LETTERS OP A CITIZEN. 363 



by you after receiving that report, wherein you write, " The report 

 of Commodore Jones is extremely discouraging." Put this and 

 that together ; but let it pass. 



It was recommended that the vessels go into drydock. This 

 was a godsend to you. The occasion was seized upon, and made 

 a pretext for the appointment of a commission extraordinary, al- 

 though Commodore Jones had returned and "reported favoura- 

 bly." How did you speak of this report when first received? 

 Did you then say it was favourable ? I apprehend not ; at any 

 rate, accident has placed before me a letter, to which I have al- 

 ready referred, in which you speak of this same report as "ex- 

 tremely discouraging ! !" 



Of this board: the obvious motive for its appointment; the 

 extraordinary character of the instructions you gave for the gui- 

 dance of its action; the consequent duties you expected it to 

 perform, are subjects which have all been sufficiently discussed 

 in my preceding letters, and demand but a short incidental no- 

 tice here. Not to look into the condition of the vessels only 

 was the commission opened, but to assume, to a certain degree, 

 legislative power ; to undo what Congress had directed should be 

 done, and which you, with all your hostility to the expedition, had 

 not the moral courage to contravene ; in short, to reduce the force 

 authorized. Why was not Commodore Jones appointed a mem- 

 ber of the board ? Was he not deeply interested in the examin- 

 ations and decisions to be made ? Were you apprehensive that 

 he would expose the insidious character of your instructions, by 

 showing the members of your commission that you had now as- 

 sumed new ground and adopted opinions directly at variance with 

 those you had previously professed to entertain ? Had you for- 

 gotten, or was it inconvenient to remember, what you had said of 

 that officer in your famous report of April 6, 1 837 ? If you had 

 foreseen your present predicament, you would never have penned 

 the following sentence : " The confidence placed in this officer 

 (Commodore Jones), which led to his selection for this important 

 command, seemed to require that he should be consulted as to the 

 number and size of the vessels, and the amount of force of which 

 his squadron was to consist, as he was to be held in a high degree 

 responsible for the success of the expedition" A liberal and just 

 sentence this, but only written for effect, not for action, as your 



