WASHINGTON, _January 4, 1850_.
_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States:_
I herewith submit to you copies of a correspondence with the lady of Sir
John Franklin, relative to the well-known expedition under his command
to the arctic regions for the discovery of a northwest passage. On the
receipt of her first letter imploring the aid of the American Government
in a search for the missing ships engaged in an enterprise which
interested all civilized nations, I anxiously sought the means of
affording that assistance, but was prevented from accomplishing the
object I had in view in consequence of the want of vessels suitable to
encounter the perils of a proper exploration, the lateness of the
season, and the want of an appropriation by Congress to enable me to
furnish and equip an efficient squadron for that object. All that I
could do in compliance with a request which I was deeply anxious to
gratify was to cause the advertisements of reward promulged by the
British Government and the best information I could obtain as to the
means of finding the vessels under the command of Sir John Franklin to
be widely circulated among our whalers and seafaring men whose spirit
of enterprise might lead them to the inhospitable regions where that
heroic officer and his brave followers, who periled their lives in the
cause of science and for the benefit of the world, were supposed to be
imprisoned among the icebergs or wrecked upon a desert shore.
Congress being now in session, the propriety and expediency of an
appropriation for fitting out an expedition to proceed in search of the
missing ships, with their officers and crews, is respectfully submitted
to your consideration.