Constitution was the better ship; her crew was more numerous in
proportion of ten to six. Dacres knew this very nearly as well as it was
known to Hull, yet he sought a duel. What he did not know was that in a
still greater proportion the American officers and crew were better and
more intelligent seamen than the British, and that their passionate wish
to repay old scores gave them extraordinary energy. So much greater was
the moral superiority than the physical, that while the Guerriere's
force counted as seven against ten, her losses counted as though her
force were only two against ten.

Dacres's error cost him dear; for among the Guerriere's crew of two
hundred and seventy-two, seventy-nine were killed or wounded, and the
ship was injured beyond saving before Dacres realized his mistake,
although he needed only thirty minutes of close fighting for the
purpose. He never fully understood the causes of his defeat, and never
excused it by pleading, as he might have done, the great superiority of
his enemy.

Hull took his prisoners on board the Constitution, and after blowing up
the Guerriere sailed for Boston, where he arrived on the morning of
August 30th. The Sunday silence of the Puritan city broke into
excitement as the news passed through the quiet streets that the
Constitution was below in the outer harbor with Dacres and his crew
prisoners on board. No experience of history ever went to the heart of
New England more directly than this victory, so peculiarly its own: but
the delight was not confined to New England, and extreme though it
seemed, it was still not extravagant; for however small the affair might
appear on the general scale of the world's battles, it raised the United
States in one half-hour to the rank of a first class Power in the world.

Selections used by permission of Charles Scribner's Sons, Publishers.

JOHN ADAMS

(1735-1826)

John Adams, second President of the United States, was born at
Braintree, Mass., October 19th, 1735, and died there July 4th, 1826, the
year after his son too was inaugurated President. He was the first
conspicuous member of an enduringly powerful and individual family. The
Adams race have mostly been vehement, proud, pugnacious, and
independent, with hot tempers and strong wills; but with high ideals,
dramatic devotion to duty, and the intense democratic sentiment so often
found united with personal aristocracy of feeling. They have been men of
affairs first