414 LETTERS OF A CITIZEN. 



you again threw the whole weight of the department against the 

 measure in the following sentence : 



" As this statement of facts could leave no doubt that the ex- 

 ploring expedition would cost nearly, if not quite, a million and a 

 half of dollars, and as it greatly exceeded in number of vessels and 

 men the ?nost successful expeditions of like character heretofore sent 

 out by the maritime powers of Europe, it was believed that its 

 amount would have been reduced by withholding a part of the ap- 

 propriation asked for by the estimate. This, however, was not 

 deemed expedient, and the full appropriations were made by an 

 act of the third of March last." 



Now, sir, with all due deference, I take up this assumption, 

 which is unsustained by a single argument, and am prepared to show 

 that the exploring expedition, as authorized by Congress and sanc- 

 tioned by the late executive, in its naval and scientific departments, 

 in all that it is designed to effect, courts investigation, and will bear 

 it. The more closely it is compared with what the maritime 

 powers of Europe have done ; the more it is examined and un- 

 derstood by a careful analysis of our interest in and our knowledge 

 of the seas where its labours are to be performed, and an inquiry 

 if the present force be not properly adapted to the faithful perform- 

 ance of its labours, the more will its friends be strengthened in 

 their position. On the other hand, those who have not had leisure 

 to examine the subject in detail, or have been misled by your ob- 

 jections, ill-founded as they are, will perceive that the great na- 

 tional objects to be attained would justify an increase rather than 

 warrant a diminution of the force at present prepared ; and which, 

 but for your hostility to the whole enterprise, might ere now have 

 been in the field of its usefulness, engaged in those investigations 

 which our interest and our honour equally require should be made. 



And what, sir, are the arguments at this day in favour of the 

 design ? They have been again and again set forth in able reports 

 from committees in Congress, and are understood by the intelli- 

 gence of the whole country; but nevertheless they receive no 

 consideration from you. It is humiliating to have occasion to 

 recur to them at this late period, and I shall do so as concisely as 

 possible. No portion of the commerce of the nation is more im- 

 portant than that carried on in the seas which it is to be the chief 

 duty of the expedition to survey and explore. At the lowest esti- 



