Page:Life and Select Literary Remains of Sam Houston of Texas (1884).djvu/631

 reason for believing that a change of policy in this respect would be beneficial.

In view of the continued depredations upon our frontier and the insecurity arising from the anarchical condition of Mexico, I shall take immediate steps for the organization of the militia, in accordance with the act of April 21, 1846. As our settlements widen, and the people of the interior become strangers to the incidents of border life, the use of arms and the knowledge of all that pertains to military duties, will not be kept up to that degree which will insure efficiency in the hour of danger. Military discipline is an important item in the education of a free people. Familiar with the use of arms, they can be made available at any moment to repel invasion or crush rebellion. I would commend to your honorable body, the propriety of making such appropriation as will be necessary to put our militia system into operation.

The Report of the State Comptroller, already laid before the Legislature, shows that we have very little to congratulate ourselves upon, on account of the condition of the Treasury. There remained in the Treasury at the expiration of the last fiscal year, ending on the 31st of August, 1859, the sum of $411,402.69, in U. S. bonds and specie.

The $2,000,000 set apart for the School Fund yet remains, but the balance of the $5,000,000 received from the sale of our Santa Fe territory to the United States, is exhausted, except the amount set apart for the University Fund, amounting to $106,972.26, and the balance mentioned of $411,402.69 belonging to the General Fund. Notwithstanding a continued revenue arising from taxation and the interest on our United States bonds, has flowed in a continued stream into the Treasury, the money has gone out in a ceaseless stream, until, instead of seeking, as has formerly been the case, for modes of emptying the public Treasury, we have to seek for modes of replenishing it. Added to the revenue of the fiscal year, the balance in the Treasury on the ist of August, 1859, will but little more than meet the ordinary expenses of Government; and to make it do this, economy is necessary.

We have a force in the field upon the Rio Grande, and the frontier is to be protected from the Indians. We can not expect our citizens to wait the delay to be experienced in our endeavors to obtain the recognition of our State forces by the United States. They must be provisioned and paid. Common justice demands that the State should recompense them, and not force them to wait until the General Government shall make the necessary appropriation. To meet these extraordinary expenditures by means most prudent, is an object which I especially enjoin on your attention. Every avenue of extravagance should be closed, every proper means of retrenchment should be adopted. The keys of the Treasury should be held with an honest grasp, and no appropriation be made which is not necessary and strictly in accordance with law. Every disbursing officer of the Government should be held to strict accountability, and no stretch of authority be permitted in the exercise of the power confided to him. What economy will not accomplish can, in my opinion, be best supplied by taxation. Texas has learned some experience from going into debt, which she will do well to remember, and I trust she will guard against its consequences in future.