WRITINGS OF ·SAM HOUSTON, 1860
524
To CLEMENT R. JOHNs 1 Executive Department, Austin, March 16, 1860.
Hon. C. R. Johns, Comptroller Sir: In your letter of March 12th you decline submitting accounts to the Executive for his approval after they have been audited by you. The Executive has no disposition to meddle with the Department of the Comptroller unless in such cases as pro- vided by law, or when that officer fails to perform the duties assigned to him. Whenever the Governor is requested by law to ap_prove, or direct the payment of claims against the State, he will hold it to be the duty of the Comptroller to first audit the same. It is impossible for the Governor to exercise that supervisory discre- tion given to him by the laws, unless such a course is pursued. These guards are thrown around the Treasury to protect it in such cases. The Governor acting as a check upon the Comp- troller, and the Treasurer acting as a check upon both. For the powers of the Governor, I refer you to the ConstitUr t.ion; for the duties of the Comptroller, I refer you to the vari- ous statutes governing him. The powers of the Governor, I regard as directory; the duties of the Comptroller, as executory. To regard the law "may result in the entire subversion of the present order of things in your office,'' but it is better to observe the law, even though it may be inconvenient, or against custom. How your request that you will "audit," or "audit and pay" will give the Executive the proper control, I am at a loss to con- ceive. It is your duty to audit whenever a claim is presenteq and the "proper control can only be exercised by the Executive" after that duty has been performed. Sam Houston. 1 Compt?-ollers' Letters; also Executive Records, 1859-1861, pp. 98-99, Texas State Library. The reply to this letter is also in Comptrollers' Lette1·s. Johns also put into the papers a long explanation of the "differ- ences" between himself and the Governor, in which he gave to the public several curt letters from himself to Houston as proof of his contentions. One good source for J ohns's explanation is the State Gazette-Extra,. It is not dated, but various r(lferences to this publication to be found in other papers, show clearly that it was issued before June, 1860.
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