LETTERS OF A CITIZEN. 37 



committed to the hands 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 tiuo 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 ita 



