To John Jay from Robert R. Livingston, 6 July 1780
From Robert R. Livingston
Philadelphia 6th July 1780
Dear John,
Having just heard of an opportunity to write to you by way of France I relieve the fatigue of an uninteresting debate in which our Friends Fell & Holton take the lead to let you hear from me.1 If I have not been unfortunate you must at your arrival have found several Letters from me, some of them written in our first cypher which you tell me has become useless so that they are probably unintelligible to you.2 I shall now confine myself to general subjects as my present cypher is not at hand. I have been here since the 4th of Novr. very much against my inclinations & know not how much longer I may be detained. Mr. D—3 is gone home, & as he has views upon your old seat he will hurry back to be in time & he assures me that I shall have leave to go immediately upon his return, & as I do not look the same way I think I shall indulge him. You have I dare say heard of poor Morris misfortune in the loss of his leg.4 He bears it with magnanimity & is in a fair way of recovery. I feel for him & yet am led to hope that it may turn out to his advantage & tend to fix his desultory genious to a point in which case it can not fail to go far.
As I know the interest you take in what may contribute to my happiness, I venture to inform you of a domestick occurence by which it is greatly increased, the birth of a daughter.5 I saw your son at headquarters about two months ago. He is a fine healthy boy and the Idol of his grandmother. Now I am speaking of her, I must tell you that she was so imprudent as to remove with her family to Elizabeth town, where she was vissited by the enemies whole army, who treated her with civility as I learn by a letter to Mrs Morris from Caty. But their troops being very hardly treated by the New Jersey Militia on a second vissit they made to Springfield, which they burnt, they called a second time at the Govrs, & were with great difficulty prevented from burning the house by M[iss]. L[ivingston], Mrs. Livingston not being at home.6 You are happy in being so far from this scene of trouble. The enemy by the reduction of Charlestown have obliged us to make large detachments from the main army and by returning with the greater part of their force have kept us in a continual motion, tho fortunately they are now again by the aid of the militia shut up in New York. And we are waiting in anxious expectation the arrival of the French armament in order to attempt some thing important. In the mean while we shall need great assistance from the court at which you now are to enable us to make some arrangement of our finances, from the disorder of which our greatest evils flow. These however are by no means remediless; they want attention, & some support from our allies to put them upon the best & most stable footing. I forgot to mention that I have recd. within this few days your Letter from Cadiz. I was mortified to such a degree at not hearing from you while at Martinique that I could not bring myself to continue writing as I had done till you Last convinc’d me that I was not forgotten. I have seen Mrs. Jays journal, feel her distress, admire her fortitude & offer her my congratulations upon her present agreeable situation.7 You will offer my compliments to the Coll. and Mr. Carmicheal, & receive my best wishes for your happiness. I am Dear John with the sincerest esteem Your friend and hum. servt.
Robt R. Livingston
Typescript, NNC (EJ: 12511).
1. On 6 July 1780, John Fell (1721–98) of New Jersey and Samuel Holton (1738–1816) of Massachusetts clashed over the provisions for the pay of the quartermaster general in the report of the committee on that department. , 17: 589.
2. See JJ to RRL, 25 Oct., and RRL to JJ, 22 Dec. 1779, : 719–70, 731–33; and RRL to JJ, 10 Feb. 1780, above.
3. James Duane.
4. A reference to the amputation of Gouverneur Morris’s leg following a carriage accident in May 1780. See William Bingham to JJ, 1 July, above.
5. The chancellor’s elder daughter, Elizabeth Stevens Livingston (1780–1829), was born 5 May. , 125.
6. Liberty Hall suffered at least two visitations resulting from the British incursions into nearby Springfield, one in February 1779 and a second in June 1780. On the latter raid, Susan Livingston, according to family legend, stood at the head of the hall stairs, and a sudden flash of lightning made her look like an apparition. A drunken Hessian, mistaking her for the ghost of Mrs. James Caldwell, who had been killed by the British in a previous raid, made a hasty exit. The Livingston women, however, deemed it prudent to leave Liberty Hall temporarily. See JJ to Catharine W. Livingston, 27 Feb. 1779, ALS, MHi: Ridley (EJ: 4656); Dft, NNC (EJ: 8087); partly printed in , 1: 190–91; SLJ to JJ, 5 Mar. 1779, ALS, NNC (EJ: 6487); Theodore Thayer, As We Were: The Story of Old Elizabethtown (Elizabeth, N.J., 1964), 128–29, 136–39; Theodore Sedgwick Jr., A Memoir of the Life of William Livingston (New York, 1833), 353–55; Thomas Fleming, The Forgotten Victory: The Battle for New Jersey—1780 (New York, 1973), 177–78.
7. See JJ to RRL, 19 Feb. 1780, ALS, NHi: Robert R. Livingston (EJ: 804); Dft, NNC (EJ: 7953); : 735–37; and SLJ to Susannah French Livingston, 12–26 Dec. 1779, : 723–31.