1To John Jay from Robert R. Livingston, 17 July 1775 (Jay Papers)
I take the opportunity of Bensons going to New York to let you know what pleasure I should receive in hearing from by the return of the Post, since Benson will return in a few days & deliver safely any Letter you may enclose ^ him ^ & and I shall wait here till [ illegible ] ^ you think ^ that it is necessary I should come to you— I must confess that after breathing the pure air of the country...
2To John Jay from Robert R. Livingston, 27 November 1775 (Jay Papers)
I am now on the borders of lake George where we have been detained this day & part of yesterday by a head wind & extream severe wheather. It is almost impossible to conceive the difference we found in the climate in half a miles riding After we got over the mountains, within the reach of the winds that blew from the lake it was like leaping from Oct r . to Dec r .—we hope to leave this...
3To John Jay from Robert R. Livingston, 6 December 1775 (Jay Papers)
I wrote to you on my first arrival at lake George & hoped to have found a Line from you here on my return. My disappointment has not however so angered me as to prevent my appologizing for you, of which this second letter is a proof—I most sincerely congratulate you upon our amazing success in Canada, if you knew the Obstacles we have had to strugle with you would think it little short of a...
4To John Jay from Robert R. Livingston, 15 February 1776 (Jay Papers)
I received your truly affectionate Letter—And most sincerely congratulate you upon the an event which the share I take in your happiness makes me rejoice in tho’ it deprived me of what I should think my greatest happiness the pleasure of seeing you here—may the extension of your tender connections give you as much pleasure as the narrowing of mine has given me pain—you rightly judge that I...
5To John Jay from Robert R. Livingston, 4 June 1776 (Jay Papers)
I own I was very much mortified at not hearing from you nor can I quite forgive your neglect since it takes but little time to write when the pen is only copying from the heart. I am very sorry that we are not to have the pleasure of M rs . Jays company but greatly rejoyced at the prospect of her recovery about which from your Letter to Duane I had some uneasy apprehensions. We have been for...
6Secret Committee Appointment of Jacobus Van Zandt, Augustine Laurence, and Samuel Tudor, 22 July 1776 (Jay Papers)
The Convention of the State of New York having by a Resolution of the 16 th . day of July instant appointed us a Committee among other Things to devise means for Fortifying the Hudson River; and Obstructing its Navigation and for carrying the same into Execution—We have thought it Necessary to appoint and do hereby appoint Jacobus Van Zandt Augustine Lawrence & Samuel Tudor or any two of them...
7To George Washington from Robert R. Livingston, 9 August 1776 (Washington Papers)
It is with peculiar pleasure that I acknowledge the receipt of your Excellencys favour of yesterday, since I cannot but consider it as an additional mark of that confidence with which your Excellency has hitherto honoured me. I have made the proper use of it, & imparted it in confidence to those members of the Convention on whose secresy I thought I could most safely rely, & from whose...
8To John Jay from Robert Livingston, 12 August 1776 (Jay Papers)
I wrote Coll o . Porter, by Express, desiring him to Spare me two of his moulders to assist my hands, in Casting doubleheaded Shott, & the Trux you desired me to cast for the Convention of the State of New York; he wrote me immediately that he Could not possibly fulfill the orders he had from his Honor The Governour if he Spared one of his hands; upon which I went out to Speak with him my Self...
9To George Washington from Robert R. Livingston, 12 October 1776 (Washington Papers)
I should do injustice toward the politeness & attention with which your Excellency has been pleased to listen to the crude opinions which I have some times offered if I did not (without any appology) deliver my sentiments on the present alarming state of this Colony & submit to your Excellencys better judgment such measures as will (in my Idea) be most likely to eleviate the evills I...
10To George Washington from Robert R. Livingston, 25 October 1776 (Washington Papers)
The Convention having thought it proper to direct me to repair to this place, in order to give (in concurrence with some other Gent.) every necessary support to the northern army, I did not receive your Excellencys favor till this day. I am extreamly affected at the wants under which the army labour, & your Excellency may depend on my utmost endeavours to remove them, I can at present only...
11To George Washington from Robert R. Livingston, 29 November 1776 (Washington Papers)
Agreeable to the directions of the Committee of Safety of this state, I do myself the honor to transmit the enclosed resolutions, & to request if your Excellency should concur with them in thinking that every means should be persued to obstruct the navigation of Hudsons river, & to secure the passes thereon, that you would be pleased by uniting in, to add weight to their applications to the...
12To Alexander Hamilton from Robert R. Livingston, 29 March 1777 (Hamilton Papers)
We received your favor of the [22] Instant and am obliged to you not only for your Acceptance of a very troublesome Challenge, but for the Alacrity with which you meet us in the field. We wish it would Afford you as many Laurels, as you are like to reap elsewhere! You have heard of the Enemy’s little Excursion to Peeks ⟨Kill⟩; we wish it may not encourage them, to make a more serious Attempt,...
We were much surprized at your Letter to M r . Hobart as we could not perceive the Danger which would result from permitting the several Courts to appoint their own Clerks while on the other Hand great Inconveniences must arise from suffering them to be independent of such Courts and of Consequence frequently ignorant always inattentive. Neither had we the most distant Idea that a Clause of...
14To Alexander Hamilton from Robert R. Livingston, 7 June 1777 (Hamilton Papers)
With my place at Council I resume the agreeable task of writing to you & answering your Letter directed to Mr. Jay. I see with you the propriety of collecting our army to a point & have often been under apprehentions least the enemy should take advantage of our former dispersed state & the necessity that drove us into it. But they have wanted the spirit of enterprize or been deceived greatly...
15To Alexander Hamilton from Robert R. Livingston, [25 June 1777] (Hamilton Papers)
[ Kingston, New York, June 25, 1777. On June 28, 1777, Hamilton wrote to Robert R. Livingston: “Yours of the 25th came to hand last night.” Letter not found. ]
16To George Washington from Robert R. Livingston, 16 July 1777 (Washington Papers)
I am sorrey for the occasion which induces me to renew a correspondence, which my fear of trespassing upon your Excellencys time led me to forego, notwithstanding the pleasure it afforded me. I shall now only intrude so far upon your Leisure as to submit a single Idea to your Excellencys consideration, which may possibly be of use in our present critical situation. I greatly fear that our...
17To Alexander Hamilton from Robert R. Livingston, 25 July 1777 (Hamilton Papers)
[ July 25, 1777. On July 29, 1777, Hamilton wrote to Livingston: “I have the pleasure of your favour of the 25th.” Letter not found. ]
18To Alexander Hamilton from Robert R. Livingston, 2 August 1777 (Hamilton Papers)
I wish I Could beleive as You do with respect to the Enemies Strenght, but in order to do this I must prefer loose Conjectures to the Greatest Variety of Concurring testimoneys—That prisoners may Endeavour to Deceive I think probable, but that a number of Men should agree to tell a Similar tale, & give like Answers to questions without knowing what those questions will be, I Cannot beleive,...
19To Alexander Hamilton from Robert R. Livingston, 10 August 1777 (Hamilton Papers)
I was much disappointed at not hearing from you by the return of the express, which I attribute in great measure to his negligence in not calling for an Answer to my Letter. I am sorry to inform you that things wear a more gloomy aspect here than ever, that our army instead of being increased daily diminishes, that the Troops of which it is composed are so dispersed, as to be unable to stop...
20To George Washington from Robert R. Livingston, 8 December 1777 (Washington Papers)
The favourable Sentiments which your Excellency has more than once been pleased to express of Coll Livingston both to the late Convention, & the committee of arrangement, with less effect than I had reason to hope for from their declared opinion of his merrit, & the respect due to your Excellencys recommendation, induces me to trouble you on his account, more especialy as the honour he...
21To George Washington from Robert R. Livingston, 14 January 1778 (Washington Papers)
I am honoured with your Excellency’s favour of the 27th Decr Inst. And am greatly obliged by your favourable mention of my brother. In my recommendation of him I was influenced more by my hope of rendering him further useful to his country, than by any partial desire of serving him, without having the most distant wish of engaging your Excellency in any promiss that might lead to a preferrence...
22To George Washington from Robert R. Livingston, 10 April 1778 (Washington Papers)
Having lately received some Leiden papers the perusal of which (tho’ of an old date) the Marquiss De la Fayette assured me would be agreeable to your Excellency I do myself the honour to enclose them, & at the same time to acknowledge the receipt of your favor of the 12th March—The papers contain little interesting intelligence but what we have already had—they are chiefly filled with American...
23To John Jay from Robert R. Livingston, 8 October 1778 (Jay Papers)
I should have been with you some days ago but for a continued fever with very short intermissions accompanied with violent sickness at the stomach & headache which totally unfit me for business & oblige me to spend one third of the day in bed— I yesterday had a consultation with the two Jones’s & Doc r . Cooper, they agree in orders: regular diet, & exercise, & a suspension of all business...
24To John Jay from Robert R. Livingston, 3 February 1779 (Jay Papers)
The pleasure I felt from your Letter of the 13 th Ult: which I just now rec d : was great in proportion to the pain I experienced from your neglect, and your friendly penitance has disarmed my resentment, & convinced me that there is no impropriety in supposing (at least if Angels resemble men) that there may be “more joy in heaven over one repentant sinner, than over 99 just that need no...
25To John Jay from Robert R. Livingston, 4 March 1779 (Jay Papers)
Your Letter & one I lately rec d . from Morris have given me pain. They have represented me to myself as negligent of the duties of a man, & a citizen, as buried in indolence, or lost in the pursuit of enervating pleasures— When I consider these charges as coming from those who should, & do, know me better than I do myself, & who see my faults with the eye of freindship, thro’ the narrow end...
26To John Jay from Robert R. Livingston, 21 April 1779 (Jay Papers)
A fortnight has already elapsed since I received yours of the 14 th . Ult., I feel my self ashamed of my neglect, tho’ as far as business & company may plead my excuse I am excusable, since I have Opened my court at Albany, transacted some business for Duer there, & been ever since crouded with company. But I am more willing to own my fault than to offer an appology which you will too often...
27To John Jay from Robert R. Livingston, 6 October 1779 (Jay Papers)
I have just now heard that you are upon the point of leaving us. I might have expected to have rec d . this intelligence from yourself rather than from loose report since there is scarse a transaction in the world in which I feel myself more interested. I rejoice at it as it advances your fortune & reputation. I lament it, as it adds to the Loses I have already felt in the course of this war...
28To John Jay from the Committee for Foreign Affairs (James Lovell, Robert R. Livingston, and William Churchill Houston) … (Jay Papers)
By the inclosed Resolves of Congress you will find that we are become more dependent upon your vigorous Exertions for the Amelioration of our Currency than you perhaps expected when you left Philadelphia. We think it of so much Importance that you Should be early apprized of the measures determined upon respecting Bills of Exchange that we do not chuse to omit this good Opportunity of...
29To John Jay from Robert R. Livingston, 22 December 1779 (Jay Papers)
I am told there will be an opportunity of send g . this to you, I wish therefore to imbrace it tho as I know not how safe the conveyance may be, I shall only deal in generals— You who know the share that you have in a heart too susceptible of tender emotions will easily believe the pain it gave me to find no token of your friendship, no farewell line at this place, where I hastened immediately...
30To John Jay from Robert R. Livingston, 10 February 1780 (Jay Papers)
I have just steped out of Congress to let you hear by this opportunity that your freinds in this part of the world are well & not unmindful of you & to acknowledge the rec t of yours from Reedy Island which after long & weary-some peregrinations reached ^ me ^ three days ago at this place— The Cypher it contains is not sufficiently intricate to be in any wise relyed on if the conveyance by...
31To John Jay from the Committee for Foreign Affairs (James Lovell, Robert R. Livingston, and William Churchill Houston) … (Jay Papers)
The Embarrassm t which the Depreciation of the currency had created in our publick affairs at the Time of your Departure for Europe, were, as you well remember, very distressing and have till lately continued to increase . Congress greatly anxious to avail themselves of every possible Means of checking this Evil, in Nov r last
32To George Washington from Robert R. Livingston, 22 June 1780 (Washington Papers)
My anxiety for the supplies of the army have brought me to this place in order that I might satisfy myself as to the quantity on hand, & the means of forwarding them—Genl Nox has communicated to me your Excellencys orders on this subject —Nothing short of this would I am fully persuaded be of sufficie⟨nt⟩ force to produce the desired effect—And ⟨ mutilated ⟩ knowledge of them will in a great...
33To John Jay from Robert R. Livingston, 6 July 1780 (Jay Papers)
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. 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...
34To John Jay from Robert R. Livingston, 26 August 1780 (Jay Papers)
I received yours from of the 23 d May from Madrid with Duplicates thereof & ^ of ^ the Letters you wrote from Cadiz & Martinico. The original of the first of these came to hand shortly after I wrote my Letters of the 22 d . Dec r . The last never— You had I flatter myself before this time rec d four Letters which I directed to the care of Doct r Frankling. I sh d
35To George Washington from Robert R. Livingston, 8 January 1781 (Washington Papers)
While our governments are weak, & unsettled, so much depends upon the opinion of the people that It can not be improper for the principal director of the military force of the country to be intimately acqainted with the sentiments of its inhabitants, & the State of the country, at least so far as they may affect his resources. I therefore make no other appology for mentioning the discontents...
36To Benjamin Franklin from Robert R. Livingston, 20 October 1781 (Franklin Papers)
ALS and LS : Historical Society of Pennsylvania; copy and transcript: National Archives Congress having lately thought it adviseable to alter the arrangement of their great executive departments, & to desolve the boards & committees under whose direction they formerly were, I am to inform you that they have done me the honor to appoint me their Secretary for foreign affairs. In which capacity...
37To John Jay from Robert R. Livingston, 20 October 1781 (Jay Papers)
You will receive with this an official Letter informing you of my appointment to the Secretaryship for foreign affairs. If there is any thing peculiarly pleasing to me in this appointment to compensate for the difficulties with which it is attended it must be found in that new bond by which it unites our publick, as a much earlier and more agreeable one has our private characters. My publick...
38To John Adams from Robert R. Livingston, 23 October 1781 (Adams Papers)
The Enclosed resolution will advise you that Congress have thought it adviseable to new model their Department of foreign Affairs, by the Appointmt. of a Secretary, thro’ whose hands the Communications with their Ministers abroad are to pass. Tho’ they did me the honor to Elect me So long Since as August last, I but lately determined to accept, and did not Enter upon Business till Two days...
39To Benjamin Franklin from Robert R. Livingston, 24 October 1781 (Franklin Papers)
AL (draft): New-York Historical Society; copy and transcript: National Archives I three days since did myself the honor to write to you informing you of my appointment to the secretary ship of foreign affairs & preparing you for the happy event which has since taken place. Inclosed you have the capitulation of York & Gloster town, by which a british army of about 5600 men was surrendered to...
40To John Jay from the Secretary for Foreign Affairs (Robert R. Livingston), 1 November 1781 (Jay Papers)
Your letter to Congress of April last having been read & answered by Congress, tho’ not so minutely as I would wish, I forbear making any remarks upon it, because I am not yet perfectly acquainted with their sentiments (& would not risk any which might interfere with them) having just entered upon the office, in consequence of which I open this Correspondence, tho’ long since appointed. I beg...
41To Benjamin Franklin from Robert R. Livingston, 2 November 1781 (Franklin Papers)
Copy: National Archives It is with peculiar pleasure that I obey the directions of Congress in making Communications, which shew their Sense of the Exertions of their Ally, & the merit of the Officers She Employs. The Confidence inspired by the first, & the Esteem Excited by the last, form new bonds of Union between Nations whom reciprocal Interests had before Connected. In this View I flatter...
42To John Adams from Robert R. Livingston, 20 November 1781 (Adams Papers)
Since my last of the 23d of October nothing material has happened here, unless it be the return of Digby to New York, where he has relanded great part of his Troops, and as is said, proceeded to the West Indies with the Fleet, tho’ this is not fully ascertained, nor have we any authentick Accounts that the Count de Grasse sailed from Chesapeake on the 4th inst. It gives me pleasure however to...
43To Benjamin Franklin from Robert R. Livingston, 24 November 1781 (Franklin Papers)
AL (draft): New-York Historical Society; copies: New-York Historical Society, National Archives; transcript: National Archives Majr Genl Du Portail will have the honor to present this. Congress in consideration of their Long & faithful services in this country have grantd permission to him & Colls. De Laumoy & Gouvion to revisit their friends in Europe for the winter. As the merit of these...
44To Benjamin Franklin from Robert R. Livingston, 26 November 1781 (Franklin Papers)
LS : Historical Society of Pennsylvania, University of Pennsylvania Library; al (draft): New-York Historical Society; copy and transcript: National Archives The Marquis de la Fayette who has obtained leave to revisit his family for the winter does me the honor to be the Bearer of this, and duplicates of two former Letters to you. The degree of Estimation in which he is held here you will...
45To Benjamin Franklin from Robert R. Livingston, 28 November 1781 (Franklin Papers)
AL (draft): New-York Historical Society I shd inform you that congress have discharged the commission for negotiating a treaty of commerce with great Britain & taken that burden from Mr. Adams’s Sholders—that in compt. [compliment] to the Marquis La fayette they have made him the bearer of Letter to the King of France of which I enclose a copy. That in answer to your favor of the 11th. June...
46To John Jay from the Secretary for Foreign Affairs (Robert R. Livingston), 28 November 1781 (Jay Papers)
I wrote so fully to you not long since that I should not trouble you at this time if I had not determined to omit no opportunity of Letting you hear from this side of the water & enabling you at all times to meet any any falsehoods the enimy may find it politic to publish. Since the capture of Cornwallis nothing very material has happened the ravaging parties on the northern frontiers have...
47To John Jay from the Secretary for Foreign Affairs (Robert R. Livingston), 13 December 1781 (Jay Papers)
My last letter of the 28 th : of November sent by the Marquis de la Fayette must for the most part have been unintelligible to you,—owing to an unfortunate mistake of M r Thomson’s who delivered me a Cypher sent by M r . Palfrey which you never received, instead of that sent by Franks.— The quadruplicate enclosed is in the last, so that you will no longer be at a loss for my meaning— Since the...
48To Benjamin Franklin from Robert R. Livingston, 16 December 1781 (Franklin Papers)
Two LS : University of Pennsylvania Library; AL (draft): New-York Historical Society; copy and transcript: National Archives Since my last of which I send a duplicate by this Conveyance nothing material has happened here, unless it be the evacuation of Wilmington, which is perhaps the most important Post of Communication with the disaffected People of the Country of any they held in America—...
49To John Adams from Robert R. Livingston, 26 December 1781 (Adams Papers)
It is very long since we have had the pleasure of hearing from you. Before this you will probably have received two Letters of mine and a duplicate of the last goes with this. Nothing material has happened since the date of that, except the Evacuation of Wilmington, which was, as you know, a very important port, as it checked the trade of North Carolina, and kept up a dangerous connection with...
50To Benjamin Franklin from Robert R. Livingston, 7 January 1782 (Franklin Papers)
LS : Massachusetts Historical Society; copy and transcript: National Archives As it does not appear improbable that the humiliation and Misfortunes of Great Britain may produce the same Sentiments that a Spirit of moderation dictates to the other beligerent Powers, and lead her to concur with them in their wishes for peace, It cannot be improper to acquaint you with the Objects which America...