The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1901-09-05
WORDS OF PROPHECY
BY PAUL JONES, THE FOUNDER OF THE
U. S. NAVY"

and Pointed Out-A Prophetic Vision
keener Than That of Washington
Something About the Remarkable
Career of Remarkable Man.
Correspondence Baltimore Sun.
The achievements OF the navy in
the Spanish war and the dispute as to
who deserves the chief houors have
turned the public mind more or less
to recollections of the hero who has
been called the Founder of the
United States Navy" Paul Jones.
Except as a iighter-a more desperate
fighter, perhaps, than any other Of
the many known to history-his
career was fading from the worlds
memory till Winston Churchill, Mahan
and Augustus Buell. revived it. Buell.
readers know that, except Washing
ton, and possibly Franklin and Jeffer-
son. who served their country in
France, hardly any other American
was so conspicuous throughout Chris
tendon in the Revolutionary period
as Paul Jones.
Although of the humblest birth and
scantiest education, while still mate
or captain in the merchant service, he
won cordial welcome to the best So
ciety in America, alike in Puritan
New England and Hougenot South
Carolina, and the very highest place
in the esteem of Americas foremost
men-Washington, Jefferson, Frank
| lin, Adams and the like. Leaving a
fine plantation on the lower Kappa
hammock to be ravaged by Governor
Dunmore and the Tories, he organized
the little American navy for it's bril-
liant career, and so handled the poor
ly equipped little ships grudgingly
given to his own command as to make
the world stand amazed and to extort
honorable tributes even from the Off
GERS of the English navy, whose pride
he SO humbled.
Then, through franklin and,
through Lafayette and the royal Due
de Chartres (afterward Philippe Egal-
ite), whose ardent and intimate friend
ship he had won when they were in
America, he was introduced to all
that was most powerful and most
charming at the French court and
capital, attaining to the special favor
of even the King himself and the in
comparably charming Duchesse de
Chartres. He was granted rich emol-
uments and, by special action, a
specific rank among the noblesse that
no foreigner had ever had before, but
the not unnatural jealousy of the
French naval officers defeated all his
efforts to get command of fleet or a
ship, and be gave up the richest de-
lights of Paris for the service Of
Catharine of Russia. Size. too, was
lavish to him of money and honors,
and in spite of the jealousy of Prince
Potempkin he won great distinction
in naval campaign al. the mouth OF
the Dnieper and the affection and ad-
miration of Catharine's best soldier,
Suwarrow.
In procuring legislation by Con
gress and by the French and Russian
Governments, Paul Jones had rare
varied training in organizations,
diplomacy and statecraft. Congress
admitted him to even it's secret ses-
sions, as did the great Constitutional
convention assembled in Philadelphia,
and Jefferson asked and obtained from
| him an elaborate memorandum of his
views of the merits of the Constitu-
tion when it was finished. The most
salient point in that memorandum
has interest considered in connection
with the warning note of the !Sun's
cd ria1 Of tho of Iulv
Students of history know that it
took all the influence that Washing
ton could bring to bear to overcome
the resistance to the adoption of this
Constitution in Virginia, led by
Patrick Henry and George Mason,
who urged that the paper should con-
tain ample and specific guarantees
against usurpation of power by the
new central Government it was to set
up. Mason even pictured the march
of conauering legions that his pro-
phetic eye saw would come-and they
did come-to enforce in Virginia the
will of the Federal Government.
Would that Heaven had granted to
Washington, along with his many in
comparably good gifts, a like pro-
phetic eve To foresee the day when
the Government he was creating
turned into such a desert as we see it
today the country between Alexandria
and Fredericksburg, which then held
such noble centres Of civilization as
Mount Vernon and Gunston, whence
he and Mason were teaching lessons
Of liberty and statecraft to the world.
Would that he could have foreseen
the day when the grandchildren of
his Mount Vernon negroes were
granted by the Government he was
erecting the suffrage denied to all the
wisdom and virtue of his beloved Vir-
gibia. and were not only given large
part in legislating for the Old Domin-
ion, but were used to fasten on her
a Constitution that he detested, from
which her true sons are even now
toiling in convention to deliver her,
ton Of dire penalties.
The main purpose OF this letter is to
invite attention to the fact that Paul
Jones foresaw, as clearly as Henry
and Mason, the dire consequences to
which the new Constitution must lead
and gave as plain warning of them.
His words in the memorandum are as
follows: Though General
Washington might be safely trusted
with such tempting power as the
chief command of the fleet and the
army. yet. depend on it. in some
other hands it could not fail to over
set the liberties of America.
Deprive him (the President) of the
power and right to draw his sword
and lead them (the fleet and the army
under some plausible pretext or under
any circumstances whatever, to cut
the throats OF part Of his fellow citi-
zens in order to make himself tyrant
over the rest" 1t is interesting to
compare his confident prochecy with
the words in which Fremont. Wendell