376 LETTERS OF A FRIEND TO THE NAVY. 



It was unusual to put the recruiting service under the superin- 

 tendence of a commander of a squadron ; it is unusual to recruit 

 seamen for a particular service ; yet both are done on extraordi- 

 nary occasions, and the president, in fact, determined and directed 

 that it should be done in this case. The secretary gave the ne- 

 cessary orders. The extraordinary duties were to be performed 

 by others, not by the secretary. He does not recruit or superin- 

 tend the recruiting of seamen. 



The " Citizen," who seems disposed to regulate the whole police 

 of the navy department, complains that money for advances was 

 withheld from the assistant recruiting officers, without which ad- 

 vances seamen cannot be induced to ship either in merchant or 

 naval service. 



Sufficient funds were in the hands of the officers at the head of 

 the respective recruiting rendezvous, and the usual advances were 

 made to the seamen presenting themselves at the receiving ships. 

 To open accounts with all the assistant recruiting officers was 

 unnecessary, and would have been attended with great inconve- 

 nience. It was not done for Commodore Ballard ; it was not done 

 for Commodore Nicholson ; it will not be done to please the " Cit- 

 izen." The idea of making advances to seamen to enable them to 

 go to the receiving ship is new. Few of them, with such advan- 

 ces, would find their way to the right ships. Recruiting officers 

 know that, after advances are made to seamen, they must be guard- 

 ed with great care, or they desert. 



The " Citizen" relates the case of an officer in the District of Co- 

 lumbia, who had obtained a thousand dollars upon his requisition, 

 approved by the commander of the exploring squadron, which sum 

 he was forthwith ordered by the navy department to return to the 

 treasury. 



In May last, when there was no longer any serious difficulty 

 apprehended in recruiting seamen for the expedition, an officer at- 

 tempted to establish a recruiting station in the District of Colum- 

 bia, and obtained from the navy agent at Washington one thousand 

 dollars without the consent of the head of the department. It is 

 true, his requisition for this sum was approved by the officer com- 

 manding the expedition, who had good reason to believe the meas- 

 ure had been sanctioned by the secretary of the navy ; otherwise 

 the requisition would not have been approved. The transaction 



