To John Jay from Gouverneur Morris, 23 July 1778
From Gouverneur Morris
Philadelphia 23d July 1778
Dear Jay,
I received yours of the 4th some Days ago but I was in so unsettled a Situation that I could not answer it.1 At present I must be short for I have Company waiting. I have no Apprehension that these Money Matters can affect me. I have not taken nor would I on any Consideration have taken the Agency of the Business. Duer I trust will do what is right.— Your Caution however is useful and proper and I thank you for it. On no Occasion do I wish to give Room for the Exercise of Slanderous Tongues much less where money Matters are in Question for they are indeed delicate, very delicate.
As to the Malevolence of Individuals It is what I have to expect. It is by no Means a Matter of Surprize that I should be hated by some Men but I will have my Revenge. By laboring in the public Service so as to gain the Applause of those whose Applause is worth gaining I will punish them severely. You will see another American to another Letter of the Commissioners.2 I mention this to convince you I am not quite idle.
The Letter you refer to was one enclosing me a Libel against myself. I think I have answered it but am not sure as I was then in a moving State. My Servant being sick also hath prevented me in some Degree from the Worship of the Regularities— Let me hear from you often— My Love to all Friends. Remember me to Lewis & when you see him Richard who by this Time has no small Reason to lament his non Acceptance of a certain Office.3 Adieu. Beleive me with Sincerity your Friend
Gouv. Morris
I hear by Accident of the Arrival of your Brother.4 I congratulate you on it. Again Adieu.
ALS, NNC (EJ: 6965). Endorsed.
1. JJ to Gouverneur Morris, 4 July 1778, not located.
2. On 13 June 1778 Congress received Lord North’s proposals for conciliation, which had been delivered to Philadelphia by the Earl of Carlisle, William Eden, and George Johnstone, the British commissioners sent to undertake peace negotiations. Gouverneur Morris drafted Congress’s reply rejecting this overture, but in order to make it acceptable to the other delegates, he had to make it blander than he wished. Consequently, he also produced and published in various newspapers stronger statements addressed to the commissioners as a group and to the Earl of Carlisle and signed with his frequent pseudonym “An American.” See, for example, the Pennsylvania Gazette, 20 June; the Pennsylvania Evening Post, 14 and 23 July; the Pennsylvania Packet, 21 July; the Independent Ledger (Boston), 6 July; the Providence Gazette, 8 Aug.; and the Massachusetts Spy, 13 Aug.; and 104–5.
3. Lewis Morris and Richard Morris, half brothers of Gouverneur Morris. The office refused by Richard Morris might be either judge of the state admiralty court or the clerkship of the New York State Supreme Court. See above, Richard Morris to JJ, 12 July 1777.
4. SLJ to JJ, 8 Apr. 1778, NNC, mentions the possible arrival of Sir James.