334 LETTERS OF A CITIZEN. 



giving to the undertaking and to you that minute and watchful at- 

 tention which both so much required. 



I must hurry on with my subject, and bring this letter to a 

 close. The contest before the last Congress requires a word. I 

 must pass over points upon which pages might be written. I 

 cannot stop to examine your report in its financial bearing, much 

 as it is needed, and greatly as my inclination prompts me to do 

 so. I shall not even attempt to describe the zeal with which you 

 warmed yourself while explaining to members of the Senate and 

 the house the enormous demands the expedition would make on 

 the public treasury. Your name was frequently used as authority 

 for stating that the nation was about to squander millions upon this 

 extravagant enterprise, which had nothing to do with the protection 

 of commerce, and was only to explore high latitudes south ! ! ! ! 

 The frigate, as the whole country will remember, was the special 

 object of attack. That she was not necessary for the high south- 

 ern parallels, and, ergo, not necessary for the expedition, was your 

 argument. Officers of the navy were found to endorse your opin- 

 ions. Perhaps the endorsement was mutual ; at least it was so 

 stated on the floor of Congress. Everything, for a time, promised 

 you success, and it was asserted that you had never been known 

 to enjoy such fine spirits ; while the friends of the measure at a 

 distance were full of despondency, being aware that the objection 

 to the frigate was not from friendly motives towards the enterprise. 

 There were those who believed, at the time, that the design was 

 to cut off the frigate, and then have other commanders and a new 

 organization ; but, as I do not deal with motives, but with acts, I 

 shall let that pass. 



In the saloons of the library, in the gallery, at parties, and in 

 messes, the merits of the contest were much discussed. Your 

 misrepresentations of the purposes of the undertaking were fully 

 understood by its friends in the Senate and the house, and you 

 were pitied for the weakness of your device. The members, who 

 had honestly doubted the propriety of employing a vessel of the 

 class alluded to, when they looked into the true objects of the voy- 

 age, yielded their assent, and voted for the measure ; so that, by 

 the time the bill of appropriations came to be read for the last time, 

 you stood " alone in your glory" every item in the estimate for 



