91To George Washington from Robert R. Livingston, 16 April 1782 (Washington Papers)
I do myself the honor to transmit the enclosed letter which came under my cover from the Marquis de Lafayette. This to me contains nothing of consequence but what I presume he has given to you, nor is there much intelligence circulating in this place that merrits your attention. Cornwallis was recd in England with the strongest marks of applause, as he past thro’ Exeter he was presented with...
92To George Washington from Robert R. Livingston, 30 April 1782 (Washington Papers)
I was yesterday honoured with your favor of the 23d, & should think myself doubly happy in continuing this correspondence if in addition to the pleasure it affords me, it can be rendered useful to your Excellency. The contents of the Marquis De Lafayettes Letter to you, are so similar to what he writes me, that I can give you nothing new from that source. Tho’ I have the pleasure of assuring...
93To George Washington from Robert R. Livingston, 13 May 1782 (Washington Papers)
I have the honor to inform you, that the Honorable the Minister Plenipotentiary of France, this day announced to the United States in Congress assembled at a public Audience the birth of a Dauphine--and that Congress received this enunciation of an event, in which the happiness of their Ally was so deeply engaged with the most lively marks of pleasure--It is their wish that your Excellency and...
94To George Washington from Robert R. Livingston, 27 May 1782 (Washington Papers)
I was yesterday honoured with your favours of the 22d instant, I have not seen the express that brought them, & know not whether he is yet returned, I shall commit this to the care of Genl Lincoln to see it safely forwarded. The British are at length sufficiently humbled to sue for peace tho not in the line we wish they seem to part with every thing more readily than with America. They have...
95To George Washington from Robert R. Livingston, 12 June 1782 (Washington Papers)
I was honoured with your Letter of the 5th inst. A disapointment which the printers have subjected me to has hitherto prevented my sending you a cypher my secretary is now prepared in compleating one if he can finish in time it will accompany this Letter. As one great object of Britain in carrying on only a defensive war in this country is evidently to enable them to turn more of their...
96To George Washington from Robert R. Livingston, 27 June 1782 (Washington Papers)
I have the honor to enclose a cypher which I have been compelled to retain some time for wanting a safe opportunity of transmiting. When more than one word is represented by the same cypher if it should be equivocal, it may be proper to shew which is designed by drawing two strokes under the second & three under the third as for differ 788—difficult 788. tho this will seldom be necessary...
97To George Washington from Robert R. Livingston, 6 August 1782 (Washington Papers)
The furlough that you was so obliging as to give Mr Lewis Morris at my request being about to expire & the present prospects affording little probability so useful to the public in the field as in his present station I am induced to ask from your Excellency a continuance of it. The arrival of the fleet has set the invention of our politicians to work about the proper mode of employing it among...
98To George Washington from Robert R. Livingston, 11 September 1782 (Washington Papers)
I delayed an s wering your last favor in the expectation that we should receive some inteligence from Europe that it would give me pleasure to comminicate A ship arrived Last night from Holland she brings letters from Mr Adams but nothing which looks like a speedy termination of the war the negotiations still continue, Mr Jay & Mr Genvile remain in France tho’ I am much inclined to think from...
99To George Washington from Robert R. Livingston, 4 December 1782 (Washington Papers)
This accompanies a letter from Mr Morris tendering his resignation & offering an appology for not having joined his regiment—I must take upon myself the blame he may incur by the last—My absense detained him in the first instance, & my advise to him to be at Philadelphia when a Gent. shall be appointed to the place I have resigned as the most likely means to continue him in the line he at...
100To George Washington from Robert R. Livingston, 26 February 1783 (Washington Papers)
In compliance with the directions of Congress contained in the inclosed resolution I have the honor to inform your Excellency that our last dispatches dated in October announce a disposition in the belligerent powers to terminate the war by a general peace the Court of London whose sincerity was most suspected because it was to make the greatest sacrifices appears to have smoothed the way by...
101To George Washington from Robert R. Livingston, 12 March 1783 (Washington Papers)
The Washington Packet arrived this morning, I have not yet had leisure to read all my Letters, but as an Express is ready to go early to Morrow, I rather chuse to rely upon your goodness to excuse a letter written in extreme haste; than to hold myself inexcusable, by not informing you of what we yet know of the State of our Negotiations, none of my Letters are of a latter date than the 24th...
102To George Washington from Robert R. Livingston, 13 March 1783 (Washington Papers)
I last night did myself the honor to write to your Excellency—This is only designed to cover the inclosed to Genl Carleton Congress having referred it generally to you. I have the honor to be with great esteem & respect Dr Sir Your Excellencys Most Obt Hum: Servt CSmH .
103To George Washington from Robert R. Livingston, 24 March 1783 (Washington Papers)
You will by this express receive the agreable intelligence of peace upon which I most sin cerly congratulate you & the army—Harmony, a regard for justice, & fidelity to our engagements are all that now remains to render us a happy people—The Vessel that brought these dispatches was sent out by the Count Destaign to recal the french cruzers. As the minister tells me he will forward the orders &...
104To George Washington from Robert R. Livingston, 9 April 1783 (Washington Papers)
I am now to reply to your Letter of the 29th of March, & again to offer you my congratulations on the farther evidence of a general peace having been concluded & ratified—I enter into yr Excellencys feelings on this interesting event the prospect of being soon relieved from the cares , the distresses, the Labours, the difficulties which for the last seven years have embittered your...
105To George Washington from Robert R. Livingston, 12 April 1783 (Washington Papers)
I congratulate your Excellency most sincerely upon the cessation of hostilities which you will learn from the enclosed proclamation—You have doubtless heard directly from Genl Carleton on this subject, so that it will not be necessary to trouble you with the substance of his letter to me—Congress will this day on my report take into consideration the propriety of discharging the prisoners &...
106To George Washington from Robert R. Livingston, 15 April 1783 (Washington Papers)
Congress have been, & still are extremely divided about the propriety of ratifying the present provisional Articles, & releasing their prisoners—The Articles are so drawn as to render them in many instances equivocal, & they doubt whether they shall consider them as preliminary or definitive—For my own part, I think them preliminary Articles, & that they should be ratified as such—As to the...
107To George Washington from Robert R. Livingston, 2 May 1783 (Washington Papers)
I am so sensible of Majr McHenrys merit that even independent of the advantagious light in which your Excellencys recommendation places it I should think myself happy to obtain his services in a line in which I am persuaded they will do honor to his country. Congress have it not in view at present to make an immediate appointment to London, & while Docr Franklin continues at Paris it would be...
108To George Washington from Robert R. Livingston, 2 May 1783 (Washington Papers)
I was yesterday honored by the receipt of your Letter of the 22d April—I am happy to find that you have determined on a personal interview with General Carleton, which I am satisfied is the most probable means of bringing him to a prompt explanation of his intentions, if, (which I much doubt) he has yet been sufficiently authorized to have formed any. My doubts arise from the debates of the 3d...
109To 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...
110To 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...
111To 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...
112To 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...
113To 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...
114Secret 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...
115To 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...
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...
117To 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...
118To 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...
119To 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...
120To 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...
121To 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...
122To 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...
123To 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...
124To 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...
125To 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
126To 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...
127To 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
128To 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...
129To 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...
130To 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...
131To 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...
132To John Jay from the Secretary for Foreign Affairs (Robert R. Livingston), 2 February 1782 (Jay Papers)
Having heard that a Vessel is soon to go to Cadiz from Baltimore, I embrace the opportunity to send quadruplicates of my last former Letters, & to add thereto the little information which this inactive Season affords— Nothing passes here between the armies—they are cantoned at a distance from each other, the Enemy is secure from attack by the nature of their situation, & we by our numbers, our...
133To John Jay from the Secretary for Foreign Affairs (Robert R. Livingston), 8 March 1782 (Jay Papers)
I shall leave town to morrow and be absent a few weeks, I do not care to do it without letting you know that we have nothing worth telling you.— For want of positive you must be content with negative information which sometimes has its use, and failing of any other at least serves to provoke an Answer; and makes those to whom it is addressed ashamed of their silence, when they can collect any...
134To John Jay from the Secretary for Foreign Affairs (Robert R. Livingston), 16 April 1782 (Jay Papers)
Returning from an excursion to the State of New York, I found your letter of October, which on account of my absence had been committed to a Committee of Congress. They have shewn me their report, it will try their sentiments on a very interesting point, if it goes thro’, but ^ as ^ they may not suddenly come to a Resolution, and I have just heard of a Vessel will sail in two hours for Cadiz,...
135To John Jay from Robert R. Livingston, 20 April 1782 (Jay Papers)
It gives me extreme pain not to have rec d a single line in answer to my public or private Letters to you tho’ no vessel has sailed from this or any of the nieghbouring ports for any part of Europe France or Spain ^ since Oct r . ^ without being charged with one or the other for you not because I infer therefrom the least neglect on your part I have too much confidence both in your punctuality...
136To John Jay from the Secretary for Foreign Affairs (Robert R. Livingston), 27 April 1782 (Jay Papers)
I informed you in my Letter of the 16 th . inst. that yours of the 3 d . of October had been received & submitted to Congress during my absence, and, (as I had then reason to think) that it would be answered by them, this I wished because I was persuaded it would express their approbation of your conduct, & afford you that intimate knowledge of their Sentiments, which the delicacy of your...
137To John Jay from the Secretary for Foreign Affairs (Robert R. Livingston), 28 April 1782 (Jay Papers)
You will receive with this, a letter dated yesterday, reasons which need not be explained induce me to make this a separate Dispatch . I beleive with you, that the Court of Madrid does not wish to enter into engagements with us during the war—influenced, as I presumed not only by the reasons you suggest, which our late success must have weakened, but by another, that alarms me more. They...
138To John Jay from the Secretary for Foreign Affairs (Robert R. Livingston), 9 May 1782 (Jay Papers)
Your letter of the 6 th . of February, with a duplicate of that of August last, directed to the President has been received and read in Congress— I am extremely surprized to find from that and yours to me that so few of my letters have reached you, since no Vessel has sailed from this, or indeed from any of the neighbouring ports without carrying letters or duplicates of letters from me—the...
139To John Jay from Robert R. Livingston, 22 May 1782 (Jay Papers)
The express who is to carry my public letter waits while I hastily write this. These express having private & public Letters for you have been carryed to New York tho’ as I beleive the Letters were destroyed I learned of this opportunity so late that I cannot send you a duplicate of the Letters.— I most sincerely condole with you on the death of your father an event which you must too long...
140To John Jay from the Secretary for Foreign Affairs (Robert R. Livingston), 23 June 1782 (Jay Papers)
The only letter, I have recieved from you, since that of the 6 th . of February last, was a few lines which covered an account of the surrender of Fort S t . Phillips, this success is important, as it not only weakens an Enemy, and operates against their future resources, but as, it gives reputation to the Arms of a Nation, that have our sincerest wishes for their prosperity, notwithstanding...