required your detachment from the Observatory, and on no duty either on shore or afloat could your services have been as valuable to the country or as distinguishing and honourable to your profession, as that to which you have been so assigned. With the highest consideration and regard,
I am your most obedient servant,
| To Lieutenant M. F. Maury, |
| Washington, D. C. |
To ascertain the motives which actuated his brother officers in thus placing him under the ban of the Board, he wrote the following letter to each member of the aforesaid Board:—
| Sir, | Observatory, 8th Nov., 1855 |
On learning that I had been placed in official disgrace by the late Navy Board, of which You are a member, I addressed a communication to the Secretary of the Navy, requesting to be informed as to the nature of my alleged "incompetency," and the evidence of it. I learn, in reply, that the Board reported the names and rank of officers only, and gave no reasons for their action.
I therefore appeal to your sense of justice, and request that you will be so good as to answer, at your earliest convenience, the following questions, which are numbered for the convenience of your reply:—
1st. What was the process of examination adopted by te Board for ascertaining whether an officer was efficient or not?
2nd. What was the standard of efficiency fot the grade of lieutenant?
3rd. What difference, if any, did the Board, in weighing the efficiency of Lieutenants, make between duty ashore and duty afloat?
4th. Wherein was I found incapable of performing the duties of my office, rank, or grade?
5th. Did the Board inspect the Observatory, or make
