“Let shouts of victory for laurels won Give place to grief for Lawrence, Valor’s son. The warrior who was e’er his country’s pride Has for that country bravely, nobly died.” --_From “An Elegy in Remembrance of James Lawrence, Esquire,” published in June, 1813._ New Jersey claims the honor of being the birthplace of Captain James Lawrence, at one time the idol of the naval service. Captain Lawrence was born at Burlington, being the youngest son of John Lawrence, Esq. Although at the age of twelve he manifested a desire to become a sailor, his wish was not gratified until five years later, when, abandoning the study of law, he took up that of navigation, and received a warrant as midshipman on the 4th of September, 1798. He made one voyage on the ship _Ganges_, under Captain Tingey, and after two years of cruising in various vessels he was made an acting lieutenant on board the frigate _Adams_, where he continued until the reduction of the naval force began, and then, his appointment not being confirmed, he once more found himself a midshipman. Lawrence, like many a good officer, appeared to be continually at loggerheads with the department at Washington. He objected to this first reduction, and in 1801 his objection was sustained, and he sailed to the Mediterranean as first lieutenant of the schooner _Enterprise_ in 1803. All through the war with Tripoli he conducted himself with such bravery as to bring commendation from all his superiors. As an example of his spirit and fearlessness an incident is well worth quoting. After he had returned with Commodore Preble he was not allowed to rest long in idleness; again he was sent to the Mediterranean, for what reason it would be hard to state; he was hastened away in command of one of the foolishly constructed gunboats that did not even rejoice in the dignity of possessing a name, being merely known on the register as “No. 6.” None of these vessels was qualified to take to the sea. They were built on the model of great rowboats, and wallowed and tossed and pitched, and behaved in every way that a vessel ought not to when under sail. The one big gun they carried amidships on deck rendered them top-heavy, and, as some one wrote at the time, “the leeway they gathered discounted the log.” But Lawrence grimly accepted the duty assigned to him, and set out at once. A few months afterwards one of his brother officers wrote in a letter to a relation in the army, saying, “Lawrence has told me that when he went on board the gunboat he had not the faintest idea that he would ever arrive out to the Mediterranean in her, or indeed arrive anywhere else. He also told me that on the coast of Europe he met an English frigate, the captain of which would not at first believe that he had crossed the Atlantic in such a vessel.”