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.
Z. TAYLOR.
CREDIT: Zachary Taylor, Special
Message Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency
Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/200433
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