LETTERS OF A CITIZEN. 513 



of public feeling throughout the country, has received from the 

 department the meager, unmeaning appointment of < correspond- 

 ing secretary to the commander,' to perform such duty on the ex- 

 pedition as the justice or caprice of a commander might direct; 

 while the names and duties of all others composing the scientific 

 corps, as well as juniors in command, were conspicuously named 

 in the general instructions for the guidance of the expedition, were 

 thus recognised by the department in a document to be preserved 

 in all coming time ; but in that list and in that document the 

 name of J. N. Reynolds, we learn, is nowhere to be found ; that 

 no duties were assigned him by the secretary ; in a word, that the 

 action of the department, whether intended or not, would go to 

 show that Mr. Reynolds was not recognised by government, or 

 known in the enterprise, except only so far as he had an order in 

 the form of an appointment from the secretary, directing him to 

 report to the commander for duty. 



" The undersigned forbear farther comment on this subject, and 

 content themselves with protesting in the name of their constitu- 

 ents the people of the West, as well as in their own names, against 

 the continuance of such obvious injustice to their fellow-citizen, 

 who has, in their opinion, earned far different treatment at the hands 

 of government. They are aware that many difficulties have thus 

 far attended the fitting out of the expedition : upon these difficul- 

 ties they feel no disposition to dwell. It is enough for them to call 

 the attention of the president to the subject, in a spirit of frankness 

 and kindness, feeling assured that their communication will be re- 

 ceived in the same spirit, and that the president will at once give 

 such directions as will be satisfactory to all the parties concerned. 



" Very respectfully, &c., 

 " Thomas Corwin, Ohio. Thomas L. Hamer, Ohio. 



James Alexander, Jun., Ohio. J. Ridgeway, Ohio. 



Alexander Harper, Ohio. William Key Bond, Ohio. 



Daniel Kilgore, Ohio. Calvary Morris, Ohio. 



J. W. Allen, Ohio. D. P. Leadbetter, Ohio. 



William H. Hunter, Ohio. P. G. Goode, Ohio. 



Charles D. Coffin, Ohio. S. Mason, Ohio. 



A. W. Snyder, Illinois. Thomas Morris, Ohio. 



William Allen, Ohio. 0. H. Smith, Indiana. 



John Tipton, Indiana. Lucius Lyon, Michigan. 



