John Jay Papers
Documents filtered by: Author="Morris, Gouverneur"
sorted by: date (ascending)
Permanent link for this document:
https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jay/01-01-02-0303

To John Jay from Gouverneur Morris, 29 April 1778

From Gouverneur Morris

York Town 29th April 1778

Dear Jay.

I won’t dispute who has written most. I have written more than twice what you acknowlege to have received but this is of no Consequence.

I am sorry for your Session but I wish you had marked out what Taxes have been laid what Salaries1 given & a few more striking outlines of Legislation These with what I know of your Men would have enabled me to imagine proper Lights & Shades.

My arithmetical Friend2 will not find much from the Sum you mention worth casting up. Remember my Love to him.

I chuse that my Friends should write freely and those who know me must know that such Freedoms need no Apology. I never thought the Person you allude to3 so steady as could be wished. We have all of us our weak Sides Would to God that were the worst.

What you mention relative to our Plan of Rights shall be attended to. I am a busy Man tho as heretofore a pleasurable one.

Let your Governor cleanse the Augean Stable in his State which no public Body would do tho it stink under their Noses. I am laboring at Arrangements of various Kinds God prosper me and give me Patience & Industry It was a good Wish from one who knew my Wants.

We have ordered Troops from the Highlands but we will send thither a Genl.4 who shall be impowered to call forth the Swarms of the Eastern Hive. Men were necessary at the Valley Forge. I have a good Knack at Guessing I guess the Enemy won’t Attempt Hudson’s River.

I do think of Vermont and unless I mistake Matters shall be managed to Effect without bellowing in the Forum which I beleive hath been a little too much the Case. But why should I blame impetuous Vivacity hath it never led me into an Error?

Putnam will soon be tried. The Affair of Schuyler & St Clair laboured under aukward Circumstances. Their Friends & their Enemies appear to me to have been equally blind. I enclose Extracts from the Minutes made the other Night to possess myself of the real State of Facts. There are some other Entries from Time to Time. It was erroneous to order a Committee simply to collect Facts they should have been directed to state Charges. This Morning my Colleague being absent I got a Committee appointed for the latter Purpose. Sherman, Dana (Massachusetts) & Drayton (South Carolina). This was unanimous and yet I would have undertaken to argue for it in a Stile which would absolutely ^have^ ruined the Measure. You know it would have been easy to say Justice to these injured Gentlemen instead of Justice to an injured Country requires &ca.

Great Britain seriously means to treat. Our Affairs are most critical tho not dangerously so. If the Minister from France were present as well as him from England I am a blind Politician if the thirteen States (with their extended Territory) would not be in peaceable Possession of their Independency three Months from this Day. As it is, expect a long War. I beleive it will not require such astonishing Efforts after this Campaign to keep the Enemy at Bay. Probably a Treaty is signed with the House of Bourbon ere this, if so a spark hath fallen upon the Train which is to fire the World. Ye Gods what Havock does Ambition make among your Works.5

My dear Friend Adieu. my Love to your Wife. Remember me to all my Friends of every Rank & Sex. I am yours

Gouv Morris

P.S. I meant to have said the present is within the spirit of our Constitution a special Occasion. The foregoing is in Answer to yours of the 14th.

ALS, NNC (EJ: 6963). Addressed: “Honle John Jay Esqr. Chief Justice of / the State of / New York at / Poughkeepsie or elsewhere.” Franked: “Free / Gouv Morris.” Endorsed: “G Morris 28 Ap. 1778 / ansd 3 June.” Although the reworked dateline is unclear, and JJ in his endorsement and response referred to this as a letter of 28 Apr., the appointment of the committee “to state Charges” referred to in the text did not occur until 29 Apr. JCC description begins Worthington C. Ford et al., eds., Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774–1789 (34 vols.; Washington, D.C., 1904–37) description ends , 10: 403.

1JJ provided information on state salaries in his letter to Morris of 3 June, below.

2Robert R. Livingston, who, as JJ explained to Morris on 14 Apr., above, “was to have told me the Amount of certain Sums you set him.”

3Apparently a reference to a person discussed in JJ’s letter to Morris of 16 Mar., which has not been found.

4Horatio Gates. See JCC description begins Worthington C. Ford et al., eds., Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774–1789 (34 vols.; Washington, D.C., 1904–37) description ends , 10: 354–55, 368–69.

5The “spark hath fallen” is probably a reference to a line in Virgil’s The Georgics. “Ye Gods . . .” is a quote from Joseph Addison’s play Cato, act 1.

Index Entries