To John Jay from the City of Albany Common Council, 11 May 1801
From the City of Albany Common Council
[[Albany] May 11th: 1801—]
To his Excellency John Jay Esquire, Governor of the State of New York.
Sir,
We the Mayor, Aldermen and Commonalty of the City of Albany, in Common Council Convened, Cannot forbear, at the moment of your departure from this City to retire voluntarily from an elevated Official Situation, into the Shade of private life, to express our unfeigned Regret for the loss of so estimable a Citizen, and Such an eminently Valuable Public Servant; and to offer you our Sincere thanks and respectful Consideration for the various and important Services you have performed for your Country.
In rendering this grateful tribute to your virtues, talents and patriotism, the Members of the Common Council indulge at once, a lively Sensibility as freemen, and a peculiar pride as Citizens of your native State.
We leave it for the pen of the faithful Historian to delineate the distinguished Course of your political life; Conscious that it will not be forgotten, So long as the glorious Epoch of the American Revolution is remembered and admired.
The period of your administration of the Government of this State, and the integrity of your Example, are too Strongly marked, to escape the attention of future patriots and Statesmen, and exhibit useful patterns for their imitation; while at the same time they have engaged our warmest affections and personal respect.
Under these impressions, and as a farther testimony of the high Sense of the Common Council entertain of your Excellency’s exalted Character, We beg leave to present you with the Freedom of the City; And We fervently pray that the benevolent author of all our blessings, may Sweeten Your Retirement with the Rich Reward due to your Merits; and when your Course shall be finished here, receive your immortal Spirit among the Saints in Everlasting Glory. By order of the Common Council,1
P. S. Van Rensselaer Mayor2
LS, CtY-BR(EJ: 90430; EJ: 09138). C, NNC (EJ: 09861); PtD: Albany Centinel, 15 May; Commercial Advertiser (New York), 19 May; Daily Advertiser, and Spectator (both New York), 20 May; and New-York Gazette, 21 May; Poulson’s American Daily Advertiser (Philadelphia), 28 May; Federal Gazette (Baltimore), 1 June; Hudson Gazette, 2 June; Courier of New Hampshire (Concord), 4 June; Salem Gazette, 5 June; New Hampshire Sentinel (Keene), 20 June 1801; HPJ, 4: 294–95. The Common Council presented this address to JJ at his house in State Street.
1. JJ replied as follows:
To the MAYOR, ALDERMEN and COMMONALITY of the City of Albany.
GENTLEMEN,Be pleased to accept my thanks for the honor you have done me by the sentiments expressed in this address, and by conferring on me the freedom of the city. These are fresh proofs of the respect and attention which I have uniformly experienced from my fellow citizens of Albany, and which I shall remember not only with pleasure, but also with gratitude.
I most sincerely wish that this city may always prosper; that it may continue to produce patriots eminent for talents an merit; that it may, on all occasions, display the same energy and fortitude which distinguished it during the revolution, and that it may invariably cherish and adhere to those virtuous principles, from which you and your ancestors have derived so much domestic comfort, and general welfare.
May that “benevolent author of all our blessings,” whose favors to me you kindly entreat, preserve this city from evil; and when the period for its passing away shall arrive, may he receive its citizens into that GLORIOUS CITY which will endure forever.
JOHN JAY.
The newspaper pieces also provided the following description of the event: “On this occasion a large and respectable body of the citizens, desirous to manifest their high respect for his Excellency’s person and character, and to tender him, at the moment of his departure, a social tribute of esteem and affection, invited him to a Public Dinner at the City-Tavern, which invitation his Excellency was pleased to accept. At half past three o’clock, the Company sat down to an elegant dinner, provide by Mr. Lewis—at the close of which several suitable toasts were drank, and his Excellency, on retiring, addressed his assembled friends with an impressive and cordial adieu.”
2. Philip Schuyler Van Rensselaer (1767–1824).