472 LETTERS OF A CITIZEN. 



You have yourself often given currency to the same imposition 

 in various ways, and in no instance have you corrected the palpa- 

 ble misstatement. Even Governor Dickerson, after retiring from 

 the Navy Department, "just four years after he entered it," en- 

 dorsed the same glaring misrepresentation in a celebrated letter to 

 some of his neighbours, who took it into their heads to offer him a 

 public dinner. He declined that honour, but could not avoid the 

 opportunity of expressing his delight, and of congratulating the 

 country, that the expedition had been reduced one half* This was 

 his last malignant effort, put forth much 



" As a fly in winter 



That in a gleam of sunshine creeping forth, 

 Kicks with stiff legs a feeble stroke or two, 

 And falls upon his back." 



There I leave him, brooding o'er the mischief he had done in 

 wounding the feelings and the pride, and striking at the honour 

 and discipline* of the service. There I leave him, to draw cold 

 gleams of comfort from the reflection of having marred, so far as 

 in him lay, a noble enterprise, and of having squandered the pen- 

 sion fund, heretofore held sacred for the most sacred of all earthly 

 objects the relief of the widows and orphans of those who died 

 in the service of their country. 



And now, sir, for the reduction of the naval force of the expe- 

 dition, which did so much to take away its naval character, and 

 which rendered it proper in you to instal a favourite in the com- 

 mand who stood low on the list of lieutenants. What, sir, will be 

 the astonishment of your countrymen, and what will they think of 

 you, when I tell them, what you know to be true and dare not deny, 

 that the naval force now under the command of your lieutenant 

 commodore is larger than the squadron which lay in the port of 

 New-York under the command of Commodore Jones ! Yes, sir, 

 larger than that very squadron commanded by Commodore Jones, 

 against which you and Governor Dickerson had warred, as the 

 whole country knows, so long and so fiercely, on account, as you 

 pretended, of its magnitude ! Oh, consistency, thou art indeed a 

 jewel ! And what will Mr. Ingham say when he learns the de- 

 ceptions practised upon him, and through him, in fact, upon the 

 country ? Do you deny my assertions ? Do you, trembling, ven- 

 ture to ask for the proof ? I have it at hand, and will give it you. 

 The present squadron consists of 



