468
WRITINGS OF 5AM HOUSTON, 1860
Amount due on appropriations heretofore made ________ 50,000.00 Additional appropriations made by present Legisla- ture up to 1st of February, say_____________________________ 83,000.00
$468,582.74 Probable additional cost of Rio Grande War______________ 40,000.00
$508,582.74 Amount in the Treasury February 1st_________________________ 219,000.00
Deficit February 1st -------------------------------------$289,582.74 As the act appropriating $300,000.00 for the protection of the frontier provides that no money shall be drawn under the act, so as to leave "a deficit in the amount required of the current revenue from time to time to pay the ordinary current expenses of the Government," the Legislature need but turn to the condi- tion of the Treasury, herewith presented, to see that there will be no money in the Treasury for frontier defence, and that there- fore, unless provision is made by the Legislature, our rangers will have to go without pay and subsistence after the University Fund is exhausted. As this fund, amounting to $106,992.26 is only to be used as a loan on account of the defence of the frontier, it cannot relieve the present embarrassed condition of the Treas- ury. Had the act creating a State University been repealed, and the money placed in the general fund, the Treasury operations would have not so soon have been impeded. The Executive has, in view of the condition of the Treasury, not felt justified in calling more troops into the field than is at present absolutely necessary. We may expect, however, that when grass rises in the Spring, the Indians will come down in greater numbers, and that more rangers will be needed. The entire amount of the University Fund will barely be sufficient to sustain the companies now in the field for six months. If the 1·egiment provided for in the "Act for the protection of the fron- tier" is called out, the estimates made by the Comptroller show that the sum of $1,206,000.00 will be necessary to sustain them in the field two years. This estimate is an exceedingly low one, and does not include mules, wagons, &c., which must necessarily be purchased. The embarrassing position of the Executive will at once be seen. The Legislature have passed an act providing for calling out a regiment of men. The frontier people, supposing
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