Page:A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Confederacy, Including the Diplomatic Correspondence, 1861-1865, Volume I.djvu/283

Rh Sept. 30, 1862. To the Senate and House of Representatives.

I herewith transmit for your consideration a communication from the Secretary of War, submitting estimates of the Quartermaster General.

I recommend that an appropriation be made of the amount for the purpose specified.

 Sept. 30, 1862. To the Senate and House of Representatives.

I herewith transmit a communication from the Secretary of the Treasury, relative to the war tax of the State of Louisiana.

I recommend an appropriation of the amount for the purpose specified.

 To the House of Representatives of the Confederate States. The resolution passed by the House in secret session on the 30th of last month has been communicated to me by the clerk of the House, and it is in the following words:

"Resolved, That the President be requested to cause the Department of State to ask for and transmit to this House estimates of the expenses incident to the sending of a diplomatic agent (supplied with such instructions as he shall deem most wise and proper) to the Court of His Majesty the Emperor of Brazil and such other South American States as he shall suppose to be judicious to open diplomatic intercourse with."

I deeply regret that, according to my views of constitutional duty, it is not in my power to comply with the request of the House. The Constitution expressly vests in the Executive Department the discretion of asking for such supplies as are deemed necessary to carry on the Government, and this discretion cannot, with a due regard to the provisions of that instrument, be controlled by the request of the Congress, still less by that of one branch of the Legislative Department.

The 9th paragraph of section 9, article one, of the Constitution, declares that "Congress shall appropriate no money from the Treasury, except by a vote of two-thirds of both Houses, taken 