“Morning Chronicle and London Advertiser,” May 8, 1778: The captain of the Ranger, John Paul, was some time ago master of a vessel called the John, belonging to Kirkudbright, stood a trial in London for the murder of his carpenter and was found guilty, but made his escape.
This is the seed, evidently, from which grew the following tale:
“Morning Post and Daily Advertiser,” Thursday, September 30, 1779: “Paul Jones, or John Paul, which is his real name, is a man of savage disposition. He was for many years a commander of a coasting vessel, in which time he committed many barbarities upon his crew—one of which will forever stamp his character as a dark assassin. Between Whitehaven and Bristol he took a deep dislike to one of his crew and meditated revenge, which he performed as follows: One evening upon deck he behaved with more than common civility toward him, and calling him aside to do something of the ship’s duty, the unsuspecting man went, when Jones desired him to lay hold of a rope which was out of reach; Jones then desired him to stand on a board (the board having been so balanced that a small weight would overturn it), which he did, when he fell into the sea and was drowned.... Thus he got rid of an innocent man without being suspected of murder.”
This story was repeated in a number of other papers with suitable variations, and once, on the authority of a “reliable lady of our acquaintance,” the then equivalent of our “reliable, well-informed sources.” Some of the news sheets accuse him, moreover, of being the son of a gardener, of owing his watchmaker money for several years, of knocking down his schoolmaster with a club, of cold-bloodedly sinking a boat-load of deserters with solid shot; of cowardice in refusing to fight a duel; of dishonesty in money matters; of “concealing a quantity of lead in his clothes to sink himself, should he be overcome by the English.”
Jefferson on English Hyphenates and English Perfidy.
Jefferson on English Hyphenates and English Perfidy.—Thomas Jefferson to Horatio Gates, Pennsylvania: “Those who have no wish but for the peace of their country and its independence of all foreign influence have a hard struggle indeed, overwhelmed by a cry as loud and imposing as if it were true, of being under French influence, and this raised by a faction composed of English subjects residing among us, or such as are English in all their relations and sentiments. However, patience will bring all to rights, and we shall both live to see the mask taken from their faces and our citizens be made sensible on which side true liberty and independence are sought.”
Thomas Jefferson to John Langdon, the Governor of New Hampshire: “But the Anglo-men, it seems, have found out a much safermeans than to risk chances of death or disappointment. That is that we should first let England plunder us, as she has been doing for years, and then ally ourselves with her and enter into the war. This, indeed, is making us a mighty people and what is to be our security, that when embarked for her in the war she will not make a separate peace, and leave us in the lurch. Her good faith! The faith of a nation of merchants! The PUNCIA FIDES of modern Carthage! Of the friend and protectress of Copenhagen! Of a nation which never admitted the chapter of morality in her political code and is now avowing that whatever she can make hers, is hers by right! Money and not morality is the principle of commerce and commercial nations. But in addition to this the nature of the English nation forbids of its reliance upon her engagements and it is well known that she has been the least faithful to her alliances of all nations of Europe, since the period of her history wherein she has been distinguished for her commerce and corruption and that is to say, under the Houses of Stewart and Brunswick.”
Jefferson’s Tribute to German Immigration.
Jefferson’s Tribute to German Immigration.—From Thomas Jefferson’s letter to Gov. Claiborne: “Of all foreigners I should prefer Germans.”