“I thank you for Mr. Pettit’s speech on the Oregon question. I go for Oregon – Strong – look back to 1800 & 1804 and say now what would have been the Situation of our Country if Jefferson had not had keenness of sight as a Statesman to secure Louisiana – what would have been the Situation of the Valley of the Mississippi if instead of the Stars and Stripes floating over the products of that…fertile region, some foreign power had secured the mastery of the great outlet? So in some quarter of a century will it be with Oregon and California. Plant there our standard. Spread there the benignity of our Laws. Infuse there the Anglo Saxon spirit and generations there will yet rise up and call those blessed who in the present did so much in [perfection?] for them…

             I see Mr. Dix has been going the large figure for the NYork Pilots Repeal. Is it possible that the Repeal can find power enough in either House to secure its passage? I fear it may not so be. Blight the commerce of our Country in some other way if it must be one but not by Repeal of that most just…Law

              I see by the papers that the “NYork Yacht Club” are asking ”privileges” of Congress. What do they ask for?  It is said they are asking to be exempt from the License Law. Can it be possible that men so rich as to [?] about in their miniature floating palaces are asking to be exempted from the payment of a few dollars per annum to the Government? Such is said to be the case if the Congress should favor them…Pray what are they asking for? What is [?] relation to Jersey City? The Cunard Line will, if they come there under a civil enactment of Congress…raise up that portion of our State and spread the benefit for [?]…Do all you can to help it on.

              Why does not Government send Com. Kearny to the Command in the Mexican Gulf. He is the very man of all the Navy. He has been there so long that he knows all that is required for such a responsibility that the officers and men of the Service would flock to him…and Victory is almost sure if he be the head. I’d volunteer myself to be with him if he would have the chance. St. Juan de Ulloa would soon be his if the [?] interest were only put under his direction…”

Rogers was a prominent New Jersey mill owner who served in a number of local capacities, official and private, often in concert with his friend US Navy Commodore Lawrence Kearny, who had fulfilled several quasi-diplomatic functions on Naval voyages to China and Hawaii, and was said to be destined for command in the Gulf of Mexico while in command of the Norfolk Navy Yard, instead taking a year’s leave to become Mayor of Perth Amboy, his hometown. He was a distant relative of General Stephen Kearny, the “conqueror” of California during the Mexican-American War.