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 within 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 whalemen 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^ 



