408 LETTERS OF A CITIZEN. 



be found equal to the discharge of every duty in any way con- 

 nected with the naval profession. 



" But this should not be all. To complete its efficiency, indi- 

 viduals from other walks of life, we repeat, should be appointed 

 to participate in its labours. No professional pique, no petty jeal- 

 ousies, should be allowed to defeat this object. The enterprise 

 should be national in its object, and sustained by the national 

 means ; belongs of right to no individual, or set of individuals, 

 but to the country, and the whole country ; and he who does not 

 view it in this light, or could not enter it with this spirit, would 

 not be very likely to meet the public expectations were he in- 

 trusted with the entire control. 



" To indulge in jealousies, or feel undue solicitude about the 

 division of honours before they are won, is the appropriate em- 

 ployment of carpet heroes, in whatever walk of life they may be 

 found. The qualifications of such would fit them better to thread 

 the mazes of the dance, or to shine in the saloon, than to venture 

 upon an enterprise requiring men, in the most emphatic sense of 

 the term." 



Having, as I trust, satisfactorily disposed of this point, I pro- 

 ceed to notice your remark, that " the extravagances of Mr. 



have created many difficulties in fitting but this expedition ; yet 

 all can be obviated if he will be content with the distinguished 

 and lucrative situation assigned him in the same." 



Sir, is it your wish to enter into a full discussion in reference 

 to the position you have assigned me, as compared with the ori- 

 ginal appointment given me by President Jackson ? Are you 

 willing that I should publish our correspondence on this point ? 

 Are you ambitious that the public should know how magnani- 

 mously you have acted in the premises ? I apprehend not ; but, 

 if you are, at a proper time you shall be gratified. I never did, 

 I will not at present, obtrude any matter personal to myself upon 

 the public. That the expedition should be efficiently organized, 

 and placed in proper hands, I have ever deemed a point of in- 

 finitely more importance than the station I should hold in it, or 

 that I should accompany it at all. To effect that object, and to 

 prevent you from destroying the enterprise, have my humble but 

 best efforts been at all times directed ; and this, I apprehend, has 

 been " the head and front of my offending." 



