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EXPLORING EXPEDITION.

CORRESPONDENCE

Between J. N. Reynolds and the Hon. Mahlon Dickerson, under
the respective signatures of " Citizen" and " Friend to the Navy,"
touching the South Sea Surveying and Exploring Expedition ; wherein
the objects of the enterprise, and the causes which have delayed its de-
parture, are canvassed. Originally published in the " New-York Times"
of July, August, and September, 1837, and in the " New-York Courier
and Enquirer" of December and January, 1837-38.

University of California • Berkeley

LETTERS, &c.
I.

To the Honourable Mahlon Dickerson, Secretary of the Navy.

Sir,

In my opinion you hold one of the most important stations in
this or in any other country. To fill it, a man should know all
that is known of the seas, continents, and islands in the world.
He should be acquainted with their commerce, their products, and
with the character of their population. There have been men of
mind in the office you now fill, who knew their deficiencies in
these matters, and nobly laboured to induce the nation to permit
them to take the proper means to obtain this information for the
benefit of the people and the department which they filled. You
have succeeded them ; and, permit me to ask, what have you done
to carry out their plans, or to propose new ones calculated to in-
fuse a proper tone and feeling in the service over which* you pre-
side ? I shall speak plainly in these letters which I am about to
address to you. I take no pleasure in the task, but feel it an im-
perative duty 10 do so. This is my prerogative as a native citizen
of this country. The official acts of a public functionary may be
fully canvassed by the humblest citizen; and while he confines
himself to truth, and to the use of courteous and gentlemanly lan-
guage, no merited censure can be charged to him. My feelings
and my fame are identified with the glory of our arts, our arms,
and our means of defence as much as yours or those of any other
citizen, for these things belong to the whole country.

As far as our commerce and our navy are concerned, these are,
for good or for evil, intrusted to you, and for the influence you
exercise upon them you must be answerable at the bar of public
opinion ; that tribunal which, sooner or later, will do justice to the
wronged, however humble, and cover, with its deepest denuncia-
tions, the unfaithful, however high in station !

In the freedom of my soul, I must say I have long doubted

4 LETTERS OF A CITIZEN.

vour capacity for the liich otlice you liold ; and I liave often won-
dered you did not gralifv llie whole conimunilv by retiring from
duties you must find so ditlicult to ])crform, l)v seeking that re-
pose and quiet generally so grateful to man in the ninth septen-
nial of liuman life.

I never heard a sentence from your lips, or read a paragraph
from your })cn, that gave me the impression that the compass of
your mind, on public measures, was not better adapted to razee
or to cut down than to hmld vp and adorn I Still I tliought that
you would adhere strictly to the discharge of your duties, particu-
larly where the responsil)illtv of devising was taken from vour
shoulders, and rested in other (juarlers able to bear it ; but in this
I was unfortunately disappointed.

When you came into office, if you had looked over the files of
papers in the dcjvirlmcnt, you must have known that, ten years
ago, as you liave said, in the days of Madison, a plan was devised
for an expedition to the 8oulh Seas ; that memorials, petitions,
and representations had come into Congress from all quarters, and
seized slrongly upon the attention of the enlightened members of
that body, and that steps had been taken by them for such an un-
dertaking. If the plan suggested was, from many circumstances,
suffered to sleep a while, you know it was revived with fresh ar-
dour in Congress, and acts passed for carrvincj the project forth-
with into effect.

Your opposition to such an expedition was, I confess, undis-
guised. During the sessions of 1834 and 5 you were opposed
to it in every shape and form ; when the bill passed the Senate,
you did all in your power to liave it defeated in the house; rec-
ommending to members — *' Strike it out, strike it out !"

But you often declared that you shotild feel under obligations
to carry into effect whatever Congress determined in regard to
the subject. Have you done il ? Are you doing it ? Tliesc are
qucBtions I have a right to ask ; and they may be asked by an au-
ihoriiv which will require an an.wcr '

More than a year ago the expediiion was .luthDnzcd, and tho
navy commissioners stated in their rejiort to the president in
Januarv', lH3f>, that the Macedonian could be got n'ady for sea in
ninety days ; and how is it that she is now only ready to receiv©
her men in June, ltt37 ?

LETTERS OF A CITIZEN. 5

Twelve months and more have elapsed, and the expedition
still lingers, while the prospect of its departure seems to recede
from the vision of the public. Was this delay for want of energy
or from want of friendly disposition ? The account of the expe-
dition aroused the maritime powers, who were determined that
this youthful nation should not run away with all the glories of
discovery and examination ; and while you have been weighing,
and pondering, and devising means for delay and seeking for
causes for procrastinating the whole enterprise, the French gov-
ernment has fitted out three expeditions into the South Seas ; and
with each a frigate — ay, a frigate — a machine so ponderous and
ingulfing to your imagination ! These well-equipped expedi-
tions have moved to their destinations for the protection of com-
merce, for the security and defence of their fisheries, and for
scientific purposes ; and even a fourth is in a state of forwardness
for the same noble purposes.

Why are we not then before them ? Congress made the most
ample provisions for the expedition. The people ask, and I as
one of them, what under heaven has been the cause of this pro-
crastination ? Will the energetic people of this country, who, in
1797, when we were insulted by the French directory, spread
over the forests of our country, bowed the oak beneath the axe,
built sloops of war, armed and manned them, and in less than a
hundred days from the orders given to build were pouring their
thunders into the French cruisers among the West Indian Islands;
can these men and their descendants brook such a delay with-
out inquiry ?

But, for the present, I will not pursue this inquiry farther.
You, under the specious appearance of sincerity, opened a cor-
respondence with some of our learned societies, asked them to
recommend suitable persons to form a scientific corps, which the
executive determined should accompany the expedition. Gen-
tlemen were recommended and selected ; men sharing largely in
the confidence of men of science, and burning to distinguish
themselves in their departments.

I have heard it intimated that you had some pretensions to sci-
ence, and that you were a member of the philosophical society.
From that circumstance I should have expected that you would
deal out a different measure of justice to the members of the scien-

6 LETTER8 OF A CITIZEN.

lific corps. Why have they not been called together, and their du-
ties assigned them, and facilities given for the various and extensive
preparations necessary for their respective departments, in pursu-
ance of the written request or order of the late energetic executive,
under date of P'ebruary 25th last ? No one knows better than you
that the late executive was fully resolved that the expedition, both
in its civil and naval departments, so far as he was concerned, should
go to sea wanting in nothing that could tend to promote its ultimate
object and triumphant success. It never occurred to his lofty and
indomitable spirit that petty excuses would be made by any offi-
cer of his for delays in a great undertaking ; nor did he wish that
the scientific corps should be sent on board at the hour of sailing
like a guard of marines. Of his share in this expedition I shall
hereafter have occasion to speak. You cannot soon forget it, nor
the manner in which he used to stir you up, as you have often
complained of what he made you do. Well do you know that
even in sickness he did not lose sight of the expedition; and, had
his wishes been complied wiih, ihe expedition would now be doub-
ling the cape, and every one engaged in the enterprise full of
hopes of having immediate opportunities of fulfilling their coun-
try's expecl aliens.

I shnll reserve many things for future consideration, and now
pass to your last attempt to strangle the expedition. Now% at the
eleventh hour of the thirteenth moon of the expedition, a new de-
vice is got up by vou, if not to destroy it altogether,/©?- tliat you
cannot do, yet to cut it down, derange its plans, and thereby ren-
der it inadequate to meet the expectations of Congress, of the late
executive, and of the whole country.

You liavc now appointed a board of naval officers, consisting of
Commodores Chauncey, Morris, Warrington, Patterson, and Wads-
worth, to assist you in making up your mind on the proper means
rerjuisilc for the exploring expedition. Those are all honourable
men, whose merits and virtues have been tried and found true and
trusty in days gone by ; and a most ungracious duty have you as-
signed them. Deceive not yourself, sir, the intelligence, the spirit,
and pride of the coimtrv have- been awakened upon this subject,
and will not sleep again; and long, and deep, and withering will be
the denunciations against the man or men who shall lay Vandal

LETTERS OF A CITIZEN 7

hands upon this enterprise, in the success of which the honour of
our country is so deeply concerned.

But, sir, have you presented the whole case to this board in a
proper light ? I fear not. I have been informed, from good au-
thority, that the whole case has not been presented to them by
your instructions. For what was this board instituted (stripped
of all disguise) but to sit in judgment upon the deliberate opinions
of the people of the United States in Congress assembled ? Will
these officers thank you for such an unenviable office ? It will
be seen, if they are ready to say, that Congress knew nothing of
the subject, and that the force authorized by that body, and deemed
necessary by President Jackson, after he had examined more
thoroughly into the objects of the expedition than you have ever
done, was too large for the attainments of the objects proposed.

Had the duties of this board been confined to subjects relating
to naval matters, to the examination of the vessels, for instance,
there would have been no complaint ; but you have asked them to
revise the act under which you have proceeded. Every one knows
that the force to be employed on any enterprise must depend en-
tirely upon the objects to be accomplished by it. Had you given
this board instructions, fully and fairly setting forth the great la-
bours the expedition was expected to perform, which have been
so clearly set forth in the proceedings of Congress that he who
runs may read, the country would have had no fears of their re-
ducing the force provided and deemed indispensable by the friends
of the expedition ; but, if confined to your limited instructions,
that board can only take a partial view of the subject, and, of
course, give you but a partial answer.

If there be any member on that board who thinks the present
force is unnecessary for all the great purposes contemplated by
Congress and the friends of the measure, the public would be
much indebted to him for a programme of his views ; I am no
advocate for a redundant and proud equipment, and, for one, should
be glad to see them.

But, in sober truth, what instructions have you given this board ?
"Will you tell the public the whole story, and let the Senate, and
House of Representatives, and the friends of the expedition become
thoroughly acquainted with all your views ? Perhaps this would
be asking too much ; but, certainly, in this case you are bound to

19 LETTERS OF A CITIZEN.

furnish us with all your doings fairly and above-board. Secrecy
is unworthy of you and the station you occupy. You have in-
structed this board in such a manner as to shackle their opinions,
if I am not grossly deceived. Is it not something in this con-
tracted form ?

" The objects of the eocpedition are to explore the seas of the
Southern Hemisphere, more particularly in high latitudes, and
in regions as near to the South Pole as may be approached with-
out danger ; to make, in the regions thus to be explored, all prac-
ticable surveys and observations, ivith accurate desci'iptions of
the same, so far as they may be connected with the geography or
hydrography by which the interests of commerce and. navigation
may be promoted r Perhaps you may have dropped a word about
science at the close, and intimated that the vessels might, during
the cruise, go north of the line, though for what purpose you do
not say.

This, if I am not misinformed, is the breadth, and length, and
allilude of your instructions, if not the very words.

Why did you forget — no, why did you omit the major part of
your subject ? the great commercial inicresls among the islands
of the Pacific, and the thousand ways in which those noble inter-
ests might be examined, extended, and secured by this expedition ?
Have not the memorials from Nantucket, New-Bedford, New-
London, Salem, and other great commercial places, given you any
light upon the subject ? Have they not, " in thoughts that breathe
and. words that burn,^' told you, through Congress, the difficulties,
the dangers our fisheries have to encounter in those seas ? Have
they not, in the deep impassioned feeling of their hearts, implored
their country to look after their brethren in bondage on desolate
or savage islands? And you, in your instructions to this gallant
board, have mentioned but little more than the object of getting as
near as possible to the South Pole, and fhrrc to niahe surveys for
the benefit of commerce ! Tliis same plan of misrepresenting the
objects of the expedition was tried by its o])ponents last winter
before Congress, and failed. Do you expect to be more successful
in urging the satiie plea Ix^foro this board ? I am not done with
this point yet. Every friend to the expedition can bear witness
that you have misrepresentrd his wishes in regard to the whole
enterprise. In what light do you place the merchants and others

LETTERS OF A CITIZEN. 9

who have addressed Congress on this subject, and how do you
treat the members of that body who voted for the expedition, by
stating that the things you mentioned to the board of officers were
the great objects of their solicitude and protection. Did you sup-
pose, when you penned those instructions, that you were comph-
menting the late executive by saying that the object of the expe-
dition was to go as near to the South Pole as possible, and that,
for that purpose, he had been so unacquainted with his duties as
to assign the present force. I do you no injustice ; such is the
plain interpretation of your acts. The decisions of that execu-
tive have been universally approved by the friends of the expedi-
tion ; its enemies alone are hawking at it, wishing to derange and
alter what they have not the power entirely to destroy. You re-
spected, or affected to respect, that distinguished man's opinions
when he was in power. Have you forgotten him and his opin-
ions in the short period of four little months ?

I have now stated a few outlines of the case, simply that the
people may inquire of your doings, or your undoings, or your
nondoings ! It is with your acts I am engaged ; with your mo-
tives I have nothing to do. I leave them to the conjectures of the
public, and to the depths of your own bosom.

If you, by the management you have adopted, can draw from
the board you have appointed such a report as will suit your views,
and be made the pretext for cutting down the expedition, you will
know that such a course will not justify your conduct at the public
tribunal to which I have summoned you, and intend to hold you,
until you have put in your plea of justification and ventured the
issue upon it. I am but a citizen, holding no office of honour, but
I know my rights, and, knowing, " dare maintain them." I, as a
citizen, have, by the constitution, the privilege to call your atten-
tion to your duties. This is a writ of right, I ask no leave of
court for filing it ; and shall fear no authority in pursuing my own
course in the premises. The high hopes and deep solicitude of
the nation have been trifled with by you alone ; every other pub-
lic functionary has given his consent, or been silent. Do you
aspire to the enviable fame of having thwarted the nation in a
plan for its benefit and distinction ? If you do, you may go down
to posterity with all the honours you deserve.

I have said your instructions to the board were a perversion of

B

10 LETTERS OF A CITIZEN.

the great objects of the expedition ; that you had brought before
them but a partial view of the subject ; and in my next letters I
shall proceed to prove them so.

Very respectfully,

Your obedient servant and fellow

CITIZEN.

New-York, June 29, 1837.

II.

To the Honourable Mahlon Dickerson, Secretary of the Navy.

Sir,

You will remember the conclusion of my last number. It was
there intimated that your instructions to the naval board did not
convey an impartial and just view of the great objects of the ex-
pedition. I promised that in my next I would prove my asser-
tion, and shall proceed to do so.

Fortunately for my purpose, there are ample records which
bear directly and luminously upon the point at issue. To these
documents I shall mainly confine myself; because, being official
and on file in the naval department, you can have access lo ihem
at any moment, and can therefore the more easily judge of the
fairness of the testimony I shall extract from them. No one, sir,
can turn over the pages of these documents and fail to be at once
convinced, even against his will, that the whole action of Congress
has been based upon memorials from various sections of the
country, and more especially from that portion occupied by our
fellow-citizens interested in the whale-fishciy, and the multifarious
traffic carried on among the countless islands of the great North
and South Pacific and Indian Oceans.

The memorials to which I refer arc now before me. Among
them is one from Nantucket as far back as November, 1828. As
regards the whale-fishery, the memorialists remark :

" "Whether viewed as a nursery of bold, hardy seamen, or ihe
employment of capital in one of the most protluctive modes, or as
furnishing an article of indispensable necessity lo human comfort,
it seems to your pcUtioncrH to l»c especially deserving the public

LETTERS OP A CITIZEN. 11

care. The increased extent of the voyages now pursued by the
trading and whaling ships into seas but little explored, and in parts
of the world before unknown, has increased the cares, the dangers,
and losses of our merchants and mariners. Within a few years
their cruises have extended from the coasts of Chili and Peru to
the Northwest Coast, New-Zealand, and the islands of Japan.
This increase of risk has been attended by an increase of loss.
Several vessels have been wrecked on islands and reefs not laid
down on any chart, and the matter acquires a painful interest from
the fact that many ships have gone into those seas, and no soul
has survived to tell their fate. They therefore pray that an ex-
pedition may be fitted out under the sanction of government to
explore and survey the islands and coasts of the Pacific seas, and,
as in duty bound, will ever pray," &c.

This memorial, emanating from an intelligent, hardy, industrious,
and enterprising people, was accompanied by many similar peti-
tions from other places, all breathing the same spirit, and couched
in the like simple yet forcible language. It never occurred to
these petitioners that their whaling operations, extending through-
out the numerous groups of islands stretching from the western
shores of South America to the confines of Asia, could be partic-
ularly benefited by surveys " as near the South Pole as can be
approached without danger T The committee on naval affairs
had charge of the memorials adverted to. What thought they of
the matter? Seven out of nine of their number were in favour of
the expedition. General Ripley, of Maine, made the report on
the 25lh March, 1828. He began by allusion to the weight of
character of the memorialists, and the importance of the opinions
they expressed, and concluded in the following words :

" The dangers to which an immense amount of property is ex-
posed, as well as the hazard to human life, for the want of knowl-
edge by more accurate surveys of regions to which our commerce
is extending, and the probable new sources of wealth which may
be opened and secured to us, seem to your committee not only to
justify, but to demand the appropriation recommended. They
therefore report a bill for that purpose."

Are the dangers to which this immense amount of property is
exposed, and the hazard to human life, here spoken of as existing,
in regions " as near as can be approached to the South Pole ?"

12 LETTERS or A CITIZEN.

Would surveys in that quarter render llie property endangered
more secure, or add to the safety of our mariners by restraining
the untamed savage of the tropic isles ?

Between the committee and the then secretary of the navy an
interchange of opinion took })lace. The latter said —

*' I entertain tlie opinion that such an expedition is expedient.
My reasons are briefly these : That we have an immense and
increasing commerce in that region, which needs the protecting
kindness of government, and may be greatly extended by such an
expedition. The commercial operations carried on in that quarter
are difficult and hazardous. They are correctly represented in the
memorial of the inhabitants of Nantucket, to which I would refer,
as well as to some of the many other memorials which have been
addressed to Congress on this subject. It would seem wise in
government to render these commercial operations less hazardous
and less destructive to life and property. The commerce in the
Pacific Ocean affords one of the best nurseries for our seamen.
An expedition such as that proposed would be calculated to in-
crease that class of citizens ; an increase in which the government
and nation are deeply interested."

It is unnecessary to dwell longer upon the records of that day.
Sufficient information has been given to leave no doubt of the
opinions then entertained by men who had thoroughly investigated
the subject. You were at that time a member of the United States
Senate ; but, as the affair never came fairly before that body for
discussion, you may have forgotten these matters. I proceed,
therefore, to a later period, embracing the action of Congress since
you have been secretary of the navy. Of the transactions of the
legislature within that interval T cajuiot suppose you uninformed,
because such want of information would almost imply a dereliction
of public duty.

Mr. Pearce, of Rhode Island, to whom the country is much in-
debted for the ability and zeal with which he advocated this meas-
ure before the committee on commerce, on the seventh of Febru-
ary, 18.35, made a long report, which was accompanied l)y a bill
providing for an expedition. He conunenced by slating that the
number and character of tlie memorialists, together wiih the opin-
ions they had expressed upon the subject of their petition, had
called the committee to an attentive and careful consideration of

LETTERS OF A CITIZEN. 18

the objects to be attained by the projected undertaking, as well as
of the facts and reasoning adduced in its favour. He then went
into a full examination of our great interests in the North and
South Pacific and Indian Oceans, and pointed out the numerous
ways in which those interests might be rendered more secure, as
well as greatly extended, by an efficient expedition. He noticed
the action of the legislature of his own state during the October
session of 1834, in which that body recommended the enterprise
to the favourable consideration of Congress, as " highly important
to our shipping and commercial interests^ What shipping and
commercial interests have we near the South Pole? But the leg-
islature did not, perhaps, exactly understand the import of the lan-
guage they used.

To the memorial from the East India Marine Society of Salem,
Massachusetts, the committee made special reference. That
society comprises among its members a larger number of practi-
cal seamen than any other in the United Slates. By its constitu*
tion no one is eligible to membership who has not doubled either
Cape Horn or the Cape of Good Hope. The language of such
a body of men is the language of experience. They ask that an
expedition be fitted out under the sanction of the government, the
objects of which shall be to examine the numerous places of trade
already visited for commercial purposes by our enterprising citi-
zens, and to open new channels for the extension of traffic by the
survey of such groups of islands in the North and South Pacific
Oceans as are imperfectly explored or entirely unknown ; to as*
certain their true positions on the charts ; examine their harbours
and mercantile or agricultural capabiliiies ; and to bring about such
a friendly intercourse with the natives as shall prevent the effusion
of blood.

They speak of having themselves been in those seas, and of
experiencing, in severe losses and painful solicitude, the want of
national protection — protection from the dangerous reef, guaran-
tied by a well-ascertained knowledge of its position, as also
against savages, who can only be deterred from lawless violence
by being made sensible of our power to restrain and punish them.

They have "seen and felt the dangers our vessels are exposed
to for the want of such protection as an expedition fitted out f^r
the express purpose alone can give." They enforce their views

14 LETTLRS OK A CITIZEN.

by calling the altenlion of Congress lo a single point, the Feejec
or Beetee Islands. This group consists of sixty or more in num-
ber, of which there is no chart pointing out their harbours, shoals,
&€., and yet no less than twelve vessels from the single port of
Salem have been engaged in procuring from this cluster biche-
le-mer, shells, and other commodities, in exchange for which east-
ern cargoes are brought into our country, thus contributing no in-
considerable amount to our national revenue. Many mariners
have been killed by the natives, their vessels lost or damaged, and
the sum total of losses would go far towards paying the expenses
of an expedition.

Are the Feejee Islands near the South Pole ?

The committee embraced in their report a letter from one of
the most practical, liberal-minded, and intelligent officers in our
service, Commodore Downes. It was written at the request of a
member of Congress. Commodore Downes had had some expe-
rience in the navigation of the less frequented parts of the Pacific
at an early period of his life. During his voyage in the Potomac
an opportunity offered to add materially to the knowledge acquired
in former years. While circumnavigating the globe, in accom-
plishing which he crossed the equator six times, and varied his
course from forty-two degrees north to fifty-seven degrees soulh
latitude, he had never found himself beyond the limits of our com-
mercial marine ! The accounts given of the dangers, privations,
and losses to which our shipping and seamen are exposed from
the extension of our trade into seas but little known, so far, in
his opinion, from being exaggerated, " would admit of being placed
in bolder relief, and tlie protection of government implored in
stronger terms." He spoke from practical experience.

Pursuing the labours of the committee, you will find that which
must «tartle you, when contrasted wilh some of your recenllv ex-
pressed opinions. That body hold up lo your view the policy
adopted by other countries ior the })r()lcction of llieir fisheries,
and show how tliese very fislicries have been extended hy ex-
ploring expeditions. The British nation has disbursed millions
in bounty to its w halers. The American whaler has received no
bounty. !!(; ri'([uires none. He asks of his nov(Tnment only
pioteclion.

More especially, permit me lo call your attention to the very

LETTERS OF A CITIZEN. 16

last paragraph in the able report to which I have alhided ; it is
much to the point, and you may draw instruction from it. Yea,
more, it will furnish you with an argument to refute the contempti-
ble fabrication of the weak marplotling enemies of this truly na
tional enterprise, who, in the face of two hundred pages of printed
documents, have had the effrontery to say the expedition would
have lillle or nothing to do with protection of commerce in the
regions to be examined. I will give the authors of this device a
withering review before I have done. Let them prepare for it.
I know them, and may feel it my duty to drag them from their
dark retreats, perfectly regardless who may be found in their
company, or what aspect they may wear when exposed to the fair
face of day.

The advocates for the expedition, whether in or out of Con-
gress, have ever been ready to meet their opponents in open and
manly discussion ; but they have had little of this kind of opposi-
tion to encounter. What has been frank, bold, and above-board on
the one hand, has been met by cowardly, ignorant, or wilful mis-
representation on the other. Those who originated, authorized,
and sanctioned the enterprise are responsible to the country for
its results. In courtesy, in common justice, they should be allowed
to influence its organization, and to employ the force which, in all
sincerity, they deem indispensable to its ultimate and triumphant
success. Yes, sir, the objects of the voyage, the plan of the voy-
age, and the force to be employed, are defensible, have been de-
fended, and can be defended before the nation and the world.
Have their opponents met them in argument? They have not,
they cannot, they dare not, under the responsibility of a name.

But to the report. " While your committee, in coming to their
conclusion in recommending such an expedition as has been
prayed for by the memorialists, have been influenced by commer-
cial views, and place the policy of the measure solely on these
grounds, they are not indifl'erent to the valuable fund of knowledge
which may be gathered during the voyage, and which, properly
analyzed and vi^ritten out, may be interesting not only to the Amer-
ican people, but to the whole civilized world."

Here I might pause and appeal to the intelligence of the coun-
try if I have not made out my case, and convicted you of having
misrepresented — I do not say intentionally — the true objects of

16 LETTERS OF A CITIZEN.

the expedition in your instructions to the board. Let the mem-
bers of that board report. For the objects to be attained you state
the ybrce designoted is too large. For those objects, as under-
stood by Congress and the whole country, neither you nor they
will venture to reduce it.

I am prepared to meet you, or any one who thinks with you,
in argument, and to demonstrate that the present force is wisely
proportioned to the accomplishment of the ends proposed, or, if
altered, should he increased rather than diminished. Before I
have done with you I will go still farther, and prove that you are
in honour bound not only to cease all opposition, but to fit out the
expedition on its present plan, and that you cannot persist in your
present course without a sacrifice of honour which would tarnish
the reputation of any man in the common concerns of life.

This is strong language, sir, but I know what I am saying, and
hold myself responsible for what I have said. In my next I shall
bring the matter nearer to your department in the further exami-
nation of your precious instructions.
Very respectfully,

Your obedient servant and fellow

CITIZEN.

New.York. July 1, 1837

III.

To the HonoHk-able Mahlon Dickerson, Secretary of the Navy.

Sir,
I proceed to a further examination of your precious instructions
to the naval board, as promised in the conclusion of my last let-
ter. I feel humiliation in the task of holding you up to the pub-
lic gaze as unfaithful to your duty in neglecting to execute a
itcice-repeated law of Congress, unfortunately for the honour of
our country intrusted to your hands. I still deal with your pub-
lic acts. In the private walks of life it is said you are amiable
and kind. I am glad that it is so. To your observance of the
courtesies of your ofiice I can myself bear testimony. I can
^well upon them, and upon the domestic virtues claimed for you,

LETTERS OF A CITIZEN. 17

with the same kind of fervid pleasure the weary traveller may be
supposed to feel when gazing upon some green spot and gushing
fountain in the midst of the desert, while all around is barren and
unproductive — a hungry soil, that swallows up the fattening
showers, poured by bounteous Heaven upon its steril bosom, but
in return gives forth nor fruit, nor flower, nor herb to gladden
the eye and cheer the interminable waste.

But to my task. Do you, sir, remember, that on the 23d of
January, 1835, a call, in the form of a resolution, was made on
you by Congress for an original report of J. N. Reynolds, Esq.,
on the " Islands, reefs, and shoals of the Pacific, &c., &c. ;" and
that, on the ensuing day, you transmitted said report, with this
note — " When no longer required, it is respectfully requested it
may be returned ?

Mahlon Dickerson. "
Allow me, sir, to ask you, in the most respectful manner, what
that paper contained. You cannot plead forgetfulness of its con-
tents, because it passed through your hands in manuscript form,
and soon after was returned to your department a printed docu-
ment of some forty or more pages. You know, sir, that docu-
ment embraces a list of islands, reefs, and shoals discovered by,
and noted in, the logbooks of our whalemen during the last thirty
years, as they gradually, in the pursuit of their vocation, followed
the great monsters of the deep into unfrequented seas and remote
parts of the globe.

You further know, sir, that that document contains irresistible
evidence of the necessity and importance of the labours to be per-
formed by the expedition among the thousand islands erroneously
laid down in our charts ; and among others — to the extent of more
than half that number — not laid down, nor to be found on any
chart, however recent or improved its construction. This was
the light in which the document was viewed and commented on
by committees who made reports, and by members who alluded to
it in their speeches on the floor of Congress. And yet, sir, in the
face of all this, and of all else I have stated and have to state,
you, in your official capacity as secretary of the uavy, have told
the board to look moinly to the means of getting to the South
Pole or near it, and then, forsooth, to see if the present force be
not too large for that single object I

C

AO LETTERS OF A CITIZEN.

Are you not aware, sir, lliat, throughout those wide -spread seas,
speckled with countless islands, we have, engaged m the whale-
fishery only, nearly one hundred and fifty thousand tons of ship-
ping, valued at twelve millions of dollars, and giving employment
to not less than ten thousand men, to say nothing of the increas-
ing traffic in treasures gleaned from coral reefs, and in the pro-
ductions of the islands ? Are you not cognizant of ihe fact, that
the combined interests of all the other commercial nations of the
earth do not equal ours alone in those seas ? You cannot but
know, sir, that these islands are inhabited by every variety of sav-
age man ; that our vessels have been wrecked among them, often
attacked, and sometimes cut off by them ; our mariners massacred,
or, if spared, spared only to wear out a wretched existence, in the
captives' hopeless prayer that the honour and justice of their
country might be aroused to rescue them. If the supplications
of disconsolate and heart-stricken parents, whose sons are in
bondage, could move you, how soon would this expedition depart
on its errand of mercy, of utility, and national renown ! All thes<5
things are known to you, sir, and yet you have not alluded to
one of them in your instructions to the naval board, in which you
profess to set forth the objects of the enterprise. Why, in the
name of all that is high, and noble, and manly, have you thus
compromitted your official character ? I feel compassion for you
in the unpleasant predicament in which you stand, and, were I to
consult my inclinations rather than my duly, would willingly leave
you in the hands of the public, and to the bitter reminiscences of
your own mind. But this may not be ; you are a public man,
and the public good requires that I should go on.

Is it not within your knowledge, sir, that our whale-ships often,
nay, daily, pass by islands in those seas to more distant ports for
refreshments ; while those very islands, if surveyed, their har-
bours pointed out, and the natives awed into respect by a judicious
display of our power, would fiirnij^h in abundance the necessaries
or refreshments required ? Are you to be informed, sir, that all
•barbarians estimate the power of others solely by contrasting that
power with their own ; and that many of these islanders have
learned to distinguish between the flaos of dillcrent countries, and
to deride one nation or fear another, according to the weakness or
strength which each displays in its naval armament '? This fact

LETTERS OF A CITIZEN. 19

was illustrated in 1824, when the British government sent Lord
Byron, in the frigate Blonde, to the Sandwich and other islands.
"What was the effect produced on the minds of the savages by the
presence of that ship ? So firm was their impression that there
was no power on earth equal to the English, that the American
residents and traders in that quarter wrote to Commodore Hull,
then commanding the Pacific squadron, requesting that he would
send a frigate for the sole purpose of doing away or modifying the
feeling which the visit of the Blonde had produced ; and you may
lay your hand upon the evidence of this fact in the archives of
your department. Your predecessor sent the frigate Potomac to
Quallah-Battoo to chastise the Malays, whose hands were red
with the blood of our countrymen. Her presence on that coast,
I assert without fear of contradiction, made a more lasting im-
pression for good on the inhabitants than the appearance of a
dozen sloops-of-war could have done. Had you been then in of-
fice, the ghost of La Perouse * * * but I forbear.

I presume you are not uninformed that the French have, prob-
ably, less than one tenth of our interest afloat in the North and
South Pacific Oceans ; and yet they have despatched three frigates
to these seas avowedly to protect and extend their trade and fish-
eries, and to subserve the purposes of science. The people of
this country, on the other hand, have the melancholy spectacle
presented to them of your eff'orts to cut down the first similar na-
tional expedition undertaken by this great republic, and that, too,
in the very face of a solemn law of the land !

I mentioned the name of La Perouse. The loss of his frigate
some half century or more ago has been a stereotyped argument
assumed by you and a few others against the employment of a
small thirty-six gun ship. But now the tables are turned ; for, if
the wreck of the ship alluded to be quoted as a precedent against
the employment of vessels of that class, it may be fully met by
the fact that France has since despatched three frigates into the
same seas ; thus leaving you no ground to stand upon, save your
paternal solicitude for the lives of those who may embark!

Is it possible, at this late period of your life, with all your expe-
rience, and the opportunities you have had to expand your mind
in reflecting on and investigating the gi-eat concerns of nations,
you have still to be informed that, in case of a war between our

20 LETTERS OF A CITIZEN.

country and any of the first maritime powers of Europe, this gov-
ernment would be compelled to dash her frifrates, if not her larger
vessels, into the waters to which I refer ? There she has a com-
merce ; and where her commerce is, there must be her navy and
her ocean conflicts also. What would be thought of your present
policy in such an emergency ? and what would be thought of those
naval officers who have echoed your sentiments upon the subject ?
We are now at peace with the world, and this is the season to
acquire that knowledge which would most assuredly be needed
and most valuable in the event of war.

One thing is certain ; were I the enemy, I should count upon
rich prizes in the Pacific before any vessel fitted out by your di-
rection could reach me. I should anticipate at least twelve
months uninterrupted pickings among the American whalers ;
and even then, in consequence of La Perousc having been lostj
T should expect nothing more formidable than a sloop-of-war to
come after me among the islands !

But why should I consume more time in exposing this part of
your official delinquencies? You cannot defend yourself. Your
maladministration is indefensible. Why, sir, you cannot open
the document containing the authority under which you act with-
out seeing, on every page of the Senate's report, a complete refu-
tation of the extraordinary position you have assumed.

You cannot look over the columns of speeches made by mem-
bers, explaining the true objects of the enterprise, without meet-
ing a withering rebuke. Allow me to commend to your attention
a speech of singular ability, made on this subject by Mr. Hamar,
of Ohio ; it has been published in all quarters of the Union. Per-
haps the enlarged and statesman-like views it exhibits may render
it, though not incomprehensible, at least unpalatable to you. Nor
does Mr. Hamar stand alone. Mr. Vinton, indeed the whole del-
egation from the state of Ohio, have ever stood as one man upon
this subject. Their weiglit and influence have told, and, if need
be, will again tell !

But the most extraordinary part of this story remains to be dis-
closed. After all wc have seen in the character of your in-
structions to the naval board, and the object proposed by those
instructions, what will the community think when informed of
the fact that, for a considerable lime after the expedition had been

LETTERS OF A CITIZEN. 21

authorized at the first session of the last Congress, you, the Hon.
Mahlon Dickerson, Secretary of the Navy, ridiculed the very-
idea of undertaking to explore high latitudes south ! To give an
instance, sir. In your office, on one occasion, while in conversa-
tion with a gentleman of unimpeachable veracity, you said it loas
all nonsense to talk about going to regions near the South Pole ;
and, to use your own, not very classic, language, that " none
but a d — d fool would think of it ! ! ! ! !" And yet, for some
mysterious and inscrutable purpose, it now suits your pleasure
to pretend that this is the great leading aim and object of the en-
terpise !

Thus do you stand, sir, before the American people — an official
spectacle, such as has been rarely, if ever, before looked upon. It
is no fancy sketch ; would to Heaven, for your own sake and that
of our common country, that it were. I have charged you before
the tribunal of the public with dereliction of duty ; with having
misrepresented the objects of the expedition in your instructions
to the naval board ; and with having intended, by such misrepre-
sentation, to draw from that board a report, to be used as a pre-
text for reducing the force authorized by law to be employed in
the enterprise. Whether I have not fully and triumphantly made
out my case, I appeal to the intelligence of the community ; to
the members of Congress who authorized the outfit ; to the late
executive, and those members of his cabinet who took an interest
in it ; and to the conductors of the public press in whose columns
the great national purposes of the expedition have been so often
discussed and so generously supported.

You will hear from me again.

Very respectfully.

Your obedient servant and fellow

CITIZEN.

New-York, July 8, 1837.

22 LETTERS OP A CITIZEN.

IV.

To the Honourable Mahlon Dickerson, Secretary of the Navy.

Sir,

" You will Hear from me again" were ihe concluding words of
my last letter. With that letter terminated all 1 deemed it neces-
sary to say, in a connected form, in relation to your extraordinary
instructions to the naval board. In following up the train of
your official doings, though I may now be compelled to take a
somewhat wider range, I shall, nevertheless, endeavour to adhere
closely to the text and closely to you.

On the 10th of May, 1836, the bill authorizing the expedition,
in despite of all your efforts to defeat it, passed both houses of
Congress, and receiving, as it did, the cordial sanction of the
president, became the law of the land. No one anticipated fur-
ther difficulty. If you, however, entertained honest convictions
against the utility of the enterprise, or apprehended the good it
might do would be purchased at too dear a rate, you had a fine
opportunity of enforcing those convictions while the bill was under
deliberation ; and that you did thus exert yourself, with an energy
which you have seldom, if ever, manifested in the discharge of
your official duties, was apparent at the time to every observer.
But when, as I have stated, the whole matter was settled by Con-
gress, no person anticipated any further opposition from you.
Your duty then became simply an executive duty ; and whether
the expedition was upon too large or too small a scale, whether it
would cost one hundred thousand or five millions of dollars, were
contingences for which you were not responsible, in which you
had no official concern, and about which you had no right to
trouble yourself.

May and June passed away, and no stop had been taken by
you to put in train the preparations for the expedition. Fifty days
had thus been lost. You now began to speak plainly, and to
liold the language that twelve months would be necessary to
complete the outfit. Yes, sir, twelve months was tlie period you
named, and this, be it retiicmbered, was before you could have
foreseen any of the difficulties to which you have since ascribed

LETTERS OF A CITIZEN. 23

all the subsequent delay — with what justice will be hereafter
shown. This procrastinating policy, thus early developed, met
with no favour from the president ; and it was not until he had
taken the matter in his own hands and overruled you, that, for
the first time, you made yourself acquainted with what the law
required you to do. Yes, sir, amid the pressure of executive
duty incident to the close of a long session, and while on the
eve of his departure for Tennessee, the president put you into
the traces, and directed the whole plan of preparation to be carried
immediately into execution, in a spirit and on a scale commensu-
rate with the character and resources of the country, as will be
seen by the following, which appeared in the Globe on the 13th
of July, 1836.

" We learn that the president has given orders to have the ex-
ploring vessels fitted out with the least possible delay. The ap-
propriation made my Congress was ample to ensure all the great
objects contemplated by the expedition, and the executive is de-
termined that nothing shall be wanting to render the expedition
worthy the character and great commercial resources of the coun-
try.

" The frigate Macedonian, now undergoing thorough repairs at
Norfolk, two brigs of two hundred tons each, one or more tenders,
and a store-ship of competent dimensions, are, we understand,
the force agreed upon, and to be put in a state of immediate
preparation. Captain Thomas Ap. C. Jones, an officer possess-
ing many high qualities for such a service, has been appointed to
the command ; and officers for the other vessels will be imme-
diately selected.

" The Macedonian has been chosen instead of a sloop-of-war
on account of the increased accommodation she will afford the
scientific corps, a department the president has determined shall
be complete in its organization, including the ablest men that can
be procured ; so that nothing w^ithin the whole range of every de-
partment of natural history and philosophy shall be omitted. Not
only on this account has the frigate been selected, but also for the
purpose of a more extended protection of our whale m.en and tra-
ders, and to impress on the minds of the natives a just concep-
tion of our character, power, and policy. The frequent disturb-
ances and massacres committed on our seamen by the natives in^

24 LETTERS OP A CITIZEN".

habiting the islands in those distant seas makes this measure a
dictate of humanity."

When this article appeared, why did you not remonstrate with
the president, and show him lliat he had misunderstood the true
objects of the undertaking ; that the allusions to our " whalemen,"
to the " protection of commerce," to the impression contemplated
to be produced on the minds of the natives by a proper exhibition
of our " character, power, and policy," could not belong to an ex-
pedition intended only for high latitudes ? How can you answer
to your country for having omitted, at that early period, to set the
head of the nation riglit, and to correct the strange notions he had
formed about the purposes of the voyage ?

To be serious. You know, sir, it was the wish of the execu-
tive at that time to be able to say, in his next annual message to
Congress, " The expedition has sailed ;" and had the directions
which he then left been obeyed in good faith, such had been his
language when the national legislature again convened ; or, at any
rate, long since had the vessels designated been ploughing the
waters of the Pacific. Sir, in your heart you know I speak the
words of truth and soberness !

In October the president returned to liic capital. Do you re-
member his astonishment and displeasure on learning the little
progress which had been made during his absence ? You had,
however, by this lime got hold of an excuse for the delay — the
impossibility of procuring men. I will examine this ijnpossi-
hility anon. It is true, you had despatched an agent to Europe to
procure instruments, and had sent a circular to our learned so-
cieties, asking their advice and opini^^ns as to the organization of
the scientific department of the enterprise. You received from
them able reports; but tlic reading of many of them, if you have
read them at all, has been a labour of very recent dale.

The season was now far advanced, and all hope of sailing du-
ring the autumn had passed away. Congress was soon to assem-
ble, and it was ajoparent to all that the whole subject would come
once more before ihat body. That you again prepared to renew
your opposiiion wilh new exj)cclations of success, your acts, as I
shall examine lliem, will abundanlly prove. Did you ever hear
of any consulfdfions having takini place before the precise plan of
attack was agreed upon ? Perhaps it is hardly fair to question

LETTERS OF A CITIZEN. 25

you too closely upon this point ; so I will waive it, and allow your
official acts to speak for themselves, as I shall take them up in
my next letter.

It was now well ascertained in the naval service that you had
no partiality for the expedition, nor have you ever been known to
manifest any feelings of that nature towards those by whom it was
commanded. He who could depreciate the high objects, or find
most fault with the plan and scope of the measure, either in toto
or detail, was sure of finding in you a most graciously-condescending
and patiently-listening auditor. You have often said that the offi-
cers of the navy were opposed to the expedition. Did man ever
labour more zealously in any cause than you have done to produce
this very opposition ? Why, sir, the scientific corps has frequently
been held up by you as an encroachment upon the rights of those
officers, and you have as frequently stated that to be one reason
why the whole affair was so unpopular with them. This prepos-
terous sentiment, so freely and perpetually expressed by the head
of the department, could not fail to produce some impression, es-
pecially among the less informed and less considerate portion of
the profession. You even went farther, and maintained that the
officers had a right, if not to fix the salaries which should be al-
lowed men of science, at least to protest against their compensa-
tion exceeding a certain amount per annum. I am not aware how
many you may have found to echo this opinion, as I have never
myself heard any such language from the profession.

You know how many there are and ivho they are who hold
such doctrine. I have no wish to learn the former or designate
the latter ; but, taking you as the authority, we are bound to be-
lieve that such sentiments are entertained, and that the ardour of
the service has been somewhat cooled towards the enterprise on
that account. Permit me to say, sir, that the worst enemy of the
navy could adopt no measure more injurious to its interests than
that of fomenting causeless jealousy between the officer and the
citizen in the few and far-between instances in which they are
brought together on duty. The title of citizen, sir, is a proud
title. This is a country of citizens. Citizens make the navy,
increase or diminish it at their pleasure, appoint and support its
officers, and will judge them ! ! For every year he is on active
duty, an officer may be two on shore, receiving pay in the latter

D

26 LETTERS or A CITIZEN.

as well as in the former case. Of this the citizens make no com-
plaint. They have created a navy for great national purposes,
not for individuals. If the more intellectual, better informed, and,
of course, more influential portion of its officers did not form a
barrier against those, to the service, suicidal pretensions which
have received your sanction, then, indeed, there might justly be
much apprehension for the success of the expedition, and still
more for the prosperity and improvement of the navy. Let those
you have encouraged in these extravagant opinions, be they few
or many, of high rank or low, assume to themselves an imagined
importance, and, with supercilious, domineering tone, attempt to
sneer at civilians and oppose their employment — as, according
to you, they have already done — on board public vessels where
their country requires their services, and where their right to fill
certain stations is not by courtesy or sufferance, but derived from
authority unquestionable as that of the commander himself —
for both emanate from the same source ; let them indulge in il-
liberal, contracted feelings of petty jealousy against the appoint-
ment of citizens to their appropriate provinces, and they will soon
find themselves in the hands of a giant, who knows his power and
will use it !

It is no reproach to the gentlemen of the navy that they have
not the varied scientific knowledge required for a national expe-
dition such as has been directed by Congress to be organized.
They are only open to censure when, forgetful of their own noble
profession, they claim to assume the performance of duties for
which their previous training and distinct line of action have left
them totally unqualified. Our public vessels have been round
the world, and our officers in them, among islands and in places
rarely visited ; but what contributions to science have resulted ?
Where is the record to which reference can be made, and which
affords a sufficient guarantee that all that is required in the de-
partment of science could be accomplished by the profession, at
a time, too, when the whole range of that department has as-
sumed such a determined accuracy of detail that the slightest
blunder would subject us to the ridicule of the scientific world ?
Sir, no such record exists ; and, until it does exist, it is folly — and,
I can readily conceive, must be humiliating to the abler portion of
the service — to hear such silly pretensions set up by their weaker

LETTERS OF A CITIZEN. 27

brethren, though such pretensions be endorsed by you, the hon-
ourable secretary of the navy.

But I will not dwell long on a position so untenable. It was
only assumed, in common wiih many others, to increase the weight
of your opposition to the measure at the last session, by adding
professional prejudice to your other weapons of attack.

How infinitely more worthy and becoming in you, the head of
the department, had you either checked the first expression of
this disorganizing spirit, or given it a more noble direction. Why
did you not point out to these gentlemen that it would soon be
regarded as a reproach to the navy if a hydrographical bureau
were not established in your department ? But perhaps we should
overlook your omissions of this nature, when the increase of the
forces to be led against the expedition was the paramount consid-
eration in your mind.

I do not feel it a part of my present duty to dwell particularly
on the various difficulties which have occurred between the naval
officers, although I think I could give the public some additional
light as regards the part you have had in fomenting those dissen-
sions, and shall do so whenever such a course may seem expedi-
ent or necessary.

In my next I shall take up that section of your annual report
which alludes to the expedition.

Very respectfully,

Your obedient servant and fellow

CITIZEN

New-York, July 17, 1837.

To the Honourable Mahlon Dickerson, Secretary of the Navy,

Sir,
In your annual report to the president, under December 3,
1836, we find, for the first time, a faint and shadowy type of the
assertion which, since that period, you have so confidently put
forth, that the South Sea expedition was an enterprise having no
connexion with the protection of our commerce. Thus, speaking

28 LETTERS OP A CITIZEN.

of the service generally, you remark, " that the force ivanted for
the jyrotectio?! of commerce exceeds the means of supply" Mark
the words, " t?ie force needed for the protection of commerce,"
from which force you exclude the frigate and other vessels belong-
ing to the expedition. The plan of attack had now been agreed
upon, and we find the campaign thus ofiicially opened by you.
It is true, as I have abundantly shown in my second and third
letters, that the memorialists, committees, members of Congress,
and public press held very different language. By these, commer-
cial considerations had been made the basis of the undertaking;
and that their arguments to sustain it on this ground were invul-
nerable, is proved by the fact that they have never been ansinered.
Hence the bold and audacious move to separate the expedition
from all objects of immediate and practical utility, and to exagger-
ate its cost. Thus weakened, sanguine hopes were entertained
of breaking it down, or, failing in that object, of at least greatly
reducing its force and magnitude.

Your attacks have been bold, direct, and manly. The tenacious
grasp with which you clung to office prevented that, wath the late
executive as well as at the present time. At one time you pro-
fess great anxict}^ to fit out the expedition ; at another, your nat-
ural, long-cherished, deep-seated hostility breaks forth, in no very
choice or set phrase, against the entire scope or plan of the enter-
prise. Now you speak with becoming zeal in behalf of the sci-
entific department, and again, designate the members of the corps
as oyster and clam catchers. You have done all in your power
to dispirit and disgust them, by pertinaciously refusing to put them
on active duty, or to allow them any compensation until the fourth
of the current month, although Congress made a specific appro-
priation for them from the first of January last. More upon this
subject presently.

We have next a striking proof of your far-reaching and saga-
cious forecast, which enabled you to perceive, at the very moment
the outfit was authorized by Congress, that it would be impracti-
cable to complete it " under eight or nine months, without a se
rious injury to other hraiwhes of the naval service /" Fourteen
months have elapsed, and the preparations arc still unfinished.
The first of October is the latest period at which the vessels should
depart, and 1 now tell you, before the face of the whole nation,

LETTERS OF A CITIZEN. 29

that such has been the ruinous tendency of your clogging tardi-
ness of action, that the squadron, even at that late date, will be
compelled to proceed to sea incomplete in some of its depart-
ments, but, it is hoped, ^'ivithout serious injury to other branches
of the naval service /" Perchance still further delay, however,
may, in your opinion, be necessary for the purpose of preventing
this collision of interests !

Evidently feeling the deep necessity of strengthening your po-
sition and justifying your intended procrastination, you further
state, that " the only insurmountable difficulty^'' in your mind was
the shipment of the requisite number of men " in three or four
months loithout interfering ivith arrangements already made"
for sending ships to other stations. How humiliating to the pride
of our country is the acknowledgment made by you, its secretary
of the navy, before the commercial and naval powers of the Old
World, that a small squadron, requiring but a few hundred seamen,
could not be manned and sent out without deranging the great
naval operations of the nation ! This country, whose private armed
ships during the revolution captured fifteen hundred sail from the
enemy, which humbled the fierce corsairs of the Mediterranean,
and broke the charm of British invincibility by sea ; this country,
which but yesterday was bristling up to fight one of the first naval
powers of the earth, ay, loould have done it, and, if need be, will
do it, is told by you that a sufficient number of sailors for an ex-
ploring expedition cannot be obtained without deranging your
plans and weakening the efficiency of your measures for the pro-
tection of our interests in the Pacific, West Indian, and Brazilian
stations ! Surely no nation, however mighty, will hazard a war
with the United States while you have the direction of her naval
resources ! It may be that the King of the French had his eye
upon you when he concluded to pay the long-withheld indemnity
to our citizens, and that, owing to the ingratitude so frequently as-
cribed to republics, you have not, as yet, received your full share
of credit for the part you had in that transaction. Be assured,
however, 2^osterity will do you justice, if, indeed, you do not learn^
while yet you may feel, the value set upon your official actions.

Not only does it appear from your official report that you were
anxious to prepare the public mind for the delays which were to
ensue, but you laboured also to convince the president that no

30 LETTERS OF A CITIZEN.

agency in these delays was chargeable on you. Thus you tell
him, that inasmuch as " it was his earnest wish that the intentions
of Cong7'ess in authorizing the measure should he carried into
effect with the least possible delay, ^' you had not only resolved to
clothe Commodore Jones with unusual powers, and to grant him
" every facility" for the purpose of shipping crews, but that you
had yourself " determined to make an extraordinary effort to
accomplisli that ohjectT The fruits of your extra labours have
been seen by the whole nation in tlie humihating spectacle of
what, by " extraordinary efforts," you have been able to accom-
plish in fourteen months, with the most ample means at your dis-
posal, towards expediting the preparations for the voyage.

But your countrymen do not know what the " every facility"
so confidently set forth in your report has been. I will tell them,
and then leave them to judge whether the negative or positive
quality predominates. You granted to Commodore Jones the ex-
traordinary ^^ facility''' of shipping mariners at the regular stations
opened for the general service ; precisely what you allowed to
others under special orders, while recruiting for the crews of vessels
destined for the Pacific and Brazilian stations, and nothing more.
Men at this time were commanding from $16 to $18 per month
in the merchant service, and in the navy from $10 to $12 per
month ! It has been the policy of other countries to assign sea-
men sent on such adventures extra pay in money or clothing, of-
ten in both ; while you have allowed neither, though requested to
do so. Congress, at the last session, made a special grant for the
increase of seamen's wages, every particle of which you have
withheld from the sailors being shipped for the expedition.

You vouchsafed Commodore Jones the " facility" of detailing
ofiiccrs to visit New-London, New-Bedford, and the other places
where it was supposed crews might be procured ; but you took
care to withhold from those officers money for advances, without
which, it is notorious, men cannot be induced to ship, either in the
merchant or naval service. I have it from the lips of an officer
who visited New-London, that some fifteen or twenty prime
hands, who were ready and anxious to engage, called on liim at
once; but not finding it convenient to make their own advances
and pay their own passage to a naval rendezvous, and tlie officer
being unprovided with funds for this purpose, he did not, as a

LETTERS OF A CITIZEN. 3l

matter of course, obtain one man there or elsewhere. A few
months ago it was believed that a limited number of men for the
expedition might be had in the district, and, as before, an officer
was detached to receive proposals. He made a requisition for
one thousand dollars, which was approved by the commander of
the squadron. The prospect of successful recruiting in that quar-
ter was even better than had been anticipated. Fourteen sailors
waited on the appointed agent almost as soon as he had opened
his office in Alexandria. They were told to call and sign arti-
cles on the next day. In the mean time the officer repaired to
Washington for the purpose of ascertaining whether MiV^y dollar s^
the usual advance, should be charged to the men, or whether, in
compliance with the special provision of Congress, that sum should
be allowed as bounty. Before, however, he had time to make
this inquiry of the naval department, he received from you an
order forthwith to return the money placed in his hands to the
treasury, as also to tell the seamen they must go down to Norfolk
upon their own hook ! and ship there. Of course, not one of them
went.

This is but a hasty sketch of your " extraordinary efforts" to
procure men ; they are a fair sample of all your other " extraor-
dinary efforts," and were, of course, attended by the same " ex-
traordinary" success ! When to these are added the enervating
influence of your ungracious and reluctant action throughout ; the
prevalence of the belief that the feelings of the department were
arrayed against the measure ; the uncertainty when, if ever, the
flotilla would sail, and the nonallowance of the slighest extra en-
couragement to the crews, it is not wonderful that the tissue of
misrepresentation which mysteriously/ got into circulation regard-
ing the enterprise should have obtained some credence. It was
reported, I presume not to say whence such reports emanated,
that the service would be one of great privation to the crews, and
that all their wages would, of course, be expended in supplying
their clothing for the cold and icy latitudes near the South Pole !
Uniting all these circumstances to the other "facilities'^ you have
afforded, the public mind will have little difficulty in comprehend-
ing the full force of your " insurmountahle difficulties in procu-
ring men,'"' even when your most " extraordinary efforts'''' had been
put forth to eflfect that end. Seriously, I do not hesitate to assert

32 LETTERS OF A CITIZEN.

that, by a judicious application of the means wiihin your control,
the whole complement of every vessel might have been shipped
in sixty, or, at most, ninety days, at any period since the passage
of the bill by Congress, on the 10th of May, 1836; and that, too,
without interfering with the protection of commerce, or in the
slightest degree deranging the naval service of the country. In
this belief I have found myself sustained by the opinions of those
much more experienced in such matters than I can claim to be ;
and I shrewdly suspect that 3^ou will fmd it something like an
^^insurmountable difficulty^'' to convince the people of this country
that, with the most ample means at your command, nothing more
than you have eiTecied could be accomplished.

In speaking of the vessels, you proceed to tell the president
that " the frigate and store-ship which ivere on the stocks when
this measure teas authoiized, have been finished and equipped,
and are now receiving their crews^ What unaccountable hallu-
cination could have possessed your mind when you wrote this
sentence ? Did you, in the first draught of your report, put down
•what ought to have been the condition of those vessels, and after-
ward forget to alter it ? How else could you venture to tell the
president, and, through him. Congress and the whole country, that
the frigate was finished and equipped, and was receiving her men,
when the fact was, the frigate at that time was not finished, not
equipped, nor was she receiving her crew ; so far from it, she had
not a hulk-head up or a yarn over the masthead, and it ivas not
until June, six months after this official statement, that she was
completed, and in a condition to receive her complement of
men ! ! ! ! This is another example of your " extraordinary ef-
forts'"' in forwarding the outfit of the expedition, as well as of the
accuracy of your official report.

The president is further informed that you had not " yet at-
tempted to organize tlie scientific corps for the expedition ;" but
you intimate that this duty may be performed as soon " 05 ac-
commodations can he afforded them in the vessels^ Strange in-
congruity this ! In the first place, the vessels are "finished" and
*' receiving their crews ;" in the next you tell us that the organiza-
tion uf the corps is delayed until the vessels are finished and
ready to receive them.

LETTERS OF A CITIZEN. 13

I have pondered a good deal over this sentence, and, for the hfe
of me, am unable to discover any necessary connexion between
the organization of a corps of scientific men and the completion
of the apartments intended for their reception on shipboard. I
had thought these labours might progress simultaneously ; but I
forgot you were then making " extraordinary efforts" for the ship
ment of seamen, and, witii all your energies thus concentrated
on a single point, might not be able to attend to other matters !

I happen to know something about the appointment of this
corps. In December last, a distinguished member of Congress,
while in conversation with the president, remarked that no ap-
pointments had been made by you in the civil department. The
president was surprised at this intelligence, reached out his hand,
and rang the bell. A messenger appeared. " Tell the secretary
of the navy I wish to see him at twelve o'clock." I do not know
that you obeyed this summons, nor do I pretend to say what oc-
curred at the interview ; but this I do know, that, within three
days from that time, the gentlemen now composing the scientific
corps received their commissions. The reluctance with which
you made appointments leaves to the late executive the sole credit,
so far as you are concerned, of giving to the expedition and the
country an able, eflicient, scientific board. I make this statement
for the benefit of posterity ; that, in coming time, should disputes
arise as to the honoured spot or state that gave you birth, the
controversy may not be aggravated by any conflicting opinions as
to the degree of credit due to you for the share you had in equip-
ping and despatching the exploring squadron !

Do you remember that, for some time previous to the appoint-
ment of the corps, you had intermitted all action in reference to
the expedition, waiting, as you said, until Congress should make
further appropriations ; though it can be shown, by incontestible
documentary evidence, that there was, at the very time, more than
one hundred thousand dollars of the past year's appropriation yet
unexpended ? I almost forget what tlie president told you when
you first intimated to him that you had no funds with which to
go on. He had always a most happy knack in stirring you up to
" extraordinary efforts,^' and the only misfortune was, that severe
indisposition prevented him, towards the close of the session, from

E

34 LETTERS OF A CITIZEN.

giving to the undertaking and to you that minute and watchful at-
tention which both so much required.

I must hurry on with my subject, and bring this letter to a
close. The contest before the last Congress requires a word. I
must pass over points upon which pages might be written. I
cannot stop to examine your report in its financial bearing, much
as it is needed, and greatly as my inclination prompts me to do
so. I shall not even attempt to describe the zeal with which you
■warmed yourself while explaining to members of the Senate and
the house the ejiormous demands the expedition would make on
the public treasury. Your name was frequently used as authority
for stating that the nation was about to squander millions upon this
extravagant enieiyrise, which had nothing to do ivith the protection
of commerce^ and was only to earplore high latitudes south ! ! ! !
The frigate, as the whole country will remember, was the special
object of attack. That she was not necessary for the high south-
ern parallels, and, ergo, not necessary for the expedition, was your
argument. Officers of the navy were found to endorse your opin-
ions. Perhaps the endorsement was mutual ; at least it was so
stated on the floor of Congress. Everything, for a time, promised
you success, and it was asserted that you had never been known
to enjoy such fine spirits ; while the friends of the measure at a
distance were full of despondency, being aware that the objection
to the frigate was not from friendly motives towards the enterprise.
There were those who believed, at the time, that the design was
to cut off the frigate, and then have other commanders and a new
organization ; but, as I do not deal with motives, but with acts, I
shall let that pass.

In the saloons of the library, in the gallery, at parties, and in
messes, the merits of the contest were much discussed. Your
misrepresentations of the purposes of the undertaking were fully
understood by its friends in the Senate and the house, and you
were pitied for the weakness of your device. The members, who
had honestly doubted the propriety of em])loying a vessel of the
class alluded to, when they looked into the true objects of the voy-
age, yielded their assent, and voted for the measure ; so that, by
the time the bill of appropriations came to be read for the last time,
you stood " alone in your glory, '^ every item in the estimate for

LETTERS OF A CITIZEN. 35

the present organization and force being passed by an overwhelm-
ing majority.

The disingenuousness of the endeavour to force the friends of
the measure into a false position was, as I have stated, fully ap-
preciated ; and it was partly from compassion, and partly in conse-
quence of a pledge you had given, that no animadversions were
made upon it on the floor of Congress ! The pledge I refer to
was pubhshed by you, and over your own name, on the 19th of
January last, in connexion with a correspondence you had carried
on with Commodore Jones. You there distinctly declared, that
while you were opposed to so large a force being sent on the ex-
pedition, " yet you had given all orders that you considered neces-
sary for fitting it out upon the extensive scale adopted ; and
should continue to do so if Congress made appropriations agree-
ably to the estimates furnished for this object ! /"

Here was a dehberate promise, a solemn pledge, given in your
official character, that if Congress made provision for the outfit on
its present plan, on that plan and with the required force should
it be completed. Congress took you at your word by making
the appropriations to the utmost farthing ; and, before the nation,
I hold you to the strict fulfilment of the promise you volunteered.
You cannot shrink from it without covering yourself w^ith official
dishonour ! How you can reconcile you course of conduct since
the close of last session, with this public pledge thus staring you
in the face, is a problem in the solution of which your official
character is deeply concerned ! Deceive not yourself ; the public
eye is upon you, and no sophistry can screen you from that rapidly-
gathering weight of your country's disapprobation which, it re-
quires no horoscope to perceive, is destined ere long to fall upon
you. To avert the blow entirely is now beyond your power, but
you may weaken its force by immediate and faithful effi^rts in
perfecting the outfit and expediting the departure of the expedition !

I shall again recur to your report.
I have the honour to be

Your obedient servant and fellow

CITIZEN.

New- York, July 21, 1837.

36 LETTERS OF A CITIZEN.

VI.

To the Honourable Mahlon Dickerson, Secretary of the Navy.

Sir,

The portion of your report to which I purpose calhng your at-
tention in this letter reads as follows : " From several learned and
philosophical societies, as well as from distinguished individuals,
I have received the most ample and satisfactory communications,
embracing all the various subjects which it would be necessary
to give in charge to the gentlemen who are to conduct the scien-
tific researches which form the most important objects of the ex-
pedition."

With a superficial observer, this sentence is calculated to gain
you credit, because it conveys something like an expression of
liberahly. I regret that I cannot award to you the meed of praise
due to such a feeling. I cannot persuade myself that you de-
serve it. Connected with this subject, I do not consider that your
prejudices will permit the indulgence of liberal sentiments ; yet
I have no idea that the sentence quoted came from your pen by
accident. It is full of meaning, if not of design. Like your state-
ment that to approach as near as possible to the South Pole was
the object of the enterprise, it is, to say the least, an evasion of
the true purposes designed to be accomplished. The induce-
ment to make such a statement will become manifest if it be rec-
ollected that a portion of the public men in this country entertain
the opinion that the government of the United States has no
power under the Constitution to send out an expedition solely for
scientific purposes. Stripped of its commercial character, separ-
ated from all objects of immediate and palpable utility, thrown for
support upon its abstract merits as a medium of scientific re-
search, you knew full well the quarter whence opposition to the
undertaking might be anticipated, and from what quarter it would
have come had you not overrated the weight of your official influ-
ence. Here, then, we have a key to the otherwise inexplicable
mystery, that expressions of such seeming liberality should owe
paternity to you.

No man can appreciate more fully than I do the high objects

LETTERS OP A CITIZEN. iff'

committed to the liands of the gentlemen composing the scientific
corps. Not only may they enlarge the boundaries of science and
add lustre to our national character, but, by examining and devel-
oping the resources and capacities of the countries and islands to
be visited, they may even enrich the freight of commerce itself.
Yet, notwithstanding all this, I have never conceived scientific re-
search to be the main object of the expedition any more than that
the attainment of high latitudes south was its principal purpose
and design.

" Fourteen gentlemen," you inform us, " have been appointed
to this corps, eminent for their proficiency in those sciences which
are connected with natural history, or eminent in the arts con-
nected with the subjects of natural history. No one has as yet
been assigned to the departments of astronomy, geography, and
hydrography. With this exception the corps is nearly complete."

If the great design of the expedition be to go as near as practi-
cable to the South Pole, for what purpose do you send a botanist
to that region where no vegetation exists ? Why do you incur the
expense of sending a philologist to attend to the interesting depart-
ment of language where there are no inhabitants ? What object
is proposed by sending an entomologist in those high latitudes,
when a single hug may not be found within the Antarctic circle ?
And wherefore should you despatch a portrait-painter to the Polar
Seas, unless, indeed, you wish him to exercise his art in sketch-
ing the likenesses of seals and sea-elephants ? Thus, we perceive,
the hoo main objects of the expedition, as set forth by you, are
absurdly in contradiction of each other.

I fe-el, however, that it is a small business to dwell on your in-
congruities, and have alluded to these matters only for the sake
of putting you right, and of entering my protest against this fur-
ther official misstatement of the leading purposes of the enterprise.
Placed on its true basis, it is defensible on the broad principle of
constitutional power as well as of national policy. To provide
efficient protection for our commerce, in every region with which
we have commercial intercourse, and to extend it wherever it is
susceptible of advantageous increase, is the bounden and acknowl-
edged duty of government. For these noble and useful ends was
the undertaking originated and authorized. Every memorial
transmitted to Congress, every speech and report made by its

38 LETTETIS OF A CITIZEN.

members, bears directly and unequivocally upon these points, and
proves that, to them, all others were subsidiary. Such, then, being
the paramount objects in view, it was decided that the opportuni-
ties which would be afforded by the contemplated explorations
and surveys should not be lost to the cause of science ; and Jience,
by the direction of the executive, with tlie sanction of Congress,
provision was made for an able scientific corps ; not, I repeat, as
a primary, but as a collateral department, which neither interest,
the spirit of the age, nor a regard for our station among the en-
lightened of all nations would permit us to overlook in the gen-
eral organization.

But, sir, for the still further illustration of your " extraordinary
efforts" and desire " to inevent delay, '^ I will suppose you to have
been sincere in stating that the " scientific researches of these
gentlemen form the leading objects of the expedition." Now I
think it a fair supposition that the most important objects of any
plan should receive the first attention, and, at all events, that they
ought not to be the last considered. What has been the fact as
regards you ?

Let us see. Three months, ivanting tivo days, after the bill
had passed, you sent an agent to Europe, as vou inform us in
your communication to Congress of the 6th February, for the
purpose of preventing " any delay that might arise from the ivant
of w.athematical, astronomical, and philosophical instruments,
hooks, maps, charts,'''' &c. I. can hardly forbear a smile when I
read your remark about preventing delay ! Why were not the
^^ fourteen gentlemen eminent for their scientific attainments''^
consulted before the agent departed ? Or, if they were at that
time unselected, it only shows that you had suffered three months
to elapse without having attended to " the most imiiortant objects
of the expedition /"

Your agent was furnished with the most " ample means," and
to liis discretion and knowledge was confided the duly of pro-
curing all that was deemed necessary, as regarded books and in-
struments, for many branches of science of which \\c had not the
slightest knowledge. This gentleman, you tell us, returned on the
23d of January, ''having performed (he duty assigned to him in
the most successful manner ! /" The agent, it would seem, en-
tertained the same opinion vou have expressed in this endorse-

LETTERS OF A CITIZEN. 39"

ment. With reference to the instruments brought over, in his
report, which forms a supplement to your own, he discourses thus :
" I beheve they comprise all that can in amj way he useful for
scientific purposes on any expedition, and are all of them of the
very best construction T These assertions, which Humholdt would
not have ventured, are further confirmed in the next sentence,
where it is said, '' I trust they ivill be found fully adequate to the
wants of the expedition."

Among these much-extolled instruments " not to be procured
in the United States," I find mentioned two astronomical clocks,
one journeyman's clock, two astronomical telescopes, and forty-
one chronometers. I have made inquiry if any American maker
of astronomical clocks had been called on by you to give a proof
of his skill, but have been unable to learn that any such had, or
has been, encouraged to furnish a specimen article ; although it
cannot be controverted that astronomical clocks, unsurpassed in
accuracy, and which their manufacturers are willing to warrant
equal to any which can be imported from foreign workshops,
have for several years been made in this country. I am equally
at a loss to know for what reason the admirable reflecting tele-
scopes of Halcomb were wholly overlooked in your attention to
the outfit of that department which embraced the " principal ob-
ject" of the expedition. I have read detailed accounts of the su-
perior excellence of these telescopes from the pens of those in
whose opinions on such subjects I place the highest confidence,
attesting their accuracy, portability, and the ease with which they
may be managed It is the more astonishing that these matters
should have been neglected by you, inasmuch as you have so
long been a strenuous advocate for the patronage of domestic
skill and industry ! In like manner, I cannot help thinking that
at least one or two of those highly-finished box chronometers
made on this side of the Atlantic, which have been lauded and
honoured with premiums by men who have their eyes open, and
tvho try to keep up with the time of day, should have been or-
dered. It would have been a trial of skill to which our artists
would have brought a full share of national pride, and the expe-
dition being a national enterprise, they ought to have been grati-
fied. It was due to them, and equally due to the country.

If, as you assert, the science connected with natural history

40 LETTERS OP A CITIZEN.

(by which I suppose you to mean the several sciences included
under the general term of natural history) constitutes the main ob-
jects of the expedition, how did it occur that your envoy failed to
procure any apparatus for research in this branch, if we except a
case of drawing instruments with Cameras Lucidas ? To seven,
if not more, of the fourteen gentlemen forming the scientific
board, microscopes of the most approved construction, such as
are made only in Europe, were, I should imagine, indispensable.
But, finding no such articles on the list, I suppose it was con-
sidered that everything earthly, aerial, or aquatic too small to be
seen with the naked eye was too insignificant for the notice of
savans on " any expedition !"

Again : had the individual deputed, who performed his mission
in " the most successful manner," looked into some of the books
he brought with liim, he might have learned that, in making
magnetic experiments, modern observers think that a rarefied me-
dium is highly important, and that nothing is more prejudicial to
accuracy in their results than the variable influence of the atmo-
sphere. This theory has been amply explained by philosophers
in England ; and long series of experiments, testing and proving
its correctness, have been made in the United States. The pro-
curement of astronomical apparatus, how^ever, may have kept the
attention of your agent so constantly fixed upon the heavens, that
he unconsciously omitted to notice these trifles connected with
earth !

Is it to be presumed that you consider the meteorological de-
partment well supplied with instruments without some apparatus
for investigating the state of atmospheric electricity ? Or, as such
apparatus is not named in the list before referred to, are we to
conclude that electricity does not form a subject of attention in
"any expedition" fitted out under your direction, even when sci-
entific pursuits are its "leading objects?"

The agent very properly returns his acknowledgments to the
savans abroad whom he consulted and who afl'orded liim impor-
tant assistance.

The individuals enumerated, many of tlieni high in rank, are
certainly eniincnl in hydrography, astronomy, natural philosophy,
and as makers of philosophical instruments. This is all very well,
so far as it goes ; but why was not some portion of the three

LETTERS OF A CITIZEN. 41

months which intervened between the passage of the bill and de-
parture of the agent occupied in consulting the naturalists of this
country ? Had such a course been pursued, the labours of your
envoy might have been performed much more usefully, as well as
more creditably for the department and the nation. But, as this
was not done, he might have advised with some of the most cele-
brated naturalists of Great Britain, France, and Germany, partic-
ularly with those who had accompanied former expeditions into
the very seas our squadron is intended to explore. Had this plan
been followed, think you they would have agreed with him in his
statement, even with the high authority of your own official en-
dorsement upon its back, that the books and instruments, as ex-
hibited per list, comprised all that would in any way be useful
in the different divisions of science ?

I am not a little puzzled with this heterogeneous melange of sci-
entific works which have been brought hither. So far as respects
the few which relate to natural history, the recent French voyages
excepted, I scarcely know how an equal number of more useless
volumes could have been selected. I should be glad to see you
or the agent point out more than ten works, throwing aside the
voyages, that any competent naturalist would have ordered. I
can only name seven : Richardson's Fauna, Bennister's Entomol-
ogy, Cuvier's Fishes, Landon's Encyclopedia of Plants, Genera
of Recent and Fossil Shells, Yarrel's British Fishes, and Turner's
Fuci. Magazines of Natural History, like the Geological and
Linnaean Transactions, are not needed ; though containing many
important papers, the proper place for such ponderous tomes is the
shelves of a library. The naturalists will require luorking books,
manuals, and models ; and these, sir, have not been provided.

The list of voyages, I am happy to find, is far more complete,
although three which may be termed scientific pa7' excellence are
not included in it : viz., Pallas, Saussure, and the complete works
of Humboldt. In a word, the catalogue is in itself sufficient evi-
dence that no naturalist had any share in its adoption. Indeed, I
am only in doubt whether the assortment was made by the agent,
or whether he merely gave a carte blanche to a bookseller, and re-
quested him to furnish as many cubic feet of works on natural
history as he thought might be necessary for " any scientific ex-
pedition."

F

42 LETTERS OF A CITIZEN.

To be Ignorant of natural history is certainly no discredit to the
gentleman you commissioned, and I have no wish to speak of his
labours with disparagement ; I merely regret that he should so
confidently have volunteered an opinion in his official report, that
he had selected all the books and instruments which " could be in
any way useful for scientific purposes on any expedition ;" and
that you, in the face of the science of the whole country, should
have so complacently signified your concurrence in the statement.
Your own attainments in botany, before botany became a science,
should have prompted the reflection, that the field of human sci-
ence is too vast to justify even one member of the corps in judg-
ing of the wants of others in distinct departments. The truth of
this position is illustrated by your present defective preparations
for scientific researches. After obstinately refusing to assemble
the scientific corps, and assign to each member his respective
duty since December last, though frequently urged to do so, you
now find the " leading objects" of the enterprise almost entirely
unprovided for.

On the fourth of this month you put the corps on duty, and
gave them the means to prepare for the voyage. They are now,
as I learn, actively employed ; and, by ransacking public and pri-
vate libraries, may, it is hoped, remedy the evils occasioned by
your imperfect and tardy arrangements. Thus you find, sir, that
after an interval of fifteen months, and subsequent to your official
announcement that all the tools of the naturalists were provided,
hooks have still to he imported, and orders noiv to he given for
the construction of instruments ! ! ! If this be good faith in the
discharge of a high trust committed to your hands, then I should
be glad to know what may be deemed a derehction of duty.

In the sentence already quoted, you inform us, "no one has yet
been assigned to the department of astronomy, geography, and
hydrography." I have understood the selection of a competent
person for this station has given you mucli solicitude, and that you
have not even yet been successful in finding one whom you could
approve. 1 am not sorry that in this matter you have been dis-
appointed, because I unfeigriedly believe that the appointment of
an astronomer to the expedition woukl l)o an act of injustice to
the naval officers employed, who, from their attainments and pro-
fession, might be relied on for the hydrographical labours to be

LETTERS Ot' A CITIZEN. 43-

performed. In a communication bearing your name, which ap-
peared in the " Washington Globe" of the 18th January last, you
hold the following language :

" From the moment this expedition was authorized by Congress,
I considered that, as its dangers, fatigues, and hardships were to
be borne by the officers of the navy, they ought to participate
largely in its advantages and honours ; and that, in all cases in
which, from their literature and science, they were competent to
the task of promoting the great objects of the expedition, they
were to be preferred to citizens equally competent, but not sub-
ject to like responsibilities."

Although I deemed the language here used was put forth
rather to foment jealousies between the officers and the natural-
ists, or other citizens to be employed, than as an exposition of a
rule by which, from a high sense of duty, you felt constrained to
act ; and while I cannot but repudiate the invidious distinctions,
untrue in fact, which you have drawn between the labours that
the members of the expedition, naval and civil, will respectively
be required to perform, as well as the supposition that the hon-
ours which the one class might acquire could, with liberal minds,
disparage the just pretensions of the other ; yet, in this case, I
think the navy would have some ground for complaint should the
overshadowing appointment of an astronomer be made, unless
practical results can be expected from his services. On this
point I have doubts, and I state them for your consideration with-
out any unbecoming confidence in my own opinion.

I should, however, be gratified to see you point out what astro-
nomical calculations can possibly be performed which will not
fall within the province of the nautical department, and which
practical navigators are not most likely to make with accuracy.
Have you reflected upon the means indispensable to the success
of purely astronomical inquiry ? Are you prepared to ask of Con-
gress the funds for erecting an elevated stationary observatory for
the permanent adjustment of costly and complicated instruments,
without which an astronomer can do little or nothing ? Have you
taken into consideration the time which must be uninterruptedly
devoted at one place to comparative observations of the celestial
bodies as they move in the hemisphere ? Or do you believe these
observations can be prosecuted on shipboard underanged by the

44 LETTERS OP A CITIZEN.

unsteady oscillating motion of the vessel ? If you have not
thought of these things, ay, and provided for them also, the ap-
pointment of an astronomer really appears to me little less than
ridiculous, and will certainly expose you to the sneering charge
of having made a pompous preparation in vain^ and for an object
impossible to be accomplished.

Indeed, there would be something of vain assumption and dan-
gerous temerity in making such an appointment, even if the as-
tronomer were to be left for several years upon a sequestered
island or inland mountain to pursue his studies, with the best ap-
paratus the world could afford, and corresponding experience and
learning ; for it cannot be forgotten that the most eminent living
astronomer, surrounded by every facility that a nation uncalcula-
tingly munificent in the cause of science could supply, has been
devoting four or five years to the stars of the southern hemi-
sphere, and has not yet made known any results to serve as a
guide to a competitor in the same arduous field. There is not a
constellation, nor is there a single star, which could be seen by
this expedition in the highest southern latitudes at which it might
arrive, that has not been already seen by Sir John Herschel at
the Cape of Good Hope. The cost to the British government of
his astronomical researches alone will not be less than half a
million of dollars.

Sir, nothing can be done in this voyage of exploration towards
mapping the heavens. Neither the means allowed nor the na-
ture of the enterprise admit of such results, and the addition of
an astronomer to the scientific corps will, in my opinion, be found,
in practice, worse than useless.

The department of physical science, or natural and experimental
philosophy, is already filled. The naval ofiicers of the squadron
are qualified to perform the hydrographical labours which appro-
priately belong to their profession. If these are not to be a por-
tion of their duties, then what did you mean by alluding to the
" labours, hardships, (Sec. ?" If they ore to be so considered,
should not those who render the service receive the credit ? But,
sir, I will go si ill farther, and say that the hydrographical opera-
tions can be conducted only by the naval ofiicers. This will be-
come apparent when you reflect that the vessels, while surveying
a group of islands, will frequently be separated from each other,

LETTERS OF A FRIEND TO THE NAVY. 45

and that the positions of different members of the cluster must
be defined by the officers of the respective vessels. These ob-
servations, w^hen reported to the commander on board the frigate
(which vs^ill be the depot of all reports, naval or civil), can, by the
aid of skilful draughtsmen, be reduced to regular and consecu-
tive charts ; and this will be the continual process throughout the
duration of the voyage.

I must now take my leave of you for the present, and. with the
addition of one more letter, may probably close altogether.
Though, as I promised in the beginning, I have written you
freely in these letters, you have no just cause of complaint. If,
in the exposition I have given of some of your official acts, there
has been some occasional appearance of severity, you know full
well that they were, in comparison, but as the dewdrops of mercy
to what I might have said had I gone into an examination of your
doings throughout the entire history of the naval equipment of the
squadron, as well as in reference to other points passed by with
out remark or allusion. For the opinions advanced and facts
stated I am alone and singly responsible ; and if they be contro-
verted, I hold myself at all times prepared to give my reasons for
the former and my proofs of the latter.

I have the honour to be

Your obedient servant and fellow

CITIZEN.

New-York, July 28, 1837,

DEFENCE OF THE SECRETARY OF THE NAVY.

We give place, and a prominent one, most cheerfully to the following defence of the
secretary of the navy against the censures of our correspondent " Citizen." " A Friend
to the Navy," maintainmg the anonymous himself, must, however, allow the same priv-
ilege to his interlocutor, and will excuse us for erasing a name which he uses apparently
with invidious purpose. — Editor of the New- Fork Times.

I.

As statements calculated to mislead the public mind upon the
subject of the South Sea exploring expedition are published in
the Times under the signature of a " Citizen," you will no doubt
cheerfully afford an opportunity, through the same medium, of

46 LETTERS OF A FRIEND TO THE NAVY.

correcting those statements by a narrative of facts not generally
known, and which must be understood before any just opinion
can be formed of the charges exhibited by this citizen against the
secretary of the navy.

In consequence of a report of Lieutenant Tattnall, on his return
from a cruise to the coast of Mexico in the Pioneer, one of the
barks which had been constructed for the South Sea surveying
and exploring expedition, that she was unfit for the service ; and
from reports from various quarters that the schooner Pilot, built
for the same expedition, was a dull sailer, as well as an unsafe
vessel, Commodore Jones was instructed to make an experimental
cruise with the Pioneer and Pilot, together with the bark Con-
sort, in order to ascertain how far those vessels might be consid-
ered as safe and proper for this expedition. After an absence of
eight days Commodore Jones returned and reported favourably
of the vessels, but recommended that they should be taken into
drydock and examined ; in consequence of which, Commodores
Chauncey, Morris, Warrington, Patterson, and Wadsworih were
appointed commissioners to examine into the condition of those
vessels, and further to inquire whether the exploring squadron
could not be reduced in number of vessels and men with advan-
tage to the country, and without prejudice to the great objects of
the expedition.

This measure has excited the rage of this " Citizen," who, in
your paper of the 29th of June, and of subsequent dates, comes
out in a virulent attack upon the professional character and con-
duct of the secretary of the navy, accusing him of a total neglect
of duty in promoting the expedition, and of being governed by
motives of hostility to the measure. He further accuses him of
a wish to defeat the enterprise by reducing the squadron to a
smaller compass, and of deceiving the commissioners as to the
great objects of the expedition.

This angry " Citizen" is, no doubt, Mr. , who has suc-
ceeded in producing an impression through the country that this
is his expedition ; an impression much strengthened by the publi-
cation, in October last, of his address, delivered on the 3d of April
of the last year in the hall of the House of Representatives be-
fore members of the two houses of Congress and others, together
with letters addressed to him on the subject of this expedition, in

LETTERS OF A FRIEND TO THE NAVY. 4?

which he is exceedingly magnified, especially in one from Captain
T. Ap. C. Jones, since appointed commander of the squadron,
who considers him the originator of the voyage ; and to whom,
with reference to this expedition, he addresses this language :
" Who can bring so much valuable knowledge, derived from va-
rious sources, some of ivhich you alone have been permitted to
draw from as you could 1 I mean not to flatter when I say, not
another who is a citizen of the United States." So that Commo-
dore Jones looks up to Mr. as possessing so much valuable

knowledge upon the subject of the exploring expedition, that he
has no equal among the citizens of the United States. How far
this superior knowledge is to influence Commodore Jones in di-
recting the movements of the exploring squadron remains to be
seen.

Mr. , in his address, page seventy-four, says, " the amount

of this power is a question upon which there can be but little dif-
ference of opinion among those thoroughly acquainted with the
subject ; the best informed are unanimous in their opinion that
there should be a well-appointed frigate and five other vessels ;
twice that number would find enough, and more than they could
do."

Here is the origin of the plan of six ships for this expedition,
and one of them a frigate. Such a force as never yet went upon
such an expedition.

Such was the force required by Mr. ; such is the force

Commodore Jones now requires, and without which he considers
the expedition cannot be complete or effective. But what are the
words of the act authorizing the expedition ?

" That the President of the United States be, and he hereby is,
authorized to send out a surveying and exploring expedition to the
Pacific Ocean and the South Seas, and for that purpose to employ
a sloop-of-ivar, and to purchase or provide such other smaller
vessels as may be necessary and proper to render the expedition
efl^icient and useful," &;c.

It w^as to the representations of Commodore Jones that less
force than one frigate of the second class, two barks, a store-ship,
and a schooner, would not answer the purposes of the expedition,
that President Jackson consented to the employment of so large a
force. It is idle to pretend that the plan of five vessels originated

48 LETTERS OF A FRIEND TO THE NAVY.

with him. He, in fact, wanted no greater force than would meet
the just views of Congress and the expectations of the public.

The secretary of the navy, in his annual report of the third of
December last, makes the following statement to the president :

" When, at the commencement of the last and preceding ses-
sions of Congress, it was recommended that a considerable addi-
tion should be made to the number of ships in commission to
meet the exigences of the rapidly-increasing commerce of our
country, it was perceived that, should the measure be adopted, as
it has been, by the liberal appropriations of Congress, it would be
necessary to adopt, at the same time, measures for increasing the
number of our seamen. The most obvious means of accomplish-
ing this object was the one recommended, of enlisting into the
service of our navy boys over the age of thirteen and under the
age of eighteen, until they shall arrive at the age of twenty-one
years. A bill for this purpose has been before the Senate for
the two last sessions, which, it is confidently hoped, will become
a law during the approaching session of Congress. In the mean
lime, as a larger number of seamen is required for the merchant
service than usual, and as there is at present actually in the naval
service of the United States one fifth more seamen than were em-
ployed three years ago, and a greater number than has been em-
ployed at any time within the last fifteen years, some difficulty
must necessarily exist in recruiting seamen required for immedi-
ate service.

" The terms of service of the seamen on the Pacific and Bra-
zilian stations are about to expire. Those on the Pacific station
have been ordered home, but will not probably arrive before the
middle of January next. In the mean time the North Carolina is
ordered to that station, requiring immediately a large number of
seamen, and Captain John B. Nicholson has been selected to sail
in the razee Independence, to relieve the commander on the coast
of Brazil, who, when relieved, will return with the seamen belong-
ing to his station. The Independence will require a large num-
ber of seamen to complete her crew. Besides, it is important
that each of these ships should be attended by one or two smaller
vessels ; but this is impracticable in the present state of the ser-
vice.

'• It will easily be perceived, therefore, that the force wanted for

LETTERS OF A FRIEND TO THE NAVY. 49

the protection of commerce exceeds the means of supply which this
department can immediately bring into operation. When, there-
fore, on the 18ih of May last, it was provided, by an amendment to
the general naval appropriation bill, that the President of the United
States should be authorized to send out a surveying and exploring
expedition to the Pacific Ocean and South Seas, I considered it
impracticable to fit out this expedition in a manner to meet the
views of Congress under eight or nine months without a serious
injury to other branches of the naval service.

" The only insurmountable difficulty, however, in my opinion,
was the recruiting the requisite number of seamen in three or four
months without interfering with arrangements already made for
sending ships to the Pacific and Brazilian stations, and for sending
an additional force to the West Indies.

" As, however, it was your earnest wish that the intentions of
Congress in authorizing this measure should be carried into effect
with the least possible delay, and that the expedition should be
fitted out upon the extensive and liberal scale which the indica-
tions of public opinion seemed to require ; and as the officer. Cap-
tain Thomas Ap. Catesby Jones, selected for the command of the
expedition, gave assurances that the difficulty of obtaining seamen
could be obviated by giving him power to have them recruited
under his immediate superintendence, and for this particular ser-
vice, it was determined to make an extraordinary effort to accom-
plish these objects.

" Every facihty consistent with the rules and regulations of the
navy was offered to Captain Jones for recruiting seamen in the
manner he proposed ; and measures were immediately adopted to
have one frigate of the second class, one store-ship, two barks,
and one schooner, all which he considered as indispensably ne-
cessary to the success of the enterprise, prepared without delay.
The frigate and store-ship, which were on the stocks when this
measure was adopted, have been furnished and equipped, and are
now receiving their crews ; and the other three vessels have been
entirely built and equipped for sea. The whole have been finished
in the most substantial manner, and adapted to the particular ser-
vice for which they are destined. These vessels will sail to Nor-
folk to complete their crews, take in their stores, and to await fur-
ther orders.

G

50 LETTERS OF A FRIEND TO THE NAVY.

" To prevent any delay that might arise from the want of math-
ematical, astronomical, and philosophical instruments, books, maps,
charts, &c., required for the expedition. Lieutenant Wilkes, of
the navy, w^as sent to Europe, and sailed from New- York on the
8th of August last, to make the necessary purchases ; in which he
has been successful as to the greater part of the articles wanted.
For some instruments, however, he has been under the necessity
of waiting until they can be manufactured. His return is expected
about the middle of this month.

" It is believed that every proper exertion has been made to
recruit men for this service, but without the anticipated success ;
no more than about two hundred, according to the returns received,
being as yet recruited ; and, as Captain Jones requires five hun-
dred and eighteen petty officers, seamen, ordinary seamen, boys,
and marines, together with eighty-five commissioned and warrant
officers, for his squadron, it is evident that a considerable time
must yet elapse before the expedition can be ready for sea.

" Recruiting seamen for a particular service may be attended
with great inconvenience, and should not be adopted but upon the
most urgent occasions, such as that of the exploring expedition
was conceived to be. If the exigences of the government should
require of such recruits service different from that for which they
were enlisted, discontent, and even mutiny may be apprehended.
Besides, this mode of recruiting cannot but interfere with the re-
cruiting for the general service ; and, in the present case, the order
to recruit for the exploring expedition has made it necessary to
adopt the same mode of recruiting for the crews of the vessels
about to sail for the Pacific and Brazilian stations.

" Recruiting for three distinct objects of service at the same
time, while the usual recruiting for the general service is contin-
ued, cannot but retard the whole, and compel us to keep in re-
ceiving vessels a much larger number of recruits, constantly dis-
posed to desert, than would be required, if recruited, for the gen-
eral service alone.

" Although the number of recruits is small for any one of these
objects, yet, in the aggregate, the number is quite as great as
should be expected, when we consider the unusually great num-
ber of seamen now in the naval service of the United States, and
the great demand for them in the merchant service.

LETTERS OF A FRIEND TO THE NAVY. 51

" Although the return of the pubHc vessels now ordered to the
United States will, to a considerable extent, furnish men for fu-
ture service, yet sending out so large a force as that required for
the exploring expedition, to be detained for the term of three years,
cannot but be felt as a serious inconvenience in fitting out the
number of vessels wanted for the immediate protection of com-
merce."

From this it appears that Commodore Jones, appointed to the
command of the exploring squadron, deemed one frigate of the
second class, one store-ship, two barks, and one schooner, as in-
dispensably necessary to the success of the enterprise ; on which
measures were immediately adopted to have these vessels pre-
pared without delay. This report the president laid before Con-
gress.

On the sixth of February last the secretary of the navy made a
report to the president, in which he states that,

" In answer to the resolution of the House of Representatives
calling for information as to the progress which has been made in
the arrangements for the surveying and exploring expedition au-
thorized at the last session of Congress, and of the objects and
measures to which said expedition is to be devoted, &c., and
which, on the fourth instant, you referred to this department, I
have the honour to state that, in my annual report of the third of
December last, I gave a brief outline of the progress that had been
made in the arrangements for this expedition up to that time ;
which may be found in document number two of the House of
Representatives, pages 444, 5, and 6, together with a report of
the commissioners of the navy of the measures which had been
taken to carry the same into effect, and an estimate of the amount
that will be required for the support of the frigate Macedonian, the
store-ship Relief, the two barks Pioneer and Consort, and the
schooner Pilot, to be employed on this expedition for one year,
which report and estimate may be found in pages 484 and 485 of
the same document.

" The resolution referred to requires further information than
was contained in my report, as also what progress has since been
made in these arrangements.

*' The great objects of this expedition, as understood by this
department, are to explore the seas of the Southern Hemiipii^re,

ij:Z LETTERS OF A FRIEND TO THE NAVY.

more particularly in the high latitudes, and in the regions as near
to the pole as may be approached without danger ; to make in
these regions thus to be explored all practicable surveys and ob-
servations, with accurate descriptions of the same, connected with
geography or hydrography, by which the interests of commerce
and navigation may be promoted ; and to make all such researches
as the opportunities of the expedition will afford, to advance all
branches of science which have attracted the attention of the
governments of Europe in fitting out vessels for survey and dis-
covery.

" In the beginning of July last your wishes to carry into effect,
to their full extent, the views of Congress in authorizing this ex-
pedition, induced you to make it a subject of immediate consider-
ation and action.

" Captain Thomas Ap. C. Jones was selected to take command
of the expedition. The offer to take this command was made to
him, and accepted on his part.

'' The confidence placed in this officer, which led to his selec-
tion for this important command, seemed to require that he should
be consulted as to the number and size of the vessels, and of the
vessels, and of the amount of force, of which his squadron was to
be held in a high degree responsible for the success of the expe-
dition.

" He was of opinion that one frigate of the second class, one
store-ship, two barks, and one schooner, were indispensably ne-
cessary to the success of this object.

" In accordance with this opinion, the most prompt measures
were adopted for preparing and fitting for sea the vessels required.

" Captain Jones was instructed to visit the different navy yards in
■which the vessels for his squadron were to be built and prepared,
and to make such suggestions as he should think proper as to the
manner of building and preparing the same, and to which the com-
mandants of the yards were directed to conform.

" As, at the time of passing the act authorizing this expedition,
it was necessary to take immediate measures for relieving our
squadrons on the Pacific and Brazilian stations, as well as to
send to the Gulf of Mexico a considerable force in addition to
that previously sent there, it was evident that the requisite number
of seamen for this expedition could not be recruited without ex-

LETTEFS OF A FRIEND TO THE NAVY. 5^

traordinary exertions. Measures were therefore taken to recruit
men for this particular service under the direction and super-
intendence of Captain Jones, and Lieutenants Tatnall, R. R.
Pinckham, Purviance, and H. W. Morris were ordered to report
to him for service in recruiting for this expedition ; and others u^ere
subsequently ordered for the same service. It is believed that
due diligence has been exercised by the officers on this service
to recruit the requisite number of men, but without the success
that had been anticipated. This is partly owing to the necessity
of recruiting at the same time for the Pacific, Brazilian, and West
India stations ; and of the five hundred and eighteen seamen, or-
dinary seamen, landsmen, and boys required for the several ves-
sels of the exploring squadron, no more than two hundred and
forty-eight have been yet recruited, as by the last returns.

"The difficulties, however, which have retarded the recruiting
for this expedition are nearly obviated ; and it is confidently
hoped that in a short time there will be sufficient numbers re-
cruited to complete the crews of all the vessels of the squadron."

This report was transmitted to the House of Representatives
with an expression of a wish, on the part of the president, that all
facilities might be given to the exploring expedition that Congress
could bestow and the honour of the nation demand.

If the objects of the expedition indispensably required the em-
ployment of five, or even six ships, and the honour of the nation
demanded the employment of so large a force, then was Presi-
dent Jackson in favour of it, not otherwise.

Congress in February last made appropriations under which
five ships might be employed on this expedition, but did not re-
quire that so large a force should be employed unless, agreeably
to the condition of the act authorizing the measure, such force
should be necessary and proper to render the expedition efficient
and useful. The appropriations do not require the needless ex-
penditure of money ; nor do they in the slightest degree interfere
with the propriety of reducing this force, if the interest of the
country should require it.

The character of the expedition has not been changed ; it was
originally a surveying and exploring expedition, and is so still.

By the reports cited it will appear that there was extreme dif-
ftculty in extending to our commerce all the protection due to it.

54 LETTERS OF A FRIEND TO THE NAVY.

and which the interest as well as the honour of the country de-
manded should be attended to in preference to the exploring ex-
pedition.

In the years 1836 and 1837 more has been required and more
has been done for the protection of commerce than in any other
two years since the late war.

Before the required number of seamen could be recruited
for the exploring expedition, it was discovered that the bark
Pioneer was unfit for the service for which she was intended ;
and the bark Consort and the schooner Pilot were considered as
less fit for the service than the Pioneer ; at least, such was the
prevailing opinion among the officers of the navy.

The secretary of the navy is not to be charged for the want of
success in recruiting seamen for the expedition ; and surely he is
not to be held responsible for the condition in which the vessels
built for the expedition are found. But he will be held responsi-
ble to the country if he suffers these vessels to go on the expedi-
tion without a thorough examination. For such an examination
appropriate measures were adopted. Delay must ensue ; but this
is unavoidable. Delay in our ports is to be preferred to disaster
abroad.

The great offence on tlie part of the secretary is, that the com-
missioners have been instructed to inquire whether the exploring
squadron may not be reduced in number of vessels and men with
advantage to the country and without prejudice to the great ob-
jects of the expedition.

If such a reduction can, it is highly expedient that it should
lake place in the present situation of the country. The exigen-
ces of our commerce are such as to render it highly improper to
send out a larger force for the purpose of survey and exploration
than may be absolutely wanted for those particular objects. Pro-
curing the large amount of specie that will be wanted for this en-
tire squadron, especially if it is to be increased by the addition of
another ship, now required by Commodore Jones, will create
much embarrassment. This difficulty was not foreseen at the last
session of Congress ; and the circumstance, which is now appa-
rent, that we shall lack revenue for the exigences of government
in the coming year, would justify the inquiry if there might not

LETTERS OF A FRIEND TO THE NATY. 65

be some reduction in the million and a half of dollars which this
exploring expedition is about to cost us.

The " Citizen" accuses the secretary of the navy of deceiving
the commissioners as to the objects of the expedition.

The objects stated to the commissioners are the same as were
stated in the report of the 6th February, laid before the Hause of
Representatives, and not disapproved of by them.

The commissioners were informed that the cruise of the ex-
ploring expedition would continue three years ; that its objects
would be chiefly to explore the oceans and seas of the Southern
Hemisphere, more particularly in high latitudes, and in regions as
near the pole as may be approached without danger.

That some portions of the Pacific north of the equator might
probably be visited by the squadron, or some part of it.

That the scientific corps to be attached to this expedition would
consist of from fourteen to eighteen individuals, whose duty it
would be to make in the regions to be explored all practicable sur-
veys and observations of the same, with such accurate descrip-
tions and drawings as may be most useful for the purposes of
navigation and commerce ; and to make such researches as the
opportunities of the expedition would afford in all branches of
science, which have attracted the attention of the governments of
Europe in fitting out expeditions of a like character with this.

Surely this embraces enough for the consideration of the com-
missioners, whose professional experience enables them to deter-
mine with accuracy what is meant by the terms surveying and
exploring expedition.

The duties to be performed under the commander of the squad-
ron will be pointed out to him in detail in his final instructions,
but need not be communicated to the commissioners.

The " Citizen" thinks the vessels of this squadron should have
been sent out long since, fit or unfit for the service, for he says
the expedition should " now be doubling the cape, and every one
engaged in the enterprise full of hopes of having immediate op-
portunities of fulfilling their country's expectations."

Now, although it is very pleasant weather here in June and July,
it is quite the reverse at Cape Horn ; it is winter there, and the
officers of the navy would prefer a different season for doubling
the cape, if a " Citizen" will permit them.

56 LETTERS OF A FRIEjND TO THE NAVY.

How much time will be required for making the alleralioiis
which may be found necessary in these vessels is uncertain ;
probably not more than a few weeks. The requisite number of
seamen are recruited ; and unless there should be difficulty in
commanding the service of officers upon this expedition, it may
leave the United States in lime for doubling Cape Horn at the
most favourable season of the year.

A FRIEND TO THE NAVY.

July 31, 1837.

H.

The facts stated in my former number show that the difficulty
and delay of recruiting seamen for the exploring expedition were
not to be attributed to the secretary of the navy, nor was he to
be charged with the delay occasioned by the necessity of having
a thorough examination of the two barks and schooner built ex-
pressly for the expedition. But the " Citizen" accuses him of
being opposed to the bill authorizing the expedition.

There has probably been no secretary of the navy who would
not have gladly engaged in sending out an exploring expedition,
if it could be done in accordance with his own views, and with-
out embarrassing him in the performance of other official duties
of more immediate importance and of higher responsibility.

In 1836 the duties to be performed by the navy for the pro-
tection of commerce, and which the honour of the nation required
should be attended to in preference to all others, exceeded the
means of the navy department, as appears by the published ex-
tracts from the secretary's reports ; and the imposition of new
duties in fitting out an exploring expedition could not fail to in-
crease the difficulties of his situation, without relieving him of re-
sponsibilities, which effect they have had, to the most serious in-
jury of the service. It is not strange that the secretary should
feel opposed to the imposition of new duties at a time of so much
difficulty ; nor is it strange that he should be opposed to the
manner in which the provision for the exploring expedition was
introduced into the general appropriation bills for the navy.

LETTERS OF A FRIEND TO THE NAVY. S7

Early in the session this bill had been sent from the House of
Representatives to the Senate ; there an amendment was pro-
posed authorizing this expedition ; and there it remained, loaded
with this rider, until nearly the time of passing the bill on the
18th of May, 1836, more than five months after the commence-
ment of the session, and when the naval service was greatly em-
barrassed for want of the appropriations ; for not a dollar had
been appropriated for this service from the beginning of the ses-
sion until this time.

Much delay has taken place in consequence of the condition of
these vessels ; but all difficulties as to the vessels can be removed
in time for sending out the expedition so as to double Cape Horn
at the most favourable season of the year. The two barks can be
so altered as to make them fit for this service, and the schooner,
should the officers place no confidence in her, can be left, and
another substituted ; and even the additional ship which Commo-
dore Jones now requires can be procured, should it be deemed
necessary.

There is, however, a serious difficulty in the case not men-
tioned by the "Citizen," but produced in no small degree by him-
self, which requires examination : that is, the general disincli-
nation, on the part of the officers of the navy, to engage in this ex-
pedition, which arises, in part, from an impression that this is con-
sidered the expedition of an individual rather than of the country ;
and from the circumstance that two meritorious and scientific of-
ficers were excluded from the command of two of the smaller
vessels of the squadron.

The officers of the navy are probably afraid that, from the
published opinions of various distinguished gentlemen of the
transcendent claims of Mr. , that he will have an undue in-
fluence in the movements of the squadron, as that of doubling
Cape Horn in June and July ; approaching too nearly to the
verge of this said opening of sixteen degrees around the pole, or
some other movements to test the truth of his strange theories.

These fears have not been removed by the displays of science

in Mr. 's published address, in which he informs the world

that " the great improvements in mathematical instruments have
made the path of the mariner in the darkest night, and amid rush-

H

58 LETTERS OF A FRIEND TO THE NAVY.

ing tempests, as easy to be attained and followed as the paved
streets of a populous city." Page 16.

That " in every part of the earth's circumference where a keel
can go our countrymen are to be found gleaning the molluscous
treasures from the coral reefs in equatorial cHmes," &c. P. 24.

That "what men can do they (American seamen) have always
felt ready to attempt ; what man has done it is their character to
feel able to do ; whether it be to grapple with an enemy on the
deep, or to pursue the gigantic game under the burning line with
an intelligence and ardour that ensure success, or, pushing their
adventurous barks into the high southern latitudes, to circle the
globe within the antarctic circle, and attain the pole itself; yea,
to cast anchor on that point where all the meridians terminate,
where our eagle and star-spangled banner may be unfurled and
planted, and left to wave on the axis of the earth itself!" P. 99.

This address contains many other passages equally delectable
and instructive.

It is certainly news to the naval officers that the improvements
in mathematical instruments have made the path of the mariner
in the darkest night, and amid rushing tempests, as easy to be at-
tained and followed as a paved street in a populous city. This
would be extremely consoling to them could they believe it.
But, as this information is so far in advance of anything ever said
or thought of by Laplace or Bowditch, the officers must be ex-
cused for believing that Mr. was practising upon the cre-
dulity of his audience, or that he was totally ignorant of the sub-
ject upon which he was speaking. Our officers will also be sur-
prised to hear that in every part of the earth's circumference
where a keel can go our countrymen are to be found gleaning
molluscous treasures from the coral reefs in equatorial climes.
As our keels can go into Hudson's Bay and Behring's Straits, our

countrymen must be there, according to Mr. 's information,

gleaning molluscous treasures — and from coral reefs too — and
those reefs of equatorial climes, whether abounding in molluscous
treasures or not.

From Mr. 's flourish of circling the globe within the an-
tarctic circle, yea, of casting anchor on the point where all the
meridians terminate, and of leaving the star-spangled banner to
wave on the axis of the earth itself, which he, no doubt, considers

LETTERS OP A FRIEND TO THE NAVY. 59

a huge flagstaff, it would appear that he has renounced his former
theory of a great opening of sixteen degrees at the pole ; that is,
if he is in earnest in his plan of leaving the American flag to wave
on the axis of the earth, of which there is some doubt.

The extravagances of Mr. have created many difiiculties

in fitting out this expedition ; yet all these can be obviated if he
will be content with the distinguished and lucrative situation as-
signed him in the same, and not ostentatiously and off'ensively at-
tempt the direction of the enterprise, to the great annoyance of
officers who have entered the navy with hopes of distinguishing
themselves in battle for their country, and who have no ambition
to engage in the service now proposed for them under his au-
spices.

Respect is due to the pride and feelings of gallant ofiicers of
whom unusual, unexpected, and subordinate duties are required.

On this expedition much time must be spent in collecting and
examining subjects of natural history ; much time must be spent
in tracing the shores and dredging in the deep seas in search of
new and undescribed animals. By these labours great additions
will be made to science highly interesting to the gentlemen en-
gaged in making discoveries, and highly honourable to the coun-
try, but somewhat irksome to officers performing a subordinate
part in these operations, and who aspire to service more properly
belonging to their professional duties.

To such labours and discoveries no more force should be applied
than what is absolutely necessary.

In other countries exploring expeditions are fitted out, but gen-
erally on a small scale.

Among the most splendid exploring voyages of modern times
is that of the Astrolabe, a corvette of eighteen guns and a crew
of eighty men.

Two ships would be quite enough for the purposes of survey
and exploration on this South Sea expedition, and an additional
vessel for the search of wrecked mariners.

Five ships and six hundred men cannot be wanted for any pur-
pose whatever necessarily connected with the expedition, not even
for the purpose of gleaning molluscous treasures from coral reefs,
in which it seems our countrymen are engaajed wherever a keel
can go.

60 LETTERS OF A CITIZEN.

The country wishes to see an exploring expedition fitted ana
sent out comnaensurate with the proper objects of such an expe-
dition, and no greater. It does not wish to pay a milhon and a
half of dollars for what, at most, should cost half a million ; and,
especially, it does not wish to send cut the specie that will be re-
quired for the expedition on the magnificent scheme of Mr. ,

at a time like this, when the specie wanted for the indispensable
exigences of the navy can with the greatest difiiculty be pro-
cured.

If the secretary of the navy had thought himself authorized to
send out the exploring squadron in preference to providing for
the Pacific, Brazilian, and West India stations, which he certainly
did not, yet he could not have sent out the number of ships re-
quired by Mr. , as they are not prepared for service, nor

will they be for some weeks to come ; and yet, on the part of
the secretary, there has not been a moment's delay in having those
vessels prepared for sea. The delay, if any, is to be attributed to
some other quarter.

A FRIEND TO THE NAVY.

August 1, 1837

CITIZEN'S LETTERS.
VII.

To the Honourable Mahlon Dickerson, Secretary of the Navy.

Sir,
The sagacious Prince of Idumea, the patient Job, once said,
" Oh ! that mine enemy had written a book ;" the true interpreta-
tion of which is, Oh ! that mine antagonist would put his arguments
in writing; he has, thank God, done it in this case. Yes, sir, you
have at length been aroused. The voice of public censure has
reached you, while but a single individual has been found to file
for you a plea of not guilty before the bar of public opinion. The
Times of .31st July and 1st of August contains his productions
over the signature of '* A Friend to the Navy ;" which, for the sake
of consistency, and in order to leave a more faithful record for the

LETTECS OF A CITIZEN'. 61

future, had more properly been simply " your friend" or " an en-
emy to the navyP

When I cast my eyes cursorily, for the first time, over these
"delectable" productions, I could not help feeling deep commis-
eration for you, that so long a life of patriotic, liberal, and enlight-
ened services to your country — of which, unfortunately, but few
records have been preserved — and especially the several years you
have occupied — I cannot say filled — the chair of your official pre-
decessors, watching with more than paternal solicitude over the
naval concerns of the country, infusing into all their branches a
due proportion of your own energy and decision, and inspiring the
officers by your own illustrious example with a liberal and har-
monious spirit of action ; I say, remembering all these things, I
could not avoid feeling commiseration that no abler pen had been
employed in the doubtful task of rescuing your official character
from obloquy. I could not but ask myself, where is the chivalry of
the navy, that it does not rally round its great head and pattern
in this his hour of need ?

In looking over, for the second time, what " A Friend to the
Navy" had put forth in your defence, I must own I had some mis-
givings as to who that " friend" might be. I began strongly to
suspect that he was no friend, but an enemy, to you as well as to
the navy, who had assumed the mask of friendship for the malig-
nant purpose of rendering you ridiculous in the eyes of your coun-
trymen by the very puerile, evasive, and disconnected style he
had adopted in attempting to sustain you. This impression was
further strengthened by the fact, apparent to every reader of l*is
articles, that all the charges I have preferred against you were,
substantially, admitted ; while the whole scope and tenour of the
language used manifested more decided hostility to the expedition
than had been openly avowed in any previous communication of
your own. I intend to have an extra number of these articles
struck off, as, whether prepared by a friend or a foe, they serve
to confirm everything I have said in my letters with regard to you»
and such were my second impressions ; they did not, however,
last long.

When I began to compare the effusions of " A Friend to the
Navy" with the extracts from your official reports, inserted by him
in the way of filling up your defence, and noticed their striking

62 LETTERS OF A CITIZEN-

similitude in style and language, the familiarity with wliich refer-
ence was made to reports and instructions not yet. made public^
together with certain allusions to doings and intentions of the de-
partment which could be known to yourself alone, I could not
help imbibing the belief, here quite current, that the author or
" Friend to the Navy''' was a personage high in place, who spoke
as one having authority. This circumstance, I thought, might
elevate to the dignity of deserving a notice compositions which,
without such adventitious aid, were absolutely beneath criticism,
and could only be attributed to a high source by supposing the in-
cumbent utterly incompetent to discharge the important duties of
his station.

This is a melancholy reflecti-on, and no less melancholy is the
task of noticing at all the defence of such a champion of the hon-
ourable secretary of the navy.

" A narrative of facts not generally known" is promised in the
beginning by your defender. Has any narrative been given, sir,
which impairs the force of the charges I have brought against you ;
charges of which the justice is felt and acknowledged by all who
have had anything to do with your department or an opportunity
of seeing your lardy, insincere, and reluctant action in fitting out
the expedition ?

Why was your defence, in point of time, commenced from the
late period when Lieutenant Tatnall returned in the Pioneer from
the coast of Mexico, ten months after the passage of the bill, and
more than eighteen months after you had set your mighty ener-
gies to work for the purpose of preventing the expedition being
authorized ? What was your official action in the premises during
that period ? Why has not this point been met and explained
away ? Sir, do you suppose the community blind ? Do you flat-
ter yourself that you can roll back, even assisted by the puissant
arm of " A Friend to the Navy," the current of public reprehension
which your official career has called down upon you? Make the
effort, sir, and preserve yourself if you can.

The Pioneer was reported unfit for the expedition, and Com-
modore Jones, at his own request, was directed to make an ex-
perimental cruise. That cruise was made, and its result inspired
the commander with confidence in his vessels, or, as you say, he
" reported favourably of the vessels." I have seen a letter written

LETTERS OF A CITIZEN. 63

by you after receiving that report, wherein you write, " The report
of Commodore Jones is extremely discouraging." Put this and
that together ; but let it pass.

It was recommended that the vessels go into drydock. This
was a godsend to you. The occasion was seized upon, and made
a pretext for the appointment of a commission extraordinary, al-
though Commodore Jones had returned and "reported favoura-
bly." How did you speak of this report when first received ?
Did you then say it was favourable ? I apprehend not ; at any
rate, accident has placed before me a letter, to which I have al-
ready referred, in which you speak of this same report as "ex-
tremely discouraging ! !"

Of this board : the obvious motive for its appointment ; the
extraordinary character of the instructions you gave for the gui-
dance of its action ; the consequent duties you expected it to
perform, are subjects which have all been sufficiently discussed
in my preceding letters, and demand but a short incidental no-
tice here. Not to look into the condition of the vessels only
was the commission opened, but to assume, to a certain degree,
legislative power ; to undo what Congress had directed should be
done, and which you, with all your hostility to the expedition, had
not the moral courage to contravene ; in short, to reduce the force
authorized. Why was not Commodore Jones appointed a mem-
ber of the board ? Was he not deeply interested in the examin-
ations and decisions to be made ? Were you apprehensive that
he would expose the insidious character of your instructions, by
showing the members of your commission that you had now as-
sumed new ground and adopted opinions directly at variance with
those you had previously professed to entertain ? Had you for-
gotten, or was it inconvenient to remember, what you had said of
that officer in your famous report of April 6, 1837 ? If you had
foreseen your present predicament, you would never have penned
the following sentence : " The confidence placed in this officer
(Commodore Jones), which led to his selection for this important
command, seemed to require that he should he consulted as to the
number and size of the vessels, and the amount offeree of which
his squadron was to consist, as he was to he held in a high degree
responsible for the success of the expedition.^'' A liberal and just
sentence this, but only written for effect, not for action, as your

64 LETTERS OF A CITIZEN.

recent course has abundantly proved. You acknowledge that the
commander, inasmuch as he was to be held in a high degree re-
sponsible for the success of the expedition, ought to be consulted
on the force to be employed, and afterward to exclude him from
a board instructed to decide on this very point. Do you imagine,
sir, this shallow device was not fully understood ; or do you sup-
pose there is a man of intelligence in the country, who has paid
the slightest attention to the subject, who believes that an honest
solicitude for the success of the enterprise was your motive for
convening this board, under the instructions it received ? Did
you not expect, sir, that it would report as a packed jury would
decide ; and have you not been greviously disappointed by the re-
cent decision against you ? Can you deny it ? Yes, you may,
probably will do so; but you cannot conceal, even while making
the denial, the keen and bitter disappointment rankling within that
this, your great last move, has been defeated, leaving you once
more naked, alone, and unsupported in your plans to destroy
the efficiency of the expedition ; or at least proving that, if you
had supporters, they did not choose to compromise themselves by
publicly agreeing with you, under circumstances so well calcu-
lated to call in question their patriotism and sense of public duty.
Thus discomfited, worsted, and overruled in all your machina-
tions ; required by the present as well as by the late executive to
go on and do your duly, and that speedily, you have at last, with
something like an " extraordinary effort," put the preparations in
a state of progress. The falling off in the revenue, with tli-e im-
inense and ruinous amount of specie which the squadron will re-
quire, are points from which you still entertain some lingering
hopes. I will examine the piteous wailings of " A Friend to the
Navy," and pledge myself to show that he is as uninformed upon
the latter subject as you have chosen to remain of the true pur-
poses of the expedition. For what end is a heavy amount of spe-
cie needed by the squadron ? If it touch at Lima or Valparaiso,
we have naval stores and a navy agent at both those places ; and
there bills on the United Stales command a premium. In ihc
purchase of refreshments at most of the islands specie is unne-
cessary, inasmuch as all the provisions furnished by the natives
are to be procured in exchange for our domestic manufactures
(implcm(3nl3 of industry, &c.), which will leave the money at

LETTERS OF A CITIZEN. 6#

home, instead of expending it in foreign ports, as is done by
the rest of our squadrons. Sir, I do not hesitate to say that
the specie requisite for this expedition will not amount to one
third the sum required for a similar force on any of the regular
foreign stations ; and, moreover, if the purpose of the expedi-
tion be to reach the South Pole, or near it, what, in the name
of common sense, would be the demands for specie there ? To
bring such an argument against the enterprise shows that " A
Friend to the Navy" must have felt himself at a nonplus in seek-
ing feasible apologies for your conduct.

Let me see, sir, what is the next point to be noticed ? The
law authorizing the expedition. This must be examined, as " A
Friend to the Navy" has been wildly extravagant in his interpre-
tation of its meaning, and has made an effort to shield your late il-
legal proceedings by his palpable misconstructions. The fre-
quency with which he refers to this law shows that he relies mainly
on its authority in attempting your vindication. I own that on
this point his arguments are by far more specious than on any
other connected with the subject ; nevertheless, his conclusions
are unsound, and in no respect warranted by the act from which
they are deduced. The words of the law are :

" That the President of the United States be, and he hereby
is, authorized to send out a surveying and exploring expedition to
the Pacific Ocean and South Seas, and for that purpose to em-
ploy a sloop-of-war, and to purchase or provide such other smaller
vessels as may be necessary and proper to render the expedition
efficient and useful," &c., &c.

Now it is important to bear in mind that the committee on
naval affairs in the Senate drew up a very able report, setting
forth the great objects of the expedition, to which was appended
the bill from whence the above extract is made, as the authority
under which the executive was to act in carrying the will of Con-
gress into effect. When did this bill become a law ? At the
first session of the last Congress. What was the language of the
report in reference to this law^ ? Let us see.

" The committee think it (' the expedition') ought to consist of
two vessels of about two hundred tons burden for eooploration,
one of about one hundred tons as a tender, and those accompanied

I

G6 LETTERS OF A CITIZEN.

by a sloop-of-war to afford protection, and to secure peaceful and
friendly relations with the inhabitants of the islands.

" But the comnfiittee do not think it necessary to prescribe in
the law which may be passed either the dimensions or character
of the vessels, or the number and qualifications of the persons
who shall be employed; nor can they exhibit by precise esti-
mates the exact sum which shall be expended. These are mat-
ters which must, to some extent, be left to the discretion of the
executive, who will carry the will of Congress into execution."

In this clear and explicit form did the subject come before the
executive, to whom a discretionary power was intentionally and
very properly granted. Had there been any doubt as to the in-
tent of the law, the report of the committee afforded an ample
interpretation.

That report speaks of the smaller vessels for " exploration, and
a sloop-of-ivar as protection, and to secure peaceful and friendly
relations with the inhabitants of the islands," but you contend,
indeed, I have heard you avow, that you would not look at the re-
ports or to memorials as setting forth the intentions of Congress
and the objects of the expedition.

You sometimes, however, do things which you have previously
declared you would not do. For the purposes of protection the
president had authority to order a frigate on what service he chose,
without the sanction of this bill. Will you, or "A Friend to the
Navy," have the goodness to put into print the statement, that the
president, when he gave directions for the Macedonian to be pre-
pared for the expedition, did so with the view that she should
only go near the South Pole, and that the protection and security of
our commercial interests in the Pacific had nothing to do with
his decision. No boxing the compass, " Mr. Friend to the Navy ;"
come to the point at once.

"But," says " A Friend to the Navy," "it is idle to suppose that
the plan of five vessels originated with him" (the late president) ;
" he, in fact, wanted no greater force than would meet the just
views of Congress and the expectations of the public." Very
true, most wise and learned judge ; and I should like to be informed
who ever desired a greater force than would " meet the just views
of Congress and the expectations of the public ?" Here I make
another point, and ask for an explicit answer.

I

LETTERS OF A CITIZEN.

6t

Again : does " A Friend to the Navy" wish to be understood as
saying that the force which the president did sanction was too
large to " meet the just views of Congress ?" In replying to this
query let there be no evasion. Answer ; did the late executive
authorize a force too large for the purposes of the expedition as
set forth in the proceedings of Congress ? I wish to see if " A
Friend to the Navy" will dare to do directly what by implication
he has already done, viz., censure an official act of the late head
of the nation.

Was not Congress in session ? Had not the president frequent
interchanges of sentiment with the prominent friends of the meas-
ure in that body ? Was not the subject of the force proper to
be employed fairly discussed and fully considered. Did not the
executive hear the pros and cons ? Were not you active at your
usual employment of cutting down and finding fault ? Yes, sir,
such loas the position of affairs, and the adoption of the frigate

was not at the suggestion of Mr. , nor to gratify the pride of

Commodore Jones, as has been so often and so invidiously insin-
uated, but for reasons now understood by the whole community,
and previously sanctioned by the friends of the undertaking at the
close of the first session of the last Congress. The force and or-
ganization approved by the executive, including the substitution
of the frigate for a sloop-of-war, were not considered on a scale
too extensive for carrying out " the just views of Congress and
the expectations of the public." If these matters were not known
to you, sir, they are no less true on that account ; they must be
fresh in the recollection of many members to whom I have al-
luded, the extraordinary opposition you manifested towards the
expedition being often the theme of pleasantry among them !

Thus did the affair stand at the termination of the first session
of the recent Congress. Let us inquire how it stood at the com-
mencement, as well as at the close, of the last session ?

In the exercise of that discretion alike belonging to his station
and conceded by the law, the president recommended a frigate to
be substituted for a sloop-of-war.

Accordingly, the estimates were sent in for the frigate and other
smaller vessels. The question was thus brought fairly before
Congress, and was as distinctly understood. You laboured zeal-
ously to prevent the adoption of a laxger vessel to supersede

68 LETTERS OF A CITIZEN.

the sloop-of-war. On all occasions, both in season and out of
season, your voice was heard upon this subject, and it was your
sedulous endeavour to have the estimates for the frigate stricken
out, which ihe president had ordered you to present to Congress.
What was the result ? Why, sir, the national legislature ap-
proved what the executive, in the exercise of his best judgment,
had done ; the frigate was provided for, and, by that act, took the
place occupied by the sloop in the law of the preceding session.
All discretionary power here properly terminated; precisely as
all executive discretion in the modification of a treaty ceases
when it has been ratified by the Senate. I appeal not to you,
sir, but I do appeal to every man of intelligence, if this be not the
only true, the only fair exposition of which the case will admit.
What, then, can be thought of all the special pleadings of " A
Friend to the Navy," when he claims for you the right, by the
agency of a naval hoard, to lay Vandal hands upon the frigate ;
an assumption of authority about as defensible as would be the
cutting off of one or all of the smaller vessels, because, forsooth,
something about them might not suit you; when, the truth is,
nothing about this expedition ever did suit you or ever xoill.

I am at a loss to know, perhaps you can tell, what " A Friend
to the Navy" means by stating that " Congress, in February last,
made appropriations under which five ships might be employed
on this expedition, but did not require that so large a force should
be employed, unless, agreeably to the act aiuhorizing the measure,
such force should be necessary and proper to render the expe-
dition efficiently useful." And pray, sir, where do you find
this power of limitation confided to the secretary of the navy ?
Whence is the inference, and where the authority, sir, that Con-
gress made an appropriation that might he used, and, at the same
time, did not require it to he used. I ask for the proof that any
portion of this expedition has been ro/iditiofialli/ sanctioned, and
I know that I ask in vain, notwithstanding the boldness with
which " A Friend of the Navy" has hazarded the assertion. Sir,
you have no authority for your late efforts to break up the expe-
dition by reducing its force, and sophistry cannot screen you from
the })ul)lic censure which that act alone has called down upon you.
Allow nic, sir, to illustrate this point by what might be deemed
a parallel case, and one in which I thmk you would adopt pre-

LETTERS OF A CITIZEN. 69

cisely my views with reference to the point at issue. The heads
of departments at Washington receive, as compensation for their
services, six thousand dollars per annum each. Suppose, at the
commencement of the next session, when the bill making pro-
vision for the civil list is presented, that under the head of " for
the secretary of the navy" twelve thousand dollars should be in-
serted. The subject comes before the house. Some member
inquires. How is this ? Here is an appropriation of twelve
thousand dollars where six thousand stood before ; a frigate in
'place of a sloop-of-war ; I go against that, Mr. Speaker. On the
other hand, it is urged that, in consideration of the " extraordinary
efforts" of the secretary of the navy in fitting out the expedition,
and of the extra and unpleasant duties imposed upon him by the
measure, as also to compensate him, in some slight degree, for
the loss of ofBcial character he has sustained, this additional re-
muneration had been proposed. Finally, the claim is entertained
and sanctioned by Congress, though not until some unsuccessful
motions have been made to strike out the allowance altogether.
Now, under these circumstances, does any man doubt that you
would be entitled to the twelve thousand, or could any executive
officer withhold the same without violation of law ? What would
be thought of the United States treasurer, should he assemble a
board of auditors to inquire if the appropriation made for the
honourable secretary of the navy could not be reduced without
prejudice to the public service ?

1 have now done with the law authorizing the expedition, and
cheerfully leave it for the public to decide whether I have or
have not shown that, under that authority, you can have no legal
plea for your late proceedings. I have said more on this head
than I originally intended, because it was evidently the point of
all others upon which " A Friend to the Navy," in his first num-
ber, relied with most confidence in making out your defence.

Perhaps the most curious part of that defence is the positive
tone in which it is still denied that Congress or the executive re-
garded the expedition as a means of protection to our commerce.
I have already reviewed this point in my second and third letters,
and, by the production of evidence from memorials, reports,
speeches, &c., have so completely removed every loop upon
which a doubt could be hung, that nothing but an unaccountable

70 LETTERS OF A CITIZEN.

perversity of temper in " A Friend to the Navy" could have in-
duced him to reassert a proposition so absurd. Where, sir, per-
mit me to ask, are the exigences of our commerce so urgent as
in the very regions to be visited by the expedition ; in these re-
gions it requires protection, and, your disingenuous pertinacity to
the contrary notwithstanding, will receive it. Do you suppose
the president will allow you to compromise the character of the
country by venting your personal spleen in your final instructions,
and, through them, directing the expedition to explore seas and
perform labours different from those intended by Congress, by the
executive, and by the nation ?

Will you learn nothing from experience ? Have you not even
yet suffered sufficient defeats to teach you how^ much you have
overrated your official influence, and that the country will not per-
mit you to trample upon its laws, or trust its honour or its inter-
ests entirely in your hands, while settling the character of a great
national enterprise ? Yes, sir, your final instructions will, I ven-
ture to predict, be examined by the president before you are al-
lowed to despatch the squadron ; and such a scrutiny will be a
sufficient guarantee that the true purposes of the undertaking are
fully and fairly detailed. I know that you are committed upon
this head, and perhaps you feel that the only chance you have of
escape is to brave it out. This is wrong. When the plan of
denying to the expedition all purposes of a commercial nature
was agreed upon, the hope of success was so feasible, that one of
your ardent temperament was readily seduced into the measure
without being sufficiently wary in calculating the chances of dis-
comfiture. Be assured, however, it is now the best policy to re-
treat with what grace you may, as retreat you ultimately must,
from such an untenable position ; a position assumed, as you well
know, for the sole intent of defeating the expedition before Con-
gress. I have told you the device was appreciated by that body ;
that you were pitied for its weakness ; and that, had it not been for
your oflUcial promise, yet unfulfilled, that you would do your
duty, you had probably heard something on this subject which,
for aught I know, may still be in store for you, " nursing its wrath
to keep it warm."

Suppose you obtain permission from the president to send in a
little message from vour department on the first of next monih,

LETTERS OF A CITIZEN. 71

asking of that honourable body to give you a new hearing. Tell
them that, from the vast demand the exploring squadron will make
upon the specie ; the exposed condition in which it will leave our
commerce in the Gulf of Mexico ; the utter derangement into
which it will throw the whole naval service of the country, which
may go far towards breaking up all our foreign naval stations,
and on numerous other grounds, you think you can make one
more hard battle against the " whole concern." I will help you,
as far as in me lies, to get this new trial.

The column of extracts from your reports republished by " A
Friend to the Navy" requires no further notice from me. The
sections quoted have all been examined in my preceding letters,
and the public will judge between us.

A " Citizen" does not think that the vessels of the " squadron
should have been sent out long since, fit or unfit ;" but he does
think they should, and, with good faith in the department, he is
quite sure they might, have been long since despatched to sea,
completely equipped !

I cannot forbear to notice a paragraph at the close of " A Friend
to the Navy's" first article. It reads thus : " Now, although it is
very pleasant weather here in June and July, it is quite the reverse
at Cape Horn ; it is winter there, and the ofi&cers of the navy
would prefer a diiferent season for doubling the cape, if a ' Citizen'
will permit them."

This Addisonian sentence was doubtless intended as a pungent
or witty retort, I do not know which, to my remark that, had you
done your duty, the expedition, to say the least, would " now be
doubling the cape, and every one engaged in the enterprise full of
hopes of having immediate opportunities of fulfilling their country's
expectations." Truly, you pay a high compliment to the nautical
skill and disregard of personal exposure which I had hitherto
supposed a characteristic of'the oflScers of the navy, and which, I
presume, is characteristic of them, unless they have lost all such
qualities since you have been the ofiicial head of the service.
You will learn, on inquiry, that the bugbear of doubling Cape
Horn has passed away in the minds of all whose reading has come
down to a later date than the days of Magellan, Anson, Davies,
Schoten, and Le Maire, and that this passage is fearlessly encoun-
tered by our whale fleet, on their outward and homeward passages,

72 LETTERS OF A CITIZEN.

without Stopping to consider what month will bring them off the
cape. Numbers of our fellow-citizens engaged in other occupa-
tions, and that, too, not unfrequently, in vessels little larger than
pilot-boats, make the passage at all seasons. But these are mer-
chantmen, and the " officers of the navy," says their judicious
friend, "would prefer a different season for doubling the cape"
than the terrible months of June and July. It is to be hoped they
will exhibit a due sense of gratitude to the friend who kindly
makes known to the world his endeavours to gratify them in so
commendable a preference. How you can think of allowing offi-
cers to go as near as possible to the South Pole, whose lives you
would not risk in doubling the cape in winter, I have yet to learn.
In conclusion, if you have any influence with " A Friend to the
Navy," advise him to keep his temper, as well as more closely to
his text ; counsel him to be careful how he wages a war personal
and vindictive with me. I have thus far confined myself to the
record, and the subject at issue between us ; tell him that whether
I am Mr. This or Mr. That is no concern of his. I have to do
with you and with the expedition ; let him answer for you as he
can, but inform him that shrinking from the main points of a con-
troversy, and the substitution of personalities for arguments, are
ever the detmier resort of a puerile, malignant, and defeated adver-
sary. Should it ever be discovered that such subterfuges were
used by a person high in place, they will be considered little to
his credit. People will be apt to say that the thick integuments
of his conscience had been penetrated ; that he felt the sling, and
was writhing under the merited chastisement of " Citizen," whose
homethrusts have told exactly where he wished, and the public
good required that they should tell.

With great respect, I have the honour to be

Your most obedient servant and fellow

CITIZEN.

New-York, August 18, 1837.

LETTERS OF A FRIEND TO THE NAVY. 7t

DEFENCE OF THE SECRETARY OF THE NAVY.
III.

Had the " Citizen" been satisfied with the Sioop-of-war, and
such smaller vessels as might be necessary for a surveying and
exploring expedition, with crews amounting to about two hundred
and fifty men, such as was intended by the law of the 18th of
May, 1836, it might have been sent out before the meeting of
Congress in December last, with such books and instruments
necessary for the scientific corps as could be procured in the
United States, and the appropriations would have covered the
expense ; but when it was determined that a frigate and a large
Store-ship, then on the stocks, together with two brigs and a
schooner, not then begun, should be employed, with crews amount-
ing, oflficers included, to more than six hundred men, it was evi-
dent that another session of Congress must elapse and further
appropriations be made before this fleet could be sent to sea. Yet
the " Citizen" is furious at the delay which his own plans have
created, and the secretary of the navy is held up to obloquy in the
public papers because the expedition is not now doubling Cape
Horn.

The " Citizen," in his present state of mind, no doubt thinks that
everything should yield to the expedition; that providing for the
Pacific, the Brazilian, and West India stations was comparatively
but of little importance, and that the small delay from the passing
the act authorizing the expedition to the close of the session was
not to be tolerated. " May and June," he says to the secretary,
" passed away, and no step had been taken by you to put in train
the preparations for the expedition. You now began to speak
plainly, and to hold the language that twelve months would be
necessary to complete the outfit."

The act authorizing the expedition became a law on the 18th
of May, not on the 10th, as frequently asserted by the " Citizen."
It authorized the president, not the secretary, to fit out the expe-
dition. The secretary's authority did not commence until in-
structed by the president.

K

74 .OTTERS OF A PRIEND TO THE NAVY.

As the attention of the president was incessantly called to sub-
jects of great importance, pressed upon him at the close of a
most arduous session of Congress, the exploring expedition was
suffered to rest for a few days.

Soon after the middle of June the secretary was instructed to
write to the officer selected as commander of the expedition.
This was done without delay ; some days were spent before the
necessary consultations with this officer could be had as to the
vessels to be employed ; whether a sloop-of-war as a flag-ship and
smaller vessels, or whether a frigate, a store-ship, two brigs, and
a schooner; whether ships should be repaired, purchased, or
built for the purpose ; all these points required and received a few
days' consideration.

The secretary, as soon as he was authorized to do so, gave
orders for preparing the ships and for recruiting the seamen. On
the 6th of July he gave orders that the frigate Macedonian should
be completed without delay, and on the 7th, 11th, and 20th of
that month orders were given for preparing to build the brigs
Pioneer and Consort, and schooner Pilot, with the least practica-
ble delay. The completion of the store-ship Relief had been
previously ordered.

The recruiting for this service was put under the superintend-
ence of Commodore Jones, and Lieutenants Tatnall, R. R. Pink-
ham, Purviance, and H. W. Morris were ordered to report to him
for duty in this recruiting service as soon as he required them ;
and others were subsequently ordered at his request for the same
service.

An agent. Lieutenant Wilkes, was selected without delay to go
to Europe for the purpose of procuring such instruments and
books necessary for the expedition as could not conveniently be
procured in the United States. A few days' preparation was in
dispensably necessary in this case ; but Lieutenant Wilkes em-
barked at New-York for Liverpool on the 6th of August.

In all this the " Citizen" can see nothing but insuff'erable delay,
for which he holds the secretary responsible. His perceptions
have become confused by tlie monomania under which he has la-
boured for the last twelve years, which impels him with irresisti-
ble force to the south, to carry into effect his schemes of circling
the globe within the antarctic circle; casting anchor on the point

LETTERS OP A FRIEND TO THE NAVY 75

where all tne meridians terminate ; fastening the star-spangled
banner to the pole of the earth itself; and many other vagaries
too tedious to mention.

In these preparations none, upon a full knowledge of the case,
except the " Citizen," and a few others who have been bitten by
him, can see any cause for throwing censure upon the secretary.

These preparations required extraordinary exertions, not on the
part of the secretary, for no more was required of him than giv-
ing the necessary orders, but of the officers under whom the
ships were to be prepared and the men recruited ; and particu-
larly of the commander of the expedition, under whose superin-
lendence the whole was placed ; and, it is believed, the " Citizen"
will not accuse that officer of any want of zeal or diligence in the
performance of any duty assigned him.

It, however, suited the purpose of the " Citizen" that these ex-
traordinary exertions, which had not been attended with all the anti-
cipated success, should be considered as the extraordinary exertions
of the secretary of the navy. In his fifth number he says to the
secretary, " Thus you tell him (the president), that inasmuch as it
was his earnest wish that the intentions of Congress in authorizing
the measure should be carried into effect with the least possible
delay, you had not only resolved to clothe Commodore Jones with
unusual powers, and to grant him every facihty for the purpose of
shipping crews, hut that you had yourself determined to make an
extraordinary effort to accomplish that object." The words, that
you had yourself are a fabrication, and are not in the report which
he pretends to quote ; and this fabrication serves as the basis of a
series of misrepresentations about extraordinary efforts.

The language of the report to the president is, " As, however, it
was your earnest wish that the intentions of Congress in autho-
rizing the measure should be carried into effect with the least pos-
sible delay, and that the expedition should be fitted out upon the
extensive and liberal scale which the indications of public opinion
seemed to require ; and as the officer, Captain Thomas Ap. Cates-
by Jones, selected for the command of the expedition, gave assu-
rances that the difficulty of obtaining seamen could be obviated
by giving him power to have them recruited under his immediate
superintendence, and for this particular service it was determined
to make an extraordinary effort to accomplish these objects.''^

76 LETTERS OP A FRIEND TO THE NAVY.

It was unusual to put the recruiting service under the superin-
tendence of a commander of a squadron ; it is unusual to recruit
seamen for a particular service ; yet both are done on extraordi-
nary occasions, and the president, in fact, determined and directed
that it should be done in this case. The secretary gave the ne-
cessary orders. The extraordinary duties vv^ere to be performed
by others, not by the secretary. He does not recruit or superin-
tend the recruiting of seamen.

The " Citizen," who seems disposed to regulate the whole police
of the navy department, complains that money for advances was
withheld from the assistant recruiting officers, without which ad-
vances seamen cannot be induced to ship either in merchant or
naval service.

Sufficient funds were in the hands of the officers at the head of
the respective recruiting rendezvous, and the usual advances were
made to the seamen presenting themselves at the receiving ships.
To open accounts with all the assistant recruiting officers was
unnecessary, and would have been attended with great inconve-
nience. It was not done for Commodore Ballard ; it was not done
for Commodore Nicholson ; it will not be done to please the " Cit-
izen.." The idea of making advances to seamen to enable them to
go to the receiving ship is new. Few of them, with such advan-
ces, would find their way to the right ships. Recruiting officers
know that, after advances are made to seamen, they must be guard-
ed with great care, or they desert.

The " Citizen" relates the case of an officer in the District of Co-
lumbia, who had obtained a thousand dollars upon his requisition,
approved by the commander of the exploring squadron, which sum
he was forthwith ordered by the navy department to return to the
treasury.

In May last, when there was no longer any serious difficulty
apprehended in recruiting seamen for the expedition, an officer at-
tempted to establish a recruiting station in the District of Colum-
bia, and obtained from the navy agent at Washington one thousand
dollars without the consent of the head of the department. It is
true, his requisition for this sum was approved by the officer com-
manding the expedition, who had good reason to believe the meas-
ure had been sanctioned by the secretary of the navy ; otherwise
the requisition would not have been approved. The transaction

LETTERS OF A FRIEND TO THE NAVY. 77

was irregular, and he was very properly ordered to restore the
money. In which case no appeal lies to the " Citizen ;" and if the
officer has sent his report of this case to the " Citizen," he has
prohably made a mistake in the direction.

The finishing of the frigate Macedonian and store-ship Relief,
and the building of the two brigs and schooner, required extraor-
dinary exertions on the part of the officers to whom these duties
were assigned, and for the performance of which they are entitled
to much credit ; yet all this does not satisfy the " Citizen," and
in his No. V. he asserts that the Macedonian was not completed
and in a condition to receive her complement of men until June of
this year. It is believed the " Citizen" is somewhat incorrect ;
but if what he states is true, is it the fault of the secretary ? The
expedition could not be sent out upon the proposed plan without
the frigate ; it was therefore impossible that the squadron should
be now doubling Cape Horn.

In March last, and before the Macedonian was finished, as the
" Citizen" says, it was discovered, from the sailing of the Pioneer,
that she was not fit for service in this expedition ; and the Con-
sort and Pilot were believed to be in a still worse condition. Until
the necessary alterations shall be made in these vessels they can-
not be sent out as a part of this exploring squadron ; so that, in
fact, there has been no time at which this squadron could have
been sent to sea, even if there had been no difficulty as to recruit-
ing seamen. In this no delay was feared after the time that the
vessel could be prepared ; and the secretary, in his report to the
president of the 6th of February last, says, " the difficulties which
have retarded the recruiting for this service are nearly obviated ;
and it is confidently hoped that in a short time there will be suf-
ficient numbers recruited to complete the crews of all the vessels
of the squadron."

The " Citizen" very unnecessarily w^orks himself into a fury
about the Macedonian ; in his same number five he says to the sec-
retary, " In speaking of the vessels, you proceed to tell the presi-
dent that ' the frigate and store-ship which were on the stocks when
this measure was authorized have been finished and equipped, and
are now receiving their crews.' What unaccountable hallucination
could have possessed your mind when you wrote this sentence ?
Did you, in the first draught of your report, put down what ought

78 LETTERS OF A FRIEND TO THE NAVY.

to have been the condition of those vessels, and aftenvard forget
to alter it ? How else could you venture to tell the president, and,
through him, Congress and the whole country, that the frigate was
finished and equipped, and was receiving her men, when the fact
vi^as, that the frigate, at that time, was not finished, not equipped,
nor was she receiving her crew ; so far from it, she had not a
bulkhead up or a yarn over the masthead, ; and it was not until
June, six months after this official statement, that she was com-
pleted, and in a condition to receive her complement of men ! ! /"

One would suppose, from this flourish and bluster, that some
terrible deception had been practised upon the world.

Commodore Warrington reported to the secretary that the Ma-
cedonian was launched on the 1st of November. As this was the
flag-ship of the squadron. Captain Jones was ordered on the fifth of
that month to report to Commodore Warrington for duty, as com-
mander of this squadron. He had before reported on the 3d of
October, that, up to the 26th of September, one hundred and nine
able seamen, ordinary seamen, and boys, had been recruited for
the exploring expedition ; and that Captain Armstrong slated that,
as the service was popular, he looked for much better success.
There was no doubt of the zeal of Captain Jones in putting his
flag-ship in a condition to receive her crew. One month after this
time, when the secretary made his report, he was justified in be-
lieving that the Macedonian, as well as the Relief, were so far
finished and equipped as to be receiving their crews, and so stated
in his report to the president of the 3d of December. It seems
the Relief was so far finished as to be receiving her crew, but
that the frigate was not. Commodore Jones, on receiving this re-
port, would have stated the error had he deemed it of immediate
importance, and on the 31st of January he reported to the secre-
tary that the Macedonian was launched in October from the
Navy Yard at Gosport ; that, from the latest information, she is
not yet ready to receive her crew, though she probably will be by
the time the scientific corps can be ready to embark, and a sufH-
cient number of men obtained, for which prospects are becoming
more favourable. This information was communicated to the
president, and, through him, to Congress and the whole country.

This differs, however, very much from the statement of the
" Citizen," that the frigate was not in a situation to receive her

LETTERS OF A FRIEND TO THE NAVY. 7Sf

complement of men until the month of June. Perhaps some unac-
countable hallucination has possessed the mind of the commodore.

The " Citizen," in continuance, says to the secretary, " The pres-
ident is further informed that you had not yet attempted to organ-
ize the scientific corps for the expedition, but you intimate that
this duty may be performed as soon as accommodations can be
afforded them in the vessels. Strange incongruity this ! In the
first place, the vessels are finished, and receiving their crews ; in
the next you tell us that the organization of the corps is delayed
until the vessels are finished and ready to receive themP The
last sentence is a pitiful fabrication of the '' Citizen," and is not to
be found in the secretary's report. The language of the secretary
is, " the scientific corps may be organized as soon as accommoda-
tions can be afforded them in the vessels of the exploring squad-
ron."

The accommodations for the scientific corps will be something
different from the mere finishing the vessels so as to receive their
crews. The Independence was finished, and her crew on board,
before the accommodations for Mr. Dallas and his family were pre-
pared. But it is disgusting to pursue farther these pitiful mis-
representations.

The " Citizen" in No. II. vents some terrible threats, which
have not yet been carried into execution. He says to the secre-
tary, " Permit me to call your attention to the very last paragraph
in the able report to which I have alluded" (a report from the com-
mittee of commerce) ; " it is much to the point, and you may draw
instruction from it. Yea, more, it will furnish you with an argu-
ment to refute the contemptible fabrication of the weak marplot-
ting enemies of this truly national enterprise, who, in the face of
two hundred pages of printed documents, have had the effrontery
to say the expedition would have little or nothing to do with the
protection of commerce in the regions to be examined. I will
give the authors of this device a loithering review before I have
done. Let them prepare for it. I know them, and may feel it my
duty to drag them from their dark retreats, perfectly regardless
who may be found in their company, or what aspect they may
wear when exposed to the fair face of day." Who these miscre-
ants are I cannot imagine, and the " Citizen" does not think proper
to inform us. Perhaps he means the members of Congress who

80 LETTERS OF A FRIEND TO THE NAVY.

passed the act of the 18th May, 1836, expressly hmiting the ex-
ploring expedition to a sloop-of-war and smaller vessels, and its
objects to those of surveying and exploring. This body is prob-
ably the only one who have acted in the face of two hundred
pages of printed documents, or ever read them. Two hundred
pages of printed documents ! They must have amounted to the
size of a cheese ! The audacious wretches ! The " Citizen" in
mercy gives them notice to prepare for a withering.

It is probable that these two hundred pages of printed docu-
ments were composed, in part, of the report of the " Citizen" himself
of the 29th of September, 1828, describing certain islands, reefs,
and shoals in the Pacific Ocean, &c. If so, I have something to
say respecting these two hundred pages of printed documents,
which ought to be considered in extenuation of the offence of those
who have excited the wrath of the " Citizen." This report, if it is
to form the guide for the movements of the exploring squadron in
the Pacific, will as certainly involve them in trouble as they
double Cape Horn.

If the " Citizen" shall be the Palenurus of the squadron, with
his report for his guide, he will swamp the whole concern, and
will never cast anchor at the point where all the meridians ter-
minate, nor leave the star-spangled banner to wave on the axis of
the earth itself.

In 1828, soon after this report was made, a copy of it was sent
to the vice admiral. Kruzenstern, of St. Petersburg, a distin-
guished navigator, illustrious for his voyage round the world, see-
ing it had received the notice of the American Congress, he
thought, no doubt, he had gained a treasure of reefs, rocks, and
islands, of which he commenced the examination. He soon dis-
covered that the information which the writer had received from
the whalers, and which he had reported in his memoir, was not of
a nature to inspire any great conhdence. That m his memoir we
see islands bearing the same name, but dillering many degrees in
longitude ; and many others indicated under the same latitude and
longitude which certainly were but one and the same island ; that
we find in it descriptions of islands so circumstantially detailed,
that one can hardly call in {(ucstion their existence, but of which
the nonexistence could be equally well proved, and with the same
semblance of truth. And speaking of another collection of a like

LETTERS OF A FRIEND TO THE NAVV. 81

character, he says that it resembles that of the author in this, that
it is but a mass of names placed without the least discrimination •
" que ce u'est qu'wa amas de nommes places sans la moindre cri-
tiqued

This is given in the ad,vertiseinent to his " SuppUmens au Re-
cueil de Memoires Hydrographiques^^ printed at St. Petersburg,
1835, pages v. and vi., a part of which I will quote in the admi-
ral's language: "Dans Ic temps ou le gouvernement Americain se
disposait h preparer une expedition pour explorer I'Ocean Paci-
fique, Mr. Reynolds, qui devait etre le chef de la partie scienti-
fique de cette expedition, presenta au secretaire de la marine, Mr.
Southard, un memoire dont on m'a communique une copie, ct
dans lequel il rend compte des resultats des recherches qu'il avait
faites dans les differens ports des Etats Unis au sujet des decou-
vertes des baleiniers Americains. Les informations qu'il avait
revues de ces baleiniers, et qu'il rapport dans son memoire, ne
sont cependant pas de nature a pouvoir inspirer une grande con-
fiance. On y voit des iles portant le meme nom, et differant de
plusieurs degres en longitude ; il en est plusieurs autres, iudi-
quees sous les memes latitude et longitude, qui ne doivent etre
certainement qu'ure meme ile. On y trouve des descriptions d'iles
si detaillees, qu'il semblerait qu'on ne pent guere revoquer en
doute leur existence, mars dont la nonexistence pent etre egale-
ment demontree avec autant de vraisemblance," &c.

The admiral heard no more of the writer, except that, in 1829
and 1830, two brigs, the Seraph and Annawan, were sent out
under Captains Pendleton and Palmer, and that Mr. Reynolds
and Mr. Watson accompanied them, en qualiU de savajis.

As to the character of the " Citizen" as a navigator in 1828,
when he attempted, by his report, to enlighten the nautical world,
the amount is soon told. He was a sailor by inspiration, and his
voyages had been chiefly made on dry land. How he became a
savant remains yet to be discovered.

Thus has this industrious " Citizen" contrived not only to make
himself ridiculous in the eyes of all who may read these observa-
tions of Admiral Kruzenstern, but to throw some degree of ridi-
cule upon the present exploring expedition.

To divert this ridicule from the officers of the navy who may
embark in this expedition, and to confine it to its proper source,

L

82 LETTERS OF A FRIEND TO THE NAVY.

and to show that the scientific corps selected are not of the school
of the savant in question, shall be the peculiar care of

A FRIEND TO THE NAVY,

August 10, 1837.

IV.

Among the gross misrepresentations on the part of the " Citi-
zen," published in the Times, none is more frequently repealed
or pertinaciously adhered to than this, that the secretary of the
navy considers the great object of the South Sea exploring expe-
dition to be an approach as nearly as possible to tlie South Pole.
This, after being stated in a variety of ways, is repealed for the
last time in his No. VI. in these words : " Like your statement
that to approach as near as possible to the South Pole was the
object of the enterprise, it is, to say the least, an evasion of the
true purposes designed to be accomplished." And then he ex-
claims, " If the great objects of the expedition be to go as near
as practicable to the South Pole, for what purpose do you send a
botanist to that region where no vegetation exists ? Why do you
incur the expense of sending a philologist to attend to the interest-
ing department of language w'here there are no inhabitants ?"' 6ic.

Now all this going as nearly as possible to the South Pole is
the work'of the "Citizen's" own imagination. The language of
the secretary in his report laid before the House of Representa-
tives is, " The great objects of this expedition, as understood by
this department are to explore the seas of the southern hemi-
sphere, more particularly in high latitudes and in regions as near
the pole as may be approached ivithoiit danger,''^ &c.

To approach the pole as nearly as practicable, or possible,
would be to encounter much danger; but it is distinctly to be un-
derstood, from the language of the secretary, that it was not ex-
pected that such danger should be incinrcd ; and, of course, it
could not be expected that the expedition should approach as
nearly as possible or practicable to the South Pole ; nor, uideed,
make any nearer approach to it than could be accom})lishcd with-
out danger.

The language of the secnUary was calculated to remove the

LETTERS OF A FRIEND TO THE NAVY. 83

apprehensions of those who might embark in this expedition, that
their lives were to be unnecessarily exposed among icebergs near
the pole for the purpose of testing certain wild theories that had
long been before the public. It was an assurance to them that
they should not be carried within the verge of that great opening
of sixteen degrees around the pole leading to a concave and hab-
itable world, according to the " Citizen's" former theory as exhib-
ited in his lectures ; nor required to do what the " Citizen," in his
late address, considers as quite practicable, viz., to " circle the
globe within the antarctic circle, and attain the pole itself; yea, to
cast anchor on that point where all the meridians terminate ; where
our eagle and star-spangled banner may be unfurled and planted,
and left to wave on the axis of the earth itself ! where, amid the
novelty, grandeur, and sublimity of the scene, the vessels, instead
of sweeping a vast circuit by the diurnal movements of the earth,
would simply turn round once in twenty-four hours !"

In a letter of a former secretary of the navy, of the 29th of
January, 1829, to the chairman of the committee on naval affairs,
to the Senate of the United States, respecting the objects of the
South Sea exploring expedition, proposed at that time, it is stated
" that the examinations of both known and unknown islands, &:c.,
will be, in part, in high southern latitudes, and the instructions
would naturally and necessarily be to find and describe all ivhich
exist there ; and as far to the south as circumstances would per-
mit them safely and prudently to go ;" so that the views of the
former and present secretary are much alike as to the regions in
high southern latitudes to be visited by a South Sea exploring
expedition. Whether they approach the South Pole as nearly as
may be without danger, or advance as far to the south as circum-
stances would permit them safely and prudently to go, must be
nearly one and the same thing.

And does the " Citizen" intend that the object of visiting high
southern latitudes, such as can be approached without danger,
shall be abandoned ? Does he think that such purpose cannot be
entertained, because we send out a botanist to regions where no
vegetation exists, and a philologist where there are no inhabitants ?

After the great preparations that have been made for exploring
the South Seas w-ith vessels as strong as wood and iron can make
them, constructed for the express purpose of making their way

84 LETTERS OF A FRIEND TO THE NAVY.

through fields of ice, and more fit for thai than anything else, the
pubhc will expect something more than has been accomplished
by any other exploring expedition ; more particularly as the " Cit-
izen" himself, in his famous address, page 97, gives it as his delib-
erate opinion " that the ninetieth degree, or the South Pole, may
be reached by the navigator," unless intercepted by land. The
public will expect that high southern and unexplored regions will
be examined by our exploring squadron ; and if they return with-
out making a nearer approach to the Pole than any other explo-
ring expedition has credit for, be assured that no small degree of
disappointment and mortification will be manifested by those who
have to pay the expense of this enterprise.

Although it is particularly desirable to extend our researches
into high southern latitudes, yet but a very small portion of time
can be devoted exclusively to this purpose. While the expedi-
tion is out, there will probably be but two seasons, and those
short ones, when these high latitudes can be reached without dan-
ger ; but those seasons must be improved to the greatest advan-
tage, or one of the most interesting objects of the expedition will
be lost. Five sixths of the time of the cruise the squadron will
be in lower latitudes and milder climates, making surveys and ex-
plorations ; discovering islands, rocks, reefs, and shoals ; ascertain-
ing latitudes and longitudes ; affording aid and protection to our
merchants and whalers ; rescuing wrecked mariners, and perform-
ing a variety of other duties not interfering with the legitimate
and proper objects of a surveying and exploring expedition. But
the results of the examinations in high latitudes, in this one sixth
of the time, will be looked to with more intense interest than any
others of the whole cruise.

The " Citizen" is now endeavouring to divert the attention of
the public from these examinations in high southern latitudes, be-
cause he knows not what to do there with a frigate of thirteen
hundred tons burden and drawing twenty feet water. He will be
equally perplexed to know what to do with her among the shoals
and coral reefs of the South Sea Islands. But, by way of obvi-
ating difficulties, he has determined to convert lliis surveying and
exploring c\])cdition into an expedition for the protection of com-
merce ; the objects of surveying and exploring being considered
by him as of secondary importance. In this he will fail.

LETTERS OF A FRIEND TO THE NAVY. 85

In the first place, Congress have made this a surveying and ex-
ploring expedition, and not one for the protection of commerce.
The armament and equipment of the vessels prepared are en-
tirely different from the armament and equipment of vessels sent
out for the protection of commerce. The character of the expe-
dition is peaceful The vessels will be prepared to defend them-
selves, and the vessels and property of merchants and v<rhalers,
against the pirates and natives of the regions they may visit, but
not to attack armed vessels of any maritime power with which
we may be at war.

In this enlightened age, it is understood that exploring expedi-
tions are exempt from the laws of war, and our vessels engaged
in this expedition will not be subject to capture.

What can be wanted of a scientific corps on an expedition for
the protection of commerce ? Nothing can be more incongruous
than the slow, patient, and persevering labours of an exploring
party, and the rapid movements required for the protection of
commerce. Such vessels as are built for this expedition would
never leave our ports for the protection of commerce.

But if the " Citizen" shall succeed in changing the character
of this expedition from peaceful to warlike, he will still be per-
plexed with difficulties. Suppose, in clearing the decks of one of
the vessels, the frigate, for instance, for action, what a scene of
confusion — skeletons and bones of animals of all kinds, testa-
ceous, crustaceous, vertebrated, and invertebrated ; heaps of mol-
luscous treasures ; alligators stuffed, " and other skins of ill-
shaped fishes," must all, all be tumbled into the ocean without
reserve, " rm'i natantes in gurgite vasto.''^

The " Citizen" had much better permit this expedition to re-
main, what it was intended to be from the beginning, a peaceful
surveying and exploring expedition.

But he has discovered one important purpose for sending out
a frigate which has not been sufficiently noticed. It is nothing
less than this, that a salutary effect may be produced upon the
fears of the islanders to be visited ; and, as he says, " the natives
aived into respect by a judicious display of our power." And
then he relates the story of Lord Byron with the frigate Blonde
at the Sandwich Islands in 1824, and what was the effect pro-
duced on the minds of the savages by the presence of that
ship, &c., &c.

86 LETTERS OF A FRIEND TO THE NAYY.

Will not the large ship Relief, of four hundred and sixty tons,
the two brigs Pioneer and Consort of two hundred and thirty tons
each, and the schooner Pilot, of one hundred and fourteen tons,
sufficiently awe the natives ? Must the frigate be added to in-
timidate the savages ? The sending out this frigate will increase
by one hundred thousand dollars the expense of the expedition ;
but this the " Citizen" will think money well expended, consid-
ering how amazingly the natives will be scared.

The " Citizen" may be assured that Congress had views very
different from his in authorizing the employment of a frigate on
this expedition ; and he will find that the naval officers differ
from him in this, as in most other points in which he undertakes
to regulate the affairs of the navy. It is the glory of those officers
to meet an enlightened enemy gun to gun and man to man ; but
not to exhibit themselves in big ships to intimidate savages or awe
the natives.

Terror is the favourite means of the " Citizen" for carrying his
points. His threats are quite awful ; and upon the officers of the
navy who have offended him he is about to try the efficacy of his
valued remedy.

In his number four he says, " The title of citizen, sir, is a proud
title" (meaning, no doubt, his own title). " This is a country of cit-
izens. Citizens make the navy ; increase or diminish it at their
pleasure ; appoint and support its officers, and will judge them (! !) ;
for every year he is on active duty an officer may be two on
shore, receiving pay in the latter as well as in the former case."
" Let them indulge in illiberal, contracted feelings of petty jeal-
ousy against the appointment of citizens to their appropriate prov-
inces, and ihey will soon find themselves in the hands of a giant
who knows his power, and will use it."

Now this giant must be the " Citizen" himself, as he could not
be certain that any other giant knew his own power, or that he
would use it. And as it is believed that the olficers of the navy
have not indulged themselves " in ilhberal, roiilrncted feelings of
petty jealousy" against any gentleman of science selected for the
expedition, however they may have manifested their aversion to
a pretender who seems disposed to regulate the whole enterprise,
they have nolhinrr to fear but from the execution of his terrible
threats.

LETTERS OF A FRIEND TO THE NAVY. 87

Now let me implore the " Citizen" not to make any serious im-
pression upon the fears of the officers of tiie navy. Although
brave, there are some things of which they stand in awe. They
are wilhng to encounter men, but not giants. They do not fear
cannon balls, but may dread " a loithering reviexo'''' from tlie " Citi-
zen" in the public papers. Therefore let me entreat you, " Mr.
Citizen," not to intimidate them. Don't, Mr. Giant; do not, in
your wrath and fury, play the part of the terrible lion,

•' Who roared so loud, and looked so horrid grim.
His very shadow durst not follow hina."

Be satisfied with letting these officers know, as you have done,
that they are open to censure when " they claim to assume the
performance of duties for which their previous training and dis-
tinct line of action have left them totally unqualified." That " our
public vessels have been round the world, and our officers in
them, among islands, and in places rarely visited ; hut what con-
tributions to science have resulted /" This will be sufficiently
humiliating to those officers, who have heretofore believed that
among their number were many whose writings have added much
to the character of their country for science and literature. In-
deed, it would appear, from reading domestic and foreign reviews,
that, in these respects, they have gained a high reputation, both
at home and abroad. But under this withering review of the
" Citizen" let them be humble. If the " Citizen" will only put
off the lion's skin, and cease, by his awkward attempts at roaring,
to frighten folks who do not know him, the affairs of the exploring
expedition will go on much more smoothly.

Every measure has been adopted for making the necessary al-
terations in the two barks and the schooner for the expedition, and
they will be as soon fit for service as any vessels like them ever
can be.

There is still much reluctance on the part of the officers to join
the squadron ; but it is believed that a sufficient number will be in-
duced to enter this service as a matter of duty, and that they need not
be compelled to this by finding themselves in the hands of a giant.

Great confidence is placed in the gentlemen of the scientific
corps. Their competency to perform the duties that will be res-
pectively assigned to them with honour to themselves and their
country is undoubted ; and from their urbanity, prudence, and

88 LETTERS OF A CITIZEN.

discretion, it is believed ihey will treat the officers of the navy
with whom they may be associated with the respect due to their
character and profession.

Although the secretary of the navy believes that a smaller force
for the exploring expedition would be more efficient, and that a
frigate is a larger vessel than this particular service requires, yet,
as their employment is authorized by Congress, he has given all
the orders necessary for having them fitted and prepared for this
service, and doubts not, w^e are aware, that from the enterprise
much benefit will result to the commerce and navigation of our
country, and great advances made in many important branches of
science. It has been shown, however, that he believes that all
these results could be obtained at one third of the expense of this
expedition, and with a tenth part of the noise. He has some old-
fashioned notions of economy about him, which many believe to
be out of time and out of place. But he considers a million of
dollars worth saving. It would, in his opinion, build a drydock,
and he would not give one drydock for a mountain of molluscous
treasures.

A FRIEND TO THE NAVY.

August 25, 1837.

CITIZEN'S LETTERS.
VIII.

To the Honourable Mahlon Dickerson, Secretary of the Navy.

Sir,
What "A Friend to the Navy" said in his first number has
been examined. That illustrious writer very complacently com-
mences his second by assuming that the facts stated in his former
communication had entirely exonerated you from all censure,
both as to the tardiness in shipping men and the delay which had
occurred in preparing vessels for the expedition. If you can feel
any self-gratulation in his defence on these })oints, I should deem
it cruel to disturb your quiet enjoyment of it ; so I shall pass on to
notice some of the positions assumed by you or for you, which are
among the most extraordinary it has ever been my lot to observe
emanating from a dignifiod source. I shall take them up in order.

LETTERS OF A CITIZEN. 89

In the first place, sir, allow me to ask what is meant by the
following : —

" There has probably been no secretary of the navy who would
not gladly have engaged in sending out an exploring expedition
if it could be done in accordance with his own views, and without
embarrassing him in other official duties of more immediate im-
portance and of higher responsibility."

Are you aware, sir, of the indefensible character of the senti-
ments expressed in the above extract ? Is it less than declaring
that the will of Congress maybe trifled with, as in the case of this
expedition it has been, unless the forms of the law, and the time
and manner of passing it, shall coincide with your peculiar views
of public duty ? Shall the nation remain stationary as regards
knowledge and improvement, nay, sir, go back half a century in
intelligence, ere its schemes of public utility can receive your
sanction ?

You would graciously condescend to fit out an expedition, pro-
vided, " it could be done in accordance with your views !" Should
not Congress take a hint from this potential rule, quoted as the
guide of your official action ? Would it not be a saving of much
time, trouble, and money, if that body were to appoint a joint com-
mittee, whose high duty it should be to ascertain at all times what
laws, and what modes of enacting them, meet the " views" of the
honourable the secretary of the navy ? Or, perhaps, the same
end might be more easily attained by a saving clause in all bills
connected with the naval service ; as. Be it enacted by the Sen-
ate and House of Representatives that the President of the United
States be, and he hereby is, authorized to do so and so, provided
there is nothing as regards the origin or passage of this bill dis-
approved by the honourable secretary of the navy, or that may in
any manner embarrass him in the discharge of other official duties
of more importance and of higher responsibility ! ! ! ! And, sir,
by what standard are the acts of " more importance and higher
responsibility" to be estimated ? Is the decision to be left solely
to the discretion, feelings, prejudices, or, if you please, the judg-
ment of the head of the department ? Who can set limits to the
train of evils consequent on the establishment of such a prece-
dent ? What assurance would the nation have that its laws would
be faithfully executed ? None whatever. Fortunately, how^ever,

M

90 LETTERS OF A CITIZEN.

the quarter from which such anti-democratic doctrines come is
not calculated to gain them any unusual favour in the public mind.

Tiie lachrymose tone so characteristic of your annual report is
even mora conspicuous in the second number of " A Friend to the
Navy." Indeed, I doubt if your most charitable supporter would
be able to point out a single manly expression in anything you
have written connected with the enterprise ; equally fruitless would
be his attempt to select a solitary recommendation in which the
noble and enlarged views of the liberal and strong-minded states-
man can be even faintly recognised.

From first to last, in conversation and in all your reports, one
meets with nothing but a grumbling, fault-finding spirit, in which
it is difficult to say whether perversity of temper or narrowness
of policy is most obvious.

I should be pleased to see one incident pointed out, whether
connected with the plan of the voyage, its objects, the construction
of the vesscb, the appointment of officers, or having any bearing,
real or imaginary, on the undertaking, from which an excuse for
delay or a pretext for dissatisfaction could be drawn, of which you
have not availed yourself to the utmost for these purposes. Thus
it was again and again asserted that the protection of commerce
in 1836 was more than the department could manage, without the
" new duties" of fitting out the expedition. But, that I may not
do you injustice on this point, I will let " A Friend to the Navy"
speak for himself.

" The imjiosition of new duties in fitting out an exploring ex-
pedition could not fail to increase the difficulties of his (the sec-
retary's) situation tvithout relieving him of the responsibilities ;
which effect they have had, to the most serious injury of the ser-
vice. It is not strange that the secretary should feel opposed to
the inqyosition of neio duties at a time of such difficulties ! ! /"

Is it not enough to provoke a smile on the steeled countenance
of a stoic to hear of the onerous duties of the secretary of the
navy ? From 1797, when the nation had a navy to create, through
the quasi war with France, during the war with the Barhary
States, and subsequently with the first naval power in the world,
down to ihc present day, nothing like your piteous groaning had
been heard.

No such melancholy complainings escaped your predecessors,

LETTERS OF A CITIZEN. 9t

sir, when they had everything to originate and determine ; to fix
on models for vessels; to range the country for timber; cordage
to manufacture ; copper to import ; cannon to cast ; but now^
when a board of naval commissioners are in constant session to
price and purchase all materials ; when naval architects are ap-
pointed, and " all appliances and means" are in readiness, we hear
of the "difficulties of your situation," "the imposition of new
duties," and other wild phantoms of the imagination born only in
the brain !

There is one way to throw off the burden of these " new du-
ties" and " responsibilities," which I will point out, and which the
whole community, and especially the naval service, would feel
much pleasure in seeing adopted ; resign, sir, a station, the duties
of which, from your own showing, you find it so difficult, if not
impossible, to perform ! But, before you take this step, do let
the country know in detail how the naval service has been "seri-
ously injured" by the exploring expedition. In other countries
such undertakings have been considered most honourable to the
naval profession.

As regards the French expedition, intended to sail on the 15th
of this month, and which your dilatory action has allowed to pre-
cede the American, such is said to be the enthusiasm elicited that
some of the most promising youth in the kingdom have volun-
teered their services even before the mast; while you hold up a
similar enterprise as degrading to the officers of our navy !

Perhaps you meant the following incongruity as evidence that
the expedition has been of the most " serious injury to the service :"

" No7' is it strange that he {the secretary of the navy) should
he opposed to the manner in which tlie provision for the exploring
expedition was introduced into the general appropriation bill for
the navy.^''

" Early in the session this hill had been sent from the House
of Representatives to the Senate ; there an amendment was pro-
posed authorizing this expedition ; and there it remained, loaded
with this rider, until nearly the time of passing the bill on the
ISth of May, 1836, more than five months after the commence-
ment of the session, and ivhen the iiaval service was greatly em-
harrassed for want of the appropriations T

This is not the first time I have heard of your high aispioasure

92 LETTERS OF A CITIZEN.

against the committee or naval affairs in the Senate for their au-
dacity in presuming to add an amendment providing for the ex-
pedition to the bill for the general service, without having first
procured your gracious permission, and ascertained that the thing
could be done " i?i accordance with your views ;" but it is the
first time I have seen this presumptuous censure in print !
Nearly five months, we are informed, did this bill remain in the
Senate ; yes, there did it remain, loaded vi^ith this " rider y'' to
'' the most serious injury of the service." To this " rider"^ is at-
tributed all the delay, from the early part of the session, when you
inform us the bill was sent to the Senate. The only ''Wider'''' of
leaden weight upon the expedition has been yourself ^ and. I very
much fear it will yet he the death of you ! But did you hazard
nothing in the statement that the " rider''^ to which you allude
had protracted the passage of the bill from the early part of the
session till nearly the middle of May ?

Now, sir, let it be seen how a few plain facts from the record
shall put you down. Bid the busy functionary, ever near your
person, bring the journals of the Senate and house and lay them
on your table. I am much mistaken if you do not find that the
house did not take up the naval bill, in committee of the whole on
the state of the union, until March 30, 1836. Search the rec-
ord from that date, and you will find that the bill was read a third
time and passed on the 7ih of April, four months and seven days
after the session had commenced, during the greater portion of
which interval, according to your showing, the bill was detained
in the Senate groaning under this '' rider" to " the most serious
injury of the naval service."

What, then, was the time this bill did remain in the Senate?
Look at the journal, and see if it did not pass that body on the
28th of April. Only twenty days were occupied by the naval
committee in passing on the whole bill, with all its details and
lieavy appropriations ; in getting the documents printed ; and
in carrying the measure through the Senate. But, sir, even this
delay of twenty days was not chargeable on the " rider" provi-
ding for this enterprise. I tell you, sir, and I appeal to the commit-
tee to confirni ihe truth of what 1 say, that the said ^ rider" did not
detain the general bill o?ie hour. The committee were unani-
mous, the Senate nearly so. When tlve question was put, " shall

LETTERS OF A CITIZEN. 93

the amendment be engrossed and the bill read a third time ?" it
was determined in the affirmative without debate. Yeas forty-
one ; nay one.

But this is not all. Memorials from Connecticut had brought
the South Sea expedition before the committee on naval affairs in
the Senate from the first part of the session. That committee
examined into the policy of the measure, and, without division,
reported a bill to the Senate providing for the expedition on the
21st March, before the bill for the general service had passed the
lower house ; so that, when the latter did reach the Senate, the
committee simply added as an amendment to the general bill
what they had previously determined on. Neither in the com-
mittee, therefore, nor in the Senate, did this amendment and
" rider''^ cause the least detention.

Thus saith the record ; in the face of which, for the evident
purpose of casting odium on the committee, and of justifying your
animosity to the expedition, was the statement I have disproved
brought forward. Having no doubt that the committee are both
competent and ready to answer to you and to their country for
their proceedings in this matter, I commit you on this point, with-
out further comments, into their hands, to dispose of you and your
implications as the public good shall seem to require !

" Much delay has taken place," says " A Friend to the Navy,"
"in consequence of the condition of these vessels."

The amount of labour requisite for all the proposed altera-
tions would not, I should suppose, occupy more than thirty days
in any well-regulated private shipyard.

" The officers who have entered the navy with the hope of distin-
guishing themselves in battle for their country" look, we arc told,
with little interest to a service so pacific as a surveying and explo-
ring expedition. The love of honourable war is an infirmity of no-
ble minds, and may, by the gallant and brave, be forgiven ; but
this assumption by a ministerial officer of so decided a belligerent
temper may prove dangerous to the state, and should be treated
with severity, otherwise what a warlike nation we should speed-
ily become under your management of the navy ! If, however, the
desire to distinguish themselves in battle be the motive of our
youth in entering the naval service of their country, then should
it be the policy of government to cherish this feeling, and, as fre-

94 LETTERS OF A CITIZEN.

quenlly as convenient, allow them an opportunity of putting theii
ardour and courage to liie proof. I should think under your di
rection we nnight venture to fight Mexico, or, perchance, one of
the Neapolitan states !

From this lofty martial tone " A Friend to the Navy" comes
down to the use of language which evidently shows the contempt
with which he would inspire the profession for all the duties of
the service save " battle." Hear him.

^''Respect is due to the pride and feelings of gallant officers oj
whom unvsual^ unexpected, and subordinate duties are required.
Great additions will be innde to science highly interesting to gen-
tlemen engaged in making discoveries, and highly honourable to
the country ; but someiohat irksome to officers performing a sub-
ordinate part in these operations, and who aspire to service more
properly belonging to their j)r of essional duties.^''

" To such labours and discoveries no more force should be
employed, than what is absolutely necessary .'''' Can any one read
the above extracts, and fail to perceive the obvious design of the
writer? Would you not be ashamed to append your name to a
document containing such sentiments ? You have at all times
urged the reluctance of officers to enter this service ; do not the
foregoing quotations convict the writer of unworthy efforts to
produce that very feeling ? Have you not frequently predicted
that disagreement and bickerings would occur between the offi-
cers and naturalists ; and do not the passages transcribed prove
the full intentions of the author to bring about the very evils you
have prophesied ? Docs the functionary who is capable of la-
bouring with such intent deserve the cognomen of " A Friend to
the Navy .?"

Is it an irksome and subordinate duly to protect the commercial
interests of our country ; to explore new regions ; succour cast-
away seamen ; make charts of harbours ; survey dangerous pas-
sages and important groups of islands ; to " bind down the strong
arm of the mulinecr;" hold conferences with the natives; in-
crease our trade ; and render more secure the lives of our marin-
ers ? All these, you would teach, are but '^subordinate^'' duties,
and quite. bcMicath the ambition of men who have entered " the
service with the liope of distinguishing themselves in battle ! ! ! !"

Why have you not been more explicit in pointing out wherein

LETTERS OF A CITIZEN. 93

the employment of naturalists will interfere with the claims to
those honours and distinctions which, by the common consent
of all enlightened countries, have ever been accorded to naval of-
ficers engaged in enterprises similarly noble, humane, and bene-
ficial in their objects ? Would their labours be other than hon-
ourable provided no naturalists were to accompany the expedition ?
Will you indicate how they can be less so because accompanied
by scientific men without nautical knowledge or pretension ?

Were the military chiefs under Napoleon less distinguished be-
cause savans were attached to the expedition to Egypt ? Was
not the glory of the former rather embalmed and rendered more
imperishable by the discoveries of the latter; and that, too, with-
out filching a single leaf from the laurel which inwreathed the
soldier's brow ? So will it be with all concerned in this under-
taking, and " A Friend to the Navy" will be foiled in his dark, I
might say malignant, efforts to sow the seeds of discord among
high-principled individuals, who feel the weight of responsibility
they have assumed, and be brought to feel that petty jealousies,
alike unworthy of officers and civilians, are harboured only in en-
vious and contracted minds ! ! !

We are next informed by " A Friend to the Navy" that expe-
ditions sent out by other countries have generally been small ; and
that " among the most splendid exploring voyages of modern times
is that of the Astrolabe, a corvette of eighteen guns and eighty
men."

Now, sir, allow me to inquire, how can you answer to the coun-
try for your late shocking prodigality in the force you have em-
ployed to make a few soundings on George's Bank ? Have you
not sent on that ^rvice a vessel of eighteen guns and eighty men,
besides an additional chartered force ? Surely you have lost sight
of the exposed condition of our commerce in the Gulf of Mexico,
of which we have heard so much, as well as of the wants of the
service on other stations, upon the requisite force for which the
South Sea expedition has made such fearful inroads ! Did the
duties to be performed at George's Bank call for a larger force
than that of the "most splendid exploring expedition of mod-
ern times ?" and yet you have employed a largei force upon it.
After this, it is hoped the country will hear no more about the
vast scale on which the South Sea expedition is authorized to be

96 LETTERS OF A CITIZEN.

fitted out ; it bears no comparison with your outfit to George's
Bank, the magnitude of the respective objects and labours of
the two enterprises being taken into consideration. Yes, sir,
and while on this point there is one more little question which
I wish, in the politest manner imaginable, to propose to you ;
it is this : How did it happen that you gave permission to the
officer having charge of the survey on the banks to take what in-
slruiiienis he chose from those procured expressly for the South
Sea squadron, and purchased with the funds appropriated for
that exclusive purpose? I ivould also further inquire if you in-
tend to detain the expedition till the return of the Porpoise, or is
it to proceed to sea minus the abstracted apparatus 1 The best
way to get out of this diflftculty is to be candid, and own what
I have no doubt are the facts of the case, viz., that when you
gave the permission referred to (for without it I cannot suppose
the instruments to have been taken), you had just hit on the plan
of your famous commission ; and entertaining no doubt of being
sustained by the board, either wholly or in part, in breaking down
the expedition, you considered that this sending off the apparatus
was only taking lime by the forelock, and adding one more to the
list of difficulties already, according to your statements, so over-
whelming !

At length we have something like an outline of the character aiKl
force you would sanction in an expedition to the South Seas.
True, you have not condescended to go into detail or explain how
its varied labours could be accomplished with that force, and it
were wise in you to abstain from any attempt to do so. Hero is
your plan.

*' Two ships would he quite enough for the purposes of survey
and exploration on this South Sea expedition, and an additional
vessel for the search of wrecked mariners^

It were an easy matter to show the utter insutficicncy of what
you here recommend, to say nothinjT about the modesty of the rec-
ommendation after the adoption of the present force by the coni-
petcnl authorities in the first y)lace, and its recent approval by your
own rominission appointed expressly to adjudge the matter. But
it is not worth while to waste time in arguint^ the point with one
who so pertinaciously refuses to understand — or, understanding,
continues to misrepresent — the objects for which the measure was
authorized. The admission, however, that one vessel ought to be

LETTERS OP A CITIZEN. 97

sent out for the purpose of picking up lost seamen, is at once sin-
gular and amusing, .considering the source from which it comes.
It is rather a squinting towards an acknowledgment that the en-
terprise, after all, has something to do with tlic protection of com-
merce ; for surely there are no mariners to be picked off the isU
ands as near as it ivould he ])ossihle or safe to approach the
South Pole ! Why have you not the openness to admit that llie
Macedonian is the proper vessel for this humane purpose? The
presence of such a vessel, by its effect upon the minds of the isl-
anders, would tend to lessen the hardships and dangers of our
sailors whom shipwreck may hereafter throw among them. In-
deed, this was one among other reasons which induced the late
president to adopt her as the flag-ship of the expedition ; and so
fully was he convinced of the importance of a frigate, that he is
known to have said, during the last session, that a ship of that class
should form one of the squadron, whether the appropriation, then
pending, was made or not.

" A Friend to the Navy" tries his hand at verbal criticism, and,
like the wiseacre in the fable, who took a single brick as a sample
of the whole edifice, dashes upon a few detached sentences of a
certain address on the subject of the expedition, delivered in the
Hall of Representatives before the members of Congress on the
3d of April, 1836. What that address has to do with the derelic-
tions of duty which " Citizen" charges upon you, has not yet been
pointed out.

Though I cannot say you have evinced the acuteness of Juvenal,
the grammatical accuracy of Harris or Gifford, or the polish ol
that rancorous critic, Dennis, still I must own that you appear
to have caught the mantle of old Father Pepys, who, in his me-
moirs, thus discourseth about Hudibras : " When I came to read
it, it is so silly an abuse of the old Presbyter Knight going to the
wars, that I am ashamed of it : and by-and-by meeting at Mr.
Townsend's at dinner, I sold it to Mr. Battersby for eighteen-
pence." Your critical acumen seems to be of about the same
calibre as that of the censor of Hudibras ; and I advise you to
dispose of this said address as he did of Butler's poem— sell it !
With great respect I have the honour to be

Your obedient servant and fellow

CITIZEN.
N

98 LETTERS OF A CITIZEN.

P.S. No. III. of " A Friend to the Navy" is acknowledged a
decided improvement in style, though a sad falling off in temper I

New- York, August 23, 1837.

TX.

In this paper we publish the concluding address of a " Citizen" to the secretary of
the navy. We wish that the discussion had not been so far protracted ; we wish that
we could have avoided giving pain to any member of the administration ; but circum-
stances were uncontrollable, and the fortune of the exploring expedition, one of the no-
blest and most important measures ever adopted by the American government, seemed
bound up in the prosecution of the discussion. Plain duty, therefore, marked our course,
and we have not shrunk from it, however disagreeable it may have been. The letters
of a " Citizen" have been distinguished by thorough knowledge of the subject, unbound-
ed zeal in the great cause, a single-minded devotion to its interest, purity of style, force
of argument, and logical clearness of statement and induction. Universal public opinion
approves warmly of his undertaking, and ascribes to its able execution the welcome im-
provement in the prospects of the expedition, the probability of its now efficient equip-
ment and speedy departure. For ourselves, we believe well, that, but for the labours of
our correspondent, the expedition would not now^ have been within a twelvemonth of
sailing, if it ever sailed at all, unless crippled of all efficiency and capacity for usefulness.
The " Citizen" has served his country and the cause of science and humanity nobly ;
and he has served, perhaps saved, the head of the navy department. We take leave of
him with our best wishes for his prosperity and happiness, wherever his sphere of life
may be cast. — Editor of the New- York Times.

To the Honouiable Mahlon Dickersou, Secretary of the Navy,

Sir,
I can only account for the confession made in the first para-
graph of your third number by regarding it as another confirma-
tion of the trite saying of the Latins, that " those whom the gods
intend to destroy they first make mad." Excuse me for not giv-
ing the Roman text : I set out vvilh the intention of speaking in
plain English, and shall not now change my original purpose,
though the translation may grate somewhat harshly on your clas-
sical ear. But to the confession. " A Friend to the Navy" tells
us that, had the expedition been fitted out with a sloop-of-war and
such other smaller vessels as the law of the first session of the
last Congress authorized, together with such books and instru-
ments as the country afforded, the whole fleet, on that scale, might
have put to sea on or before the meeting of Congress in Decem-
ber last ; but when it was determined a frigate should be em-

LETTERS OF A CITIZEN. 99

ployed, " it was evident," we are told, " that another session must
elapse, and further appropriations be made, before the fleet could
be sent to sea." Is this true ? Will the country believe it? If
so, into what a condition have you brought our navy, when the
head of this great branch of national defence can make so humil-
iating a declaration to the world ! I have already shown that the
only departure even from the strict letter of the law was the sub-
stitution of the frigate of thirty-six guns for a sloop of twenty-four.
What a nutshell to hold so many difficulties. The difference be-
tween a sloop-of-war and a frigate ! And let it be borne in mind
that a report had been made which stated that in ninety days the
Macedonian could be ready for sea. This report was made by
the commissioners to the president prior to the selection of the
last-mentioned vessel. The difference between this ship and a
sloop-of-war is twelve guns, and yet the disparity, in fact so tri-
fling, is paraded before the public as a valid excuse for the shame-
ful and unnecessary detention of the expedition. By " extraordi-
nary efforts," however, you have been able to overcome this dif-
ficulty in fitting out an expedition at the rate of about o?ie gun per
month ! I ! !

It is a matter of surprise that the confession to which I have
referred should have escaped " A Friend to the Navy," inasmuch
as you must remember having declared, from the beginning, that
the expedition could not sail during the past season. Yes, sir, I
remember to have met you in the lobby of the theatre at Wash-
ington on the very evening of the day on which the bill passed
the house, and that you then remarked, previously to a word being
said as to the size of the vessels to be employed, that the squad-
ron could not be despatched that season. I repeat, sir, to me,
the " Furious Citizen," did you make that declaration. Do you
forget it ? Have you forgot, also, how reluctantly you took the
measure up when required by the president to do so ? Sir, you
intended, from the first, to bring the matter a second time before
Congress. Will you give the negative to this assertion ? And
was it not because you felt deeply chagrined at being unable to
defeat the enterprise as authorized by Congress ?

As a plea in mitigation of judgment, for I cannot consider it of-
fered as a defence, we are told what extraordinary efforts you had
used during the month of June, 1836 (I mention the yea/', lest,

100 LETTERS OF A CITIZEN.

from tlic mulliplicity and variety of your endeavours to frustrate
the enterprise, some confusion should ensue in point of time) ;
which efforts, it appears, consisted in having written to Commo-
dore Jones " without delay," conferred about the vessels, given
orders for their construction, and directed that sailors should be
recruited to man them. Even the days are named on which the
orders were issued, viz., the 6th, 7th, 11th, and the 20th of June;
and the whole statement is evidently relied on to explain away
your subsequent tardiness of action, as also to enable you to ex-
claim, with an assumed air of candid surprise, that " in all this a
' Citizen' can see nothing but insufferable delay, for which he
holds the secretary responsible." After some other samples of
twaddling criticism about the South Pole, confirming the obser-
vation that

'•■Great wits, like great states,
Do sometimes sink by their own weights,"

you very complacently lay the flattering, but, alas ! delusive unc-
tion to your heart, that none " except the ' Citizen,* and a feiv
who have been bitten by him, can see any cause for throwing
censure upon tJie secretary.''^

Sir, the public mind has been slow and reluctant to fix its con-
demnation upon you, but it has been constrained to do so, and
the future Plutarch of our republic may indiixnantly inquire,
" Who was this honourable secretary, that he should have so un-
graciously endeavoured to thwart the wishes of his country by
creating obstacles to the fulfilment of a noble and useful national
design ?" Think you the brief biographical notice of you con-
tained in the " National Portrait Gallery," partial as it is known
lo be, will afford a satisfactory reply ?

What I stated in relation to the shipment of men, the comple-
tion of the frigate and store-ship, and the organization of the sci-
entific corps, you have not denied : the facts cannot be refuted.
Not the slightest extra encouragement was allowed by you for
the purpose of inducing seamen to join the expedition. The Ma-
cedojuan was not finished, nor was she in a condition to receive
her crew, in December, 18:jfi, as stated in your annual report;
nor did she receive her crew on board initil June, 1837. On
these points you offer a volume of explanations, about as falla-

LETTERS OF A CITIZEN. 101

cious and irrelevant to the matter at issue as was the excuse of
the individual who wrote a letter and requested his correspond-
ent to pardon errors in orthography, as his knife was so dull that
he could not mend his pen. Your explanations are non sequitors
of nearly the same calibre, and will probably carry as clear con-
viction to the mind of the reader. 1 have no desire, sir, to mis-
represent you ; the truth is bad enough without any exaggeration.
The charges I have preferred against you on account of your of-
ficial delinquencies have gone to the public through the same
channel as your defence, and the public will judge between us.

The words " extraordinary efforts" are not, as stated by you,
a fabrication ; they occur in your report, and are fairly applicable
in the sense in which I used them. It is a shallow evasion to
say " the duties were to be performed by others, not by the sec-
retary. He does not superintend the recruiting of seamen."
True, sir, you do not personally bargain with the sailor; but it
was your duty to afford to others the means by which unusual ex-
ertions could be made ; and these you pertinaciously refused. If,
as you state, " it was unusual to put the recruiting service under
the superintendence of the commander of the squadron ;" if it
were unusual to recruit seamen for a particular service, both of
which you own you were directed by the president to see done,
the inquiry presents itself, why were not these measures more
successful ? I have already stated the reason. You refused the
necessary means for carrying out this plan of shipping for a
special service by prohibiting the offer of all inducement beyond
what the ordinary rendezvous afforded. Nay, more : when on a
visit to this city in August, thirteen months ago, on seeing the
bills up for the special shipment of men, did you or did you not
say that you would fix that business by allowing the same privi-
lege in shipping mariners for the Pacific and Brazilian stations;
and were not similar placards accordingly posted on the walls, thus
rendering the facilities in favour of the expedition a mere mock-
ery ? Your assigned reason for not placing funds in the hands
of recruiting agents, except at the regular depots, is pefectly fu-
tile, as security for the advances and delivery of the men could
have been taken at New-London, New-Bedford, and other inter-
mediate points.

The " threats" in mv second letter to give a withering review

102 LETTERS OF A CITIZEN.

of the conduct of those who had attempted, by misrepresentation
of its purposes, to defeat the expedition, you seem to think have
not been redeemed. You appear, also, to have some difficuUy in
recognising the parties to whom 1 had reference. I have no wish
to be obscure, or to leave any doubt on your mind upon this point ;
I will therefore say at once, " Ulou art the marC^ to whom I al-
luded as being at the head of those who misrepresented the true
objects of the measure with the sole view of compassing its utter
defeat.

If my review of your official conduct has not been sufficiently
" withering," I am quite willing to amend my error ; the subject
is far from being " exhausted."

There is but one more point in your third number which I es-
teem worthy of notice. I allude to your sneering remarks on the
mass of information treasured up by our whalemen during their
voyages in the Pacific Ocean and South Seas, which information
formed the subject of a report to the department in 1828; to be
found among the documents setting forth the objects of the under-
taking.

Who ever vouched for entire accuracy of detail in the docu-
ment you have pretended to criticise ? No one, sir, has made
such an averment, and of this fact you are perfectly cognizant.
The individual you mention as having rendered himself ridiculous
through the report in question held the following language in his
address before Congress, when speaking of the information that
report imbodied.

" That the positions of the islands, as laid down by our whale-
men, are determined with accuracy, we pretend not to a&sert;
neither do these adventurous navigators themselves lay claim to
any such exactness. The very nature of these pursuits almost
precludes the possibility of such a result ; their primary object
being to take whale, and not to make discoveries. When, how-
ever, we reflect on the disadvantages under which they labour ;
unprovided with instruments of improved construction ; often com-
puting their progress by the run of the log alone, without allow-
ance for the influence of currents, the force and direction of which
they do not stop to investigate, it must be conceded that the in-
formation they have imparted is more correct and explicit than
we could reasonably anticipate. But if these men have not the

LETTERS OF A CITIZEN. 103

means and opportunity of noting with precision the geographical
position of their discoveries, it is still less within their power to
ascertain the capacity, resources, and productions of the new lands.
Whale-ships lost in the process of examining a group of islands
or a reef forfeit their ensurance. Even were this otherwise, time
cannot be spared for such a survey ; and thus a brief note in a
vessel's logbook is frequently the only recorded notice of a dan-
gerous reef or a new archipelago. It is impossible, however, to
examine the reports^ of our South Sea whaling captains without
feeling the value of that mighty mass of rude materials with which
they have furnished us. To have those materials carefully ana-
lyzed, and a work upon which confident reliance can be placed
prepared for future use, is the bounden duty of government. The
prosecution of these objects will constitute an important part of
the labours of the expedition ; labours which ought not, in justice,
to have been delayed till now. Perhaps the silent and unobtrusive
manner in which our great ocean concerns are carried on may, in
some measure, account for, if it cannot justify, the negligence of
our government in not watching with a more vigilant eye the in-
terests of our civil marine, and protecting it more effectually by
the strong arm of naval power. I put the question to every lib-
eral-minded, intelligent individual within these walls, is it honour-
able, is it politic or wise — waiving the considerations of humanity
and duty — to look supinely on, while our citizens are exposed to
shipwreck in seas or coasts, and among islands, of which they
possess no charts capable of guiding them aright, and to suffer
them to be massacred by savages for lack of such a judicious ex-
hibition of maritime strength as would command respect by
showing the ability to enforce it ? And yet such is the situation
of our commerce in many parts of the world."

And pray, sir, what is the language of Admiral Kruzenstein,
which you have hunted up, in relation to this same report ? Pre-
cisely in substance what its author himself held, as will appear
from the translation quoted below.

" At the time when the American government contemplated fit-
ting out an expedition to explore the Pacific Ocean, Mr. Reynolds
presented to the secretary of the navy, ^Ir. Southard, a memorial,
of which a copy has been communicated to me, in which he pre-
sents the results of the researches made by him in the different

104 LETTERS OF A CITIZEN.

ports of the United States into the subject of the discoveries of
American whalers.

'' The information received by liim from the whalers, and which
he communicates in his memorial, is not, however, of a nature to
inspire great confidence. Islands may there be seen under the
same name, and diilcring several degrees in longitude ; there are
several others designated under the same latitude and longitude,
which certainly must be one and the same island."

Thus it will be seen that the authority of Admiral Kruzenstein,
so far as it is of any importance, is decidedly against you, and fully
sustains all which has been claimed for the document, based on
the materials furnished by our whalers, viz., that it goes to show
that the knowledge we possess of the Pacific Ocean and South
Seas is so imperfect as to demonstrate the utility of sending out
an expedition to ascertain and settle what is at present vague and
uncertain, and thus give additional security to our commercial in-
terests in those c[uarlers. With these remarks I shall leave you
to reflect on the illiberality and injustice of the attack 3^ou liave
made on the enterprise of our whalers, for your remarks will bear
no other construction.

And now for the fourth and last article you have given to the
public. I shall content myself with a few brief remarks upon this
" delectable' production. It bears indubitable evidence that you
have become alarmed at the untenable nature of your position, es-
pecially in maintaining that the great object of the expedition was
to explore regions as near the South Pole as can he approached
loithout danger.

In that number you have, for the first time, been compelled to
confess " that from the enterprise much benefit will result to the
commerce and navigation of our country, and great additions be
made in many important branches of science." For the sake of
this confession I am willing to pass over without comment many
am\ising quibbles and tergiversations incident to your defence,
seven eighths of which are utterly irrelevant to the subject-matter
at issue between us.

You arc now, as I am ])leased to learn, doing your duty with a
much better grace than could have hovw oxpiM ted, considering
your late disappointments. 'I'o bring you to this point was my
Bole motive in addressing you. I-'or the mere sake of controversy

LETTERS OF A CITIZEN. 105

I should not have written, as I feel no pride in a triumph over
you. It is sufficient for nny purpose that you have at length been
driven to abandon the position assumed in your famous report of
April 16, and subsequently maintained in your instructions to the
naval board, with both of which the annexed extract from your
last letter appears in amusing contrast.

" Five sixths of the time of the cruise the squadron will be
in lower latitudes and milder climates, making surveys und explo-
rations ; discovering islands, rocks, reefs, and shoals ; ascertaining
latitudes and longitudes ; affording aid and protection to our mer-
chants and whalers ; rescuing wrecked mariners ; and performing
a variety of other duties," &c., &c.

This is rational ; this is what \\\e friends of the expedition have
uniformly declared ; but just what you have never, until now,
admitted. Go on, then, as you are now doing, to the end. De-
spatch the expedition with a just and enlightened liberality ; aban-
don all efforts to defeat, retard, or cripple its efficiency ; claim
credit for good intentions ; protest that you never wished to de-
stroy it, and you may yet receive, if not entire forgiveness for the
past, at least a glorious oblivion for the future !

A " Citizen" fully agrees with you in the importance you at-
tach to the examination of high latitudes south. He has never
maintained other opinions ; but he regards it as one object, not
the great objects of the enterprise. Nor has he ever used any
language in reference to the attainment of ninety degrees south
which he is not willing again to repeat. In the very document,
and in the very pages you have turned over, he has said — " That
the ninetieth degree, or South Pole, may be reached by the navi-
gator, is our deliberate opinion (unless intercepted by land), which
all that we have seen and known has tended to confirm. That
an expedition should be despatched from this country for the sole
purpose of ascertaining the practicability of attaining it is not, per-
haps, to be expected ; but that the effort should be allowed to be
made in connection with the other great objects of the enterprise,
is perfectly in accordance with the most prudential policy. We
shall not discuss, at present, the probability of this result, though
its possibility might be easily demonstrated. ^ If this should be
realized, where is the individual who does not feel that such an
achievement would add new lustre to the annals of American

O

106 LETTERS OF A CITIZEN.

philosophy, and crown with a new and imperishable wreath the
nautical glories of our country."

Allow me to ask, sir, what you find exceptionable in this lan-
guage. I do not know that you would rejoice at such an achieve-
ment, but I do beheve there is not another individual, of the four-
teen millions that inhabit our republic, who would not exult in the
honour it would confer on the American name.

If 1 have rendered myself " ridiculous" by what I have said on
this point, you will at least find that I stand in pretty good com-
pany. Permit me to commend to your especial notice the fol-
lowing account of the French expedition, which your " extraordi-
nary efforts'^ have suffered to precede our own.

"M. le commandant Dumoni d'Urville received on Friday au-
dience of his majesty the king. In the interview, which extended
beyond half an hour, his majesty reiterated his wishes that the
exploring expedition of the Astrolabe and Zelie might realize the
anticipations entertained by the former ministers of the marine,
and that to France and to his reign may redound the glory of
having approached the nearest to the antarctic pole. A reward is
promised to the sailors, should they extend their voyage so far as
the seventy-fifth degree, and this reward will be augmented in
proportion to each degree obtained beyond this designation. ' In
case they should approach to the pole,' said his majesty, with en-
thusiasm, ' then everything will be granted to the sailors that they
may demand.' "

Now, sir, does this account of the " enthusiasm" of his majesty
arouse no spirit of rivalry in your breast ? Does it not suggest
an occasion for the American minister of marine to do one act in
his official career that shall save the pages of his biography from
being consigned to the trunkmakers' and pastrycooks' shops ?
What is there that you can do to accomplish such a miracle ? I
will tell you. Just draw up a spirited little report, asking of Con-
gress the authorization of a reward to be given to the officers and
men of the expedition for attaining the seventy-fifth degree south,
with an appropriate increase for each additional degree even to
that point ivhere all the meridians terminate; where our eagle and
star-spangled banner may be unfurled and planted^ and left to
wave at the very pole itself !

Do but this, and

LETTERS OF A CITIZEN. 107

"Then time shall render to you
The justice that is due you,
Till the very state that grew you

Stares in wonder."

Sir, throughout all the numbers consliluting your defence in this
controversy you have been determined, from some motive inexpli-
cable to me, that the parlies engaged in it should not reniain un-
known to the public. Of this I do not complain, but have en-
deavoured to gratify your wish by gently intimating to the com-
munity the high source to which it was indebted for those mas-
terly and statesman-like papers bearing the signature of " A Friend
to the Navy." It would be uncandid in me, therefore, under
present circumstances, to affect that you were incorrect in as-
cribing to the individual you have designated the auihorship of
the articles over the signature of " Citizen." This avowal made,
I shall reply to your remarks personal with the directness they
seem to require ; having hitherto abstained from answering them
with the intention of disposing of them en masse. The following
is from your No. I.

" This anxxry ' Citizen' is no doubt Mr. , who has succeed-
ed in producing an impression through the country that this is
his expedition ; an impression much strengthened by the publica-
tion in October last of his address delivered on the third of April
of last year in the hall of the House of Representatives," &c., &;c.

Here is a grave charge made by a personage high in place,
and the document containing its alleged proof is named. Now,
sir, on page ninety-eight of this said address, which lay open be-
fore you when you made an extract from the opposite page,
ninety-nine, is contained a declaration of my motives of action ;
and I defy you, or any parasite under your control, to point out
a single act of mine which has not been in conformity with the
spirit and letter of the sentiments therein expressed ; they read as
follows :

"We have no narrow and exclusive feelings to be gratified.
We wish to see the expedition sail solely because of the good it
may do and the honour it may confer on the country at large.

" For the same reason we wish to see it organized on liberal
and enlightened principles, which object can be effected only by
calling in requisition the known skill of the service, which will

108 LETTERS OF A CITIZEN.

be found equal to the discharge of every duty in any way con-
necied with the naval profession.

" But this should not be all. To complete its efficiency, indi-
viduals from other walks of life, we repeat, should be appointed
to participate in its labours. No professional pique, no petty jeal-
ousies, should be allowed to defeat this object. The enterprise
should be national in its object, and sustained by the national
means ; belongs of right to no individual, or set of individuals,
but to the country, and the whole country ; and he vvho does not
view it in this light, or could not enter it with this spirit, would
not be very likely to meet the public expectations were he in-
trusted with the entire control.

" To indulge in jealousies, or feel undue solicitude about the
division of honours before they are won, is the appropriate em-
ployment of carpet heroes, in whatever walk of life they may be
found. The qualifications of such would fit them better to thread
the mazes of the dance, or to shine in the saloon, than to venture
upon an enterprise requiring men, in the most emphatic sense of
the term."

Having, as I trust, satisfactorily disposed of this point, I pro-
ceed to notice your remark, that " the extravagances of Mr.

have created many difficulties in fitting out this expedition ; yet
all can be obviated if he will be content with the distinguished
and lucrative situation assigned him in the same."

Sir, is it your wish to enter into a full discussion in reference
to the position you have assigned me, as compared with the ori-
ginal appointment given me by President Jackson ? Are you
willing that I should publish our correspondence on this point ?
Are you ambitious that the public should know how magnani-
mously you have acted in the premises ? I apprehend not ; but,
if you are, at a proper time you shall be gratified. I never did,
I will not at present, obtrude any matter personal to myself upon
the public. That the expedition should be efficiently organized,
and placed in proper hands, I have ever deemed a point of in-
finitely more importance than the station I should hold in it, or
that I should accompany it at all. To effect that object, and to
prevent you from destroying the enterprise, have my humble but
best eflforts been at all times directed ; and this, I apprehend, has
been " the head and front of my offending."

LETTERS OF A CITIZEN. 109

Nor will I allow you lo justify any portion of your hostility to
the expedition on the unsustaijied assumption that 1 have created
difficulties or thrown obstacles in the way of its earlier comple-
tion. As, however, you have chosen to speak of " the distin-
guished and lucrative situation assigned we," I cannot refrain
from informing you that I feel no pride in the distinction your ap-
pointment confers on me ; that I would not turn upon my heel to
preserve it ; and that you are at liberty to take it back when you
please ; nay, more, that it is your duty to do so, if you were sin-
cere in saying that I " have created many difficulties in fitting out
the expedition."

Why, sir, if you were consistent, the very charges you bring
against me ought to make me yom greatest favourite. When, un-
til in this instance, did you ever complain of any one for throwing
difficulties in the way of the expedition ? Indeed, rumour says —
and I have seen some things which went far in confirmation of
the thousand-tongued goddess having for once spoken truth — that
those who threw most impediments in the way of the enterprise
have been favoured with distinguishing marks of your regard,
and have obtained from you almost anything for which they
asked ; and, further, that, until very lately, the surest passport to
your good graces was to attack the exploring expedition. I have
heard it asserted that this ruse has been practised more than once,
and always with the same distinguished success.

You say, in the conclusion of your third number, that I have
not only contrived to render myself ridiculous, " but to throw
some degree of ridicule upon the present exploring expedition ;"
and that " to divert this ridicule from the officers of the navy
who may embark in this expedition, and to confine it to its proper
source, and to show that the scientific corps selected are not of
the school of the savan in question, shall be the peculiar care of
A Friend to the Navy." Sir, this manifesto of your " peculiar"
intentions does not surprise me. It is only in perfect keeping
with your " peculiar" line of conduct towards me from the begin-
ning ; and I should feel surprised if it were not continued to the
end. I expect nothing from your magnanimity or your justice !

As regards my attainments, I am free to own they are far from
equalling my wishes, and by no means what I yet hope to make
them. Nevertheless, humble as they are, I can feel little anxiety

110 LETTERS OF A CITIZEN.

as to their estimate by one who could not, in all probability, find
his way across the Atlantic if put to the test ; or give the number
of cubic mches in a sapling six feet in length and four inches in
diameter, though the emoluments of his office depended on the
result; one, the barren records of whose entire public life afford
not a solitary instance of a useful measure originated or a single
patriotic sacrifice made in furtherance of the public good.
With great respect,

I have the honour to be

Your obedient servant and fellow

CITIZEN.

New- York, September 23, 1837,

Exploring Expedition. — We invite the attention of all our readers, but more particularly
the members of the House of Representatives, to the letter of " A Citizen" addressed to
the secretary of the navy in this day's paper. It will be followed by two others ; and
upon i\\e facts which these letters will bring before the public we are perfectly willing
that the merits and demerits of the expedition, as now organized, should rest. — Editor of
the New-York Courier mid Enquirer.

To the Honourable Mahlon Dickerson, Secretary of the Navy,

Sir,
When I had closed my ninth letter, addressed to you through
the New-York Times, I felt that kind of pleasure which the mind
experiences when an unpleasant, but, at the same time, a necessa-
ry duty has been performed. In my correspondence with you,
through the medium alluded to, I took occasion to speak of your
official conduct, as connected with the vSouth Sea surveying and
exploring expedition, with the directness which the subject seemed
to require. I charged you with official delinquency, and, in a se-
ries of letters, I went into detail for the purpose of ^^howing that
the charge was well founded. Through the same channel in which
my communications appeared you replied, by way of defence, in
four niunbers, over the signature of "A Friend to the Navy,"
The controversy became troublesome to you, and I desisted, de-
lighted with the thought that I should not again liave occasion to
address you. But 1 was mistaken. Tlie expedition has not yet

LETTERS OF A CITIZEN. Ill

sailed. Your annual report shows the quo animo with which you
still regard it. New comn^issions are to sit in judgment upon it ;
the delusive impression is still to be kept alive, that a reduction
of its force would render it more efficient and more likely to se-
cure the important objects for which it was authorized. Is this
true ? Why are you not more explicit ? Why do you not state
what force you would substitute, and show the manner in which
the great purposes of the enterprise can be fulfilled by that force ?
Sir, there is no organization that would suit you. I remember
that, three years ago, you were hostile to the measure in every
shape and form. I recollect that the year following, when the
legislature of New-Jersey passed a resolution recommending it to
the favourable notice of Congress, you so modified your hostility
as to consent to have the word " exploration" inserted in the gen-
eral navy appropriation bill for 1836. You would not, even then,
listen to the suggestion of an expedition being especially provided
for, but said you would send out one or two small vessels, to act
under the orders of the commanders of the Pacific squadron.
These were your enlarged notions of a great national enterprise ;
an enterprise in which we were to make our dehid in the field of
maritime discovery ; and these opinions you expressed in my
presence, and in conversation with me.

Sir, the truth is, and of this you are well aware, that, from the
beginning to the end, in your private as well as official capacity,
you have been an enemy to the undertaking, and never omitted
any effort that could retard or tend to defeat it. I do not assert
that you have been bold and manly in your opposition. Far from
it. At first your attack was open ; but, as the current of public
opinion began to set strongly in favour of the measure, and the
pride, and intelligence, and science of the country became enlisted
in its behalf, your opposition assumed a more covert form. You
now, on many occasions, professed yourself friendly to the expe-
dition, but then all was wrong about it ; another organization
would have been the right one ; and every available incident was
made a plea for delay. If an officer wished to disconnect him-
self from the exploring squadron, his wish was almost anticipa-
ted ; if another, from Missouri, was desirous of joining it, he could
have permission to do so, provided he bore Jus own expenses to
Boston. Was an excuse wanted for the tardiness of your depart-

112 LETTERS OF A CITIZEN.

merit in despatcliing vessels to oilier stations, the expedition fur-
nished It. Did matters look threatening in the Gulf of Mexico,
no vessel was so well fitted to protect our commerce in that quar-
ter as the Macedonian. Did the political horizon betoken a squall
in the direction of Mexico, the exploring vessels must be kept at
home to fight. The banks suspended specie payments, and
straightway the difficulty of procuring a large amount in specie
to send out in the ships was a mountain not to be got over, though,
in sober truth, twenty, or, at the most, thirty thousand dollars
would have been an ample supply. 'J'hus have you gone on, vir-
tually trampling upon the laws of Congress, and setting at defiance
the wishes of the whole country. That a day of reckoning is at
hand is the prevailing opinion, but with that matter I have nothing
to do. I have only been induced to take up my pen by the pe-
rusal of your annual report, and shall confine myself to an exam-
ination of that specious and hollow document.

In looking over that portion of your report in which you speak
of the fiscal concerns of the expedition, I find that the three hun-
dred thousand dollars appropriated by Congress in May, 1836,
was all expended in preparing the vessels. This is a serious item,
and makes a heavy account against the enterprise. But the state-
ment is only calculated to mislead the public. Let it be remem-
bered that sixty-two thousand dollars of this sum went to the
completion of the frigate Macedonian ; an amount which would
have been required from the treasury for the same object under
any other head. The store-ship Relief was on the stocks before
the measure wis authorized ; the sum necessary to finish that
vessel was nearly as large as that which had been required for
completing the Macedonian, and it would have been expended
under any circumstances. In adchlion to these vessels, two brigs
of two hundred and thirty tons each, and a schooner of one hun-
dred and thirty tons, were built, which consumed the residue of
the three hundred thousand dollars. Now the two brigs have been
compactly and stronirly constructcnl. They will last twenty years,
and can be advantageously used as transports, or on other duly,
and may be thus employed whether they do or do not s;iil on the
specific service for which they were intended. The schooner Pilot
is not worth what she cost ; but to whom is the fault attributable ?
We shall see anon.

LETTERS OF A CITIZEN. 113

Thus it becomes evident that, in the disbursement of the first
appropriation, the country has sustained no loss ; that two ships,
partially built, have been finished by the application of this fund,
and two other vessels added to our naval force. It is true that
the cost of labour put upon these vessels appears very high, being
nearly, if not quite, one hundred percent, more than the same work
could have been done for in a private shipyard. But this, if a
fault, is to be charged to the manner in which the public work is
done, and cannot be attributed to the expedition, or to any one
connected with it. If the vessels are not framed after the most
approved plan, to whom should the blame be imputed ? I have
heard it whispered that the first designs made by the naval con-
structer for the model of these craft were altered. If so, by
whom ? Certainly not by Commodore Jones. I have before me
a copy of a letter from that officer to the naval artificer, where he
asks for vessels in which good sailing, good storage, and good
accommodations should be combined ; and not one of these qual-
ities was to he sacrificed to another. In this letter he says no-
thing about length, breadth, or model, but leaves all these matters
to be settled in the quarter where they are usually decided. If
the schooner Pilot be unfit for ihe service for which she was ex-
pressly built, the Active ought to have been furnished in her stead
without additional charge, as a tailor would furnish a new garment
in the place of one that did not fit when made to order. If the
brigs be what they ought to be, then they are, under any circum-
stances, worth to government what they cost ; that is, as much
as anything made in our public yards is worth what it cost ; if
they are not what they should be, then there has been bad man-
agement in some quarter, and the friends of the expedition are
not responsible. So much, then, for the three hundred thousand
dollars of the million and a half which this prodigal undertaking
is to cost the nation.

After showing what was the outlay for these vessels, and char-
ging what had been expended in finishing the Macedonian and
Relief (already under way), as well as the amount disbursed for
the construction of the smaller craft, to the account of the expedi-
tion, you have carefully added the sum which would be necessary
for the support of the squadron during the three years of its con-
templated absence, and appear to have felt increased strength, as

P

114 LETTERS OF A CITIZEN.

you again tlirevv llie whole weight of the department against the
measure in the following sentence :

'' As this statement of facts could leave no doubt that the ex-
ploring expedition loould cost nearly, if not quite, a million and a
half of dollars, and as it greatly exceeded in number of vessels and
men the most successful expeditions of like character heretofore sent
out by the maritime powers of Europe, it was believed that its
amount would have been reduced by withholding a part of the ap-
propriation asked for by the estimate. This, however, was not
deemed eocpedient, and the full appropriations were made by an
act of the third of March last"

Now, sir, with all due deference, I take up this assumption,
which is unsustained by a single argument, and am prepared to show-
that the exploring expedition, as authorized by Congress and sanc-
tioned by the late executive, in its naval and scientific departments,
in all that it is designed to effect, courts investigation, and will bear
it. The more closely it is compared with what the maritime
powers of Europe have done ; the more it is examined and un-
derstood by a careful analysis of our interest in and our knowledge
of the seas where its labours are to be performed, and an inquiry
if the present force be not properly adapted to the faithful perform-
ance of its labours, the more will its friends be strenrrthcned in
their position. On the other hand, lliose who have not had leisure
to examine the subject in detail, or have been misled by yoiir ob-
jections, ill-founded as they are, will perceive that the ^real na-
tional objects to be attained would jiislify an increase rather than
warrant a diminution of the force at present prepared ; and which,
but for your hostility to the whole enterprise, might ere now have
been in the field of its usefulness, engaged in those investigations
which our interest and our honour equally require should be made.

And what, sir, arc the arguments at this day in favour of the
design ? They have been again and again set forth in able reports
from committees in Congress, and arc understood by the intelli-
gence of the whole country ; but nevertheless they receive no
consideration from you. It is hunulinting to have occasion to
recur to them at this late period, and I shall do so as concisely as
possible. No portion of the commerce of the nation is ni-ore im-
portant than that carried on in the seas which it is to be the chief
duty of the expedition to survey and explore. At the lowest esti-

LETTERS OF A ClTlZJiiV. 115

mate, twelve millions of active capital are involved in one branch
of the whale-fishery, and there are ennployed in tlie whole busi-
ness, directly and indirectly, not less than sixty milHons of prop-
erly, twelve thousand seamen, and from one hundred and sixty to
one hundred and seventy thousand tons of shipping. The annual
income to the United States from this source is between five and
six millions of dollars. It is to the protection and safety of this
important interest that the expedition has a direct reference, as
has been again and again stated in memorials to Congress. The
whaling business is chiefly carried on in seas more remote and
less accurately known than any other regions visited by our ves-
sels. Hundreds upon hundreds of islands and reefs existing there
have no place or name on our latest and most approved charts.
For instance, there are from one hundred and fifty to two hundred
islands in the Fiji group alone, not one of which can be found,
with sailing instructions, on any map or chart hitherto published.
With this group we have had no inconsiderable trade in native pro-
ductions suitable to the Chinese market; and the amount of prop-
erty lost there from the want of a more perfect knowledge of the
locality of the islands would pay a goodly portion of the expen-
ses of the expedition. More than one hundred mariners, American
seamen, have been shipwrecked, and a large majority of them
sacrificed to the murderous cruelty of the natives at the Fiji Islands
alone, while we have never endeavoured to overawe the savages
by any demonstration of our power, or tried to conciliate them by
kindness.

Let us suppose, for a moment, that the exploring squadron has
arrived at New-Zealand ; perhaps the best point from which to
commence its operations, either north or south. Stretching to the
northward, the Fijis would command immediate attention. How
could the present force be employed in that archipelago ? The
frigate would not be engaged in sounding among the coral reefs;
she might take her station in succession at the principal islands,
and with her boats and launch, to the latter of which has been af-
fixed a compact, well-made engine, of five horse power, provided
by the prudential forecast of Commodore Jones, might survey the
principal harbours of the largest island, and of all others within
twenty or thirty miles, while the minor vessels would be de-
spatched on more distant surveys to the other portions of the

116 LFTTERS OF A CITIZEN.

group. The frigate would be the headquarters, from whence aU
subsidiary expeditions would depart, and to which all returna
would be made. On board of her the charts would be prepared
from the notes and observations of surveying parties; and from
her the smaller vessels would receive protection, and every facility
in the execution of the duties allotted to them. Upon her decks,
or by her officers on shore, conferences might be held with the
native chiefs ; and if by a mild, conciliatory deportment their con-
fidence could not be won, the formidable aspect of such a vessel
would overawe and restrain them. If one of the smaller craft,
while engaged in surveys among the islands, or while in a high
latitude during the few months of the southern summer when it
would be proper to trust her there, should sustain any damage, she
could fall back upon the frigate, as upon a friendly haven, for suc-
cour and repairs. Shipwrecked mariners now in captivity might
be rescued, and their deliverance would, probably, be accomplished
by the mere exhibition of a force adequate to compel their libera-
tion. The sick from the store-ship, brigs, or schooner, might be
made more comfortable on board the frigate, while from her crew
their places could be supplied with fresh hands.

The two largest islands in the Fiji cluster are Navihictevoo to
the south, and Fikanova to the north, both of which contain fine
harbours. These would form at different times, according to
their proximity to the scene of action, the rendezvous of the ex-
pedition, while the hydrographical and scientific labours were go-
ing on, by means of the frigate's boats and the smaller vessels, in
the various portions of the group. This archipelago of islands is
not a mere collection of barren reefs and sandbanks, but it is inhab-
ited by, it is supposed, one hundred and fifty thousand natives, of
whom, as well as of the varied produce of their country, we pos-
sess no authentic information. And yet, from a single port in the
United States, we have had near a dozen vessels engaged, as al-
ready stated, in procuring from the members of this cluster such
articles as were suitable to the China market. In exchancre for
these, rich returns have been made to this country, the duties on
which have for years added to our national revenue. But these
are matters you have studiously kept out of sight in all your re-
ports. If you were ignorant of the facts, which, in charity, I have
sometimes been tempted to believe, that you are not disposed

LETTERS OP A CITIZEN. 117

to become acquainted with them I know from the circumstance
that you have avowed your intention not to look at the memorials
to Congress praying for the expedition, nor to the reports of com-
mittees setting forth its objects, while making up your mind of
what the material and jDersonel of the enterprise should consist,
when it was to sail, and what it was to do.

Putting the case that the exploring squadron had accomplished
all that was necessary to be done at the Fiji Islands, where would
you next direct its course ? In every direction from that point it
would find duties to perform ; but I wish to bring you down from
your generalities to something specific, and, therefore, repeat,
where would you next direct its course ? Perhaps it is not re-
spectful in me to propose this question, recollecting, as I do, that
your knowledge of geography and our interest in the seas to
which I refer only enabled you to name three places on the globe
in your general instructions for the guidance of the expedition,
and all of these as well known as the port of Brazil, the Falkland
Islands, or New-Zealand.

About seven hundred miles northeast from the Fijis lies the
Navigator Group. Let this be considered the next point of gen-
eral rendezvous. In the passage thither the lesser vessels might
vary their routes, touching at and fixing the positions of the west-
erly and least known portions of the Friendly Islands ; while the
frigate might show herself in the principal harbours, hold commu-
nications with the natives, and, by so doing, promote the interest
and add to the security of our shipping in that quarter. The Samoa,
or Navigator's Group, was discovered by the French circumnavi-
gator, Bougainville, in 1678, and again visited by La Peyrouse in
1788, more than a century afterward. M. de Langle, the com-
panion of La Peyrouse, with a number of his men, were killed by
the islanders. In consequence of this catrastrophe, an impression
prevailed for many years that these islands could not with safely
be visited. Nothing to be relied on in the hydrography was
given by the French discoverers ; and Kotzebue, who touched at
this group subsequently, did not correct a single error of his pre-
decessors. Even Norie, in his epitome, gives the names of the
islands different from those they bear on his charts of the Pacific,
and neither are correct. This archipelago consists of eight isl*
ands, and contains not less than one hundred and sixty thousand

J 18 LETTERS OF A CITIZEK.

inhabitants. So far from it being unsafe to hold intercourse with
them, the natives are now known to be among the most docile of
the Pacific islanders. It was formerly supposed that there were
no harbours in this group. This is not so ; Tutuila has two, m
one of which the Pennsylvania, and, of course, the Macedonian,
might ride at anchor. Opolu is from one hundred and fifty to two
hundred miles in circumference, and has a fine haven open to
the north. The bottom is sandy, and within twenty yards of
the shore there are five fathoms water. A small river disem-
boo-ues into the bav. One would imagine the Macedonian might
get into such a harbour without much difficulty. The largest
member of the cluster is Savaii, which is at least two hundred
and fifty miles in circumference, with lofty mountains, which may
be seen at the distance of seventy miles.

Thus it appears, sir, that one of the most considerable, as well
as the most populous groups in the Pacific, lying in the neighbour-
hood of the Society and Fiji Islands, and in the same range with
the New-Hebrides, New-Caledonia, &c.,rich in all the productions
of the tropics, remains to this day, so far as a minute and prac-
tical knowledge of it is concerned, a terra incognita. Yes, sir,
and this is not all; it lies in the very track of our great whaling
operations, and a survey of its fine harbours — valuable from their
abundant supply of all the varied productions of the tropics —
would be of immediate and incalculable advantage to our fisheries
and other commercial interests in that quarter.

Thus might I proceed, sir, if the limits within which I must
confine myself would permit, to enumerate the islands and clus-
ters of islands which the expedition should visit. I might show-
how our trade could be rendered more secure, as well as greatly
increased, by opening new markets for our agricultural and man-
ufacturing productions. Yes, sir, augmented to an extent of
which you probably never dreamed, or, at least, if you had any
idea of it, you carefully kept your knowledge ^ert/w while speak-
ing of the expedition. It were an easy mnttcr also to show how
one or two of the minor vessels might and ought to make their
way south during the most favourable months of the southern
summer, and afterward, on the approach of winter in the soulhern
hemisphere, fall back to participate in the surveys going on among
the islands. By these efforts to reach high southern latitudes, re-

LETTERS OF A CITIZEN. 119

peated each year on different meridians, great acquisitions could
and would be made to our present knowledge of the southern
seas, and the nation would be reimbursed for its outlay by the
opening of new channels of trade in animal furs.

Sir, talk as you may about the expense of the undertaking, the
country owes the amount, ten times told, for the revenue collected
from the varied trade in the regions alluded to ; a revenue ob-
tained without the expenditure of a dollar for the protection of the
contributors thereto. But even if the debt were not already due
lo the unaided enterprise of our citizens, the benefits which must
follow would repay, with noble interest, the expenses incurred.
WIio, then, that looks at the great national purposes to be attained,
will assert that the force prepared is too large ? Sir, it should be
increased by two more small vessels of one hundred and thirty
tons each, if any alteration be made ; and this, too, with reference
lo ils important naval and hydrographical labours, which are the
primary and paramount objects that led to the action of Congress.
I have yet to speak of the corps of naturalists which has been or-
ganized. What, in harmonious action with the naval officers,
may be expected from that corps ? I undertake to show that no
comparison with "the most successful expeditions of like charac-
ter heretofore sent out by the maritime powers of Europe" will
justify a reduction of their numbers. Sir, I will go into the com-
parison anon in all its bearings, and you shall be welcome to
all the support you can draw from it. Upon the issue of that
comparison the friends of the expedition might fearlessly rest
their cause, as in it they will find a triumphant vindication of
what they have done and propose to do, notwithstanding the com-
mission you appointed in Jime last have told us that, had they
" been called upon before any preparations had been made, to
state the number and character of the vessels luhich, in their
opinion, would be best calculated to secure the attainment of these
proposed objects, they certainly icould not have recommended
those ivhich have been prepared:' Sir, I am astonished that you
should have introduced this isolated sentence in your report to
the president aixl Congress, though I can readily perceive the
motive for doing so. What, sir, were the "proposed objects,"
for the attainment of which that board of officers would have rec-
ommended a different force ? The public will see when the in-

120 LETTERS OF A CITIZEN.

formation called for is published. In your instructions to that
board, sir, you kept out of view all the important and leading op-
erations to be performed among the islands of the Pacific. You
told the members that the objects of the expedition ivere to go as
near the South Pole as could be done with safety. Confined to
that branch of the undertaking, the force would be too large ; and
the commissioners, governed by your instructions, did right in
saying so. You were grievously chagrined at not being seconded
in your plan of mutilation by the report of that body, and, for a
lime, allowed the preparations to go on with a much better grace
than you had previously done, though I never imagined you
would permit the squadron to depart before the meeting of the
present Congress. The condition of the national finances prom-
ised you much ; while the possibility that Congress, wearied
and disgusted with the delay and expenses already incurred,
might allow you to break up the " whole concern," or to cripple
and send it out on a scale which would mar its usefulness, was
doubtless a source of self-complacent reflection to you. Other-
wise how shall we account for the fact that, the moment you
heard of the greatly-to-be-regretted indisposition of Commodore
Jones, you renewed, with indecent haste, your former efforts at
cutting down, which, with you, means the same as cutting up 1
Instantly another commission is organized, with which you hope
to succeed, though disappointed by the first. Sir, I respectfully
inquire, what instructions have you given this new commission ]
Have you presented the whole subject, in all its bearings, fully
and fairly? Have you handed in the correspondence between
Commodore Jones and the former board ? If you have done this
in good faith, then you will not be sustained. If you have not,
the report will be made on a partial exparte statement, and will
be undeserving the consideration which the opinion of the officers
selected, under other circumstances, would be entitled to. I shall
write you again.

I have the honour to be.

Very respectfully, your fellow

CITIZEN.

N«w.york, D«c«mb<w 28, 1837.

LETTERS OF A CITIZEN. 121

XI.

To the Honourable Mahlon Dickerson, Secretary of the Navy.

Sir,
Perhaps I ought lo apologize for affixing your name lo the head
of this letter, inasniuch as I now intend to speak of the scientific
labours to be perfornied by individuals attached to the expedition.
To this department of the enterprise, notwithstanding all your
correspondence with learned societies and your many professions,
you are inveterately hostile. Well do you know that ihc very
measures you are at present urging will break up the scientific
corps, and render nugatory all the lime and means expended in its
ample preparations ; that they will destroy the efficiency of the hy-
drographical department, in which the naval officers, as a body,
would find constant and arduous professional employment. Of the
duties of the latter, as regards hydrography, I spoke concisely in
my last letter. With no complaint from the people in any quarter
against the magnitude or expenses of the undertaking, as now
contemplated, but, on the contrary, with the public voice every-
where in its favour, you cannot hope to escape the accountability
to which your official action has subjected you ; an accountability
that few men wowld be willing to incur for all the honours and
emoKiments of your office, even though the incumbent might hoard
wpjive thousand dollars per annum !

I have asserted that you were hostile to the scientific corps,
malgre all you have said and written to the learned upon the sub-
ject. You commenced its organization with extreme reluctance;
and it is notorious that you used the most extraordinary efforts to
create jealousies between its members and the naval officers.
When the principal savans were selected, having first been
strongly recommended by our learned societies, their appointment
teas not your act, but the credit of it belongs to the late executive,
who compelled you to perform this galling duty. That distin-
guished individual took a most lively interest in the expedition ;
and, as some prominent members now in Congress, as well as
yourself, are perfectly aware, was resolved that, so far as he was
concerned, it should be sent out in all respects worthy of the na-

Q

122 LETTERS OF A CITIZEN.

tion from which it emanated. You spoke to him of what other
countries had done, and lie told you what this country should, do.
In proof of his design that the enterprise should be all that its
best friends desired, behold your own words, quoted from your
annual report in 1836, in which you vouch for the late president's
hberal sentiments in the following conclusive statement :

" As, however, it ivas your earnest wish that the intentions Oj
Congress in authorizing this measure should be carried into ef-
fect with the least possible delay, and that the expedition should
be fitted out on the extensive and liberal scale which the indica-
tions of jmblic opinion seemed to require,'''' &c., &c.

And how have you fulfilled, how are you now fulfilling, the
wishes of the late head of the nation ? But I forbear ! The prin-
cipal appointments in the corps were made twelve months ago,
and its members severally accepted their commissions. Relin-
quishing all other employments, they held themselves in readiness
for active service at a moment's warning; and Congress, at the
last session, made provision for their pay for 1837. Some of these
gentlemen were connected with the most respectable institutions
in the country ; and others, to my knowledge, had refused pro-
fessorships. From December to the 4ih of July last you kept
them in suspense, and without salary; although each of them, du-
ring that interval, was more or less employed, in some instances
under the authority of your department, in labours having direct
reference to their duties as members of the scientific corps.

"Thousands at his bidding speed,
Who post o'er land and ocean wiihoul rest :
They also serve who only stand and wait."

But I waive, for the present, further details respecting this por-
tion of your official conduct, as I wish to speak of the organiza-
tion of the corps.

There is no part of the preparations of this expedition, sir, more
commendable, in every respect, than the arrangements made for
scientific research. To enlarge on the utility of such observation
would be insulting to the intelligence of all who pretend to keep
pace with the intellectual progress of the age. The science of
the whole country, individually and collectively, is deeply con-
cerned in the result of the expedition. Its votaries have looked
forward witli pride to the not distant day when this country should.

LETTERS OF A CITIZEN. 123

wipe off, at one glorious effort, the taunting imputation so long
cast upon her character, that she has never contributed to the com-
mon stock of knowledge for the benefit of mankind, while she was
constantly availing herself of that collected by oiliers. In what
manner can you and your commissions atone to the nation for the
frustration of these hopes ? I mean to treat the members of your
recent commission as I treated the former, with courtesy and fair-
ness. The public, however, will be anxious to see iheir reports,
and the instructions under wliich ihey acted, \^'ilh the evident
effect, if not with the dt^sign, of weakening the claims of ihc ex-
pedition, and of producing disaffection towards it in the nav;il ser-
vice, you stated in your annual report lo the president in Decem-
ber, 1836, that '■^ scientific researches formed the most important
objects of the expeditiony If they were so, why did you not in-
vite one or two individuals, distinguished for their scienlific at-
tainments, to meet and confer with your late commission ? This
you did not do, and we shall now behold your efforls to carry out
the views of the body; which views, I shall be able lo sliow, go
to defeat the very designs which, you have said, formed tlie im-
portant objects of the expedition. Hence it becomes necessary to
state the reasons which render this division of the enterprise pe-
culiarly essential to the accomplishment of iis desired ends.

The expeditions heretofore sent to the Pacific have, with a few
unimportant exceptions, been despatched on some special errand
unconnected with general exploi'ation ; as the survey of some
particular coast, harbours, straits, or group, the observation of
some phenomena in astronomy or physics, the opening of some
new channel of commerce, or the like ; and, of course, the number
of naturalists accompanying them was proportioned to their con-
fined field of action. Were this squadron designed merely to
touch at a single point, or only to visit islands already partially
explored, the number of naturalists would be greater than neces-
sary. But the actual plan of this undertaking is, you must own,
altogether different. The space within which ils operations will
be carried on may be said to extend from 20^ north of the equator lo
the farthest attainable point south, and to comprise the entire breadih
of the Pacific, from the western shores of Soulh America to the
eastern confines of Asia; for over the whole of that wide expanse
we have interests afloat exceeding in amoimt those of all the mar

124 LETTERS OF A CITIZEN.

itime powers of Europe combined. This vast theatre of observa-
tion embraces islands of all dimensions, from New-Holland and
New-Zealand down to the modest coral reef; and includes every
climate, from the prolific torrid zone to the extreme limits of ani-
mal and vegetable life. I do not affirm that every spot deserving
notice can be examined by this flotilla ; far from it ; but I do say
that those places promising the richest return in science, and most
immediately connected with our commercial marine, can be visit-
ed, if the expedilion shall depart unshorn of its strength.

If, then, the intended sphere of observation be more extensive
than has been proposed in any former enterprise attempted by the
European maritime powers, it is only in accordance with our par-
amount interests ; and the number of observers should be corre-
spondingly enlarged, as also their facilities increased. This has
been done by the selection of individuals, most of whom have
given evidence of their qualifications by their previous labours;
and all of whom, as before stated, have received the recommen-
dations of persons whose authority in these matters is conclusive.

Let us then take a glance at this corps, as regards its numbers
and efficiency, in order that you may have an opportunity of ta-
king specific exceptions to it in detail. Come boldly forward, sir,
before the intelligence and science of the country, state your ob-
jections, and abide the issue of their verdict. This will be better
than to look for precedents as a guide for an enterprise wholly
unprecedented in the multiplicity and importance of its objects.
I suppose that, in the absence of official communication, the sci-
entific department may be said to consist of :

1. A Philologist.

2. A Meteorologist, to whom is assigned Natural Philosophy
in general, or Physical Science.

3. A Chymist, Mineralogist, and Geologist.

4. A Geologist, to whom is especially assigned Organic Geol-
ogy-

6. A Botanist.

6. An assistant Botanist.

7. An Anatomist.

8. A Zoologist, to whom is assigned Malacology and Actiiiol-
ogy, or all shellfish and soft marine animals.

9. A Zoologist, to whom is assigned Entomology, car insect*
of the land and sea.

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LETTERS OF A CITIZEN. 125

10. A Zoologist, 10 whom is assigned Ichlhyology and Herpe-
tology, or fishes and reptiles.

11. A Zoologist, to whom is assigned Ornithology and Mam*
malogy, or birds and quadrupeds.

ARTISTS.

12. A Zoological Draughtsman.

13. An assistant Zoological Draughtsman

14. A Portrait Painter.

15. A Landscape Painter.

16. A Botanical Draughtsman.

MECHANICAL ASSISTANTS.

17. A Machinist, to repair instruments.

18. A Taxidermist, to prepare and preserve specimens.

Thus ten departments only are designated, which are filled by
persons engaged in scientific research ; two to each vessel of the
squadron ; and the sum total of savans employed is not so great
as has been sent out from Europe on similar expeditions, much
more limited in other respects. Nearly forty years ago the
French sent out an expedition of discovery under Baudin to the
Australian region, called forth by a spirit of emulation and a jeal-
ousy of national honour, excited by what the English had done
and were doing in that quarter. The enterprise was planned at
the time the army of reserve was about to undertake the pas^sage
of the Alps. The force consisted of two corvettes of thirty guns
each, and a schooner; the corps attached to which included twen-
tv-three persons, viz., two astronomers, two hydrographers, five
zoologists, three botanists, two mineralogists, five artists, one gar-
dener and four assistants, one architect and draughtsman. But
this is anticipating, as I propose to reserve for my next letter a
comparison of the present undertaking with what the "maritime
powers of Europe" have done. From the majority of former Eu-
ropean enterprises of discovery this expedition diflfers in several
essential particulars.

First. In the appointment of a philologist ; not a person merely
to collect vocabularies, but one versed in the stmcture and affilia-
tion of languages, and capable of throwing light on the origin,
migration, and history of the varieties of the human race.

Secondly. In the iney^ased number of artists. Of these there

126 LETTERS OF A CITIZEN.

are five ; and let it be borne in mind that to them is committed
the task of dehneating not only every object in the scenery ne-
cessary to convey a correct idea of the islands visited, the exact
physiognomy and appearance of the natives, their manufactures,
habitations, &;c., but also of portraying numerous species in nat-
ural history, of which the representations are required to be ex-
ceedingly minute and accurate ; and through these means of fix-
ing by ocular demonstration what words alone can never convey
with that correctness so indispensable in the details of science.
Were it possible to reason with you in any matter connected
with this measure, it would be easy to show ihat the number of
artists should be augmented. Most certainly, a decrease in their
numbers would seriously affect the interests of the expedition.

Thirdly. In the selection of professional men for each distinct
subdivision of scientific inquiries, who are expected to devote
their exclusive attention to that branch of science which has been
more immediately the subject of their investigation, is the number
of departments to which principals have been appointed too great ?
You say that such is the case ; but the reply is conclusive that
this division has been made in accordance with the suggestions of
persons of the first scientific attainments ; and that there is no one
of the departments which is not considered to be of suflficient im-
portance to form a science of itself, and to have professors during
their whole lives solely devoted to its cultivation !

Fourthly. In the appointment of a meteorologist and mechan-
ical philosopher, not merely to make barometrical and ihermomct-
rical experiments, but an individual uniting a tliorough knowl-
edge of the properties of matter with a capacity for acute original
research.

Fifthly. In zoology. Here, instead of a single zoologist, with
four or five assistants, aide naturalistes, the respective branches
are allotted to diflferent naturalists, each of whom, however indus-
trious, has an ample field for his labours. The zoologists, there-
fore, will not be merely collectors sent out to grasp up animals
and preserve specimens for home inspection and dissertation,
but men of high ac(|uiretnenls sent out to siudv the organic world
alive. Zoolocry, in addition to that of the animal world, includes
the physical history of the varied tribes of man. It is to zoology
chiefly that anatomy is now looking for light ; and many animals,

LETTERS OF A CITIZEN. 1 2T

hitherto only known through the medium of books, may be sub-
mitted to the anatomist during the contemplated voyage. The
variety in the structure of living beings is immense ; almost every
distinct creature having some peculiarity of orgaiuzalion, and af-
fording opportunities to elicit truth. 'I'he same zoological laws
influence ourselves and the meanest insect ; and the muscle which
moves a finger at our wish, we know not by what secret connex-
ion between will and motion, acts from the same cause as does
that which controls the foot of a fly.

From a corps organized on the present plan great accuracy of
research may be expected. Such has not been uniformly the re-
sult of expeditions despatched to the Pacific, nominally for scien-
tific purposes, by the " maritime powers of Europe." With the
facilities which the men of science attached to this expediiion are
afl'orded in their preparation, and, more than all, from the princi-
ple of the division of labour that has been adopted, a decided im-
provement, even on " the most successful of the expeditions sent
out by the maritime powers of Europe,^'' may be fairly anticipated ;
and this, you will find, the learned on the other side of the water
will not hesitate to acknowledge. Divided as their labours are,
they will be able to go over their ground thoroughly, and to glean
all possible information on every subject which comes within the
scope of their researches. Sir, would it not be honourable to our
national character if the observations and collections made through
the agency of our own naval and scientific intelligence should be
distinguished above all others by their accuracy and complete-
ness ; and if, when any doubt was raised concerning the position,
natural history, or language of any island, an appeal to the records
of the South Sea exploring expedition should be sufficient to set
the question at rest? Sir, the man is to be pitied who could not
find more pleasure in the contemplation of such results tlian in
darkly brooding over the ways and means by which he might
prevent them ; but, while he is to be regarded with commiser-
ation for his want of sympathy with noble impulses, I think you
will own that the power to crush or cripple their designs should
be taken from him.

I have spoken of the number and qualifications of the members
of the civil corps, as well as of the apportionment of their duties.
I would now say a word in reference to the preparations they have

128 LETTERS OF A CITIZEN.

made. Tliis is the more necessary, as you are at present throw-
ing, or striving to throw, discredit upon tlie undertaking, by rep-
robating these prehminanes as extravagant. I know thtit you do
not pursue this plan on all occasions ; but at the time and place,
and in the presence of persons, when, where, and on whom you
think it will produce the most effect.

You stated, in a report to Congress in February last, that " all
the books, instruments^ and charts necessarij for any scientific eoc-
peditioii had been procured ;^^ though, in your present report, you
are obliged to own that " it ivas necessary^'' (after the date of that
assertion) ''to procure a great variety of articles for the gentle-
men of the scientific corps." On the 29lh of August and 12lh of
October you placed money in the hands of Commodore Jones,
as also, to a small amount, in the hands of two members of the
corps, and then told us that " this unusual course was adopted
that there might be no delay in the sailing of the expedition^
What mockery, I had aliv.cf't <z:'i. 'vhat trifling with the intelli-
gence of the country, is this flimsy justification of your tardiness
of action ! If you had put this fund into the hands of Commo-
dore Jones in October, 1836, instead of October, 1837, and in
other respects performed your duty, you might have been indulged
in speaking of your "unusual course" to prevent "delay in the
sailing of the expedition."

You were at Pliiladelphia in July last, and, by appointment,
met a portion of the members of the corps in the hall of the
" American Philosophical Society." A number of scientific gen-
tlemen besides the corps attended. You then found that, so far
from everything necessary having been procured, as slated in
your report of February last, almost every requisite was still
wanting ; and this, be it remembered, was fifteen months after
the authorization of the measure by Congress. You were liberal,
however, in your expressions at that interview, and said you
wished the corps to have a full supply of every necessary article,
and even " a little more." Fortunately for the defence of this
portion of the enterprise, the parties concerned were not the sole
judges of what was required for their use in books, instruments,
and other appliances. A commission of six distiniruishod mem-
bers of the " American Philosophical Society of Philadelphia"
was organized to examine into and judge of the propriety and

LETTERS OF A CITIZE^f. 129

Utility of the requisitions made by the members of the corps, each
for his own department. This commission consisted of the fol-
lowing gentlemen, whom to name is to guaranty that whatever
they approved was correct: Peter S. Duponceau, Chairman,
Professor Robert M. Patterson, Director of the Mint, John K»
Kane, Esq., Clement C. Biddle, Esq., Professor Henry C. Vet-
hake, and George Ord, Esq. This commission devoted its time
to a careful and rigid investigation of every requisition made by
the corps ; conferred with the members of the latter ; and, finally,
approved every purchase or preparation of consequence which
had been made ; and, without its sanction, nothing agreed upon
by the individuals of the corps themselves was conceded by your
department. Nobly, sir, did the commission meet and discharge
the duties which a devotion to the interest of science, and a pride
in what the country was about to do, could alone have induced
them to assume. They exhibited no narrow views, but were
liberal, though not too much so; and in the result of their exami-
nation the country has every security for the fitness of the or-
ganization which has been adopted and of the preparations made.
It was, of course, to be expected that, in constructing the plan
of an enterprise so extensive and so important, some imperfec-
tions of detail would unavoidably occur; but I think I shall be
able to show, in my next letter, that a comparison with the
" most successful expeditions sent out by the maritime powers
of Europe" will demonstrate, that any attempt to reduce its num-
bers or alter its organization would be the most direct mode of
greatly impairing its usefulness, if not of rendering it a nonentity.
During the long period which has elapsed since the appointment
of the scientific attachees, each has naturally applied himself to a
preparation for his particular division of art or science ; and has
collected books, procured instruments, and pursued studies, hav-
ing exclusive reference to his designated duties. To break up the
corps now, when those composing it have made their arrange-
ments for a long absence, and laid in their slock of clothing and
sea stores, would be not merely to frustrate many and well-
founded hopes, but to subject these gentlemen, in addition to what
they have already suffered, to serious pecuniary loss. Such a
course would be, in fact, a flagrant breach of faith ; and yet, sir,
you know that what you are now labouring to etfect would pro-

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130 LETTERS OF A CITIZEW.

duce, should you succeed, this very end. Do you disclaim the
intention ? We shall see the value of tlie disclaimer by showing,
in the first place, the adaptation of the present force to the labours
to be performed ; and thcii that the reduction you are urging will
derange, if not preclude, all faithful and accurate research.

The arrangements for tlie accommodation of the corps in the
Macedonian are now fully completed, and will, in every respect^
enable its members to pursue their avoca^ons without interfering
with the necessary discipline of the vessel or mfringing on the
convenience of any other persons on board. All the officers of
the ship, whether of the wardroom, the steerage, or the cockpit,
occupy unencumbered the accommodations usually allotted to
them in a frigate. Commodore Jones caused a cabin to be con-
structed for his use on the spardeck, resigning the one usually
occupied by him on the gundeck to the sole possession of the
corps. It has been fitted up for their reception, and they have
all fixed upon their respective rooms ; each having ample space
for convenience and comfort. There they have space for their
library, which comprises at least one thousand volumes, rare and
valuable works on the whole range of the sciences in octavoes,
quartoes, and folios ; for their instruments ; and for the pursuit of
their investigations ; and there, also, do the artists find suitable
facilities, as regards location and light, for the most delicate de-
lineations of the pencil. On board the frigate, with all these ad-
vantages, would the whole corps be accommodated during the
transit from the United States to the field of their active labours.
Suppose, then, in reference to these labours, as I did with regard
to those of the hydrographers, that the squadron had arrived at
the group already mentioned when speaking of the latter ; for
ihe same illustration which applies in one case will hold good
equally in all others. The frigate has come to anchor at Nave-
hetevoo, where she will lie say a month before sailing for another
station. Tliis would give to the philologist leisure to pursue his
studios. A station would be taken on shore where magnciic and
pendulum observations would be made, for without such a facility
they could not be carried on. The presence of the frigate would
give safety to the comuuuiications with the shore. The botanist,
the entomologist, would, under proper escort, proceed to the inte-
rior, and the productions of the siiore, the valleys, and the mount-

LETTERS OF A CITIZEN. 131

ains would come under their cognizance. This plan of visiting
the interior opens a rich field to science ; one that has been but
scantily occupied and superficially examined by expeditions ori-
ginating with the " maritime powers of Europe." Islands thus
explored would, if even two of them should be found clothed with
sandal wood (to say nothing of other articles of traffic which
have already entered largely into our commerce with the Pacific),
repay to the nation the entire cost of the expedition. The physi-
cal force always at hand would perpetually facilitate research in
every branch. The same boats used in surveying the harbour of
an island would serve to debark the naturalists on its shores ; and
the same force which would be required by the commander in
his intercourse with the natives could likewise protect the civil-
ians in the performance of their several duties ; while the com-
pleteness with which the corps is organized would enable its
members to pursue their researches with rapidity, and make their
calculations without delaying the expedition for any length of
time ; so that the period required for scientific researches at the
largest islands would suit exactly that necessary for the move-
ments of the frigate while directing the hydrographical surveys.
But still more. One decided advantage in the scale upon which
this corps is formed, and which gives it a superiority over most
others hitherto sent out, is, that it is constituted of men more
capable of taking charge of separate departments. Instead of
being merely a body of collectors, acting under one or two heads,
here each savan has his favourite division ; while possessing, at
the same time, more or less knowledge of the branches consigned
to his companions. This will enable the men of science to adopt
a perfect system of reciprocity. The botanist, while plucking a
flower, would not overlook the insect feeding upon it ; because
the entomologist would repay the courtesy by gathering for him a
plant ; and each would be able to give to the other all requisite
information of their respective localities. This system would be
carried out, in like manner, with all the rest. All ground for jeal-
ousy would be removed by this division of labour ; each member
must stand or fall in accordance with his industry and ability, or
his want of these qualities in his own department. An addiliona.
inducement for reciprocal services exists in the fact, that all which
any one can do to assist his companions will be more than repaid

132 LETTERS OF A CITIZEN,

by what ihey can, conjointly, do for hira. Thus the individuaU
of the corps may separate, as occasion shall require, and a part of
ihem accompany the small vessels in their exploring excursions )
bringing, by these means, all portions of a group or island under
observation and contribution ; while such researches as cannot
be made without spending considerable lime at a single spot will
always be the province of those on board the frigate, which ves-
sel will constitute the floating friendly port and homestead of all.
To her all would return when the desired objects at any particu-
lar station had been attained. The hydrographer (and, in fact,
every officer would be a member of the hydrographical corps)
would carefully analyze and arrange the materials gathered in
each survey, and consecutively imbody them in one continuous
chart ; while the commander, after having directed all these varied
employments, would see that the resuhs were clearly and faith-
fully recorded, so that they should, through all coming time,
prove a guide to the mariner who followed in his track. The
corps, laden with treasures from every portion of the group which
they had separated to examine, would again meet on board the
frigate, from which they might, some of them, have been absent
for several months. Here, without incommoding others, or being
themselves incommoded, with the appliances of an ample library,
the use of instruments, and the assistance of artists, everything
could be analyzed and delineated, to be afterward labelled and
carefully preserved ; for all which operations there would be a
sufficiency of room. Thus, sir, it is apparent that no less to the
success of scientific inquiry than to the proper accomplishment of
the great objects of survey, friendly intercourse with the natives,
and the protection of our commercial interests, is the frigate in-
dispensable, Witliout her the expedition may be sent out, but it
will reflect comparatively little honour on the senders.

If rumour speak true, your recent commission, consisting of
Commodores Hull, Biddle, and Captain Aulick, without having
visited the squadron, and certainly without having had much time
to examine the real purposes of the enterprise, have given a re-
port which pleases you ; inasmuch as it is said to recommend the
substitution of the sloop-of-war Peacock for the Macedonian, and
a diminution in the muiiber of minor vessels. I cast no censure
upon this board, not having seen the instructions under which

I

LETTERS OF A CITIZEN. 133

ihey acted. For the sake of illustration, let it be supposed that
you succeed in your plans, and connnrience a reorganization.
The Peacock is a second-class sloop. Her wardroom will
scarcely accommodate her officers, and the cabin on her gundeck
is, of course, appropriated to her commander. Where will you
put the gentlemen of the corps ? Where will they eat ? Where
will they i^leep ? Their library, their instruments, their stores —
where arc these to be stowed away ? Their studies — in what
portion of the vessel are they to be carried on ? Where do you
design the artists should work ? Sir, it is idle to discuss the
point ; what you are now trying to do will break up the scientific
association, and you know that such is its tendency, that such will
be its issue. By crowding the savans on board the several ves-
sels you interfere with the limited space and comforts of the
watdi-cfficer ; and feeling this to be the case, their usefulness
would be destroyed. Then, with professions of extreme regret^
you will say their numbers must be reduced. Can you reduce
ihem without making their labours a mockery ? Can you do it
without blasting the hopes, and trampling on the pride and just
expectations of the country ? Let us see, sir, how your reduc-
tions are to be made. Take up the list, and begin, to you, the
welcome task !

First, the philologist : will you dismiss his name from the cat-
aloo-ue ? " Every new language is a new development of the
human mind." If the great study of mankind be man, surely his
most remarkable attribute — speech — should not be neglected.
The science of linguistics, or comparative philology, has received
marked attention, and is held in the highest estimation in this
country among men of gifted minds, if such individuals as Du-
ponceau, Antlion, Galatin, Gibbs, Pickering, Webster, and others
of high attainments are entitled to that distinction ; while in Eu-
rope, and especially in Germany, it receives the exclusive devo-
tion of some of the most learned men of the age. Wonderful
results have attended the progress of this comparatively recent
science, and still more astonishing developments may be expected.
It travels back to remote ages, far beyond the date of authentic
history, and shows the affinity among the various tribes of our
race, however they may be scattered over the face of the globe.
Indeed, by this science alone can the early migrations of man be

134 LFTTERS OF A CITIZEN.

traced. How glorious, then, for this country to be the first to ex-
tend her inquiries in this deeply interesting department of human
knowledge among the groups of the Pacific. But I must con-
clude my remarks upon this very interesting theme. Sir, you
cannot dismiss the philologist !

In the department of natural philosophy or physical science there
is but one individual, and, of course, he cannot be dispensed with.

Chymistry, mineralogy, and zoology, including organic remains,
will surely be allowed to afford ample scope for two, when it is
remembered that several professors find more than they can do
in this branch within the limits of a small state, though industri-
ously employed for years.

Your own attainments in botany, so often made manifest in
descanting on the flowers of a bouquet when in the hands of
youth and beauty, will, I am sure, secure to the expedition the
botanist and his assistant.

The department of zoology is well and ably filled by four nat-
uralists, exclusive of the comparative anatomist. Pause and re-
flect, sir, before you make war on this division. Remember that
zoology has ever been a leading object in scientific voyages. Look
at Cuvier ; examine his labours well ; and you will find that, vast
and comprehensive as v/ere the researches of that great zoologist,
he yet confined himself to but a portion of animated nature. Your
'* naturalists," your " scientific men," often have been exclusively
zoologists, and, in most instances, the number of professed zoolo-
gists sent out by the " maritime powers of Europe" has been
confessedly too small. The science is that of life, and the most
valuable observations are drawn from life. The members of this
great division will find, during the voyage, more, vastly more, than
they can perform, in observing the living world. Vain and pre-
sumptuous would be that man, therefore, who would at this day
undertake all the branches of zoology. Such a man might make
collections for a museum ; bring back specimens ; remnants of
death for the inspection of closet philosophers ; but the vastness
of his undertaking would place him, in the scale of natural-
ists, about where a pedler of Brandrcth's pills might be supposed
to take rank among regular physicians. How, then, can you
cut down in this division ? Answer, not to me, but to your coun-
try, whose glory you would mar.

LETTERS OF A CITIZEN. 135

Of the artists I have before spoken. Their number should be
augmented rather than curtailed. Numerous specimens in botany,
a vast variety offish and other objects, will require delineation at
every rendezvous before they shall have changed their natural
slate ; and there should be no delay in these matters. Twelve
thousand dollars would employ two more artists during the voy-
age, and it would be economy to engage their services. Surely,
then, you will not lay hands on the fine arts !

Thus you see, sir, that in every form and aspect in which the
subject can be reviewed, the rationale and argument are in favour
of the frigate and other vessels as now prepared. Equally appa-
rent is it that the alterations you are now urging are virtually
destructive to the entire enterprise. Razeed as you propose, it
would not meet public expectation, and the nation could feci but
liiile pride in it. It would fall short of what some of our state
governments, even those most adverse to expenditure, are now
doing by the employment of men of science, with large salaries,
in examining the natural history and geology of their respective
territories ; and it is well known that, in a pecuniary point of view,
those governments have been repaid a hundred fold for their
outlay.

Sir, in your report to the president in December, 1836, you ac-
knowledged that the " indications of public opinion" were in favour
of the expedition being prepared and sent out on an efficient and
liberal scale. I put the question to you direct ; has there been
any change in the "indications of public opinion" since that time?
Among the journals of the country, all of which have appeared to
meet upon this point as upon common ground, few, if any, have
expressed dissatisfaction at the original arrangement.

The most distinguished societies, literary and scientific, in the
United States, have not only manifested increased interest in its
complete preparation and opposed its curtailment, but have thrown
open their libraries for the use of the expedition, offering the use
of any books upon their shelves. Foreign societies, both in pri-
vate correspondence and by public resolutions, have expressed, in
the strongest manner, their anticipations of the benefits to be gath-
ered from its researches.

Indeed, not only our own country, but the nations of Europe,
would hear of a determination to reduce the naval force of the enter-

136 LETTERS OF A CITIZEN.

prise, and the number of its scientific observers, willi equal surprise
and derision. They would recollect that, forty years ago, France,
with her finances disordered and energies apparently taxed to the
utmost by a long and expensive war, and England, when similarly-
situated, both sent out splendid expeditions of discovery. The
former detailed a numerous corps of savans, which accompanied
the memorable army of Egypt, requiring that particular alieniion
should be paid to facilitating their labours.

They will remember, moreover, that whatever the military re-
nown which was reaped by France on the Egyptian plains, it was
not greater or more imperishable than that which accrued from the
investigations of its scientific attachees into the natural history, the
topography, the antiquities of the country. With these reminis-
cences they would be excusable in receiving the news of such an
unjustifiable sacrifice as that proposed, though urged on the plea
of economy (after the whole expense of preparation had been in-
curred), with feelings as much akin to contempt as astonishment.

In my next I will hold you to a comparison of this expedition
with what " the maritime powers of Europe have done ;" and will
show that, if the naval appropriation for 1838 must be reduced,
the exploring squadron is the last object to which, if we have a
due regard for our interest and honour, that reduction should be
suflfered to apply.

I have the honour to be.

Very respectfully, your fellow

CITIZEN.

N«w-York» January 1, 1838

XII.

To the Honourable Mahlon Dickerson, Secretary of the Navy.

Sir,
Had you been more specific in your frequent allusions to the
expeditions sent out by the maritime powers of Europe, from be-
hind the models of which you so frequently assail the arrange-
ments made for the first similar enterprise from this country, it
iiad been a much easier task to meet and confute vou ; it had

LETTERS OF A CITIZEN. 197

been a task, also, much more concisely performed. Sir, had you
looked at your counirymen in all llinl belongs to iheir history,
you had learned thai in all things wherein they have been distin-
guished, in every undertaking in which they have been most suc-
cessful, tiiey have been anything but servile imitators of the na-
tions of Europe, in tlie quo modo of their actions. They did not
study foreign models (except lo improve upon tliem) in framing their
institutions, nor in subduing the forest and turning ihe wilderness
into the abode of civilized man ; nor in their steam-navigation
and mechanical agents ; nor, above all, in their ship-building and
commercial enterprise. Our people, though the last to enter the
Pacific, have been chained down by no precedent in tlieir move-
ments there, but have pushed their ocean business in that (piarler
far beyond that of all oilier nations. Before you urge as authority
what the maritime powers of Europe have done, it is incumbent
on you lo show that these powers had equal interests afloat to be
protected and extended ; that the motives which prompted their
efforts were the same and as imperative as those which have pro-
duced action in our own government; and, unless this can be
shown, it is idle to talk about models. The force lo be employed
in any enterprise should be regulated by the consideration of what
that force is designated to perform.

The exposition to which I have alluded I might, wiih propriety
and justice, require ; but, not supposing you would find it conve-
nient to give it, I waive my right to interrogate you on this point,
and proceed to show how little, in all probability, you know in
detail of the expeditions to which we are so triumphantly referred
as patterns for our own.

Most of the early expeditions to the Pacific were despatched
there rather to plunder the Spanish settlements and to make con-
quests than for the purposes of discovery. They originated in
high daring and an ardent thirst for adventure. But I presume
you will not hold them up as models at this day, unless, indeed,
your statement, that the officers of our navy entered the sei-vice
ivith a view to distinguishing themselves by deeds of arms, hinted
at their emulating the forays of the bucaniers, in preference to
the more peaceful exploits of modern discoverers. There are,
then, but comparatively few enterprises of discovery with which
1 need stop to institute comparisons. I will take those of most

138 LETTEHS OF A CITIZEN. *

celebrity. As regards the English expeditions, I need not go far-
ther back than that of Cook ; and, among the French, to that of
Dentrecasteaux. Of what, sir, did the latter consist, and what
were the objects it was fitted out to attain ?

In 1781, as no news had been received of La Peyrouse for three
years, " the National Assenribly decreed that the king should be
desired to arm one or several vessels, in which should be embarked
scientific men (savans), naturalists and draughtsmen, and to give
llie commander the double mission of searching for La Peyrouse,
and making, at the same time, researches relative to the sciences
and commerce; in taking all measures in rendering that expedi-
tion, independent of the primary object, useful and advantageous
to navigation, geography, commerce, and the arts and sciences."

Nothing like general exploration entered into the plans of this
voyage, and yet Dentrecasteaux required of the government two
vessels of five hundred tons each. In this mission, acquisitions in
geography, commerce, navigation, and the arts and sciences, were
secondary objects; and yet there were attached to these vessels
two astroriomers, two hydrograpliers, five naturalists, two garden-
ers, and two painters. Comparing, then, the limited range marked
out for that undertaking with the wide sphere of our present en-
terprise, and contrasting the necessary minuteness in scientific
rescHrch at this day with the far inferior accuracy which con-
sisted with the state of science then, you will find that, as re-
gards both naval force and the number of scientific observers,
you are totally unsustained in your position ; nay, that you must
add to rather than subtract from the force of the expedition as
already organized.

Come, sir, let us proceed with the comparisons you have pro-
voked, and prepare to stand or fall by the issue. You have used
the words " recent voyages," and, for the sake of brevity, I will
come down to them. The voyage of Captain Frevcinet in the
Unanie, from 1817 to 1820, has been greatly and very justly cele-
brated. He had a corvette of twenty guns, and one hundred and
twenty men, besides officers. Here is a model that suits you ;
one to which you have impliedly referred Congress in justification
of your present course ; yet you might, with about as much pro«
priety, have cited the equipment of Lewis and Clark for their ex-
cursion over the Kocky Mountains as a pattern to be followed in

LETTERS OP A CITIZEN. 139

this expedition. Would you send the same force to fight the
King of the Sandwich Islands as you would to hunrible the Bar-
bary powers? Certainly not. And why? Because what was
amply sufficient for the one object would be totally inadequate
to the other. Very good. Now let us see, sir, what object the
French government had in view which Captain Freycinet was
despatched in a single corvette to effect.

"The principal object of the voyage," says Arago, "was to
ascertain the figure of the globe by pendulum experimcnls, and
the elements of terrestrial magnetism ; several questions in me-
teorology had also been indicated by the academy very worthy of
attention."

Freycinet himself superintended the pendulum experiments,
assisted by ten out of seventeen of his officers; and during ihe
whole voyage not a single series of observations was made in
which he did not take the principal share. Thermometrical and
hygrometrical observations were made hourly both by day and
night; examinations of the barometer every two hours; and, at
the same intervals, of the temperature of the sea. Tn the first
chapter of the narrative Freycinet says : " Our expedition is, I
think, the first maritime voyage which, being destined to the
progress of human knowledge, has not had hydrography for its
object. The determination of the form of the globe in the south-
ern hemisphere, the observation of magnetic and meteorological
phenomena, finally, the study of the three kingdoms of Nature,
formed the principal object of the mission."

Thus you perceive, sir, that in this French expedition hydrog-
raphy was even less than a secondary object, while in the Ameri-
can it is one of the most prominent. In the former, the protec-
tion of commerce, the rescue of shipwrecked mariners, the survey
of important groups, islands, and harbours, were altogether minor
considerations; indeed, were not even named ; while these consti-
tute important provinces of the latter, and have been especially
prayed for in the memorials, upon the representations of which
Congress has based its action. Do not these facts show the ab-
surdity of attempting to draw a parallel between the two under-
takings, and of endeavouring to make the scale of one an argu-
ment for the reduction of the other ? To Freycinet was granted
the entire selection of his own officers. How will your conduct

140 LETTERS OF A CITIZEN.

in this respect compare with foreign models ? " With regard to
piovisions," says Freycinet, " everything was allowed that could
be required, and extra clothing was furnished for each man gratis."

Large quantities of concentrated or fresh provisions were fur-
nished, and the commander has shown that the government saved
money by this liberality ; to say nothing of the preservation of
health to which it was conducive. How did you follow this for-
eign model in reference to extra clothing? 1 will answer. When
the different rendezvous for the shipment of seamen for the ex-
pedition were first opened, wages in the merchant service were
high, and recruits came in slowly. Again and again did Commo-
dore Jones urge the necessity of promising the men an allowance
of extra clothing, as well as the bounty authorized by Congress
even for the general service during the past year ; but you refused
to hold out the hope of cither. Finally, however, when, under
every discouragement, the complement of men had at length been
shipped, you graciously condescended to allow both.

Making you perfectly welcome to all the support the voyage
of Freycinet can afford you, I will now leave it and take up
another; but not till I have informed you that this commander
lost his vessel at the Falkland Isles ; from which extraordinary
fact you will perceive that a corvette may be wrecked as well as
a frigate ! !

Next in order of time comes the voyage of Captain Duperrey
in the Coquille in the years 1822, '3, '4, '5, seventy-two persons.
And for what was this vessel sent out? To hold conference with
the islanders of the Pacific, protect commercial interest, make
surveys, &c., &c., &c., and to combine with these accurate sci-
entific research ? Look at the work, sir, and you will then find
that the " objects of the voyage were again the study of the three
kingdoms of nature, magnetism, meteorology, and some observa-
tions relative to the determination of the figure of the globe." As
to hydrography, it " was proposed to establish or rectify the posi-
tion of a great number of points in different parts of the globe."
The character, language, manners, tVc, of the islamlcrs were also
to receive attention.

" To establish harmony," says Duperry, "we agreed beforehand
to divide our labours according to our predominant tastes."

M. Durvillc, Botany and Entomology.

LETTERS OF A CITIZEN. 141

M. Garnot, i „ , ^ ^.r , tt-

^ J > all the rest of rSatural History.

iVl . J_iesson, )

M. Gabert, Agent, Commerce and Industry of the Natives.

M. Lejeune, Drauglnsman.

M. Duperrey, Physic and Hydrography. Seven assistants.

Thus, sir, notwithstanding the limited sphere of action to which
the labours of Freycinet and Duperrey were confined, in compar-
ison with the vastness of that marked out for the South Sea ex-
ploring expedition, fifteen persons accompanied the former and
twelve the latter commander, who were engaged directly in sci-
entific researches.

From these two celebrated voyages, then, you may learn two
things : First, they were not fitted out or intended for the duties
expected to be performed by ihe present enterprise ; and, secondly,
that the scientific corps were more numerous, in proportion to liieir
field of action and number of vessels ; though not so well organized,
as regards the division of duties, as the present. In scientific re-
sults the voyage of Duperrey was decidedly inferior to that of
Freycinet, who preceded him; and even were this government
about to send out a single vessel for objects precisely similar, the
former ought not be selected as a model. Duperrey had but a mea-
ger supply of instruments, and only five chronometers. The
Tiean maximum irregularity of these chronometers varied no less
than twenty-three seconds and a fraction per day. Would you
liave the mean maximum irregularity of those used in this voyage
to run thus ? Duperrey made no experiments on the temperature
of the sea at great depths ; nor was he provided with a single
self-registering thermometer. Would it not be best to sell those
provided for this expedition unless we can find authority for using
them in some of the oiher expeditions sent out by the " maritime
powers of Europe ?" Duperrey " was authorized to appoint his
own oflficers," the same privilege which had been allowed Frey-
cinet. Mark that ! ! !

Captain La Place made a pretty little voyage round the world
a few years ago in the Favourite, of seven hundred tons and twen-
ty-four guns. What do you think of his enterprise as a model ?
What did he do ? Where did he go ? After doubling the Cape
of Good Hope he followed in the well-known track of modern
voyagers. He run down the African and Indian Oceans, passed

142 LETTERS OF A CITIZEN.

the Straits of Molaccas and entered the China Sea, which he left
by passing to the east of Java, to the west and south of New-Hol-
land, and soulii of Van Diemen's Land. 'J'hence returning nor-
llicrly, he visited New-Zealand, from which he sailed by the nnost
direct route to Valparaiso, and then proceeded round Cape Horn
and home. 1 question if you could have marked out a route more
barren of interest than that which he pursued. He took vviih him
no men of science, and gave to the world on his return a portfolio
of landscape drawings ! Would this modern effort of one of the
" maritime powers of Europe" be a suitable pattern for the naval
enterprise of this country ? It is not necessary to allude to the
English expeditions and discoveries. Those which they have re-
cently sent out under King, Owen, Foster, &-c., can form no ex-
amples for this country, as Captain King was employed in sur-
veying the Straits of Magellan and the east and west coasts of
Patagonia ; Owen on the coast of Africa ; Foster in making a few
pendulum observations.

Sir, I will not pay your judgment so poor a compliment as to
credit, for a moment, that you could regard the expeditions of Ross
and Parry, sent out for the sole purpose of making their way along
a frozen coast and among numerous islands in the polar seas to
determine a single question in physical geography, as models for
this expedition ; though I have seen these same voyages, by gen-
tle implication, held up for that purpose in the report of a com-
mittee of tiie Naval Lyceum at Brooklyn, who seemed to feel under
increased responsibility for their opinions from the circumstance
that they might be regarded as representing something like three
hundred naval officers ! ! !

J come now, sir, to the last great effort of the maritime powers
of Europe, as given to the world in the voyage of the Astrolabe.
A copy of this work was sent a year ago by the French as a
present to our government. It was a pretty conception, honoura-
ble to the French; and it will be honourable to us when we shall
be able to return the compliment. How often has this voyage
been the iheme of your remarks' How oIumi, nay, how con-
stantly have you relied on this voyage as a model, ami as a justi-
fication of your late proceedings? Ji has been a sort of stalking-
liorse for you, upon which you have endeavoured to rieie down the
present expedition. But, in sober truth, have you really got be-

LETTERS OF A CITIZEN. 143

yond the pictures in an examination of this work, great as it is
and splendidly as it has been brought out ? I very much question
if you have. At any rate, 1 hold you to the comparison even with
this voyage, and deny that from its pages any warrant can be de-
rived for a reduction of the naval force or number of scientific
observers in the exploring expedition. You have the work before
you, so have I ; come, then, to the comparison. This voyage
was made in the years 1S26, '7, '8, '9, in the corvette Astrolabe,
Captain D'Urville, with eighty persons, all told. What were its
objects ? ^rhey are set forth in the following extract from the in-
structions of the minister of marine, the French secretary of the
navy, to the commander.

" The king, in confiding to you the command of the corvette
Astrolabe, has wished to put you in a situation to explore some
of the principal groups of islands in the Pacific, which the Co-
quille only passed by hastily, and to give you the means of aug-
menting, as much as possible, the mass of scientific documents
obtained by this vessel in the years 1822, '3, '4.

" His majesty knows that you contributed much to the success
of this expedition, in which you seconded Captain Duperrey.
Being called to direct in chief the present one, you will realize,
wilhout doubt, all the hopes which have originated the project;
and the French navy will have to felicitate itself once more upon
the services which it renders to the sciences in associalinor itself

o

to the labours of those who profess them, and in submitting to
their mediations materials collected with as much skill as zeal in
all parts of the globe."

These instructions point out the purposes of this voyage.
They were to follow, measurably, in the track of the Coquille,
and, at various points in the Pacific, to make more minute obser-
vations where the other vessels had passed l)v haslilv. The mod-
els of the preceding enterprises had been followed in preparing
this ; while, with the exception of the attention paid to pendulum
observations by the former ones, their general objects were pre-
cisely the same ; and neither furnished any precedent for the
strength which the great interests of this country require should
be invested in our own expedition to those seas. Indeed, the
most that can be said in favour of this voyage, constituted as it
was, may not be too high praise ; though I am inclined to be-

144 LE'JTIilli OF A CrriZE.\.

lieve that nearly as much, aflcr all, was done in Paris lo make it
pre-eminent in the way of embellishments, and in the commenda-
ble style in which the French government got out the work, as
was effected by D'Urville in the South Seas ; nevertheless, the
contributions lo science were great, and I doubt if the French
people would be willing to resign the honour conferred upon
ihem by that voyage alone for a million and a half of dollars ! and
yet the citizens of France think as much of money as we do.
Let us, however, go somewhat more into detail, as I feel that 1
have you now on the last plank, and intend to remove even that
from beneath you. What were the contributions made to zoology
by the naturalists of the Astrolabe? Rich, you will answer.
Granted. But by whom were they made ? By any one ap-
pointed by the government? No, sir, the voyage would have
fallen below mediocrity in this important and leading division
of science had it not been for M. Quoy, a volunteer in the expe-
dition. In geology, too, the onl)' collections were made by the
same gentleman. Would you follow this example ? Would you
have a great nation, when making its advent in maritime discovery,
depend on adventitious aid ? Would you urge this as a model ?

Let us next take a glance at this model of models in its other
departments of science, and see what there is to be found lo war-
rant your proposed derangements in the scientific portion of the
exploring expedition. The meteorological researches consisted
of observations on the thermometer six limes a day, barometer
once a day, on the direction and force of winds, and general re-
marks on the direction and speed of currents. The experiments
of Freycinet and Duperrey were on a far more extensive scale.
The only marine thermometer taken out by D'Urville was broken
fifteen ujonths after the commencement of the voyage, and, conse-
quently, the column recording the varieties of pressure is, after
this date, a blank. Don't you lliink this part of the model would
have been nearer perfection if the French secretary of the navy
had furnished, at least, duplicates of instruments so liable to
fracture ?

Two of the four clironometers taken out by Captain D'Urville
were rendered useless, one by being carelessly wound up, the
other by firing; a salute. The remaining pair had very variable
daily rates, and both ran down at Tonga Tabou. Do you not

LETTERS OF A CITIZEN. 145

feel half convinced that this part of the model might be tinkered
1 little for the better ?

Observations on the magnetic dip present rather a meager
record. They were by no means equal to those made during
the two preceding French voyages, or by the late English expe-
ditions to the Arctic Sea. Indeed, all the needles appear to have
been spoiled during the voyage, and great discordances appear
among the results given by different needles at the same locality ;
they were only used, however, at sixteen places on shore. By
the *' sweet flowers of Suc-a-Sunny,"* you are ready to exclaim,
" what ignorance, what presumption is this ? Attempt to criticise
this great work, on which I have preached so much to members
of Congress, to the president, to everybody who would listen to
me !" Be patient, sir. If your zeal to defeat or cripple the ex-
ploring expedition has placed you in an untenable position, the in-
discretion is your own, not mine ; and you must abide the issue.
Yes, sir, prepare for utter confusion and defeat, when I tell you
that all and much more than I have said of your venerated model
is sustained by the opinion of the great Arago, the imbodied
soul of the science of Europe ; and if it were not, the committee
of the Naval Lyceum in their report have endorsed his wonderful
attainments, and fixed for you the standard of his authority.

" In 1829, immediately after the return of the Astrolabe," says
Arago, in his critique, " Captain D'Urville presented to the Acad-
emy of Sciences a series of works of every kind executed during
the long voyage of that vessel. Before the same body he read
his memoirs, and solicited its judgment ; and a commission was
accordingly appointed. M. Rossel made a favourable report on
the hydrographical part of the voyage, designating the officers
who executed the work. On the 26 ih of August, George Cuviex
paid a just compliment to the ability and zeal of the zoologists
of the Astrolabe, M. Quoy, the volunteer, and his assistant, Gay-
mard." M. D'Urville is complimented in the report as having
" personally collected a part of the insects of the collection de-
posited in the garden of plants."

On the 16th of November a tribute of praise was again award-
ed to M. Quoy and his assistant, M. Gaymard, for the geological
specimens they had brought home ; and, finally, the venerable
• Name of the honourable secretary's country residence in New-Jersey.

T

146 LETTERS OF A CITIZEN,

Des Fontaines spoke flatteringly of the botanical collections of
M. Lesson. It was, indeed, flattery to speak highly of the botan-
ical department of the Astrolabe, as we shall see anon. Arago
was charged by the academy with the examination of the physical
observations. He did not wish, he said, to confine himself to a
simple inventory. As in the voyages of Freycinet and Duperrey,
he attempted to discover the results with which science would be
enriched. But here "disappointment followed disappointment."
Discouraged " by the poverty of scientific observations recorded
in the ofiicial registers," he examined the nautical journals. Here,
again, he was disappointed ; while those of the former navigators
had been so varied, so rich, so interesting. The farther he ad-
vanced in his investigations, the more forcibly was he impressed
with the idea that the commander of the Astrolabe had voyaged
for three years " with his eyes and ears shut." " Had he" (D'Ur-
ville) " seen," Arago inquired, " the zodiacal light ? During the
fine nights of the tropics, had he ascertained its dimensions, its
limits, its exact position ? He had turned, one after another, all
the pages of the register of M. D'Urville, and was not able to
find one remote allusion t^o this remarkable phenomenon." Not
yet disheartened, the transparency of the ocean, the changes of
colour produced by the winds, according to their force and direc-
tion, the sudden variations of temperature, upon which Franklin
and Williams had already published the commencement of a work
so encouraging to the marine ; the Aurora Australis ; each of
these curious phenomena, the exact determination of which has
been sought with such ardour by the students of physical science,
was, Arago says, in succession the object of his laborious research ;
but in every case he arrived at the last page without having found
a word upon the subject.

At the frequent solicitations of Captain D'Urville and M. Tas-
teau, the editor of the voyage, Arago was prevailed upon, as he
says, " by the desire of obliging more than anything else," to make
out a digest. He had found here and there in the MSS. obser-
vations on the temperature of the sea, which, at that time, he sup-
posed were correct; but many of these experiments he subse-
quently found " were complete failures," though even these were
not without their use for future observers. It was especially
desirable to determine if submarine currents, directed from the

LETTERS OF A CITIZEN. 147

poles towards the tropics, were not the cause of the phenomena
loticed. It seemed probable that this question might be solved
by thermometrical observations made for that purpose. These
were made on board the Astrolabe, but were they conducted with
sufficient exactnes-s ? Arago says lie " does not hesitate to answer in
the negative," and then proceeds to point out the errors committed.
Indeed, after a long and minute analysis of the results of the voy-
age, he remarks, "it is now certain that, in cases of the most sim-
ple observations in the world, M. D'Urville has escaped none of
the errors he could possibly commit."

Now, sir, I can readily imagine the surprise created in your
mind at what Arago has said of the results of this voyage, for a
full account of which I refer you to a late number of the " Review
of the 19th Century." How is this unsatisfactory issue to be ac-
counted for? I will tell you in one line. Among the persons
engaged in scientific observations on board the Astrolabe I find
" M. D'Urville took charge of botany, entomology, meteorology,
geography, historiography."

You have the solution, sir. D'Urville undertook too much, and
failed ; and so will this expedition fail if you are permitted to cut
it down and reduce its naval and scientific corps. Human science
is too vast and too minute at the present day to allow of any man
taking so wide a range as that referred to.

In the volume of the voyage of the Astrolabe devoted to hy-
drography, one eighteenth relates to the Fiji Islands. The space
occupied in the work by observations on this archipelago is very
considerable ; on which account I select that portion for "compar-
ison ;" and here you will find your beau ideal of voyages is a model
only to be avoided. On the 25th of May Captain D'Urville came
in sight of the Fiji Islands, and passed by Ong-Hea Riki. He
was eighteen days in making his way through this group, during
which time he never anchored, nor did he make a survey of a
single harbour. He did not even send a boat on shore, except at
one place, and then only for the purpose of getting off an anchor
left there by som.e former vessel ; in allusion to which circum-
stance he remarks that " the natives appeared more disposed to
retain the boat than to give up the anchor." When D'Urville ap-
proached a cluster of islands, if the weather were clear, he first
made up his mind by sight alone whether they were five or thirty

148 LETTERS OF A CITIZEN.

miles distant, more or less, and then, by the old method of taking
their bearings by compass, made out their latitudes and longitudes
with wonderful accuracy, not only in degrees, but even down to
minutes and seconds. Was the day hazy, he went through the
same process of guessing at his data, and then drawing his con-
clusions with mathematical precision. Fortunately, the natives
boarded him and gave him the names of the islands. In his
" Tableau des Positions,^^ one hundred and ten islands of the two
hundred which this group, in all probability, contains, are ihus
conspicuously laid down ; although the whole time, in daylight,
consumed in making these mighty acquisitions to hydrographical
knowledge gives" only an average of two hours for the examina-
tion of each member of the cluster ! Wonderful results ! Beau-
tiful model for the exploring expedition. Sir, this group, with all
its riches in natural history, still remains to be examined. The
plan of D'Urville's voyage, and the force at his disposal, were alike
unsuited to the task ; and what he accomplished, for all that it is
worth to navigation, had almost as well remained undone. Three
months is the shortest period that the expedition, wiih all its force,
should remain in this archipelago !

As regards botany, your favourite science, tlie researches made
during the voyages of the Astrolabe were, in like manner, exceed-
ingly superficial. The only collections worthy of notice at all
were those made at New-Zealand and Ascension ; and even at
those places few new plants were discovered. Three hundred
and twenty species belonging to New-Zealand were known pre-
vious to D'Urville's visit there ; and on that occasion only one hun-
dred and ninety species were obtained, three tenths of which had
been seen and described in the voyages of Captain Cook by Sir
Joseph Banks, Dr. Solander, Sparmann, and the Forsters, and in
those of Vancouver, by Mr. Menzies.

M. Achille Richard, wiio prepared the botany of the voyage for
publication, could not have had a very exalted opinion of the la-
bours of D'Urville and M. Lesson in this department, for he has
not confined himself to their collection, but has compiled a general
Flora of New-Zealand, by copying the description of all the plants
found there, from Cook's first voyage to the present time. In this
branch, as in most others, your vaunted model was far inferior to
the voyages of Freycinet and Diiperrey ; indeed, the relative value

LETTERS OF A CITIZEN. ^49

and importance of the three expeditions, so far as botany is con-
cerned, are in the order of their priority in date. By far the most
extensive and valuable collections were made in the earliest, that
of Captain Freycinet ; Duperrey's is next in rank ; while the latest
(that of D'Urville in the Astrolabe) follows longo intervallo, both
as to the extent and interest of the specimens.

But although the botanical department of the latter expedition
was more imperfectly filled than in either of the two which im-
mediately preceded it, do not imagine that they were by any means
sans reproche in this division. In each instance a capital error
was committed in not sending out a botanical draughtsman. This
deficiency was, doubtless, seriously felt by M. Gaudichard, the in-
defatigable botanist who accompanied Freycinet, as he was par-
ticularly interested in vegetable anatomy and physiology, and must
have frequently desired magnified drawings and sketches of dis-
sections, (fee, which could only be made from the living plants.
In none of these expeditions were any researches of consequence
made beyond the coasts of the islands visited ; while at son>e
places (as Admiralty Island, the Carolines, and others), touched at
by Freycinet, the time allowed for observation was so limited that
M. Gaudichard did not even land ; but was obliged to content him-
self with what he could obtain from the water. From the mate-
rials collected, however, he prepared a digest of the botany of the
voyage, from which he deservedly gained high reputation ; and
this is the only instance in the three enterprises where the per-
son who collected the plants arranged and described them on his
return. So far the model is a good one. Those who collect
should be able to describe.

I trust, sir, you are now satisfied that a comparison of the or-
ganization, naval and scientific, of the "exploring expedition,"
with " the most successful expeditions of like character heretofore
sent out by the maritime powers of Europe," will afford no war-
rant for your efforts at reduction. On the contrary, were it possi-
ble for you to take the enlarged and practical views of a statesman,
as regards this subject, you would see the obvious propriety of in-
creasing the number of small vessels, which additional force could
be so advantageously employed in useful nautical labours, under
the general direction and protection of the flagship, at an expense
so trifling to the government. One would think, indeed, that a

150 LETTERS OF A CITIZEN.

true " Friend to the Navy," occupying your station, would be anx-
ious to employ as large a number of officers on a service so well
calculated to give them high attainments as well as distinction in
their profession ; to make them personally acquainted with seas
where our future seafighls must take place ; so that where they
should command they could themselves be pilots ! You would
also perceive that the results of the expedition might lead to the
formation of a hydrographical bureau in your department ; in a
word, that it would be of more importance to the navy than the
service of all the force in all other squadrons during the same pe-
riod !

1 must now, sir, take leave of you, and, in doing so, would ap-
peal, not to your candour, but to public justice, if I have not fairly
met and completely overthrown your objections, stated and implied,
to the magnitude of the scale upon which this expedition is orga-
nized ? Have I not shown that the naval force authorized and
the scientific corps engaged are barely adequate to the vast sphere
of action to be embraced, the multifarious objects to be accom-
plished, and the mighty interests involved ? Have I not shown
that your outcry about economy was a mere cloak for your enmi-
ty ; and that the remuneration of the country for its outlay would
be almost in geometric ratio with its degrees of efficiency ?
Have I not shown that the almost limitless field for those hydro-
graphical surveys so necessary for the protection of our wide-
spread commercial interests in the two Pacifies could not be ex-
amined with the care which humanity as well as good policy de-
mands, by an enterprise of inferior capacity ? Have I not fairly
met the comparisons you have invited, even with the climax of
your models, the voyage of the Astrolabe, which you have culled
par excellence from all the rest, and held up exultingly as a weap-
on of attack, a shield of defence, a precedent and a pattern ? This
voyage is in one respect, I own, worthy of all praise as well as
of imitation ; I refer to the magnificent style in which the whole
work has been brought out ! Have I not shown that, according
to your reasoning, the Pacific squadron should be broken up or
materially reduced ? You have on that station a ship of tlie line,
two sloops, and two schooners. On an average, half of this force
is constantly at anchor in the bay of Callao, the principal port of
Peru ; while the exports from the ITnitcd States to that republic,

LETTERS OF A CITIZEN. 151

for the year ending September, 1834, the latest returns within my
reach, amounted only to fifty-eight thousand eight hundred and
sixty-three dollars ; the price of a single whale-ship.

Now in this account, as you have done with reference to the
expedition, first put down the cost of the vessels, then calculate
and add the amount necessary to the mission for three years, and
behold what an enormous sum ! The whole of our trade protected
by our Pacific squadron has not amounted, since 1830, to a mil-
lion of dollars per annum ; and, notwithstanding the unsettled state
of the countries with which this traffic is carried on, they have no
force to prevent a sloop-of-war and two schooners from exacting
respect to our flag. What an argument here for reduction ! But
no statesman reasons thus. It is the settled policy of the country
to have constantly available an efficient naval force. The explo-
ring vessels should be regarded as a part of that force ; and the
only point at issue ought to be, whether this great nation could
afford the outfits, and forty-three thousand dollars a year for the
salaries of the civil corps !

Having now, as I feel, discharged my duty, it would give me
pleasure to anticipate that, like a generous antagonist foiled in a
hard encounter, you will yield with a good grace, as yield I think
you must ! ! ! Sorry I am to say, however, that I can find no 'pre-
cedent on which to base so pleasing a supposition. But where
can you take a fresh stand ? Let me hope in charity that your
dernier resort, after the choice of a new commander, will not be
once more to intrench yourself in inveterate obstinacy, and from
behind that impregnable barrier to issue your dicta against sci-
ence, humanity, commercial interests, and national honour !
Very respectfully,

I have the honour to be, your fellow

CITIZEN.

New- York, January 4, 1838.

THE END.

udl^i