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[78] [1822 Jan. 17] [Message from Governor respecting appropriation of money &c.] were laid before the last legislature, with a request that they might be examined and settled, and a direction given as to the disposition of the balance stated to be remaining in the Treasurer’s hands. I have never been able to find that the Legislature took any order thereon - I shall therefore direct that a copy of the accounts exhibited to the last legislature together with the letter which accompanied it be laid before you, and also a particular account of the sums borrowed by order of the convention and of every item of expenditure authorized by that body from its commencement until its dissolution. -

I have to call the attention of the Legislature to the construction of Article 5th part fourth, Section 4th of the Constitution off this State, by which it is provided that “no money shall be drawn from the Treasury but by warrant from the Governor and council, and in consequence of appropriations made by law.” On a comparison it will be found that this clause, so far as it respects appropriations, is a transcript of the Constitution of the United States, under which, it is known, that the officers of the Treasury do not feel authorized to make any payment unless in consequence of a specific appropriation. This is one of the instances in which our constitutions varied from that of the parent state. This alteration having undoubtedly been intended as an additional security of the treasury, it becomes proper to enquire in what manner it was contemplated to have that effect, and what has been the practice under constitutions containing a similar provision. From the phraseology off the Section referred to, it would seem to have been the intention of the framers of our Constitution that the probable expenditures of the ensuing year should be distinctly brought before each Legislature in the form of an appropriation law; and the actual expenditure of the past year in the form of a “regular statement and account” - The laws of the United States fixing the salaries of its officers, or the pay of the army or navy or the pay of Congress have never been deemed by the officers of the