LETTERS OF A CITIZEN. 465 



vice at sea to make him familiar with the common routine of duty 

 on board of a man-of-war, and, with one or two short interrup- 

 tions, a sinecurist on shore for the last fifteen years, he was lifted 

 over the heads of many laborious and meritorious officers, and 

 placed by you in the command of the Exploring Expedition, in vi- 

 olation of law. The president confirmed the act. 



" And, as if that were not indignity enough, the public were in- 

 formed that none of Wilkes's superiors possessed the requisite tal- 

 ents. I here challenge you and his friends to point out a single 

 accomplishment or qualification in him for such a service, which I 

 will not show other officers to possess in more perfection. Scien- 

 tific men hare seen no proofs of his science, and he is not recog- 

 nised by them as of their number. We are told he is a surveyor. 

 The grounds upon which his claims to this qualification are set up, 

 consist in his survey, last fall, of George's Bank, and, many years 

 ago, of his assisting Gedney and Blake, under Wordsworth, to 

 survey Narragansett Bay. Of the accuracy of his chart of George's 

 Bank we may not speak ; for, as yet, Hassler's operations, which 

 will test it, have not been extended so far. As hydographers, 

 both Gedney and Blake, and many others we might name, are 

 vastly his superiors. While he has been campaigning at Wash- 

 ington, they have been hard at work ; and, after many years of 

 arduous service, meritorious officers are insulted, degraded, and 

 vilified!" 



" Harry Bluff" has fairly represented the feelings of an over- 

 whelming proportion of the officers of the navy ; and such will be 

 the judgment of the whole country as well as of the navy. It is a 

 melancholy reflection, that a man occupying your station should 

 have preferred the gratification of little and vindictive feelings to 

 the high, frank, and honourable discharge of a public trust ; but so 

 it was, and you must now lie in the bed prepared by your own 

 hands. The wrong has been done ; your acts cannot be recalled ; 

 and in my next I shall examine the pitiful subterfuge by which you 

 have attempted your justification, 



Very respectfully, your fellow 



CITIZEN. 



New- York, June 13, 1839. 



