LETTERS OF A CITIZEN. 123 



wipe off, at one glorious effort, the taunting imputation so long 

 cast upon her character, llial she has never contributed to the com- 

 mon slock of knowledge for the benefit of mankind, while she was 

 constantly availing herself of that collected by others. In what 

 manner can you and your commissions atone to the nation for the 

 frustration of these hopes ? I mean to treat the members of your 

 recent commission as I treated the former, with courtesy and fair- 

 ness. The public, however, will be anxious to see their reports, 

 and the instructions under which they acted, \^'ilh th(; evident 

 effect, if not with the design, of weakening the claims of the ex- 

 pedition, and of producing disaffection lowaids it in the naval ser- 

 vice, you stated in your annual report to the president in Decem- 

 ber, 1836, that ^^ scientific researches formed the most imparl ant 

 objects of the expeditiony If they were so, why did vou not in- 

 vite one or two individuals, distinguished for their scientific at- 

 tainments, to meet and confer with your late commission ? This 

 you did not do, and we shall now behold your efforts to cany out 

 the views of the body; which views, I shall be able to show, go 

 to defeat the very designs which, you have said, formed the im- 

 portant objects of the expedition. Hence it becomes necessary to 

 state the reasons which render this division of the enterprise pe- 

 culiarly essential to the accomplishment of iis desired ends. 



The expeditions heretofore sent to the Pacific have, with a few 

 unimportant exceptions, been despatched on some special errand 

 unconnected with general eocploration ; as the survey of soine 

 particular coast, harbours, straits, or group, the observation of 

 some phenomena in astronomy or physics, the opening of some 

 new channel of commerce, or the like ; and, of course, the number 

 of naturalists accompanying them was proportioned to their con- 

 fined field of action. Were this squadron designed merely to 

 touch at a single point, or only to visit islands already partially 

 explored, the number of naturalists would be greater than neces- 

 sary. But the actual plan of this undei taking is, you must own, 

 altogether different. The space within which its operations will 

 be carried on may be said to extend from 20° north of the equator to 

 the farthest attainable point south, and to comprise the entire breadth 

 of the Pacific, from the western shores of South America to the 

 eastern confines of Asia ; for over the whole of that wide expanse 

 we have interests afloat exceeding in amount those of all the mar 



