is "for the expense of distributing;" it is
not to compensate anybody.
Mr. BRISCOE. That is one of the duties the
acts of assembly require the librarian to per-
form.
Mr. STOCKBRIDGE. Certainly; but there is
in expense in doing it. There is a large
parcel of books to be Bent, three or four
copies to each member of the legislature,
certain copies to clerks and registers of wills,
&c., to Calvert county, Frederick county,
Washington county, &c. These have to be
boxed. They have to be conveyed to the
express office. There is expense in all this,
I suppose it was to meet this expense that the
legislature appropriated $50, or 30 much as
may be necessary to meet this expense.
I had supposed, and I still suppose and do
believe that these appropriations are made to
meet that expense; and that if the whole
sum is not needed to meet that expense, the
surplus belongs not to the librarian but to the
State. He is to meet the expense, whatever
it may be, and the balance is undrawn from
the treasury. That certainly is the proper
construction of the law.
The PRESIDENT. The gentleman will per-
ceive the difficulty in which the comptroller
is placed. The librarian draws upon the
treasury for the specific sum appropriated.
The comptroller, of course, is bound to pay
that specific appropriation.
Mr. STOCKBRIDGE. I had supposed that it
was the duty of the officer who performed this
work to present his vouchers for the expense
incurred, and that, his vouchers should ac-
company his draft; which would make it »
perfectly plain case for the comptroller.
The PRESIDENT. The chair will state that
the librarian has never presented to the
comptroller any statement of expenses for
freight. It is not to be presumed that the
distribution of the laws, journals and docu-
ments of a session of the legislature will
amount to the sum of $150. The comptroller
was under the supposition that he could not
go behind the law, which appropriated a spe-
cific sum for a specific purpose, when the li-
brarian drew his draft. If the freight did
not amount to $5, the comptroller was bound
to pay, and the librarian was entitled to draw
every dollar of the $150 under the law. It
is done upon the supposition that the expense
is furnished to the legislature, and that the
legislature makes this appropriation accord-
ingly. If the librarian has furnished the
legislature a statement of the freight, and
that freight amounts to $150, then the legis-
lature pass it, and the comptroller is bound
to presume that fact. He is bound to pre-
sume that the legislature in acting upon the
subject, has acted upon a bill presented
showing the amount of freight to be $150.
Mr. DANIEL. Or upon an estimate.
The PRESIDENT. Certainly, or upon an
estimate submitted to the legislature. |
Mr. STOCKBRIDGE. Of course the expense
cannot be ascertained definitely during the
session of the legislature, as it is not incurred.
until after the adjournment; for it is not
until after, the members have gone home that
the journals and laws can be bound and dis-
tributed.
The PRESIDENT. It will be easy from the
experience of the last ten years to make a
pretty close estimate. But does any gentle-
man pretend to say that the expense of dis-
tributing the laws and journals would
amount to $150?
Mr. STOCKBRIDGE. I do not know what it
does cost; but I am satisfied that if boxed
properly it could not cost less than twenty-
five or fifty dollars and there is the dray-
age, expressage &c., to be paid. This ap-
propriation reads like any other in the ap-
propriation bills. '' For the expense of the
fuel and lights for public buildings and
grounds, and the government house, $5,000."
Does any gentleman pretend to tell me that
if the person charged with procuring this
fuel and lights for the state house, procures
it at $3,000, he has a right to draw $5,000,
and take the $2,000 as perquisites? It is
precisely a parallel case. " For the postage
of the executive and treasury departments,
the land office, and the adjutant general,
$2,000." Has. the person who pays that
postage a right to draw. upon the comptroller
for $2,000? and if it costs but $1,000 or
$1,500, has he a right to appropriate the
other $1,000 or $500, as perquisites of his
office? The law reads precisely the same.
The phraseology is the same in the two cases.
The intent, the purpose was, and could
have been nothing else, that this expense,
whatever it might be, should be paid out of
this fund, and the balance, if any, should re-
main in the treasury. It is precisely the
same with reference to the legislature. "To
pay members of the senate and house of del-
egates, their officers and attendants, the yearly
salaries of the secretary of the senate and
clerk of the house of delegates excepted, and
also for the contingent expenses of the regu-
lar session of January, 1864, of the general
assembly, including the cost of printing,
$75,000." Somebody is to pay that money,
so much thereof as may be necessary. Does
any person pretend to say to this convention
that the person who is charged with that
duty may draw the sum of $75,000 and pay
the per diem, and mileage, &c., and the rest
is his perquisite ?
I see no perquisite in this thing. The
treasurer is to pay whatever the receipts
show that the expense is, and nothing more.
I am unwilling to agree at all that this mat-
ter has gone on from year to year in viola-
tion of the constitution, as it would be if
there were any addition to the salary of the
librarian. I do not suppose it has been so
considered. We pay a salary of $1,000 and |
