[12] Appleton’s Cyclopedia of American Biography, III, 259.
[13] Journals of Continental Congress, September 19, 1776.
[14] Works of John Adams, II, 469-83. In one of these debates, according to Adams, George Wythe of Virginia said: “Why should not America have a navy? No maritime power near the seacoast can be safe without it. It is no chimera. The Romans suddenly built one in their Carthaginian war. Why may not we lay a foundation for it? We abound with firs, iron ore, tar, pitch, turpentine; we have all the materials for the construction of a navy.”—Works of John Adams, II, 479.
[15] See Chapter II, The Fleets of Washington and Arnold.
[16] Journals of Continental Congress, November 2, 1775.
[17] Ibid., November 10. Congress first ordered the marines to be raised from the Continental army, but on the objecting of Washington to such weakening of his forces, they were directed to be raised independent of the army.—Journals, November 10, 30, 1775; Ford, Writings of Washington, III, 225, 274.
[18] Journals of Continental Congress, November 23, 25, 28, 1775.
[19] Thomas Clark, Naval History of United States, II, 108.
[20] Pickering’s Statutes, 22, George II, chapter 33; title of act, “An act for amending, explaining, and reducing into one Act of Parliament, the laws relating to the government of his Majesty’s ships, vessels, and forces by sea.”
[21] King’s Regulations and Admiralty Instructions of 1772.