308 LETTERS OF A CITIZEN. 



furnish us with all your doings fairly and above-board. Secrecy 

 is unworthy of you and the station you occupy. You have in- 

 structed this board in such a manner as to shackle their opinions, 

 if I am not grossly deceived. Is it not something in this con- 

 tracted form ? 



" The objects of the expedition are to explore the seas of the 

 Southern Hemisphere, more particularly in high latitudes, and 

 in regions as near to the South Pole as may be approached with- 

 out danger ; to make, in the regions thus to be explored, all prac- 

 ticable surveys and observations, with accurate descriptions of 

 the same, so far as they may be connected with the geography or 

 hydrography by which the interests of commerce and navigation 

 may be promoted." Perhaps you may have dropped a word about 

 science at the close, and intimated that the vessels might, during 

 the cruise, go north of the line, though for what purpose you do 

 not say. 



This, if I am not misinformed, is the breadth, and length, and 

 altitude of your instructions, if not the very words. 



Why did you forget no, why did you omit the major part of 

 your subject ? the great commercial interests among the islands 

 of the Pacific, and the thousand ways in which those noble inter- 

 ests might be examined, extended, and secured by this expedition ? 

 Have not the memorials from Nantucket, New-Bedford, New- 

 London, Salem, and other great commercial places, given you any 

 light upon the subject ? Have they not, " in thoughts that breathe 

 and words that burn," told you, through Congress, the difficulties, 

 the dangers our fisheries have to encounter in those seas ? Have 

 they not, in the deep impassioned feeling of their hearts, implored 

 their country to look after their brethren in bondage on desolate 

 or savage islands ? And you, in your instructions to this gallant 

 board, have mentioned but little more than the object of getting as 

 near as possible to the South Pole, and there to make surveys for 

 the benefit of commerce ! This same plan of misrepresenting the 

 objects of the expedition was tried by its opponents last winter 

 before Congress, and failed. Do you expect to be more successful 

 in urging the same plea before this board ? I am not done with 

 this point yet. Every friend to the expedition can bear witness 

 that you have misrepresented his wishes in regard to the whole 

 enterprise. In vliat light do you place the merchants and others 



