488 LETTERS OF A CITIZEN. 



pie it, how did it happen that you allowed so large a scientific 

 corps to be appointed ? I find your name appended to all their 

 commissions. You have really given us a world of trouble ; be- 

 sides, there is some responsibility in this matter. 



Dickerson. I'm sure, sir, the readiness with which I sign my 

 name to papers prepared by you and your worthy young friend, 

 ought to convince you of the impropriety of holding me responsi- 

 ble for all my official acts. The organization of the corps was not, 

 in fact, my work. I can't explain the matter fully, but I will in 

 part. The old chief, you must know, took a strange sort of notion 

 to the expedition. I always blamed Hamer, Couvin, and other 

 members from Ohio. Hamer, who, you know, was one of our 

 most efficient supporters in the House, was a warm friend of Rey- 

 nolds', and went for the expedition through thick and thin. Now 

 the old chief put a deal of confidence in Hamer, and used to con- 

 sult him more than me, though under the constitution I was one 

 of his constitutional advisers. But, besides talking with the old 

 chief himself about the expedition, he got permission for Mr. Rey- 

 nolds to talk with him also. Whether the old Roman got inocu- 

 lated in this way, or took the disease naturally, however, I cannot 

 positively say, nor is it now important. He was resolved, he said, 

 that the views of Congress and the country should be realized so 

 far as it depended upon him ; indeed, so warm did he get, that he 

 vowed the expedition should surpass rather than fall short of what 

 any other nation had done. As to the scientific board, he didrft 

 show me any particular deference, I assure you, but declared that 

 it should be the best in point of qualifications that the country 

 could produce. Another thing I think did harm. The French 

 government, you know, sent us a magnificent work, " The Voyage 

 of the Astrolabe," with its octavos, quartos, folios of science and 

 illustrations. A tedious affair, except the botany, which I found 

 pretty correct. As the work came to my department, I took it 

 over to the general. He looked at it about one pipeful, and then 

 said, " Well, governor" he used to speak very familiarly to me 

 " well, governor," said he, " as we have made King Phillippe pay 

 up the indemnity, we must beat him in exploring. The results of 

 this expedition must equal those before me. We must send a 

 work to France in return for this, no less splendid and profound." 

 Soon as I heard the general talk this way, I was sorry I had taken 



