LETTERS OF A CITIZEN. 505 



be appointed, nor could /, with my views of the subject, recommend 

 such a measure to his favourable consideration" 



Sir, I will not undertake the delicate task of inquiring what 

 honourable and intelligent men will think or say of you, when in- 

 formed that at the very time when you and President Van Buren 

 were discussing this matter, the following, among other papers, 

 were in his possession, if not actually lying on the table before you. 

 The ingrained opposition of ex-Secretary Dickerson to the ex- 

 pedition had shown itself towards me from no other cause than the 

 humble and independent efforts I had made in favour of the enter- 

 prise. It may have been, in some measure, owing to this wayward- 

 ness of the ex-secretary that these memorials and letters, without 

 any agency of mine, were drawn up and sent to the president. 

 They were signed by men of both parties, in a generous spirit of 

 justice, for which I have ever felt and now feel a deep sense of 

 gratitude. 



To his Excellency the President of the United States. 



" The undersigned, members of Congress from the State of Ohio, 

 avail themselves of this occasion to express their gratification upon 

 learning that the Exploring Expedition, authorized by a recent act 

 of Congress, is about to be fitted out in a manner worthy of our 

 great republic. 



" They feel it to be a duty which they owe, as well to their con- 

 stituents the people of Ohio as to their common country, to re- 

 mind the administration of the claims of J. N. Reynolds, Esq., to 

 a prominent place in the proposed expedition. His long and ar- 

 dent services in calling public attention to this question, and urging 

 its adoption by Congress ; his zeal and untiring industry in collect- 

 ing information in reference to it ; his intimate acquaintance with 

 all the interests of the commercial community (between whom and 

 himself there exists a long and intimate intercourse), whose inter- 

 ests are afloat in those seas ; the kind relations subsisting between 

 him and most of the scientific men and societies of our large cities, 

 as well as his personal acquaintance with the South Seas, and his 

 unusual mass of information in regard to their localities, eminently 

 qualify him to be placed at the head of the civil corps which is to 

 accompany the squadron. 



" The services and qualifications of Mr. Reynolds have been ac- 



