326 LETTERS OF A CITIZEN. 



as well as in the former case. Of this the citizens make no com- 

 plaint. They have created a navy for great national purposes, 

 not for individuals. If the more intellectual, better informed, and, 

 of course, more influential portion of its officers did not form a 

 barrier against those, to the service, suicidal pretensions which 

 have received your sanction, then, indeed, there might justly be 

 much apprehension for the success of the expedition, and still 

 more for the prosperity and improvement of the navy. Let those 

 you have encouraged in these extravagant opinions, be they few 

 or many, of high rank or low, assume to themselves an imagined 

 importance, and, with supercilious, domineering tone, attempt to 

 sneer at civilians and oppose their employment as, according 

 to you, they have already done on board public vessels where 

 their country requires their services, and where their right to fill 

 certain stations is not by courtesy or sufferance, but derived from 

 authority unquestionable as that of the commander himself 

 for both emanate from the same source ; let them indulge in il- 

 liberal, contracted feelings of petty jealousy against the appoint- 

 ment of citizens to their appropriate provinces, and they will soon 

 find themselves in the hands of a giant, who knows his power and 

 will use it ! 



It is no reproach to the gentlemen of the navy that they have 

 not the varied scientific knowledge required for a national expe- 

 dition such as has been directed by Congress to be organized. 

 They are only open to censure when, forgetful of their own noble 

 profession, they claim to assume the performance of duties for 

 which their previous training and distinct line of action have left 

 them totally unqualified. Our public vessels have been round 

 the world, and our officers in them, among islands and in places 

 rarely visited ; but what contributions to science have resulted ? 

 Where is the record to which reference can be made, and which 

 affords a sufficient guarantee that all that is required in the de- 

 partment of science could be accomplished by the profession, at 

 a lime, too, when the whole range of that department has as- 

 sumed such a determined accuracy of detail that the slightest 

 blunder would subject us to the ridicule of the scientific world ? 

 Sir, no such record exists j and, until it does exist, it is folly and, 

 I can readily conceive, must be humiliating to the abler portion of 

 the service to hear such silly pretensions set up by their weaker 



