31To 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...
32Robert R. Livingston to the American Peace Commissioners, 21 April 1783 (Franklin Papers)
Copy: Massachusetts Historical Society; ALS (draft): New-York Historical Society; transcript: National Archives Upon the receipt of the provisional Articles & a subsequent account bro’t by a Vessel dispatched by Count d’Estaing, I wrote the Letter No. 1. to Sr. Guy Carleton, & No. 2. to Admiral Digby: to which I recieved the Answers No. 3. & 4. You will find them cold & distant— Those they...
33To John Jay from the Secretary for Foreign Affairs (Robert R. Livingston), 4 January 1783 (Jay Papers)
I have before me your dispatches of the 4 th . & 18 Sep r last, & the 13 th . of October. It gives me much uneasiness to find by them that your health is not yet confirmed particularly as the extreem shortness of your Letters compared with the importance of the matter, give me reason to fear that it has suffered more than you would have us believe— I am under some anxiety relative to the fate...
34To 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...
35To 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...
36To John Jay from Robert R. Livingston, 29 November 1783 (Jay Papers)
I am two letters in your debt & am conscious that I shall make an ill return for them in offering you this product of a midnight hour after a ^ day ^ spent in the fatigue of business & cerimony that our present situation exacts— But having just been informed by M r Plat that he sails tomorrow morning I can not permit him to go without offering you my congratulations on an event to which you...
By the direction of Congress, contained in the enclosd resolutions, I have the honor to transmit you the Correspondence between General Washington & Sir Guy Carlton, together with minutes of their Conference, when, in pursuance of the invitation of the first, they met in Orange-County. Nothing can be a more direct violation of the 7 th: Article of the Provisional Treaty, than sending off the...
38To 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...
39To 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...
40To 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...
41Robert R. Livingston to the American Peace Commissioners, 28 May 1783 (Franklin Papers)
Copies: Massachusetts Historical Society, South Carolina Historical Society; AL (draft): New-York Historical Society; transcript: National Archives By the direction of Congress, contained in the enclosed resolutions, I have the honor to transmit you the Correspondence between General Washington & Sir Guy Carlton, together with minutes of their Conference, when, in pursuance of the invitation...
42To 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...
43To 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...
44To John Jay from Robert R. Livingston, 30 July 1784 (Jay Papers)
Permit me my dear friend to congratulate you on your return to your native shore, & to the friendly embraces of those who love you in every situation, in which you have been, or can be placed. My impatience to see you led me to New York about three weeks since, where from the time you had set for sailing I thought it probable that you must have arrived before this An unfortunate accident which...
45To John Jay from the Secretary for Foreign Affairs (Robert R. Livingston), 6 July 1782 (Jay Papers)
Since my Letter of the 23 d . ult o . Congress have passed the enclosed resolution; my Letter had already anticipated it, so that it will only serve to shew that I was warranted in the observations I had made, & am sorry to add that my prediction that the Troops taken by Spain would be sent to serve against us seems to be confirmed by an account received from Charlestown of a number of...
46To 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...
47To John Jay from the Secretary for Foreign Affairs (Robert R. Livingston), 12 September 1782 (Jay Papers)
We yesterday received Letters from M r Adams by Capt Smedley, who brought out the goods left by Commodore Gillon— these were the first advices that had reached us from Europe since your short note of the 14 th . of May— You will easily believe that this neglect is borne here with some degree of impatience, particularly at this interesting period when we learn that a negotiation for a peace has...
48To 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...
49To John Jay from Robert R. Livingston, 17 September 1782 (Jay Papers)
I have at length been favored with a private Letter from you which gives me great pleasure not only because it assures me of your health & that of M rs . Jay but because it is expressive of that friendship which I should be sorrey to see lost in the ocean of politics in which we have both launched our barks. I am sorrey for the ill health of my little god daughter but as the disorders she...
50To John Jay from Robert R. Livingston, 25 January 1784 (Jay Papers)
Your Brother is just returned from Rie, & informs me that he left your Brother & sister there in health, & as comfortably situated as they could expect, tho not quite so well as they could wish. The season was too far advanced on their removal to admit of all the repairs that were necessary in the house. The quiet which in my last I mentioned to have prevail’d here, still continues with very...
51To John Jay from Robert R. Livingston, 27 December 1786 (Jay Papers)
I received yours covering the papers from Maryland this day. And enclose an answer which I must pray you to forward I have accepted the appointment principally induced thereto by your being my colleague You have heard of the issue of our Massachusetts business But you may not have heard that while we were meeting at Hartford their Commissioners were treating with the Indians for the purchase...
52To 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...
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...
I am now to acknowledge the favor of your joint Letter by the Washington, together with a Copy of the preliminary Articles —Both were laid before Congress— The Articles have met their warmest approbation, and have been generally seen by the People in the most favorable point of view. The steadiness manifested in not treating without an express acknowledgment of your Independence previous to a...