"I commenced writing the Life of Paul Jones with the impression, received from early reading, that he was a reckless adventurer, incapable of fear, whose chief merit consisted in performing deeds of desperate daring. But I rise from this careful examination of what he has written, said, and done, with the conviction that I had misjudged his character. I now regard him as one of the purest and most enlightenend of patriots, and one of the noblest of men. His name should be enrolled upon the same scroll with those of his intimate friends, Washington, Jefferson, Franklin and Lafayette."
–from the Preface by author John Stevens Cabot Abbott