LETTERS OF A CITIZEN. 315 



last paragraph in the able report to which I have alluded ; it is 

 much to the point, and you may draw instruction from it. Yea, 

 more, it will furnish you with an argument to refute the contempti- 

 ble fabrication of the weak marplotting enemies of this truly na 

 tional enterprise, who, in the face of two hundred pages of printed 

 documents, have had the effrontery to say the expedition would 

 have little or nothing to do with protection of commerce in the 

 regions to be examined. I will give the authors of this device a 

 withering review before I have done. Let them prepare for it. 

 I know them, and may feel it my duty to drag them from their 

 dark retreats, perfectly regardless who may be found in their 

 company, or what aspect they may wear when exposed to the fair 

 face of day. 



The advocates for the expedition, whether in or out of Con- 

 gress, have ever been ready to meet their opponents in open and 

 manly discussion ; but they have had little of this kind of opposi- 

 tion to encounter. What has been frank, bold, and above-board on 

 the one hand, has been met by cowardly, ignorant, or wilful mis- 

 representation on the other. Those who originated, authorized, 

 and sanctioned the enterprise are responsible to the country for 

 its results. In courtesy, in common justice, they should be allowed 

 to influence its organization, and to employ the force which, in all 

 sincerity, they deem indispensable to its ultimate and triumphant 

 success. Yes, sir, the objects of the voyage, the plan of ths voy- 

 age, and the force to be employed, are defensible, have been de- 

 fended, and can be defended before the nation and the world. 

 Have their opponents met them in argument ? They have not, 

 they cannot, they dare not, under the responsibility of a name. 



But to the report. " While your committee, in coming to their 

 conclusion in recommending such an expedition as has been 

 prayed for by the memorialists, have been influenced by commer- 

 cial views, and place the policy of the measure solely on these 

 grounds, they are not indifferent to the valuable fund of knowledge 

 which may be gathered during the voyage, and which, properly 

 analyzed and written out, may be interesting not only to the Amer- 

 ican people, but to the whole civilized world." 



Here I might pause and appeal to the intelligence of the coun- 

 try if I have not made out my case, and convicted you of having 

 misrepresented I do not say intentionally the true objects of 



