From John Jay to Alexander McDougall, 11 April 1776
To Alexander McDougall
[Philad. 11 Ap. 1776]
Whether my last letter has reached you or not is uncertain. From your Silence I sometimes suspect it has not. However as I know you must be perpetually engaged in matters of more Consequence, I cannot expect to hear from you so often as when you enjoyed more Leizure.
I could wish to be informed of the Number of Troops now employed in New York, how your Levies go on, & whether there is a Prospect of your Battalions soon being compleated.
From a late York Paper there is reason to apprehend a disagreable Dispute between some of the Citizens & the Convention relative to the Mode of Appointing Delegates to the Congress. I esteem every Controversy of this kind as a misfortune to the Colony & cannot but think the mode proposed by the mechanicks useless as well as unseasonable—All the Delegates who now compose this Congress were chosen either by provincial Assemblies or Convention & I really can see no good Reason for deviating from it in one Colony.
As it is intended that the next Convention should be expressly authorized by their Constituents to appoint Delegates I cannot perceive how the Right of Election will be injured by their exerting a Power so publickly & openly given them by the People from whom I readily admit all civil Authority must originate.1
The making of Gun Locks Arms & Salt Petre goes on rapidly in this Colony, & from the Accounts recd. lately from Virginia they will soon manufacture as much Powder as they may want.
A very rich mine of Sulphur lying just under the Surface of the Earth has been discovered in Jersey, & a Man who understands preparing or refining the Ore has been found & employed—in all Probability will [we sh]all never after this Year be indebted to Congress for ammunition.
As the Sound is now pretty well secured against the Incursions of the Enemy, would it not be prudent for the Convention to cause Salt Works to be erected. I fear the Scarcity of that Commodity will in the Course of another Year distress our People exceedingly2
I hope to see you sometime next Month unless the Arrival of the Commissioners3 or some other extraordinary Event should detain me. As to those Gentlemen, I sometimes think their coming questionable, and should they arrive, I suspect their Powers will be too limited, to promise us much from Negotiation.
From the present Appearance of Things it is natural to suppose that the Sword must decide the Controversy—And with a view to that Object our measures should in a great Degree be taken. The first Thing therefore in my opinion to be done is to erect good and well ordered Governments in all the Colonies, and their thereby exclude that Anarchy which already too much prevails. This is a Step which it is probable will not be taken by the Conventions till the Business of the Commissioners is over, but it is a Matter, ^which^ ought nevertheless to be attended to, and inculcated—4 I am Dr. Sir Your Friend & hble Servt
John Jay
ALS, NHi: McDougall (EJ: 745). Endorsed.
1. The previous two paragraphs were published in New York as a broadside dated 16 Apr. 1776 (, no. 14813). Before its adjournment on 16 Mar. 1776, the Second New York Provincial Congress enacted resolutions for the election of a Third Congress in mid-April. In the campaign for the Third Provincial Congress, the method of selecting delegates to the Continental Congress became a major issue. The Committee of Mechanics issued a statement of 1 Apr. 1776 advocating the future selection of Continental delegates by popular elections rather than by the provincial congress. The mechanics’ statement appeared in the N.Y. Gazette, and Weekly Mercury of 8 Apr. 1776. For a discussion of this issue in the April 1776 campaign, see , 255–58.
2. On 16 Mar. 1776 the provincial congress resolved to offer loans and premiums to encourage the extraction of salt from seawater, and the Committee of Safety that sat after the Congress’s adjournment was empowered to publish accounts of methods for processing salt. , 1: 366.
3. As early as mid-February 1776, rumors circulated in the colonies to the effect that Parliament had appointed commissioners to negotiate provincial grievances. However, in the third week of March, the Congress received a copy of the Act of Parliament of 19 Dec. 1775, which interdicted trade with the colonies and provided for commissioners who would have only the powers of granting pardons and accepting oaths of allegiance to the Crown, not any power to negotiate with the Congress. , 1: 355, 401; , 4: 439–41.
4. JJ’s proposal anticipated the resolution of Congress of 10 May 1776 calling on the people of the colonies to institute new state governments. , 4: 342, 351, 357–58.