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_Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and House of Representatives_:
The adjournment of the last Congress without making appropriations
for the support of the Army for the present fiscal year has rendered
necessary a suspension of payments to the officers and men of the sums
due them for services rendered after the 30th day of June last.
The Army exists by virtue of statutes which prescribe its numbers,
regulate its organization and employment, and which fix the pay of its
officers and men and declare their right to receive the same at stated
periods. These statutes, however, do not authorize the payment of
the troops in the absence of specific appropriations therefor. The
Constitution has wisely provided that "no money shall be drawn from
the Treasury but in consequence of appropriations made by law;" and
it has also been declared by statute that "no department of the
Government shall expend in any one fiscal year any sum in excess
of appropriations made by Congress for that fiscal year." We have,
therefore, an Army in service, authorized by law and entitled to be
paid, but no funds available for that purpose.
It may also be said, as an additional incentive to prompt action by
Congress, that since the commencement of the fiscal year the Army,
though without pay, has been constantly and actively employed in
arduous and dangerous service, in the performance of which both
officers and men have discharged their duty with fidelity and
courage and without complaint.
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