John Jay Papers
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To John Jay from Gouverneur Morris, 1 January 1783

From Gouverneur Morris

Philadelphia 1 Jany 1783.

Dear Jay

I have recieved your Letter of the thirteenth of October from Paris.1 I am daily convinced of the Necessity of writing principally in Cypher because It will among other Things tend eventually to give one’s Letters a safe Passage when it shall have been found that impertinent or designing Curiosity exercises her Talents in vain.

That Part of your Letter to me in Cypher I have communicated only to Mr. Morris and Mr. Livingston. To them and to them only for Reasons which will be obvious to you. Your Letters to Congress for such i call those you write to the minister of foreign affairs are what they ought to be and have the Effect you would wish. you should remember however that the back lands are as important in the eyes of some as the fisheries.2 Men are forgetful and therefore it will be well by timely Declarations of your Sentiments to recall your Conduct while in Congress. You and I differ about the Western Country &ca. but you and your Sovereign are of the same Opinion.

Genl. McDougall Coll. Brooks of the Massachusetts & Coll. Ogden of the Jersey Line are now here with a Petition to Congress from the Army for Pay. The Army are now disciplined and their wants as to food and Cloathing are relieved but they are not paid. Their back Accounts are not settled. If settled the Ballances are not secured by competent Funds. No Provision is made for the Half Pay promised them. Some Persons & indeed some States pretend to dispute their Claim to it.3 [The Army have Swords in their Hands. You know enough of the History of Mankind to know much more than I have said and possibly much more than they themselves yet think of].4 I will add however that I am glad to see Things in their present Train. Depend on it Good will arise from the Situation to which we are hastening. And this you may rely on that my Efforts will not be wanting. I pledge myself to you on the present occasion [and altho i think it probable that much of convulsion will ensue yet it must terminate in giving to government that power without which government is but a name. government in america is not possessed of it5 but the people are well prepared. wearied with the war their acquiescence may be depended on with absolute certainty and you and i my friend know by experience that when a few men of sense and spirit get together and declare that they are the authority such few as are of a different opinion may easily be convinced of their mistake by that powerful argument the halter.6 it is however a most melancholy consideration that a people should require so much of experience before they will be wise. it is still more painful to think that this experience is always bought so dear. on the wisdom of the present moment depends more than is easily imagined, and when I look round for the actors]— Let us change the Subject7

Accept my sincere Wishes that the Year now commencing may prove to you and yours the kind Dispensor of every human Felicity. Present me on the occasion to Mrs Jay affectionately. All your Friends are well and rejoice that you are in a Situation so essential to America as that which you now hold. [Some Persons have hinted to me that] you are too suspicious, I think they are much mistaken.8 The Observation, if it proceeds from the Heart, shews only that they are not so well acquainted with human Nature as you are. Go on my good Friend continue to merit the Esteem of all good Men and give to Envy the her favorite Food. When you are tired of Europe and have compleated your Business there I will invite you in Shenstone’s9 Language Come Come my Friend with Taste with Genius blest, E’er Age impair thee and e’er Gold allure Adieu Yours

Gouv. Morris

ALS, with encoded and decoded passages, most of which were later completely obliterated, probably by JJ himself, NNC (EJ: 12767). Endorsed: by JJ: “ . . . Recd. 17 Feb. 83.” FC, with passages encoded, NNC: Gouverneur Morris (EJ: 11391). Dft, NNC: Gouverneur Morris (EJ: 11390). Endorsed by Morris. ALS decoded by JJ, with additional decoding from FC by the editors. Encoded in “Office of Finance Cypher No. 1” (WE006).

2This passage is obliterated in the ALS. The additional phrase “in those of others” follows in the Dft, but is omitted in the FC and ALS.

3The officers of the main army encamped at Newburgh dispatched Major General Alexander McDougall and Colonels Matthias Ogden (1755–91) and John Brooke (1752–1825) to Philadelphia to present to Congress a memorial demanding provision for the back pay due the officers and men and some assurance that the promises of half-pay pensions for officers on retirement would be kept. The three-man delegation arrived in Philadelphia on 29 Dec. and presented their memorial on 6 Jan. Gouverneur Morris, as assistant to the superintendent of finance, would play a major role in devising a plan for commuting officers’ pensions to a lump-sum cash payment (PRM description begins E. James Ferguson et al., eds., The Papers of Robert Morris, 1781–1784 (9 vols.; Pittsburgh, Pa., 1973–99) description ends , 7: 247–50, 393–99).

4This passage is obliterated in the ALS.

5Encoded in the ALS, not in the Dft. Text excised in FC.

6This appears to be a reference to the period when Morris and JJ served in the New York Provincial Congress and Convention, and especially on the secret committee investigating the Hickey Plot and on the committee for detecting conspiracies in 1776 and 1777. See, for example, Morris’s comments in his letter to Alexander Hamilton of 16 May 1777, PAH description begins Harold C. Syrett et al., eds., The Papers of Alexander Hamilton (27 vols.; New York, 1961–87) description ends , 1: 254; and “Rounding Up Subversives, Detecting Conspiracies, and Determining Loyalty” (editorial note), JJSP, 1 description begins Elizabeth M. Nuxoll et al., eds., The Selected Papers of John Jay: Volume 1, 1760–1779 (Charlottesville, Va., 2010) description ends : 251–58.

7The entire encoded passage was obliterated in the ALS. Text taken from the Dft (EJ: 11390).

8This passage was obliterated in the ALS. The reference is probably to JJ’s suspicions of the French detailed in his letter to the Secretary for Foreign Affairs of 18 Sept. 1782, above, which had been read in Congress on 24 Dec. 1782.

9William Shenstone (1714–63), English poet.

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