting the
welfare of every branch of our country's industry and of our entire
people. The opportunity for reducing the rate of interest upon
this enormous sum, and, not only that, but of placing the national
debt more under the control of the government in regard to future
payments, is now before us. The opportunity for doing this upon
favorable terms should not be lost, and the only question before
us, as legislators, is how we can best and most practically take
advantage of the hour."

The bill as modified by the committee of the Senate would have
enabled the treasury department to enter at once on the refunding
of the public debt, and, in the then state of the money market,
there would have been no doubt of the ready sale of the bonds and
notes provided for and the redemption of the five and six per cent.
bonds outstanding. The Senate, however, after long debates,
disagreed to the amendments of the committee, and in substance
passed the bill as it came from the House. The few amendments made
were agreed to by the House, and the bill passed and was sent to
the President on the 1st of March. On the 3rd of March it was
returned by the President with a statement of his objections to
its passage. These were based chiefly on the provision which
required the banks to deposit in the treasury, as security for
their circulating notes, bonds bearing three per cent. interest,
which, in his judgment, was an insufficient security. His message
was as follows:

"To the House of Representatives:--Having considered the bill
entitled 'An act to facilitate the refunding of the national debt,'
I am constrained to return it to the House of Representatives, in
which it originated, with the following statement of my objections
to its passage.

"The imperative necessity for prompt action, and the pressure of
public duties in this closing week of my term of office, compel me
to refrain from any attempt to make a full and satisfactory
presentation of the objections to the bill.

"The importance of the passage, at the present session of Congress,
of a suitable measure for the refunding of the national debt, which
is about to mature, is generally recognized. It has been urged
upon the attention o