To John Jay from Robert R. Livingston, 1 May 1783
From Robert R. Livingston
Philadelphia 1st: May 1783.
Dear Sir
Your public & private Letters have remained long unanswered, owing to the stagnation of commerce here on the prospect of peace, & the delay occasioned by Mr. Jeffersons disappointment who was charged with both for you.1 I have now before me your Letters of the 13th. Augt (which Mr Wright did ^not^ deliver till about a fortnight ago) & the 7th. & 14th Decr. I immediatly wrote to your brother inclosed your Letter to him & informed him & Benson of your directions with respect to money matters, I recd no answer to my letter, but Benson who is now here tells me that they have at present no need of it or I should have advanced the money tho the late resolution of Congress of which a copy will be sent you makes your salaries payable here only in bills—2 I informed you of the arrangements made with Mr. Morris for the payment of your salary commencing the 1st. of Jany 1782 which was the more agreeable to me as it gave you an advantage in the exchange which as you will see by the accs. that have been sent was not inconsiderable. But Docr. Franklin having objected to this mode of payment which made the salaries depend upon the fluctuations of the exchange Congress in conformity to his opinion passed the resolution for fixing it at 5 livres 5 sous the dollar & made it retrospect to the first of Jany 1782—3 A deduction has accordingly been made out ^of^ the quarters salary due the 1st. of April equal to all the advantage made by the exchange The ballance will be remitted you, unless upon farther conversation with Benson he should be of opinion that it may be wanted for the uses you mention & chuse to retain it. You say Docr Franklin has paid you to July last— But as my accounts are opened with our ministers on the first of Jany I wish you would to avoid perplexing them settle with Mr Franklin, & repay him out of the bills in his hands for your use all that he advanced from the first of Jany 1782. This will simplify his accounts & mine, & stop bills which in one instance I have been so imprudent as to endorse [illegible] Your rect. then will close my acct.
I was extremly affected by those parts of your Letter4 which relates to your family, as they convinced me that neither time nor the intrigues & pleasures of courts had altered the tender sentiments which you formerly felt for those among us that shared your esteem— I drew from them very pleasing inferences as to the duration of our friendship.
I have great satisfaction in assuring you that your family on this side the atlantic are well & as far as I can learn at their ease, nothing in my power shall be wanting to render them more when I return home, which will I believe be in the course of a few weeks— You have been informed of my resignation last winter— At the pressing instances of Congress I have been prevailed upon to remain in office till the 1 Monday in May, when they are to proceed to an election. Who my successor will be I know not.5 The return of peace renders it unnecessary to make further sacrafices of fortune, time, & ease, to the public I hope by the blessings of God to repair in some measure the waste of these which the war has occasioned, & to live the rest of my Life for my friends my family & myself— Duane & Scott6 have made a rascally attempt during my absence to injure me in the state (but have not been able to succeed) where I happily stand to well to be shaken by them
I am sorrey to hear of your indisposition, & that of your family, I hope your jaunt to Normandy has reestablished your health. I thank you for your kind inquiries with respect to my girl she is considered here as an uncommon fine one & now happily paired by another that promises to be every way her equal to whom I mean to take the liberty of making you god father, unless [you tell me that] your love to the established ^Church^ (which was always a perdominant passion)7 should have reconciled you to that of the country in which you now are, & determined you not to yield that good office to a heretic— For news & politicks I refer you to my public Letters, you will find by them that I differ some some what with you on some important points. I while8 however I candidly confess to you, that you have more people here who coincide with you in opinion than I would wish, since I have serious apprehensions that we shall e’er long be guilty of “the sin which is worse than the sin of witchcraft.”9 Mr Adams has written a long letter to Congress which he has thought proper to address to the president & not to me In which he shews the necessity of sending a minister to G: B: describes the character of the person who ought to go, reasons very skilfully against his being able to dance, speak french, or keep a mistress, & concludes with recommending Mr. Dana or you “if Congress can do such injustice as to pass him by.” The Committee called upon me last night to confer on the subject of this letter, I will venture to pronounce that it will not procure Mr. Adams a mission to G: B:10 Remember me in the most affectionate terms to Mrs Jay & convey my love in a kiss to my little God Daughter— And believe me my Dr. friend when I assure you that I am yours with the most unalterable attatchment
R. R. L.
ALS, NNC (EJ: 6869). Marked: “private”. Endorsed: “ . . . by Cap. Barney / and 19 July—by Do. / pr”. Dft, NHi: Robert R. Livingston (EJ: 840). Tr of a portion of the Dft in NN: Bancroft (EJ: 02742).
1. On the stagnation of commerce, see RRL to the American Peace Commissioners, 21 Apr. 1783, above. On the cancellation of Jefferson’s mission, see Secretary for Foreign Affairs to JJ, 4 Jan. 1783, above.
2. See JJ’s private letters to RRL of 13 Aug. and 14 Dec. 1782, and his public letter of 7 Dec., all above; and Egbert Benson to JJ, 25 Apr. 1783, above. On Joseph Wright, see JJ to RRL, 4 Sept. 1782, above.
3. For the arrangements made by Robert Morris after France indicated it would no longer cover the salaries of American ministers abroad, see RRL to JJ, 9 May 1782, and notes, : 790, 791n17. The resolution of Congress of 7 Mar. 1783 modifying this arrangement was made retroactive to 1 Jan. 1783. See , 5: 126–28, 6: 286; , 24: 175–76. For BF’s protest of 14 Oct.1782, see , 38: 221–22.
5. RRL had submitted his resignation on 2 Dec. 1782. With his consent Congress agreed to defer appointing his replacement until May 1783, but did not make a selection at that time. RRL served until early June 1783, when he left the office vacant. Congress considered nominations for the position on 10 and 17 June, but did not elect a successor. Aware that his resignation had cost him the opportunity to sign the definitive treaty of peace, RRL made an unsuccessful attempt to persuade Congress to allow him to sign it in his former capacity as secretary for foreign affairs. On 7 May 1784 Congress elected JJ to succeed RRL without JJ’s knowledge or consent. JJ did not take the oath of office until 22 Dec. 1784. See , 6: 100–101; , 23: 759, 819, 823–24; 26: 355; , 20: 305–7, 319, 321, 336–37, 440–41; 21: 588, 693–94, 771, 808; 22: 52, 67, 82–83.
6. For months a faction in New York headed by James Duane, John Morin Scott, and John Sloss Hobart had been trying to remove RRL as chancellor on the ground that he could not hold two offices at the same time. Backed by Governor Clinton, RRL retained the chancellorship and gave up the post of secretary for foreign affairs. See the correspondence in NHi: Robert R. Livingston, cited by , 177n.
7. Words in brackets taken from the Dft. In the Dft version the previous passage reads: “which was always very prevalent, has cured you of your antient prejudices & reconciled you . . .”
8. Thus in manuscript. RRL seems to have reworked “I wish” into “I while”. In the Dft: “in which”.
9. See the editorial note “Congress Debates the Commissioners’ Conduct” on pp. 334–40.
10. JA’s letter of 5 Feb. 1783, , 14: 238–45. In the Dft RRL wrote: “It is an extraordinary composition & will if I am not much mistaken defeat the purpose for which it was intended.” JA’s letter was read in Congress on 28 Apr. and referred the next day to a committee composed of Alexander Hamilton, Oliver Ellsworth, and John Rutledge. Its report, submitted 1 May, was confined to the points JA raised concerning the negotiation of a commercial treaty with Great Britain and ignored his suggestions for the appointment of a minister to that country. See , 24: 320–21. For JA’s further complaints, see , 6: 490. For British uncertainty about the implications of the revocation of JA’s commission to negotiate a commercial treaty with Britain, see , 16: 175.