Petition of the Citizens of New Bedford Praying that a Naval Expedition May be Undertaken for the Exploration of the North and South Pacific Ocean…
House of Representatives, 20th Congress, 1st Session.
( 1828), Washington DC
22.5 cm. 3 pp. Two leaves printed on recto only
Price: $125
and other seas, visited by whale ships and others. March 17, 1828. Referred to the Committee on Naval Affairs. As the American whaling industry spread into the South Pacific there was “an ever increasing demand on the part of American commercial interests for better and fuller information concerning those remote and poorly charted regions.” This simple one-paragraph petition may rightfully be regarded as the start of it all as far as the US government was concerned. According to Haskell, the House of Representatives answered this March 17 petition with a May 21, 1828 Resolution requesting the President to mount an exploring expedition. This Resolution died in the Senate, but it was enough to stimulate the efforts of J.N. Reynolds, granddaddy of the US Exploring Expedition. See Haskell, pp 1-2. Removed from a larger volume, very good condition.
