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 per cent, 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 sailings good storage^ and good 

 accommodations should be combined ; and not one of these qual- 

 ities was to be 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 the 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, aJ 



P 



