From John Jay to Peter Augustus Jay, 16 April 1798
To Peter Augustus Jay
Albany 16th. April 1798
Dear Peter
I have recd. your’s of the 10th.— Mr. Tiebout the Engraver,1 is desirous of publishing a Print from my last Portrait by Stuart, and I have given him ^s^ ^Brother^ a Letter to you mentioning my having consented to his having the Loan of that Picture for that purpose. I now repeat it that you may not at present have the Trouble of putting it up in a Case.
The moment the Election is over speak to Hallet2 about selling my Coach, with or without the Harness, for the Stable I have here is too small to recieve that & the other Carriages I have, & I can here do without it.—3 I say, after the Election is over, because our adversaries would not omit to make even such a Circumstance the Subject of animadversion.
I herewith send, wrapped up in a Paper tied with red Tape, a pair of Slips or Galoshoes, which I had made here last winter, to supply the Place of those I had then inadvertently left at NYork— I send them for your Uncle Peter— That little Bundle together with this Letter will be committed to the Care of the Comptroller,4 who expects to sail Tomorrow.
Nobody here on our Side seems to doubt the Success of the Election, & there prevails a Degree of Confidence and Security, which may expose it to Hazard— for my own part I am neither sanguine nor anxious.5
How deep and how general the Impression made expected from the Publication of the Dispatches from Paris will be, is yet to be decided. I should not be surprized if the leading Partizans of France should see nothing in them to inculpate the Directory or nation. A strong Delusion seems to be spread over this Country— whether it will now be wholly or how far dissipated, is difficult to calculate or even conjecture.6
If there be, as there probably is, some new and interesting Pamphlet, I think you would do well to send a Copy to Genl. Schuyler. Remember us to your Cousin Munro and Maria. I am your affe[ctiona]te. Father,
John Jay
Mr Peter Augustus Jay
ALS, PC (EJ: 07347).
1. Cornelius Tiebout (c. 1777–1832), a New York-born engraver, learned engraving as an apprentice to the silversmith John Burger, publishing maps, subject plates, and line portraits after 1789. In 1793, he went to England for training in stipple engraving. While in London, he engraved and published a portrait of JJ in April 1795, after the Stuart/Trumbull portrait. He returned to New York in November 1796. After 1799, he moved to Philadelphia, working there until 1825, after which he moved to Kentucky, where he died. The above proposed engraving was never made. See David McNeely Stuaffer, American Engravers upon Copper and Steel (New York, 1907), 1: 271–72; Carrie R. Barrett and Ellen G. Miles, Gilbert Stuart (New York, 2004), 123; SLJ to JJ, 2 Aug. 1794, and note 3; and Walter Robertson to JJ and JJ’s reply, both 15 Apr. 1796, all above.
2. Probably James Hallet, a former coachmaker in New York City. Daily Advertiser (New York), 23 Feb. 1792; New-York Gazette, 5 Aug. 1797.
3. For more on the sale of JJ’s coach, see PAJ to JJ, 19 Apr. 1798, below; and 26 Jan. 1799, ALS, NyKaJJH (EJ: 09978).
4. Samuel Jones.
5. See the editorial note “John Jay Wins Reelection as Governor in 1798,” above.
6. On the publication of the dispatches from the envoys to France, see TP to JJ, 9 Apr. 1798, above, and the editorial note “John Jay and the Response to the XYZ Affair in New York,” below.