506
WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1860
of the Treasurer, and is provided for by the act equally with the principal. So far from the issuance of warrants being in l!ontravention of law, the law of February 14th requires that the Comptroller shall issue them, and that the Treasurer shall pay the interest accruing thereon, as well as the principal. The Act of February 14th does not conflict with the section of the Constitution quoted. There being no interest due on the warrants until after they are presented at the Treasury and payment declined, the objection does not hold. In my opinion the act of the Legislature is strictly constitution.al, and the duty of the Comptroller is imverative. No law exists for the issue of ten per cent scrip proposed by you. I should be pleased to meet you and the Treasurer and devise some plan for put- ting the law into operation. Sam Houston [Rubric] 1 Conipt?·olle,·s' Lette,·s, 1860; also Executive Records, 1859-1861, p. 90, Texas State Library. The sources are identical, except that the letter in the Comptrollers' Letters has the rubric after the signature; the other has not.
To JoHN B. FLOYD 1 Executive Department, Austin, Texas, March 8, 1860.
To the Honorable John B. Floyd, Secretary of War: Sir :-Judging from the tenor of the dispatches from your Department to me of the 28th ult., that the Government has not at its command sufficient troops to afford the immediate protec- tion of Texas that is desired, I herewith tender the service of five thousand Texas volunteers. Texas is ready for the emergency and will act at a moment's warning. Texas needs to repel invasion, both from the Indians and from Mexico, an immediate supply of arms. In view of the attrocities committed on our people, I hope the Department will send with- out delay.... , Texas has always been deficient in arms, and has drawn but few. Danger is upon her now, and she needs them at once. Be pleased to reply by telegram without delay. Sam Houston.
1 Quoted by Houston in his Address to the People, March 24, 1860, below.
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