476 LETTERS OF A CITIZEN. 



ence ; knowing, too, your solicitude that certain of your own acts 

 should not be fathered upon you, I feel myself in charity bound to 

 tell you, that while I am aware of all you did, have day and hour 

 for some of your precious, high-minded consultations, and know 

 even the secret springs of your contemptible action, I will not, 

 under present circumstances, disgust the public by an exposure of 

 them. No, sir ; these matters I will leave untouched, conscious { 

 that, in doing so, I shall merit, and doubtless receive, your grate- 

 ful, though secret thanks. Matters of record and of public notori- 

 ety are all that I have occasion to revert to. These will afford infi- 

 nitely more topics for remark than I have time or inclination to 

 dwell upon. But this is digression. 



Your lieutenant commodore was now fairly installed in the com- 

 mand ; an honour which, with a most unaccountable prescience, he 

 had stated, some six months before, might possibly befall him ; nay, 

 that such an event might occur without even surprising him. Ad- 

 mirable prophet ! Officers of the navy were now no longer per- 

 mitted to complain of the wrong which had been done them. The 

 name and authority of the president were used to silence all mur- 

 murs. The paramount right of your commander to overleap the 

 heads of post captains was no longer to be regarded as an open 

 question. Great pains were now taken to hide your plans and in- 

 tentions ; Congress was still in session ! You feared the true friends 

 of the expedition in that body as well as out of it. Do you recol- 

 lect certain matters relating to the rank of your juvenile dbra- 

 mander which were to be arranged after the Senate adjourned? 

 I hope I may live to see the day when the head of a department, 

 or of the nation, would be, if not impeached, at least execrated 

 from one extremity of the union to the other, for daring to do, after 

 the adjournment of the Senate, any act to which the sanction of 

 that assembly could not have been obtained. 



But let this pass. Little by little your designs became apparent. 

 It was soon ascertained that your young sea-officer was clothed 

 with more summary powers than had been conferred upon Com- 

 modore Jones, or offered to any post captain with whom you had 

 trifled and feigned to treat. You know, sir, that I here state an 

 undeniable fact. Your protege was, moreover, your accredited 

 organ, representing your feelings and doing your behests. He 

 seemed to be clothed with absolute authority ; spoke freely of his 



