412 LETTERS OF A CITIZEN. 



merit in despatching vessels to other stations, the expedition fur- 

 nished it. Did matters look threatening in the Gulf of Mexico, 

 no vessel was so well fitted to protect our commerce in that quar- 

 ter as the Macedonian. Did the political horizon betoken a squall 

 in the direction of Mexico, the exploring vessels must be kept at 

 home to fight. The banks- suspended specie payments, and 

 straightway the difficulty of procuring a large amount in specie 

 to send out in the ships was a mountain not to be got over, though, 

 in sober truth, twenty, or, at the most, thirty thousand dollars 

 would have been an ample supply. Thus have you gone on, vir- 

 tually trampling upon the laws of Congress, and setting at defiance 

 the wishes of the whole country. That a day of reckoning is at 

 hand is the prevailing opinion, but with that matter I have nothing 

 to do. I have only been induced to take up my pen by the pe- 

 rusal of your annual report, and shall confine myself to an exam- 

 ination of that specious and hollow document. 



In looking over that portion of your report in which you speak 

 of the fiscal concerns of the expedition, I find that the three hun- 

 dred thousand dollars appropriated by Congress in May, 1836, 

 was all expended in preparing the vessels. This is a serious item, 

 and makes a heavy account against the enterprise. But the state- 

 ment is only calculated to mislead the public. Let it be remem- 

 bered that sixty-two thousand dollars of this sum went to the 

 completion of the frigate Macedonian ; an amount which would 

 have been required from the treasury for the same object under 

 any other head. The store-ship Relief was on the stocks before 

 the measure was authorized ; the sum necessary to finish that 

 vessel was nearly as large as that which had been required for 

 completing the Macedonian, and it would have been expended 

 under any circumstances. In addition to these vessels, two brigs 

 of two hundred and thirty tons each, and a schooner of one hun- 

 dred and thirty tons, were built, which consumed the residue of 

 the three hundred thousand dollars. Now the two brigs have been 

 compactly and strongly constructed. They will last twenty years, 

 and can be advantageously used as transports, or on other duty, 

 and may be thus employed whether they do or do not sail on the 

 specific service for which they were intended. The schooner Pilot 

 is not worth what she cost ; but to whom is the fault attributable ? 

 We shall see anon. 



