WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1860
469
that the Legislature has provided for their pay and subsistence, expect their appearance in the field; but the Legislature has not done so, and hence they cannot be called out. There was in specie and bonds in the Treasury on the 1st of February, $218,000.00. The amounts enumerated by the Comp- troller to meet the expenses of the Legislature, the current expenses for the month, the balance of $74,000 on account of frontier defence, and the amount due on appropriations hereto- fore made, say $50,000, in all amount to $166,470.46. Nearly the whole of this amount will at once be pressing upon the Treasury. To meet it alone we would have to exhaust every dollar set apart for the payment of the public debt, and $43,787.87 of that belonging to the river appropriation fund. Of additional ap- propriations made by the present Legislature prior to 1st Febru- ary, at least $50,000 will be needed in a few months, which would exhaust the balance of the river fund, and still leave a deficit; so that if the Legislature authorize the disbursing of every dollar in the Treasury, the amount will still fall short of the present demand upon it, and of the entire indebtedness of the State, on the first of February last, $289,582.74. The ordinary expenses of government, estimated by the Comp- troller are $418,062.78 per annum, which, deducting the river fund already enumerated, will be $31,858.53 per month, are to be met. The cost of the Rio Grande war is to be paid. The expense of government alone, from the 1st of February until the 1st of June, will be $127,434.12. No revenue will come in until that period. The entire amount then received from that source, according to the exhibit made by the Comptroller, will be $348,268.61. The deficit in the operations of the government will then amount to $417,016.86, independent of the extraordinary expenses on account of frontier defence. The entire revenue may be paid out, and there will still be a deficit of $68,755.25. The current expenses of government for the coming year will then be unprovided for, as no funds will come in until the 1st of June following-also such extra appropriations as have been made since 1st February. The Legislature will see at once the necessity of providing for a revenue on the 1st of June, 1861, sufficient not only to meet the deficit, but also to sustain the government for the next fiscal year. To do this, taxation is absolutely necessary. It is better that the people should at once suffer taxation, to relieve the
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