From John Jay to Philip Schuyler, 26 July 1777
To Philip Schuyler
Kingston 26[–28] July 1777—
Dear Sir
Your Favor of the 24 Inst covering a Letter from Gen: St. Clair was delivered to me this Evening. I have sent the latter to the Press. It will be printed entire— Extracts might be followed by Suspicions The malicious might remark that Parts were concealed which if made known would probably give a different Colour to the whole. A Number of Holts Papers shall be sent you; & Care taken to transmit others to Congress, to Head Quarters— Peeks Kill &ca.— I shall also request Loudon1 to reprint it.
This Attack2 on your Reputation will I hope do you only a temporary Injury. The honest tho credulous Multitude when undecieved will regret3 their giving way to Suspicions which have led them to do You Injustice.
I have no Reason to suspect that the Council of Safety ^believed^ Tyconderogah was left by your Direction, or Advice; or with your Knowledge. They appear fully satisfied of the contrary; and in my opinion St. Clairs Letter will remove all Doubts4 on that Head.
The Propriety of appointing a Committee to inquire into Your Conduct appears to me very questionable. Supposing it unexceptionable in Point of Delicacy with Respect to You (which I by no means think it), yet5 as this Council and the late Convention,6 have on certain occasions made your Cause their own; your Enemies would not fail to insinuate that the proposed Inquiry was a mere Contrivance to give a favorable Complection to your Conduct.
Your Readiness to submit to such an Inquiry is no Doubt a strong argument of Innocence & conscious Rectitude; but whether it would not be assuming in the Council to propose it, and inconsistant with the Dignity of your Station to accede to it, are Questions of Importance. Besides, a Proposition so apparently officious, & out of their Line, might perhaps be ^maliciously^ ascribed to their apprehensions of mismanagement, & consequently cast Weight in the Scale against You.
A temperate State of Facts formed from the materials you mention, would doubtless7 set your Conduct in its true point of View. I wish Altho a strict Scrutiny may be eligible, yet how far it would be proper to press Congress to that measure is worth Consideration—8 The Affairs of the northern Department have lately engaged much of their Time and Attention—9 The Evacuation of Tyconderogah will naturally bring about an Inquiry. The Country will not be satisfied without it. You will then have a fair opportunity of vindicating your Conduct.10
The manner in which you Account for the Removal of the Cannon mentioned in my Letter, is very satisfactory11
28 July—
Mr. Morris returned this afternoon. The Council were displeased with the last Letter from him & Mr. Yates— They have passed a Resolution declaring it disrespectful & unsatisfactory & dissolved that Committee.12 They have nevertheless joined Mr. Morris with me & directed us to repair to Head Quarters to confer with his Excellency on the State of your Army, the Means of reinforcing it &ca.— We set out Tomorrow—13 With the best Wishes for your Health & Prosperity I am Dear Sir Your Friend & h’ble Servt
John Jay
Majr Gen. Schuyler
ALS, NNC. Endorsed. DftS, NNC (EJ: 9341). Endorsed by JJ: “Dr. to Gen. Schuyler 28 & 26 July 1777.” Tr, NN: Bancroft (EJ: 1040). JJ’s draft contains numerous deletions, many of them heavily crossed out and illegible. Substantive legible excisions are noted below.
1. Samuel Loudon published the New York Packet at Fishkill. No copies of this paper for July 1777 (except for 3 July) survive. See notes to Arthur St. Clair to JJ, 25 July, above, for details of the publication of the letter.
2. Here in the draft JJ excised the previous word “impudent.”
3. Here in the draft JJ excised “the Part they have acted and be happy in making amends for the Injustice they were incautiously” before completing the sentence. He then excised the following sentences: “Like other Attempts of your Enemies it will terminate in their Shame. After being thus repeatedly foiled they will probably cease Hostilities.”
4. Here in the draft JJ excised “of every honest Man.”
5. Here in the draft JJ excised “it is not clear that the Object or View could be fully obtained.”
6. Here in the draft JJ excised “as it is well known”.
7. Here in the draft JJ excised “answer valuable Purposes and”. At the end of this sentence he added, then excised, “I wish it may be so communicated to the Council”. Following this excision is an illegible passage of about five lines.
8. Here in the draft JJ excised “Inquiries of that Kind are at best unpleasant, &”.
9. Here in the draft JJ excised the following sentence: “To hint at a general Inquiry, & to furnish them with every Fact necessary to form a Judgmt. of your Proceedings, I should think would be sufficient for the Purpose present.”
10. Here in the draft JJ excised an illegible sentence of about three lines.
11. Here in the draft JJ excised “and proper use shall be made of it.” Schuyler explained the removal of the cannon in his letter to JJ of 24 July 1777, above.
12. On 8 July 1777, Abraham Yates Jr. and Robert R. Livingston were ordered to headquarters in the Northern Department at Moses Creek to confer with Schuyler “upon such measures as may from time to time appear necessary to be pursued by this State, for the aid and support of the said department.” On 10 July, Livingston notified the council that, due to family issues, he could not serve on the committee, and it was moved that Gouverneur Morris take his place. Once again, the instructions were to discuss what was needed to defend the Northern Department. On 19 July, Livingston read a draft of a letter to Morris and Yates in which the council expressed surprise that they had received no information regarding the retreat from Ticonderoga and gave a detailed list of what the council wanted to know. Morris and Yates’s reply of 22 July explained that their instructions were to look into how best to defend the Northern Department, not to interrogate Schuyler on Ticonderoga: “It is not in our power, sir, to answer these important objects of our journey, because we are much in the dark about those matters which attract the attention and strict scrutiny of your Honourable Board, and about which the General can give us no information.” They then gave a full report of the desperate conditions in Tryon County. It was JJ who moved that “the said letter is disrespectful and unsatisfactory.” The committee was then dissolved. , 1: 989, 991, 1004, 1016, 1017.
13. In response to Morris’s report on conditions in the Northern Department, on 28 July 1777, JJ and Morris were ordered to headquarters to confer with Washington on the defense of the state. They departed on this mission on 29 July. Washington informed them he could spare only the two brigades that he had already authorized to aid Schuyler. , 1: 1019; , 2: 146, 235–36.
Here in the draft JJ excised the following paragraph:
Holt has published a Piece immediately under St. Clair’s Letter, which I wish had been suppressed. As it contained Extracts of Papers transmitted to the Council by You, & not ordered to be made public, I moved that Inquiry be made for the Author, & the Manner in which he obtained these Extracts. Mr. R. Harpur confessed himself ^to be^ the Author &
made some sham^endeavoured to^ apologize for it. I then moved for the Sense of the Board on this Question—whether any Memberofhad a Right to publish any Papers or Extracts from any Papers belonging to the Council, unless by their express Order or Consent— It was carried Nem. Con. that no Member had such Right. [illegible] I mention these Facts as that Performance will doubtless excite your Attention—
Holt published the piece discussed in this passage in the New York Journal, 28 July 1777, under the initial “T.” “T” demanded an explanation for St. Clair’s conduct at Ticonderoga and published excerpts from a letter of St. Clair expressing confidence that Ticonderoga could be held. Robert Harpur (c. 1731–1825), a former professor of mathematics at King’s College who had tutored JJ, was a member of the provincial congress and the Council of Safety. JJ’s motion does not appear in the .