Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1898-07-01
SAYINGS OF HEROES.
PHRASES THAT HAVE BECOME PART
. OF AMERICAN HISTORY.


During the 1872 years of the existence
OF the nation the Commodores, Cap
tains and other officers of the navy
have made a magnificent contribution
of patriotic phrases to literature. AS
the terse embodiment of popular senti-
ment in trying situations and emergen-
cies, they are not surpassed by ex-
pressions of like character in any
language.
The sea fighters started in this line
at the very beginning of the Revolu-
ton, in fact, before that tremendous
struggle with the mother country was
begun. Capt. Whipple of Providence,
r. l., for instance, when notified in
1775 by Sir James Wallace of the Brit
ish frgate Rose that he would be
strung up at the yardarm for having
burned his Majesty's ship Gaspee, sent
the laconic reply to Sir James:
Always catch a man before you
hang him"
The lion-hearted Whipple, who, in
the preceding war with France in his
privateer Gamecock captured in
single year twenty-three French prizes,
voiced in that defiant answer the senti-
ments of all the rebels in the colonies
that catching them was an essential
preliminary TO the hanging business.
Il have not yet begun to fight, was
one of Paul Jones's famous replies to
British Captain with whom he had
been fiercely engaged for over an hour
and who desired to know if he had
surrendered. 1t was not Paul Jones
who surrendered when the battle came
to an end. That was the celebrated en-
gagement between the Scraps and the
Bonhomme Richard. The Captain of
the Scraps having been knighted for
his gallantry on that occasion by
George Ill, Paul Jones' when he heard
of the promotion, Enthusiastically re-
marked:
Never mind; if meet him again I'll
make a lord of him.
The first Commodore of the young
American navy was Capt John Barry.
In the spring of 1871 he was hailed by a
British ship on his way from Havana.
To the inquiry as to his identity, he
replied:
The United States ship Alliance,
Saucy Jack Barry, half Irishman, half
Yankee. Who are you?"
Not the value nor the command of
the whole British fleet could tempt me
from the American cause" was the re-
ply of Barry to Lord Howe, in 1776,
when the latter offered him $4,000
guineas and a commission in the Eng
Ich 10 init hn
Equally patriotic was the reply of the
captive American sailor, Nathan COT
fin, when asked to enter the King
service: Hang me, if you will, to the
yard arm, but do not ask me to become
a traitor to my country"
Stephen Decatur was one of the
bravest men that ever walked the quar-
ter deck. His famous toast at public
dinner at Norfolk, Va, in 1916, Our
country! In her intercourse with for
eign nations may she always be in the
right, but our country, right or wrong,
would, if he had never said or done
anything else, have won him place in
the memory of his countrymen. The
destruction by him Of the frigate Phila.
delphia in the harbor of Tripoli was
declared by Lord Nelson to be THE
most bold and daring act of the age.
Decatur was as generous as he was
brave. Il cannot" said he to Capt
Garden of the Macedonian, as the latter
offered to surrender his sword, take
the sword of man who has so bravely
defended his ship, but I'll thank you
for that hat"
This was in the 1872 war, and the re
ference to the hat was a reminder of
bet between the two officers, made pre-
vious to the breaking out of hostilties
in regard to the fighting powers O
their ships At the first fire the Mace
DOMAIN lost her mizzenmast. Hearing
sailor remark to one of his mates tina
they had made brig of her." Decatu
added:
Take good aim, my lads, at tn
mainmast, and We'll make a sloop O
her"
Don't give up the ship" the dyin
words of Lawrence, the heroic com
mander of the Chesapeake, are anon
the noblest ever uttered. The gallan
Perry flew that signal at his masthea
In the memorable battle of Lake Erie
at the glorious close of which he ha
the inspiration to pen that famous dc
spatch, I'VE have met the enemy an
they are ours" 1t was written on hi
stiff hat in lieu of a table, on the ha
of an old letter and the additional il
formation in it gave the size and nun
Der of the enemy, namely, two ship
two briggs, one schooner, and on
sloop."
When the Constitution, under II
command of Commodore Hull. engage
the French frigate Guerriere, a drama
lc scene was witnessed on the deck
old Ironsides. AS the Frenchman's gun
began to thunder out, Lieut.. Morri
In L 1