WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1860
514
To CLEMENT R. JoHNs 1 Executive Department, March 11, 1860.
Hon. C. R. Johns, Comptroller of Treasury Sir: Your letter of 9th inst. is at hand. The Constitutional obstacles interposed by you in regard to the issuance of Treasury Warrants, bearing interest at the rate of Ten per cent. per annum, in accordance with the Act of the Legislature, Approved 14th February, 1860, are not, in my opinion, warranted by any of the features of the Act. You say, "First: There being no appropriation for the interest, it cannot be drawn from the Treasury." The payment either of the Warrant, or the interest which shall accrue thereon, is a matter beyond your province. The duties of the Comptroller are clearly defined by law. He has no right to assume the prerogatives of the Treasurer, who is a distinct officer of the Government, or to say what he can or cannot do. In this case the duty assigned to you is clear. The caption and first Section of the Act reads as follows : "An Act authorizing unpaid warrants on the Treasury to bear interest." "Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Texas, That when an Account shall hereafter be pre- sented for any demand for which an appropriation has been made it shall be the duty of the Comptroller, to Audit and allow the claim if legal, and to issue his war- rant for the amount, and if there be no money in the Treasury to pay the demand, then the Comptroller shall issue his warrant upon the Treasury for the amount with ten per cent per annum interest from date which warrant shall be countersigned by the Governor and shall be numbered and endorsed by the Treasurer." Here your duty is at an end. The Warrant drawn by yot~ is for the amount due the holder thereof. The Legislature iri a spirit of justice to the holders of claims has declared that they shall,·from the date when the warrant is drawn, receive interest "at the rate of ten per cent per annum" until paid. The interest therefore does not exist at the time the warrant is drawn·; but is accumulative and contingent to the non payment of the same. Thus, without an appropriation to pay the interest, no obstacle whatever intervenes to the issuance of the warrant bearing interest.
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