470 LETTERS OF A CITIZEN. 



onstrations of modest self-distrust, the usual concomitant of ex- 

 alted minds, it was received, it will be difficult, nay, impossible 

 for you ever to do away the impression that a bargain was made. 

 I do not say that this can be proven ; because, from the very na- 

 ture of the case, proof could only be obtained through the crim- 

 inating testimony of one of the parties to the transaction ; and it 

 is not very likely that either of them will turn state's evidence. 



During a discussion in the House of Representatives, April 11, 

 1838, on the bill making appropriations for the naval service for 

 that year, the outrage you had committed upon the professional 

 feeling and pride of the service, in the appointment you had then 

 just made, was rather more than incidentally introduced ! Mr. 

 Wise, of the Naval Committee, said " that he had not accused 

 Lieutenant Wilkes of purchasing his command at all ; but he had 

 been informed that intimations had been given to officers of a 

 higher grade, that it was expected, if appointed to the command, 

 they would discharge certain individuals ; and one of these men, 

 like a true officer, had replied, that if such dismissals were to be 

 made, the department must take the responsibility of making them. 

 Mr. W. did not believe that it was the painter that was to be dis- 

 charged, but there was an individual who had done more in the 

 first instance to get up the expedition than any other man in the 

 country, and who had expressed himself very freely in the public 

 journals in regard to the secretary, and whom it was the object of 

 the department to get clear of." Mr. Wise said farther, " that if 

 his information was correct, Lieutenant Wilkes had been selected, 

 not on the ground of his peculiar scientific attainments, nor on that 

 of the special character of the service, but for a reason entirely dif- 

 ferent. He hoped his friend from New- York would give the house 

 some information on this point." 



Mr. Hoffman said " he was utterly unable to do so, for this was 

 the first moment that such a report had ever reached him." 



Mr. Wise said " he had his information from a respectable 

 source, and such was the belief of some gentlemen in the navy." 



I shall not here indulge, as I well might, in commentary on the 

 current of public feeling which called forth such allusion to your 

 official action on the floor of Congress, but will give you at once 

 the full advantage of the defence offered by your friend Mr. Ing- 

 ham, chairman of the Committee on Naval Affairs. Every one 



