LETTERS OF A CITIZEN. 487 



Mr. Wilkes ?" Who gave your commander authority to render 

 himself, or, rather, the expedition, ridiculous in the eyes of every 

 man of sense in the country, by attempting, in the plenitude of his 

 vanity, to overrule all that had been maturely done by our scien- 

 tific societies and learned men in the selection of the members of 

 the corps and its organization ? I think, sir, it was rather a small 

 business for the Hon. Joel R. Poinsett to be thus hiding his head 

 tinder the wing of his newly-fledged commander. But I^shall not 

 Dermit you thus to escape. The broad pennant of your protege is 

 wot broad enough to conceal from the public your extraordinary 

 conduct ; extraordinary because it is difficult to conceive the mo- 

 tive which prompted it, though I may attempt to throw some light 

 upon that point before I close my communication. 



It was surely uncandid to say that, up to the period of your in- 

 terview with Mr. Randall, final arrangements had not been made, 

 when previous to that time it had been determined, with your 

 knowledge and consent, if not by your suggestion, to exclude him 

 from the expedition. Who excluded him ? Who gravely decided 

 that his department was unworthy of being represented ? Had 

 any such opinion emanated from any of the learned societies, who 

 had been mocked by being first consulted, then occupied in ma- 

 king out reports, and then their recommendations slighted and 

 their plans rejected under the dictum of your erudite and scientific 

 commander ? 



In the absence of all testimony except such as I may not use, I 

 can easily imagine the grave consultations which led not only to 

 the rejection of the palaeontologist and entomologist, but to that of 

 several other able members of the corps, and to the reorganization 

 of the remainder in accordance with the suggestions of ignorance, 

 egotism, malevolence, and spleen. I will try my hand at holding 

 the mirror up to nature, through the medium of a little dramatic 

 sketch. 



Scene. A private parlour. 



Dramatis persona. Honourable Joel R, Poinsett, Mahlon Dick- 

 erson, and Commander Wilkes. 



Poinsett. Make fast the door and stand without ; we want no 

 witness here. And now, governor, opposed as we know you to be 

 to this expedition, and determined, if you could not defeat, to crip- 



