The Life and Adventures of Rear-Admiral John Paul Jones, Commonly Called Paul JonesAbbott, John S. C. (John Stevens Cabot)
History
The Life and Adventures of Rear-Admiral John Paul Jones, Commonly Called Paul Jones
Abbott, John S. C. (John Stevens Cabot)
Jones, John Paul, 1747-1792
The following is a brief recapitulation of the services which, during
his short life, he rendered his country. During the Revolution he fought
twenty-three battles at sea, and was never vanquished. He made seven
victorious descents upon Great Britain and her colonies. He captured two
ships of equal size with his own, and two of far superior force; besides
taking many store-ships and other smaller craft. He spread alarm
throughout the whole island of Great Britain, compelling the government
to fortify all her ports. He also forced the British to desist from
their atrocious system of pillaging and burning in America, and to
exchange, as prisoners of war, the Americans whom they had captured and
plunged into prison dungeons as “traitors, pirates, and felons.”
The distinguished Matthew Carey of Philadelphia, after examining the
voluminous correspondence of Paul Jones, contained in the valuable
biography compiled by Colonel John Henry Sherburne, wrote to the author:
“I have read, with intense interest, your Life of John Paul Jones. And
it must be regarded as a valuable national object, placing, as it does,
in strong relief, the shining qualities of this hero, not only as a
naval commander but as a profound politician. The latter quality appears
clearly and distinctly in various parts of the correspondence, wherein
are developed views of the proper policy of this country which are
worthy of the first statesmen that sat in the Congress of 1774 and
1775—men never exceeded in the annals of the world for sagacity,
patriotism, and public spirit.
“No man has been the subject of more gross and shocking abuse, and none
of those who have distinguished themselves in the Revolution were so
little known as he has been to the nation to whose service he devoted
all the energies of his magnanimous soul. I confess that for one I
always regarded Paul Jones as very few degrees above a _freebooter_ who,
in the prospect of plunder was reckless of his life. I am now thoroughly
undeceived, and consider him as deserving a conspicuous rank among the
most illustrious of those heroes and statesmen who not only formed a
wreath around the brow of this country, but secured her a prouder
destiny than ever fell to the lot of any other portion of mankind.”
THE END.
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PRINTED BY LANGE, LITTLE & CO., NEW YORK.
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Transcriber’s Note
The name of a Greek officer, Alexiano, is misspelled in both the table
of content’s description of Chapter XIV, and the summary at the head of
the chapter itself. Both were corrected.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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