ld
ever arouse him. Like Warren Hastings, John Paul Jones was at rest at
last; "in peace after so many storms, in honor after so much obliquy."

He was buried in a Protestant cemetery in Paris, which was officially
closed in January, 1793. The exact location of his grave there was
forgotten. For many years even the fact that he was buried there was
forgotten. The other day the cable flashed a message which gladdened
every American heart. Under the inspiration, and at the personal
charges, of General Horace Porter, United States Ambassador to France,
{282} a search had been instigated and the body was found and
completely identified. It is a service of sentiment that General
Porter has rendered us, but not the less valuable on that account. To
love the hero, to recall the heroic past, is good for the future. The
remains of the great captain came back to the United States. On the
decks of such a battleship as even his genius never dreamed of,
surrounded by a squadron that could have put to flight all the
sea-fighters of the world before the age of steam and steel, the body
of the little commodore was brought back to his adopted country to
repose on the soil of the land he loved, for whose liberty he fought,
whose honor he maintained in battle; and a suitable monument is to be
raised by our people to commemorate his services, to inspire like
conduct in years to come.

Commodore John Paul Jones, the first of the great American fighters,
and not the least splendid in the long line, was born of humble origin
in a southern county of Scotland. His family was obscure, his
circumstances narrow, his advantages meagre, his opportunities limited.
At the age of twelve he became a sailor. Genius rose, superior to
adverse circumstances, however, and before he died he was one of the
most accomplished officers who ever served the United States. The
greatest men of America and France took pleasure in his society and
were proud of his friendship.

He progressed rapidly in his chosen career. At nineteen he was chief
mate of a slaver, a legitimate occupation in his day but one that
filled him with disgust. At twenty-one he was captain of a trader. In
1773 he came to America, forsook the sea and settled in Virginia.

{283}

I. The Birth of the American Navy

He was still poor and still obscure when on December 7, 1775, he was
appointed a lieutenant in the new Continental Navy, In that capacity he
was ordered to the _Alf