The Mississippi Creole. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1841-1851, 1846-05-02
Commodore John Paul Jones.

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The fate Of Paul Jones, living and dead, has
been a strange and a hard one, and contains as
many items Of injustice as ever fell to one
mans lot. Among the foremost and most de-
voted, he plunged into the struggle Of our re.
volution, and threw into the common treasury
a soul as heroic, as adventurous, as exhaustIess
Of resources as ever lived-endIess labor, and
money TO the last dollar Of his fortune. The
only naval officer in the service who showed
the intnitive genius of a great chief, he not
only was not placed where he belonged, at the
head Of the navy, but was postponed in rank
to a long string Of men who had no reputation
and never acquired any. Engaged in the most
active and successful service, for seven years,
he.no only received not dollar Of pay, and
no ~rations, but he was almost the whole time
in advance to the Congress for money paid out
in repairing his ships and feeding his crews
From time to time he occupied himself in Civ
ing to the navy department his views, full Of
sound sense and comprehensive system, of tho
organization Of the navy. But while time has
confirmed his views and led to their adoption,
it was not till the world had forgotten who was
their author.
But the most heinous wrong done to Paul
Jones, is found in the popular notion Of his
character, which seems to have been borrowed
from the coalse ISLANDERS Of the British press,
at the time he frightened the isles from their
propriety, and put Mistress Britannia in a pa
rOxysm of terror and rage. For half a centu-
ry he existed in the popular mind as little bet
ter than a successful Iufian-a big ferocious
savage, with a diabOlical eye, whose voice in
Battle was that Of an enraged tiger, whose soul
exulted in killing men, sinking ships, and burn
ing towns. The friend, correspondent, and
companion of franklin, a%rufian! The idoliz-
ed hero of the court of Versailles, a savage!
Never was there a more rascally caricature.
Paul Jones was a slender man, delicately mOul-
ded and organized, handsome, Courtly in man
ners, with a great love Of refined society, and
with qualities to adOrn it; given to write poe
try, and as distinguished through life for his
humanity as his heroism. And if we consider
that, excepting the lion courage and intuitiYe
genius that God gave him, he was in all res
poets absolutely a self-made man, the refine
ment of his manners, the cultivation of his
mind, his comprehensive and profound knOwl-
edge Of his profession, and his power Of devel-
oping his ideas in logical order and with rare
clearness Of expression, will seem scarcely
less marvellous than the successful daring Of
his action. We capnot find in all naval histO-
ry a hero with higher and more various claims
10 admiration than John Paul Jones.
But to the people of the United States he is
something more. He is their first nayalhero=-
he more than any other deserved to be honored
as the founder Of our navy and the fount Of its
aspiration-the tutelar genius Of our wooden
walls. He first showed that success was pos
sible; and SO unexpected and astounding was
the proof, that all Europe rung with the capture
of the Scraps, as if it had been the downfall
of an empire. 1t was in fact the birth Of q
rival to the proud mistress of the ocean. Such
Is the man to whose memory the Congress Of
the United States are called on to do simple
ustice Charleston Mercury.