



Produced by Martin Pettit and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was
produced from images generously made available by The
Internet Archive/American Libraries.)






The Riverside Biographical Series

NUMBER 12

PAUL JONES

BY

HUTCHINS HAPGOOD

       *       *       *       *       *

The Riverside Biographical Series

1.  ANDREW JACKSON, by W. G. BROWN.

2.  JAMES B. EADS, by LOUIS HOW.

3.  BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, by PAUL E. MORE.

4.  PETER COOPER, by R. W. RAYMOND.

5.  THOMAS JEFFERSON, by H. C. MERWIN.

6.  WILLIAM PENN, by GEORGE HODGES.

7.  GENERAL GRANT, by WALTER ALLEN.

8.  LEWIS AND CLARK, by WILLIAM R. LIGHTON.

9.  JOHN MARSHALL, by JAMES B. THAYER.

10. ALEXANDER HAMILTON, by CHAS. A. CONANT.

11. WASHINGTON IRVING, by H. W. BOYNTON.

12. PAUL JONES, by HUTCHINS HAPGOOD.

13. STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS, by W. G. BROWN.

14. SAMUEL DE CHAMPLAIN, by H. D. SEDGWICK, Jr.

15. CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS, by HORACE E. SCUDDER.

Each about 140 pages, 16mo, with photogravure
portrait, vols. 1-9, 75 cents; other subsequent
vols., each 65 cents, _net_; _School Edition_,
each, 50 cents, _net_.

HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & CO.
BOSTON AND NEW YORK.

       *       *       *       *       *

[Illustration: Paul Jones [signature]]

       *       *       *       *       *

PAUL JONES

BY
HUTCHINS HAPGOOD

[Illustration: Publisher's logo]

BOSTON AND NEW YORK
HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY
The Riverside Press, Cambridge
1901


COPYRIGHT, 1901, BY HUTCHINS HAPGOOD

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

_Published November, 1901_




PREFACE


The amount of material bearing on Paul Jones is very large, and consists
mainly of his extensive correspondence, published and unpublished, his
journals, memoirs by his private secretary and several of his officers,
published and unpublished impressions by his contemporaries, and a
number of sketches and biographies, some of which contain rich
collections of his letters and extracts from his journals. The
biographies which I have found most useful are the "Life," by John Henry
Sherburne, published in 1825, which is mainly a collection of Jones's
correspondence; another volume, composed largely of extracts from his
letters and journals, called the "Janette-Taylor Collection," published
in 1830; the first and only extended narrative at once readable and
impartial, by Alexander Slidell MacKenzie, published in 1845; and the
recently published "Life" by Augustus C. Buell. To Mr. Buell's
exhaustive work I am indebted for considerable original material not
otherwise accessible to me. On the basis of the foregoing mass of
material I have attempted, in a short sketch, to give merely an unbiased
account of the man.




CONTENTS

CHAP.                                             PAGE

   I. EARLY VOYAGES                                  1

  II. CRUISES OF THE PROVIDENCE AND THE ALFRED      17

 III. THE CRUISE OF THE RANGER                      30

  IV. EFFORTS IN FRANCE TO SECURE A COMMAND         44

   V. THE FIGHT WITH THE SERAPIS                    56

  VI. DIPLOMACY AT THE TEXEL                        70

 VII. SOCIETY IN PARIS                              80

VIII. PRIVATE AMBITION AND PUBLIC BUSINESS          91

  IX. IN THE RUSSIAN SERVICE                       108

   X. LAST DAYS                                    118

_The portrait is from the original by C. W. Peale, in Independence Hall_




PAUL JONES




I

EARLY VOYAGES


John Paul, known as Paul Jones, who sought restlessly for distinction
all his life, was born the son of a peasant, in July, 1747, near the
ocean on which he was to spend a large portion of his time. His father
lived in Scotland, near the fishing hamlet of Arbigland, county of
Kirkcudbright, on the north shore of Solway Firth, and made a living for
the family of seven children by fishing and gardening. The mother,
Jeanne Macduff, was the daughter of a Highlander, and in Paul Jones's
blood the Scotch canniness and caution of his Lowland father was united
with the wild love of physical action native to his mother's race.

Little is known of the early life of the fifth and famous child of the
Scotch gardener. He went to the parish school, but not for long, for the
sea called him at an early age. When he was twelve years old he could
handle his fishing-boat like a veteran. His skill and daring were the
talk of the village. One day James Younger, a ship-owning merchant from
Whitehaven, then a principal seaport on the neighboring coast of
England, visited Arbigland, in search of seamen for one of his vessels.
It happened on that day that Paul Jones was out in his yawl when a
severe squall arose. Mr. Younger and the villagers watched the boy bring
his small sailing-boat straight against the northeaster into the harbor;
and Mr. Younger expressed his surprise to Paul's father, who remarked:
"That's my boy conning the boat, Mr. Younger. This isn't much of a
squall for him." The result was that Mr. Younger took Paul back with him
to Whitehaven, bound shipmaster's apprentice. A little while after that,
Paul Jones made his first of a series of merchant-ship voyages to the
colonies and the West Indies. He continued in Mr. Younger's employ for
four years; when he was seventeen he made a round voyage to America as
second mate, and was first mate a year later.

Paul left Mr. Younger's service in 1766 and acquired a sixth interest in
a ship called King George's Packet, in which he went, as first mate, to
the West Indies. The business instinct, always strong in him, received
some satisfaction during this voyage by the transportation of blacks
from Africa to Jamaica, where they were sold as slaves. The slave-trade
was not regarded at that time as dishonorable, but Jones's eagerness to
engage in "any private enterprise"--a phrase constantly used by him--was
not accompanied by any keen moral sensitiveness. He was always in
pursuit of private gain or immediate or posthumous honor, and his grand
sentiments, of which he had many, were largely histrionic in type. After
one more voyage he gave up the slave-trading business, probably because
he realized that no real advancement lay in that line.

On the John O'Gaunt, in which Jones shipped for England, after leaving
Jamaica, the captain, mate, and all but five of the crew died of yellow
fever, and the ship was taken by Paul into Whitehaven. For this he
received a share in the cargo, and in 1768, when he was twenty-one years
old, the owners of the John (a merchantman sailing from the same port)
gave him command, and in her he made several voyages to America. Life on
a merchantman is rough enough to-day, and was still rougher at that
time. To maintain discipline at sea requires a strong hand and a not too
gentle tongue, and Jones was fully equipped in these necessaries. During
the third voyage of the John, when fever had greatly reduced the crew,
Mungo Maxwell, a Jamaica mulatto, became mutinous, and Jones knocked him
down with a belaying pin. Jones satisfactorily cleared himself of the
resulting charge of murder, and gave, during the trial, one of the
earliest evidences of his power to express himself almost as clearly and
strongly in speech as in action.

Up to this time in Paul's career there are two facts which stand out
definitely: one, that his rough life, in association with common seamen
from the time that he was twelve years old, and his lack of previous
education, made difficult his becoming what he ardently desired to
be,--a cultivated gentleman. Stories told of his impulsive roughness in
later life, such as the quaint ones of how he used to kick his
lieutenants and then invite them to dinner, are probable enough. It is
even more clear, however, that in some way he had educated himself, not
only in seamanship and navigation, but also in naval history and in the
French and Spanish languages, to a considerable degree. On a voyage his
habit was to study late at night, and on shore, instead of carousing
with his associates, to hunt out the most distinguished person he could
find, or otherwise to improve his condition. His passion for acquisition
was enormous, but his early education was so deficient that his
handwriting always remained that of a schoolboy. He dictated many of his
innumerable letters, particularly those in French, which language he
spoke incorrectly but fluently.

It was during Paul's last voyage as captain of a merchantman that the
event took place which determined him to change his name and to live in
America. Several years previously his brother, who had been adopted by a
Virginia planter named Jones, had come at the death of the latter into
possession of the property, and Captain Paul was named as next in
succession. In 1773, when the captain reached the Rappahannock during
his final merchant voyage, he found his brother dying, and, in
accordance with the terms of old Jones's will, he took the name by which
he is famous and became the owner of the plantation. He consequently
gave up his sea life and settled down to "calm contemplation and poetic
ease," as he expressed it at a later period.

But Jones was very far from being contemplative, although he certainly
was rather fond of inflated poetry, and even as a planter, surrounded by
his acres and his slaves, there is no evidence that he led a lazy life.
He seems to have been partly occupied in continuing the important
acquaintances he had made at the intervals between his voyages and in
watching the progress of events leading to war with England. Jones was
given to gallantry, and while on the plantation he carried on the social
affairs which he afterwards continued, as recognized hero and chevalier
of France, on a magnificent scale. He resisted, as he did all through
his life, any benevolent efforts on the part of the colonial dames to
marry him off, and as the war grew nearer his activity in promoting it
grew greater. He made frequent visits to his patriot friends, met,
besides Joseph Hewes, whom he had already known, Thomas Jefferson,
Philip Livingston, Colonel Washington and the Lees, and was later, if
not at this time, in an intimate official relation with Robert and
Gouverneur Morris. In Jones's intercourse with these men he showed
himself one of the most fiery of Whigs. In a letter to Joseph Hewes
written in 1774, he tells how a British officer made a remark reflecting
on the virtue of colonial women. "I at once knocked Mr. Parker down,"
he adds, in a style that suggests the straightforward character of his
official reports.

Although dueling was at that time the conventional method of settling
affairs of that nature, no personal encounter resulted between Jones and
Mr. Parker. Jones, indeed, did not seem averse to such an issue, for he
sent a friend to propose pistols, with which he was a crack shot. It is
nevertheless a striking fact that Paul Jones, the desperate fighter, who
was certainly as brave as any one, and was often placed in favorable
situations for such settlements, never fought a duel. Add to this that
his temper was quick and passionate, and that he had to the full the
high-flown sentiments of honor of the time, and the fact seems all the
more remarkable. The truth is that Jones was as cautious as he was
brave. He acted sometimes impulsively, but reflection quickly came, and
he never manifested a dare-devil desire to put his life unnecessarily in
danger. When there was anything to be gained by exposing his person, he
did it with the utmost coolness, but he consistently refused to put
himself at a disadvantage. When, on at least one occasion, he was
challenged to fight with swords, with which he was only moderately
skillful, he demanded pistols. Fame was Jones's end, and he knew that
premature death was inconsistent with that consummation.

Although Jones was, at the time, in financial difficulties, he no doubt
welcomed the outbreak of the war. Service in the cause of the colonies
could not be remunerative, and Jones knew it. A privateering command
would have paid better than a regular commission, but Jones constantly
refused such an appointment; and yet he has been called buccaneer and
pirate by many who have written about him, including as recent writers
as Rudyard Kipling, John Morley, and Theodore Roosevelt. Nor is it
likely that a feeling of patriotism led Jones to serve the colonies
against his native land. The reason lay in his overpowering desire of
action. He saw in the service of the colonies an opportunity to employ
his energies on a larger and more glorious scale than in any other way.
Service in the British navy in an important capacity was impossible for
a man with no family or position. Jones accordingly went in for the
highest prize within his reach, and with the instinct of the true
sportsman served well the side he had for the time espoused.

Soon after the battle of Lexington Jones wrote a letter to Joseph Hewes,
sending copies to Jefferson, Robert Morris, and Livingston. "I cannot
conceive of submission to complete slavery. Therefore only war is in
sight.... I beg you to keep my name in your memory when the Congress
shall assemble again, and... to call upon me in any capacity which your
knowledge of my seafaring experience and your opinion of my
qualifications may dictate." Soon after Congress met, a Marine
Committee, Robert Morris, chairman, was appointed, and Jones was
requested to report on the "proper qualifications of naval officers and
the kind of armed vessels most desirable for the service of the United
States, keeping in view the limited resources of the Congress." He was
also asked to serve on a committee to report upon the availability of
the vessels at the disposal of Congress. Jones was practically the head
of this committee, and showed the utmost industry and efficiency in
selecting, arming, and preparing for sea the unimportant vessels within
the disposition of the government.

At the beginning of the war there was no American navy. Some of the
colonies had, indeed, fitted out merchant vessels with armaments, to
resist the aggressions of the British on their coasts, and in several
instances the cruisers of the enemy had been captured while in port by
armed citizens. The colonial government had empowered Washington, as
commander in chief, to commission some of these improvised war vessels
of the colonies to attack, in the service of the "continent," the
transports and small cruisers of the British, in order to secure powder
for the Continental army. It was not, however, until October of 1775
that the first official attempt towards the formation of a continental,
as opposed to a colonial, navy, was made. The large merchant marine put
at the disposal of the new government many excellent seamen and skippers
and a good number of ships, few of them, however, adapted for war. To
build regular warships on a large scale was impossible for a nation so
badly in need of funds. It was almost equally difficult to secure
officers trained in naval matters, for the marine captains, although as
a rule good seamen, were utterly lacking in naval knowledge and the
principles of organization.

In this state of affairs Paul Jones proved a very useful man. He was not
only a thorough seaman, but had studied the art of naval warfare, was in
some respects ahead of his time in his ideas of armament, and was
familiar with the organization and history of the British navy. In the
early development of our navy he played, therefore, an important part,
not only in equipping and arming ships for immediate service, and in
determining upon the most effective and practicable kind of vessels to
be built, but also in laying before the committee a statement of the
necessary requirements for naval officers.

To the request of Congress for reports, Jones answered with two
remarkable documents. One was a long, logical argument in favor of swift
frigates of a certain size, rather than ships of the line, and showed
thorough knowledge, not only of naval construction and cost of building,
but also of the general international situation, and the best method of
conducting the war on the sea. On the latter point he wrote: "Keeping
such a squadron in British waters, alarming their coasts, intercepting
their trade, and descending now and then upon their least protected
ports, is the only way that we, with our slender resources, can sensibly
affect our enemy by sea-warfare." This is an exact outline of the policy
which Jones and other United States captains actually carried out.

Jones also made the statement, wonderfully foreshadowing his own
exploits and their effect, that, "the capture... of one or two of
their crack frigates would raise us more in the estimation of Europe,
where we now most of all need countenance, than could the defeat or even
capture of one of their armies on the land here in America. And at the
same time it would fill all England with dismay. If we show to the world
that we can beat them afloat with an equal force, ship to ship, it will
be more than anyone else has been able to do in modern times, and it
will create a great and most desirable sentiment of respect and favor
towards us on the continent of Europe