for
avoiding a quarrel, but had to accede to it.

***

To John Paul Jones Franklin stood in the relation of a navy department.
The daring exploits of that gallant mariner form a chapter too
fascinating to be passed by without reluctance, but limitations of space
are inexorable. His success and his immunity in his reckless feats seem
marvelous. His chosen field was the narrow seas which surround Britain,
which swarmed with British shipping, and were dominated by the
redoubtable British navy as the streets of a city are kept in order by
police. But the rover Jones, though always close to his majesty's
coasts, was too much for all his majesty's admirals and captains. He
harried these home waters and captured prizes till he became embarrassed
by the extent of his own success; he landed at Whitehaven, spiked the
guns of the fort, and fired the ships of the fleet in the harbor beneath
the eyes of the astounded Englishmen, who thronged the shore and gazed
bewildered upon the spectacle which American audacity displayed for
them; he made incursions on the land; he threatened the port of Leith,
and would undoubtedly have bombarded it, had not obstinate counter winds
thwarted his plans; he kept the whole British shores in a state of
feverish alarm; he was always ready to fight, and challenged the
English warship, the Serapis, to come out and meet him; she came, and he
captured her after fighting so desperately that his own ship, the famous
Bon Homme Richard, named after Poor Richard, sank a few hours after the
combat was over.

[Illustration]

All these glorious feats were rendered possible by Franklin, who found
the money, consulted as to the operations, issued commissions, attended
to purchases and repairs, to supplies and equipment, who composed
quarrels, settled questions of authority, and interposed to protect
vessels and commanders from the perils of the laws of neutrality. Jones
had a great respect and admiration for him, and said to him once that
his letters would make a coward brave. The projects of Jones were
generally devised in consultations with Franklin, and were in the direct
line of enterprises already suggested by Franklin, who had urged
Congress to send out three frigates, disguised as merchantmen, which
could make sudden descents upon the English coast, destroy, burn, gather
plunder, and levy contributions, and be off before molestation was
possible. "The burning or plundering of Liverpool or Glasgow," he