Washington, as it contains all the public offices, is the best place to ascertain the general statistical facts connected with the condition of this country. I have hitherto purposely avoided touching on the marine of the United States, until I should have an opportunity of getting the information necessary to do it justice. On no occasion, however, have I neglected to examine the ships and the navy yards as I passed through the sea ports, though I have reserved all my remarks until I had something material to communicate. It is my intention to dispose of the subject altogether in this letter.

Until the period of the war which separated the two countries, the American mariners performed most of their military service in the navy of Great Britain. The history of the colonies, however, is not altogether destitute of nautical incidents, that were rather remarkable for skill and enterprise. The privateers of this hemisphere were always conspicuous in the colonial contests; and they were then, as they have always been since, of a character for order and chivalry that ought not to be too confidently expected from a class of adventurers who professedly take up arms for an object so little justifiable, and perhaps so ignoble, as gain. But men of a stamp altogether superior to the privateersmen of Europe were induced, by the peculiar situation of their country, to embark in these doubtful military enterprises in America.