That the President of the United States be, and he hereby is, authorized to send out a surveying and

The important expedition known as the Wilkes, discount rent a car in west palm beach fl or South Sea, Exploring Expedition, fitted out in 1838 by national munificence, was the first that ever left our shores, and the first to be com­manded by an officer of the United States Navy. But although organized on a most stupendous scale, and shrouded in a most in­teresting history, this expedition is to-day comparatively unknown.
During the second session of the Nineteenth Congress a propo­sition for fitting out an expedition for the purpose of thoroughly surveying and charting those parts of the Pacific Ocean most fre­quented by our whaling and sealing vessels was for the first time prominently brought before Congress in the shape of numerous memorials, petitions and addresses. The House of Representatives appointed a select committee to consider the prayer of the memo­rialists, but owing to the great press of unfinished business and the exciting discussions which then absorbed the members, this matter was necessarily neglected.
At the first session of the Twentieth Congress, namely, on Jan­uary 22, 1828, a certain Mr. J. N. Reynolds addressed a letter to the Speaker of the House, in which he again broached the subject of an exploring expedition to the South Seas. Reynolds letter was quickly followed by a memorial of the citizens of Nantucket and a petition from the citizens discount rent a car in west palm beach fl of New Bedford, Mass., both to same effect. Reynolds, moreover, went himself to Washington, with sundry discount rent a car in west palm beach fl memorials signed by persons of respectability from New York, Pennsylvania, Maine, Virginia and Ohio, praying that Congress would either fit out such an expedition or at least aid in the fitting out thereof. These memorials were referred to the Committee on Naval Affairs, which reported a bill authorizing the President to cause the expedition to be fitted discount rent a car in west palm beach fl out, and appropriating discount rent a car in west palm beach fl $50,000 for that purpose. Congress, however, omitted to pass the bill. Nevertheless, within a few days of the close of that session a member of the House (Mr. Reed, of Massachusetts) submitted the following resolutions, which, on May 21, 1828, considered discount rent a car in west palm beach fl and agreed to by the House:
Resolved , That it is expedient that one of our small public sent to the Pacific Ocean and South Seas to examine the coasts, islands, harbors, shoals, and reefs in those seas, and to ascertain their true situation and description.
Resolved , That the President of the United States be requested to send one of our small public ships into those seas for that purpose; and be requested to afford such facilities as may be within the reach of the Navy Department to attain the object proposed: Provided effected without prejudice to the general interest of the naval provided it may be done without further discount rent a car in west palm beach fl appropriations during year.
These resolutions, as passed by the House, were never sent to the Senate for concurrence. Nevertheless, Secretary discount rent a car in west palm beach fl of the Navy Southard, supported as he was by President J. Q. Adams, proceeded to act upon the resolutions, not only as if they had passed both houses, but as if the original bill, which had not yet come up for consideration, had become a law. was anxious that the expedition should sail before the opening of Congress in 1828, and by the end of that year the sloop Peacock , under Master Commandant Thomas Ap Catesby Jones, was nearly ready to depart. However, the passage of the bill on the subject was plainly necessary to accomplish the purpose designed. Accordingly, soon after the opening of the second discount rent a car in west palm beach fl session, discount rent a car in west palm beach fl namely, on January 25, 1829, the original bill was taken up by the House and passed. Greater difficulty, however, was encountered in the Senate. The bill was referred to the Committee on Naval Affairs, discount rent a car in west palm beach fl which was directed to make inquiry of the Navy as to what the object of the expedition was, and whether or not the contemplated object could be attained in the course of a single voyage. To this inquiry the Secretary replied on January 29, 1829. In his reply he expressed the views of the relative to the expedition, discount rent a car in west palm beach fl and sought to justify his own actions. However, the committee, actuated, so they said, by the incompleteness of the information, on February 4, 1829, submitted the following resolution :
Resolved , That the President of the United States be requested to cause to be laid before the Senate a detailed statement of the expenses in fitting out and preparing discount rent a car in west palm beach fl an expedition for exploring the Pacific Ocean and South Seas; together with the additional amounts which will be necessary to cover all the expenses of such an expedition. And that he requested to cause to be submitted a detailed statement, several discount rent a car in west palm beach fl amounts transferred from the different heads of for the support of the navy to this object, and the authority by such transfers discount rent a car in west palm beach fl have been made.
This resolution was agreed to; and the Secretary s taining the required information was transmitted to the President Adams in a special message, dated February 16, But before the matter could be adjusted, the session drew close; so that the bill (or rather discount rent a car in west palm beach fl a modification of it), when introduced, was preceded on the list by such a mass of that it could not be reached by the Senate before its judgment.
The death-blow which was thus dealt the expedition was dealt with the exit from office of President J. Q. Adams and Secretary discount rent a car in west palm beach fl of the Navy Southard. With the inauguration of Jackson, Governor Branch, of North Carolina, came into the Navy Department, and under the party watchword, Retrenchment and reform, the exploring expedition was suspended.
During the first years of the new administration no measures were taken to bring the subject again before Congress. The first actual renewal of the agitation was made by means of a a memorial, dated November 7, 1831, signed by two citizens, Edmund and Benjamin Pendleton. The views presented in this memorial were repeated and further illustrated in a second memorial, by Fanning alone, which, on December 18, 1833, was referred to Senate Committee on Naval Affairs and ordered printed.
Reynolds, too, lost no time in again setting in motion the wheels of legislation discount rent a car in west palm beach fl to promote discount rent a car in west palm beach fl the object so dear to his heart. Thus, at the October 1834) session of the Rhode Island discount rent a car in west palm beach fl Legislature the following resolution was adopted:
Resolved , That in the opinion of this general assembly, the subject of the memorial of  J.N. Reynolds and others, dated November, 1834, praying that provision may be made by law for a voyage of discovery and survey discount rent a car in west palm beach fl to the South Seas, is highly important to our shipping and commercial in­terests, and is hereby recommended by the said assembly to the favorable consideration of the Congress of the United States.
Shortly afterwards, on November 22, 1834, the East India Marine Society of Salem, Mass., in a memorial signed by fifty-four members of the society, and addressed to the Congress of the United States, united its prayer with that of the State of Rhode Island. This memorial was introduced into the Senate on Decem­ber discount rent a car in west palm beach fl 16, 1834, and was supplemented by sundry other manifestations of public opinion.
Instead of these documents being referred to the Committee on Naval Affairs, as had been the case previously (in 1828), they were referred to the House Committee on Commerce, which reported a bill providing for the expedition.
About this time, also, memorials and resolutions from the States of New Jersey and Connecticut brought the exploring expedition before the Committee on Naval Affairs of the Senate. This com­mittee, after examining into the policy of the measure, on May 21, 1836, likewise reported a bill providing for the expedition.
But the Senate, instead of acting upon this bill, offered it as an amendment to the regular naval appropriation bill, when that bill came up for consideration from the House. This amendment, after being several times modified, was finally adopted by both Houses. It read as follows: .
That the President of the United States be, and he hereby is, authorized to send out a surveying and exploring expedition discount rent a car in west palm beach fl to the Pacific Ocean and South Seas, and for that purpose to employ a sloop-of-war, and to purchase ­or provide such other smaller ves sels as may be necessary and proper discount rent a car in west palm beach fl to render the said expedition efficient and useful, and for this purpose the sum of one hundred and fifty thousand discount rent a car in west palm beach fl dollars be, and the same is hereby, appropriated out of any money in the treasury not otherwise appropriated, and in addition thereto, if necessary, the President of the United States is authorized to use other means in the control of the Navy Department, not exceeding one hundred and fifty thousand dollars, for the objects discount rent a car in west palm beach fl required.
The exploring expedition was, however, to meet with many obstacles before it could again be carried into effect. Mahlon Dickerson, who was Secretary discount rent a car in west palm beach fl of the Navy at the time, believed to entertain a very strong opposition to the measure; President Jackson was favorably inclined discount rent a car in west palm beach fl toward discount rent a car in west palm beach fl the expedition and ordered arrangements to be made to carry it into effect. Scientific men throughout the land at once turned their attention to this enterprise. By correspondence and otherwise discount rent a car in west palm beach fl they manifested extraordinary zeal for its success and urged that the best talent of the nation should be enlisted in its conduct.
Orders were soon issued for the completion of the frigate Macedonian for this service, and also for building the brigs Pioneer and Consort and the schooner Pilot , with the least practicable delay. The completion of the storeship Relief was likewise ordered. The recruiting for this service was put under the superintendence of Commodore Jones (who had again been selected for the command of the expedition), and Lieutenant Charles Wilkes was sent to Europe to procure such instruments and books for the expedition as could not conveniently be secured in the United States. Meanwhile, a number of excellent suggestions were offered by some of the foremost men of the country. Moreover, the co-operation of the American Philosophical Society of Philadelphia, the East India Marine Society of S