LETTERS OF A CITIZEN. 67 



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 larger vessel to supersede 



