LETTERS OF A CITIZEN. 65 



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 il, what, in the name 

 of common sense, would be the demands for specie there 1 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 eifort 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 exploratio?i, 

 one of about one hundred tons as a tender, and those accompanied 



I 



