LETTERS, &c. 



i. 



To the Honourable Mahlon Dickerson, Secretary of the Navy. 

 SlR, ^ v 



In my opinion you hold one of the most important stations in\ 

 this or in any other country. To fill it, a man should know all 

 that is known of the seas, continents, and islands in the world. 

 He should be acquainted with their commerce, their products, and 

 with the character of their population. There have been men of 

 .mind in the office you now fill, who knew their deficiencies in 

 these matters, and nobly laboured to induce the nation to permit 

 them to take the proper means to obtain this information for the 

 benefit of the people and the department which they filled. You 

 have succeeded them ; and, permit me to ask, what have you done 

 to carry out their plans, or to propose new ones calculated to in- 

 fuse a proper tone and feeling in the service over which you pre- 

 side ? I shall speak plainly in these letters which I am about to 

 address to you. I take no pleasure in the task, but feel it an im- 

 perative duty to do so. This is my prerogative as a native citizen 

 of this country. The official acts of a public functionary may be 

 fully canvassed by the humblest citizen ; and while he confines 

 himself to truth, and to the use of courteous and gentlemanly lan- 

 guage, no merited censure can he charged to him. My feelings 

 and my fame are identified with the glory of our arts, our arms, 

 and our means of defence as much as yours or those of any other 

 citizen, for these things belong to the whole country. 



As far as our commerce and our navy are concerned, these are, 

 for good or for evil, intrusted to you, and for the influence you 

 exercise upon them you must be answerable at the bar of public 

 opinion; that tribunal which, sooner or later, v.iil do justice to the 

 wronged, however humble, and cover, with its deepest denuncia- 

 tions, the unfaithful, however high in station ! 



In the freedom of my soul,, I must say I have long doubted 



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