328 LETTERS OF A CITIZEN. 



of the service generally, you remark, " that the force wanted for 

 the protection of commerce exceeds the means of supply" Mark 

 the words, " the force needed for the protection of commerce? 

 from which force you exclude the frigate and other vessels belong- 

 ing to the expedition. The plan of attack had now been agreed 

 upon, and we find the campaign thus officially opened by you. 

 It is true, as I have abundantly shown in my second and third 

 letters, that the memorialists, committees, members of Congress, 

 and public press held very different language. By these, commer- 

 cial considerations had been made the basis of the undertaking ; 

 and that their arguments to sustain it on this ground were invul- 

 nerable, is proved by the fact that they have never been answered. 

 Hence the bold and audacious move to separate the expedition 

 from all objects of immediate and practical utility, and to exagger- 

 ate its cost. Thus weakened, sanguine hopes were entertained 

 of breaking it down, or, failing in that object, of at least greatly 

 reducing its force and magnitude. 



Your attacks have been bold, direct, and manly. The tenacious 

 grasp with which you clung to office prevented that, with the late 

 executive as well as at the present time. At one time you pro- 

 fess great anxiety to fit out the expedition ; at another, your nat- 

 ural, long-cherished, deep-seated hostility breaks forth, in no very 

 choice or set phrase, against the entire scope or plan of the enter- 

 prise. Now you speak with becoming zeal in behalf of the sci- 

 entific department, and again, designate the members of the corps 

 as oyster and clam catchers. You have done all in your power 

 to dispirit and disgust them, by pertinaciously refusing to put them 

 on active duty, or to allow them any compensation until the fourth 

 of the current month, although Congress made a specific appro- 

 priation for them from the first of January last. More upon this 

 subject presently. 



We have next a striking proof of your far-reaching and saga- 

 cious forecast, which enabled you to perceive, at the very moment 

 the outfit was authorized by Congress, that it would be impracti- 

 cable to complete it " under eight or nine months, without a se 

 rious injury to other branches of the naval service /" Fourteen 

 months have elapsed, and the preparations are still unfinished. 

 The first of October is the latest period at which the vessels should 

 depart, and I now tell you, before the face of the whole nation, 



