LETTERS OF A FRIEND TO THE NAYY, 373 



DEFENCE OF THE SECRETARY OF THE NAVY. 



III. 



. 



HAD the " Citizen" been satisfied \vith the Sioop-of-war, and 

 such smaller vessels as might be necessary for a surveying and 

 exploring expedition, with crews amounting to about two hundred 

 and fifty men, such as was intended by the law of the 18th of 

 May, 1836, it might have been sent out before the meeting of 

 Congress in December last, with such books and instruments 

 necessary for the scientific corps as could be procured in the 

 United States, and the appropriations would have covered the 

 expense ; but when it was determined that a frigate and a large 

 store-ship, then on the stocks, together with two brigs and a 

 schooner, not then begun, should be employed, with crews amount- 

 ing, officers included, to more than six hundred men, it was evi- 

 dent that another session of Congress must elapse and further 

 appropriations be made before this fleet could be sent to sea. Yet 

 the " Citizen" is furious at the delay which his own plans have 

 created, and the secretary of the navy is held up to obloquy in the 

 public papers because the expedition is not now doubling Cape 

 Horn. 



The " Citizen," in his present state of mind, no doubt thinks that 

 everything should yield to the expedition; that providing for the 

 Pacific, the Brazilian, and West India stations was comparatively 

 but of little importance, and that the small delay from the passing 

 the act authorizing the expedition to the close of the session was 

 not to be tolerated. " May and June," he says to the secretary, 

 " passed away, and no step had been taken by you to put in train 

 the preparations for the expedition. You now began to speak 

 plainly, and to hold the language that twelve month? would be 

 necessary to complete the outfit." 



The act authorizing the expedition became a law on the 18th 

 of May, not on the 10th, as frequently asserted by the " Citizen." 

 It authorized the president, not the secretary, to fit out the expe- 

 dition. The secretary's authority did not commence until in- 

 structed by the president.. 



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