370 LETTERS OF A CITIZEN. 



perversity of temper in " A Friend to the Navy" could have in- 

 duced him to reassert a proposition so absurd. Where, sir, per- 

 mit me to ask, are the exigences of our commerce so urgent as 

 in the very regions to be visited by the expedition ; in these re- 

 gions it requires protection, and, your disingenuous pertinacity to 

 the contrary notwithstanding, will receive it. Do you suppose 

 the president will allow you to compromise the character of the 

 country by venting your personal spleen in your final instructions, 

 and, through them, directing the expedition to explore seas and 

 perform labours different from those intended by Congress, by the 

 executive, and by the nation ? 



Will you learn nothing from experience 1 Have you not even 

 yet suffered sufficient defeats to teach you how much you have 

 overrated your official influence, and that the country will not per- 

 mit you to trample upon its laws, or trust its honour or its inter- 

 ests entirely in your hands, while settling the character of a great 

 national enterprise? Yes, sir, your final instructions will, I ven- 

 ture to predict, be examined by the president before you are al- 

 lowed to despatch the squadron ; and such a scrutiny will be a 

 sufficient guarantee that the true purposes of the undertaking are 

 fully and fairly detailed. I know that you are committed upon 

 this head, and perhaps you feel that the only chance you have of 

 escape is to brave it out. This is wrong. When the plan of 

 denying to the expedition all purposes of a commercial nature 

 was agreed upon, the hope of success was so feasible, that one of 

 your ardent temperament was readily seduced into the measure 

 without being sufficiently wary in calculating the chances of dis- 

 comfiture. Be assured, however, it is now the best policy to re- 

 treat with what grace you may, as retreat you ultimately must, 

 from such an untenable position ; a position assumed, as you well 

 know, for the sole intent of defeating the expedition before Con- 

 gress. I have told you the device was appreciated by that body ; 

 that you were pitied for its weakness ; and that, had it not been for 

 your official promise, yet unfulfilled, that you would do your 

 duty, you had probably heard something on this subject which, 

 for aught I know, may still be in store for you, " nursing its wrath 

 to keep it warm." 



Suppose you obtain permission from the president to send in a 

 little message from your department on the first of next month, 



