The Medallic History of the United States of America Part 31

I have the honour of being, &c., DE SARTINE.

[Footnote 61: Captain John Paul Jones was the only American officer decorated by the King of France during the Revolutionary War.]

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_M. de Sartine to Commodore John Paul Jones._

Mr. Paul JONES, Versailles, June 28, 1780.

Commodore in the Navy of the United States of America.

Sir: The King has already testified His approbation of the zeal and valour which you have displayed in Europe, in support of the common cause between the United States and His Majesty, and (p. 110) He has also informed you of the distinguished proofs He is disposed to give you thereof. Persuaded that the United States will give their consent that you should receive the cross of the inst.i.tution of Military Merit, I send you, in the packet addressed to M. de la Luzerne, the one designed for you. You will be pleased to deliver him this packet, and he will confer on you this distinction by a chevalier of the inst.i.tution, agreeably to His Majesty's orders. But at any rate that you should have a proof of the King's approbation and munificence, His Majesty has ordered a gold headed sword to be made for you, which will be immediately delivered to you, and He has the greatest confidence in the use you will make of it for His glory and that of the United States.

I have the honour, etc., DE SARTINE.

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_Resolution of Congress Authorizing Captain Jones to Accept from the King of France the Cross of Military Merit._

IN CONGRESS.

The Committee to whom was referred the letter of May 30, 1780, from M. de Sartine, delivered in a report, whereupon

_Resolved_, That the Congress entertain a high sense of the distinguished bravery and military conduct of John Paul Jones, Esq., captain in the navy of the United States, and particularly in his victory over the British frigate Serapis on the coast of England, which was attended with circ.u.mstances so brilliant as to excite general applause and admiration.

That the Minister Plenipotentiary of these United States at the Court of Versailles, communicate to His Most Christian Majesty the high satisfaction Congress have received from the conduct and gallant behaviour of Captain John Paul Jones, which have merited the attention and approbation of His Most Christian Majesty, and that His Majesty's offer of adorning Captain Jones with a Cross of Military Merit is highly acceptable to Congress.

February 27, 1781.

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_The United States to the King of France._

IN CONGRESS, October 19, 1787.

The Secretary for Foreign Affairs reports that agreeably to the order of the 16th, he hath prepared the following letter to His Most Christian Majesty, which having been duly signed and countersigned, was delivered to the Chevalier John Paul Jones.

GREAT AND BELOVED FRIEND:

We, the United States in Congress a.s.sembled, in consideration of the distinguished marks of approbation with which Your Majesty has been pleased to honour the Chevalier John Paul Jones, as (p. 111) well as from a sense of his merit, have unanimously directed a medal of gold to be struck and presented to him, in commemoration of his valour and brilliant services, while commanding a squadron of French and American ships under our flag and commission, off the coast of Great Britain, in the late war.

As it is his earnest desire to acquire greater knowledge in his profession, we cannot forbear requesting of Your Majesty to permit him to embark in your fleets of evolution, where only it will be probably in his power to acquire that degree of knowledge which may hereafter render him more extensively useful.

Permit us to repeat to Your Majesty our sincere a.s.surances that the various and important benefits for which we are indebted to your friendship will never cease to interest us in whatever may concern the happiness of Your Majesty, your family, and people.

We pray G.o.d to keep you, our great and beloved friend, under his holy protection.

Done at the city of New York, the nineteenth day of October, in the year of our Lord 1787, and of our sovereignty and independence the 12th.

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_Thomas Jefferson to General Washington._

To General WASHINGTON. Paris, May 2, 1788.

Dear Sir: The war between the Russians and Turks has made an opening for Commodore Paul Jones. The Empress has invited him into her service. She insures to him the rank of a Rear Admiral and will give him a separate command, and it is understood that he is never to be commanded. I think she means to oppose him to the Captain Pasha on the Black Sea. He is, by this time, probably at St. Petersburg. The circ.u.mstances did not permit his awaiting the permission of Congress, because the season was close at hand for opening the campaign. But he has made it a condition that he shall be free at all times to return to the orders of Congress, whenever they shall please to call for him; and also that he shall not, in any case, be expected to bear arms against France.

I believe Congress had it in contemplation to give him the grade of Admiral from the date of his taking the Serapis. Such a measure now would greatly gratify him, second the efforts of fortune in his favour and better the opportunities of improving him for our service, whenever the moment shall come in which we may want him.

I have the honour to be Your Excellency's most obedient and most humble servant, Th: JEFFERSON.

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_Admiral John Paul Jones to Thomas Jefferson._ (p. 112)

His Excellency On board the Wladimir, Thomas JEFFERSON, Esq. Before Oczacoff, August 20--September 9, 1788.

Sir: Some of my friends in America did me the honour to ask for my bust. I enclose the names of eight gentlemen, to each of whom I promised to send one. You will oblige me by desiring Mr. Houdon to have them prepared and packed up, two and two; and if Mr.

Short, to whom I present my respects, will take the trouble to forward them by good opportunities, via Havre de Grace, writing, at the same time, a few words to each of these gentlemen, I shall esteem it a particular favour.

Before I left Copenhagen, I wrote to Mr. Amoureux, merchant at L'Orient, to dispose of some articles of mine in his hands, and remit you the amount. I hope he has done it, and that his remittance may be sufficient to pay Mr. Houdon, and the expense of striking the medal with which I am honoured by the United States. But lest this should not turn out as I expect, I have directed Dr. Bancroft to pay any draft of yours on him for my account, as far as four or five thousand livres. I shall want four gold medals as soon as the dies are finished. I must present one to the United States, another to the King of France, and I cannot do less than offer one to the Empress. As you will keep the dies for me, it is my intention to have some more gold medals struck; therefore I beg you, in the meantime, not to permit the striking of a single silver or copper medal.

I send enclosed an extract from my journal on my expedition from France to Holland, in the year 1779, for the information of the Academy of Inscriptions and Belles-Lettres. I trust, at the same time, more to your judgment than to theirs. There is a medallist who executed three medals for me in wax, one of them is the battle between the Bonhomme Richard and the Serapis. The position of the two ships is not much amiss; but the necessary figures are much too near the princ.i.p.al objects; and he has placed them to windward, instead of being as they really were, to leeward of the Bonhomme Richard and Serapis. I do not at this moment recollect the medallist's name, but he lives on the 3d or 4th stage, at a marble cutter's almost opposite, but a little higher than your former house, Cul-de-sac Rue Taitbout, and may be easily found.

It would be of use to see the medal he has made, although it is by no means to be copied. I have not comprehended, in the extract of my journal, the extreme difficulties I met with in Holland, nor my departure from the Texel in the Alliance, when I was forced out by the Vice Admiral Rhynst, in the face of the enemy's fleet. The critical situation I was in, in Holland, needs no explanation, and I shall not say how much the honour of the American flag depended on my conduct, or how much it affected all the belligerent powers. I shall only say it was a princ.i.p.al cause of the resentment of England against Holland, and the war that ensued. It is for you and the Academy to determine whether that part of my services ought to be the subject of one side of the medal.

I am, with perfect esteem and attachment, Your Excellency's most obedient humble servant, J. P. JONES.

No. 18. (p. 113) PLATES XVIII and XIX.

_April 30, 1789--March 4, 1797._

George Washington, President, 1792.

PRESIDENT GEORGE WASHINGTON.

[_First President of the United States of America._]

General Washington in uniform and bareheaded, standing, facing the left, has just given the calumet of peace to an Indian chief, who is smoking it. The Indian, standing, facing the right, has a large medal suspended from around his neck; on the left, a pine tree; at its foot, a tomahawk; in the background, a farmer ploughing. Exergue: GEORGE WASHINGTON PRESIDENT. 1792.

The arms and crest of the United States of America. Arms: Paleways of thirteen pieces, argent and gules, a chief, azure. The escutcheon on the breast of the American eagle, displayed proper, holding in his dexter talon an olive branch, and in his sinister a bundle of thirteen arrows,[62] all proper, and in his beak a scroll inscribed with this motto, E PLURIBUS UNUM (_One out of many_). Crest: Over the head of the eagle, which appears above the escutcheon, a glory, or, breaking through a cloud, proper, and surrounding thirteen stars forming a constellation, argent, on an azure field.[63]

[Footnote 62: The thirteen original States.]

[Footnote 63: See INTRODUCTION, page xxvi.]

It was then customary with the Indians, when they made a treaty of peace, to simulate the burying of the tomahawk. In a speech of Red Jacket's to the Honorable Samuel Dexter, secretary of War, delivered at Philadelphia, February 11, 1802, is the following pa.s.sage: "Brother, you offered to join with us in tearing up the largest pine tree in our forests, and under it to bury the tomahawk. We (p. 114) gladly join with you, brother, in this work, and let us heap rocks and stones on the root of this tree, that the tomahawk may never again be found."

The engraving is a representation of the medal generally known as the Red Jacket medal, from its having been given by President Washington to the celebrated Seneca orator and chief Sa-go-ya-wat-ha (_He keeps them awake_), better known as Red Jacket, on the occasion of his visit to Philadelphia in March and April, 1792. On the death of this great chief of the Six Nations of the State of New York (Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas, Senecas, and Tuscaroras), in 1830, it pa.s.sed into the hands of his nephew the Seneca chief So-sa-wa (_Corpulent man_), James Johnson. It now belongs to James Johnson's grand-nephew, Do-ne-ho-ga-wa (_Open door_), General Ely S. Parker, who served during the Civil War on the staff of General U.S. Grant. He was afterward for some time commissioner of Indian Affairs, and is now living in the city of New York. It is owing to the politeness of General Parker that I am able to give an engraving of this, the only well-authenticated Washington Indian peace medal, although similar ones were given during his administration to different Indian chiefs, as will be seen from the following extract from a message addressed by General Knox, then secretary of War, to the Choctaw nation, and dated Philadelphia, February, 17, 1792: "Brothers, your father, General Washington, sends you two great silver medals--you will point out the two great chiefs who are to receive these marks of distinction."