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WRITINGS OF 5AM HOUSTON, 1844,
396
secure the more certain and prompt collection and transmission of the public moneys. Otherwise no safe calculation can be made as to the means annually appropriated for the support of gov- ernment. The total amount of expenditures for all purposes during the present administration, up to the first of November last,-ex- cluding fifty thousand eight hundred and seventy three ·dollars and eighty two cents, incurred during the administration of my predecessor and paid by this-is four hundred and sixty thousand two hundred and nine dollars and eighteen cents. The receipts for the same period ai·e estimated at four hundred and sixty six thousand one hundred and fifty eight dollars and nine cents- leaving a balance of five thousand nine hundred and forty eight dollars and ninety one cents, after carrying- on the government for the last three years. It should be mentioned, also, that the estimate of expenditures dates back to the first of December, 1841, and that of the receipts to the first of February, 1842, at which time Exchequer bills began to be received for revenue-a space of two months, during which the expenses of government were being incurred without the receipt of a dollar to meet them. It appears from the several enactments on the subject, that the amount appropriated for sustaining the post-office establish- ment during the administration of my predecessor .was two hundred and fifty two thousand nine hundred and seventy dollars; and that the like appropriations during the last three years, for the same purpose, amount to but about twenty nine thousand. Notwithstanding, however, this great difference in the means afforded for the support of this important branch of the public service, it is believed that, by the exercise of proper economy, the mails have been regularly transported upon all the routes prescribed by law, so as to give the greatest benefits possible under the means which could be applied. This statement, it is believed, will best explain the conduct of the administration in the management of its finances; and per- haps satisfy the people of the Republic, that a]) within its powe1: has been done to economise the means which they had contributed for the support of our institutions. Much hardship has been encountered, and sometimes extreme perplexity endured by all the public officers, from the fluctuations to which the currency has been subjected. But they have the satisfaction to know that, although they have frequently received Jess than one half the com- pensation assigned them by law for their services, they have mate- rially assisted in sustaining their country in the time of difficulty
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