266 Butler—The Codfish in American History. 
"If we had a war to-morrow,” Admiral Porter wrote in 1888, 
— "we must depend almost altogether on the fishermen of New 
England to man our vessels.” Without these auxiliaries it 
would seem that our revolutionary war might have been a fail¬ 
ure. The captures they made in the first year of it —1776 ran 
up to 342 vessels. They were the privateers who intercepted 
the transport ships bound for the British in Boston and took 
from them those munitions of war which turned against them 
their own arms, and crowned Washington’s siege with success. 
But for Glover’s brigade of Massachusetts fishermen military 
critics maintain that Washington and his army must have sur¬ 
rendered to the British in Brooklyn. But for the skill of the 
same naval experts the crossing of the Delaware — absolutely 
necessary for the surprise of Trenton — could not have been accom¬ 
plished,— and probably would not have been undertaken. No 
statue in Boston was better deserved than Glover’s on Common¬ 
wealth avenue. 
That the fisheries were a chief corner stone of national pros¬ 
perity was, clearly seen by all the north during the war of inde¬ 
pendence. When congress began to consider on what terms 
they would make peace with England all members agreed that 
they would consent to nothing short of independence and terri¬ 
torial areas extending to the Mississippi, and the great lakes. 
New England and New York went further. They demanded all 
the ante-bellum fishing facilities which their people had enjoyed. 
Their cry was, no peace without former fisheries. It was con¬ 
cerning this matter that the first important disagreement arose 
between the north and the south. The north would fight for 
fish abroad even as for firesides at home. But the states south 
of New York, having no share in the fisheries, were urged by our 
French allies not to insist on them as a sine qua non of peace. 
France was a jealous competitor for the lion’s share of fishing 
rights. Secret debates were long and heated. The result was 
that the American negotiators went to Paris without instruc¬ 
tions to yield nothing of the ancient fishing privileges. 
When the international commissioners came together Frank¬ 
lin at first demanded all Canada in the fullest meaning of 
the name. He had hopes of securing this concession which 
