mments, in good condition; and 61 muskets, 3 rifles and 11 pistols, broken and otherwise so much injured at the blowing down of the Armory during the storm in October last, as to render them unfit for further use. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, R. A. SHINE, Quartermaster General. THOMAS BROWN, Governor of Florida. REPORT OF THE COMPTROLLER OF PUBLIC ACCOUNTS. COMPTROLLER'S OFFICE, Tallahassee, November 10, 1852. To THOMAS BROWN, Governor, &c.: SIR-In obedience to law, the undersigned respectfully submits to you his official Report upon the Finances of the State for the last two fiscal years, with some suggestions in regard to the Revenue System. The receipts at the Treasury during the Fiscal Year ending 31st October, 1851, amount to, viz :.. . . $84,147 25 From ordinary sources, License Tax,.. $5,164 54 818 51 255 43 1,167 40 727 69 40,857 44 6,114 23 $57,141 10 274 03 25,000 00 1,727 12 5 00 $84,147 25 The WARRANTS issued during the same period amount to..... On account of Fifth General Assembly,. $67,187 73 $22,901 07 Salaries,.. 18,804 11 The RECEIPTS for the year ending 31st October, 1852, amount to $60,619 63 $1,292 65 2,300 27 4,391 24 14 21 150 00 306 80 5,525 44 5,000 00 $60,619 63 $55,234 4D $20.000 00 9,470 25 4,864 58 9,658 77 1,842 42 500.00 250 00 218 40 1,873 98 4,301 09 2,000 00 255 00 $55,254 49 NOTE.-Lists of Warrants issued in 1851 and 1852, will be found in the Appendix. By the foregoing statement it will be seen that the amount of warrants issued in each of the last two years, greatly exceeds the amount for 1850, which is the minimum year since the organization of the State government; an examination, however, of the table in the appendix giving a "comparative view of warrants issued in three successive years"-1850, '51 and '52—will show that the augmentation of expenditures in the last two years, is owing in part to the establishment of a separate Court of Appeals, and to several other new heads of expenditure, expressly provided for by recent laws, and in part to an increase in the expenses arising under ordinary heads, such as those of "criminal prosecutions," and "jurors and witnesses," which necessarily fluctuate with the increase or diminution of business in the courts. It should be remarked, also, that although the amount of warrants issued in any particular year approximates nearer than any other Treasury statement to the amount of liabilities incurred during the same period, still it cannot show the exact amount of such liabilities, because many accounts that acrued one year are not presented till some succeeding year. For example:-the TREASURER Reports "Treasury Certificates redeemed in 1851, $19,657 01," while none were issued after 23d January of that year, and it frequently happens that Clerk's Certificates to jurors and witnesses are not presented at this office to be audited for several years after they have been issued. Until 1851 the means of the State being inadequate to meet the demands on the Treasury, those certificates were taken up by the revenue officers for taxes, and paid directly into the Treasury without warrants from the Comptroller; and in 1850 the sum of $7,101 50 in such certificates was so paid in. Had warrants been issued for these, the amount that year would have been $38,559 33, instead of $31,457 83 as in the table appended. By the last General Assembly an Act was passed "to provide for the payment of the Florida volunteers called out in the year 1849." By this Act the Governor is authorized to "issue, through the office of the Comptroller, State scrip bearing six per cent. interest," for the liquidation of the claims of the volunteers; and, as soon as the United States shall have made an appropriation for the payment of said claims, and shall have placed the amount in the State Treasury, the Comptroller is required to issue warrants in favor of the holders of said scrip. The phraseology of the Act of Congress in relation to this matter is such that it seems to be intended that the State should actually have paid those claitns before she should be "reimbursed," and, in accordance with this view, the Governor and Comptroller, after mature consideration, concluded to pay, at once, all such claims as might be properly authenticated, and allowed by the Quarter Master General. In order to do this it was necessary to borrow the money, and, as it would make no difference in the end whether the State paid interest on scrip, or on a loan for the same purpose, it was determined that the latter plan should be adopted. Accordingly the Comptroller, with the assent of the Governor, and by virtue of Act No. 27, Ch. 338, issued certificates to the Seminary and School Funds, obtained from them the sum of thirty-nine thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven dollars and six cents ($39,857 06) which was applied to the object provided for by the Act of January 23d, 1851, and which has been reimbursed by the United States, and returned with interest to the respective funds from which it was borrowed. Under the act last referred to I made, during the year, the fol lowing investments, viz: No express provision is made by law for the investment of the last named Fund. The omission probably is attributable to the set that the Assemby has not been in session since there has been any. thing to invest. But during the last Summer a large amount was received by the Treasurer for lands sold, and, as it could not be supposed that the Legislature intended this, any more than the other Funds, to lie idle and barren, the Treasurer, at my instance, and with the approbation of the Governor, placed in my hands the sum of twenty-seven thousand six hundred and forty dollars, part of which was applied to account with the Seminary Fund, for money advanced according to law, and the balance to the purchase of the bonds above mentioned, exclusive of the amount borrowed for this State, ($5000,) which was left in the Treasury, as it was obtained under a requisition of the Governor, by virtue of the act of 1851, entitled, "An Act to provide for the removal of the Indians," &c. THE COMMON SCHOOL SYSTEM. The difficulty of devising a system that will correspond in praetice with its speculative design has been already made manifest in regard to that which was established by the Assembly of 1848–9. It being foreign to my official duty to say anything in reference to this system as means of promoting its great object-education, I shall, of course, confine my remarks to its financial features. By Section 2, Article 2, of the Act referred to, it is made the daty of the Treasurer to pay, "on the first day of September in every year, on the Warrant of the Comptroller, to the County Superintendents of the several Counties, the sums annually to be distributed for the support of Common Schools;" and, by the 5th Section, the County Superintendents are required to apportion the said sums among the several School Districts, "on or before the first Monday in April of each and every year." Thus, between the period at which the money is to be drawn from the Treasury, and the time when it is to be applied to its object, about seven months intervene, during which interval it must be idle and unproductive. But, moreover, by the Act of December 31st, 1850, (Chapter 338, No. 27, Laws of Florida) the Comptroller is directed to invest the money in public stocks so as to have the interest payable on "the 20th of July annually." This latter requisition cannot be complied with; because, as far as I have any knowledge of the matter, it is the invariable custom to make the interest on such stocks payable semi-annually, and on the 1st of January and 1st of July. In consideration of the premises, and actuated by a desire to promote the benign intention of the Legisla ture, I exercised a discretion which, though not imparted by the letter of the law, seemed to me not inconsistent with the design of those by whom it was enacted; and, instead of issuing Warrants for the interest that accrued on the 1st July, but which could not be used before the succeeding April, I invested it in such manner as to make it reproductive, yet so as to be available with its increase before it could legally be applied. In connexion with this subject I would suggest the propriety of amending the Act of 1850 so as to make the apportionments semi-annually at periods a little later than those at which the interest is payable, in order to give time to collect the interest and to make the distribution. By An Act approved January 24th, 1851, the Comptroller is required, on a specified contingency, to issue Warrants upon the Treasury for two dollars on account of each and every child entitled to a distributive share, which sums are to be paid out of "funds accruing from the general revenue." Consistently with my official oath to "preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the State," I could not comply with this requisition. The second section of the 8th Article of the Constitution declares: "No other or greater amount of tax, or revenue, shall at any time be levied, than may be required for the necessary expenses of government." If this prohibition precludes, as I think it does, the right to levy a tax for the support of schools, it as clearly inhibits the diversion of funds already in the Treasury from the object for which they were raised, and their application to one for which they could not have been legitimately levied. A similar difficulty invests Act No. 32, of 1851, authorizing County Commissioners to levy a tax "for the purpose of aiding the Common Public Schools." The only legiti mate power of Counties or incorporated towns to impose taxes is derivable from the Legislature, under Section 4, Article 8 of the Constitution, which reads: "The General Assembly shall have power to authorize the several Counties and incorporate Towns in this State, to impose taxes for County and Corporation purposes." Whether schools do or do not come within the meaning and intent of the terms, "County and corporation purposes," is at best very questionable. These terms have a specific signification-a signification limited to such objects as concern Counties and Towns in their aggregate corporate capacity-such objects as cannot be upheld or promoted save by the exercise of corporate jurisdiction; and the importance of the object is not, of itself, sufficient to bring it within that jurisdiction. Were it so, the erection of a free Church, and the support of a Clergyman, might be provided for by direct taxation, in all corporate towns where a majority of the voters should. disapprove the tenets of one or more Churches already organized, or become dissatisfied with the teaching and preaching of their pastors. THE REVENUE LAWS. There are, I think, several defects in the revenue system of Florida. Some of these are matters of inconvenience merely-others are of a graver nature, affecting important principles. With as much conciseness as I can use, consistently with clearness, I shall proceed to point out these defects. On the subject of taxation, an eminent writer on political economy has laid down several maxims that are approved, theoretically at least, by every free State. Two only of these maxims being pertinent here I shall quote them exclusively. |