410 LETTERS OF A CITIZEN. 



as to their estimate by one who could not, in all probability, find 

 his way across the Atlantic if put to the test ; or give the number 

 of cubic inches in a sapling six feet in length and four inches in 

 diameter, though the emoluments of his office depended on the 

 result ; one, the barren records of whose entire public life afford 

 not a solitary instance of a useful measure originated or a single 

 patriotic sacrifice made in furtherance of the public good. 

 With great respect, 



I have the honour to be 



Your obedient servant and fellow 



CITIZEN. 



New- York, September 23, 1837. 



X. 



Exploring Expedition. We invite the attention of all our readers, but more particularly 

 the members of the House of Representatives, to the letter of " A Citizen" addressed to 

 the secretary of the navy in this day's paper. It will be followed by two others ; and 

 upon the facts which these letters will bring before the public we are perfectly willing 

 that the merits and demerits of the expedition, as now organized, should rest. Editor of 

 the New-York Courier and Enquirer. 



To the Honourable Mahlon Dickerson, Secretary of the Navy. 



SIR, 



When I had closed my ninth letter, addressed to you through 

 the New- York Times, I felt that kind of pleasure which the mind 

 experiences when an unpleasant, but, at the same time, a necessa- 

 ry duty has been performed. In my correspondence with you, 

 through the medium alluded to, I took occasion to speak of your 

 official conduct, as connected with the South Sea surveying and 

 exploring expedition, with the directness which the subject seemed 

 to require. I charged you with official delinquency, and, in a se- 

 ries of letters, I went into detail for the purpose of showing that 

 1<he charge was well founded. Through the same channel in which 

 my communications appeared you replied, by way of defence, in 

 four numbers, over the signature of "A Friend to the Navy." 

 The controversy became troublesome to you, and I desisted, de- 

 lighted with the thought that I should not again have occasion to 

 address you. But I was mistaken. The expedition has not yet 



