WRITINGS OF 5AM HOUSTON, 1844
531
laws in accordance with the requirements of this joint resolution, &c., hence the Executive is not disposed to assume responsibility which the government cannot discharg€ and thereby lay the ground work of complaint, delay and dissatisfaction. The Executive avails himself also of this occasion to remark to the House of Representatives that he has been informed upon good authority, that it was not the design of Messrs. Cruger & Moore to print the laws themselves, but to enter into a sub- confract with G. K. Teulon,~ Esquire, of the City of Austin, to have the work done there with the view of delivering the laws when printed not to the Department of State at the Town of Washington, but at the building formerly occupied by that Depart- ment in the City of Austin, and in this way to delay and perhaps defeat their distribution among the people. The reception of this information has caused the Executive to look with more caution into the seemingly strange and unusual course thus far pursued by the public printers elect. The distribution of the laws is all important in the administra- tion of justice; and were they not locked up at Austin, as the records have been and now are, they might be used in our courts. But if they are not distributed, in many cases, persons wishing them as evidence in court and for other purposes, will have to obtain certified copies at the State Department at some expense and great trouble. To those who live at a distance the incon- venience would be great and inevitable, if this resolution should be approved. It has heretofore been -regarded as the duty of the Secretary of State to contract for the printing and preparing of the laws and journals for distribution-the printing being only a part of the work necessary to be done before distribution. This plan has in many instances, since the origin of the government, been the means of saving of expense to the nation. It is therefore recommended as the most advisable course to be obsen ed in future. Sam Honston. 1 "Messages of the Presidents," Congressional Pa1irrs, Eighth Congress; also, Executive Record Book, No. 40, pp. 316-316, Texas State Library. Journals of the House of Representatives of the Rep11blir. of T1•.ras, 8th Cong., 1st Sess., 344-345. The Jlllorning Star, February 6, 18-14. Telegraph ancl Texas Registe1·, February 7, 1844. 2 This joint resolution was passed over the President's veto. See the House Journal of the Eighth Congress, p. 345.
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