John Jay Papers
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“Extempore! On hearing that the Honorable John Jay, Esq. had landed at New-York”, 2 October 1784

EXTEMPORE!
On hearing that the honorable John Jay, Esq. had
landed at New-York.

[Philadelphia, 2 October 1784]

VIRTUE again shall visit here,

For JAY’S return’d her hopes to cheer;

May he and she embark no more,

From this tumultuous troubled shore:

Too long without them we have seen

Patriots governed by spleen,

By phrensy, caprice, passion, pelf,

By every thing which flatters self.

Too few like him have firmly stood,

A faithful friend to public good;

No venal plan, no cursed view,

To lead astray the giddy crew;

No sordid aim—his gen’rous soul

Acts not for one, but for the whole:

A soul republican indeed,

Whole motives are the public’s need;

Can fit itself to all conditions,

Write edicts now, and now petitions;

A Plenipo, to silence war,

And now Solicitor at bar;

His country’s honor ne’er betray’d

By treaties weak, and hasty made;

Regards alone substantial things,

In making peace with Pow’rs and King’s:

His high employment being o’er,

He pants to see his native shore;

Unlike to thee, ah! wretched Dean,

No more to see or to be seen;

Or seen, like Satan in his fall,

Spurn’d and detested by us all.1

JAY comes to meet our open arms,

While gratitude each bosom warms

And—so it please Heav’n to see

Treason link’d with misery;

Let Dean’s defections here display

A foil to the illustrious JAY.

Welcome from Bourbon, welcome here,

For, ever welcome, ever dear

Shall be the man whose gen’rous soul

Acts not for one, but for the whole.

Oh! may thy fair example long remain,

Vice to correct and folly to restrain,

Like Britain’s naval chief* whose wise commands

Preserv’d a fleet from gallant Ruyter’s hands:

Tho’ long before those shatter’d squadrons part,

The shaft of death pervades his noble heart.2

So when Columbia shall be robb’d of thee,

(May few now living that day to see)

And future conflicts in her bosom reign,

Threatening destruction to his bless’d domain,

Thy councils living, will her empire save,

And JAY shall triumph o’er the hungry grave.3

*Earl of Sandwich.

Printed: The Independent Gazetteer (Philadelphia), 2 October 1784; The Political Intelligencer and New-Jersey Advertiser (New Brunswick, N.J.), 12 Oct. 1784.

1On Deane’s defection, see “Silas Deane: A Worrisome Correspondent” (editorial note), JJSP, 2 description begins Elizabeth M. Nuxoll et al., eds., The Selected Papers of John Jay, Volume 2, 1780–82 (Charlottesville, Va., 2012) description ends : 243–46.

2The reference is to the Battle of Soleway of 1672, the first naval battle of the Third Anglo-Dutch War. Michiel de Ruyter (1607–75) was a commander of the Dutch fleet. British Vice-Admiral Edward Montagu, 1st earl of Sandwich (1625–72), was killed in the battle after his ship was attacked by fireships and burnt.

3The author of this poem, apparently timed to coincide with the reception for JJ in New York City, has not been identified, but probably was someone closely associated with JJ. The poem may also have been intended to support JJ’s assumption of the post of secretary for foreign affairs, as well as to promote national unity and republican virtue.

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