1To James Madison from “Cyrus” [Jonathan Dayton], [29 May] 1809 (Madison Papers)
For the President, in the most perfect confidence. Never were any men more completely confounded, than were a certain description of politicians, to whom I have heretofore alluded, upon the appearance of the Proclamation, for restoring the intercourse between the U. States & Territories of Britain. The commerce, the honor, & the prosperity of their country were with them, at best, but...
2To James Madison from Jonathan Dayton, [16 January] 1813 (Madison Papers)
I took the liberty of writing to you lately on the subject of our affairs, & will now trouble you once more, for my anxiety is extreme. The contemplated plan of raising 20,000 men for one year is a most erroneous one. By the time they are made good soldiers they must be disbanded, another army enlisted. Your troops would always be raw, the expenses enormous—the delays incalculable. Besides the...
3To Thomas Jefferson from Jonathan Dayton, 7 December 1791 (Jefferson Papers)
The Committee appointed by the House of Representatives to consider, and report upon, the petition of the Canadian refugees, wish to be possessed of a list of the persons falling under that description. A return was made to the former Congress, and I am informed is at this time on the files in your office. If this be the case Sir, I will thank you to direct a copy of it to be immediately made...
4To James Madison from Jonathan Dayton, [ca. 14 January 1813] (Madison Papers)
I took the liberty of writing to you lately on the subject of our affairs, & will now trouble you once more, for my anxiety is extreme. The contemplated plan of raising 20,000 men for one year is a most erroneous one. By the time they are made good soldiers they must be disbanded—another army enlisted—your troops would always be raw—the expenses enormous—the delays incalculable. Besides the...
5To George Washington from Jonathan Dayton, 1 July 1782 (Washington Papers)
I have the honor to inform your Excellency that Lieut. MacDonald formerly of the 71st British but last of the King’s Orange Rangers has made his escape from New York by way of Staaten Island to this post. He tells me that the injury which has been done him in point of rank, the ill treatment he has received from his Colonel and his attachment to America & her cause, joined to the consideration...
6To George Washington from Jonathan Dayton, 22 June 1790 [letter not found] (Washington Papers)
Letter not found: from Jonathan Dayton, 22 June 1790. Letter listed in American Clipper, January 1943.
7To Alexander Hamilton from Jonathan Dayton, 29 May 1790 (Hamilton Papers)
In compliance with your request that I would commit to paper and transmit to you the reasons which I conceived would justify me in tendering military rights of land, so far as one seventh part of each payment stipulated to be made by Judge Symmes for his purchase between the Miami rivers, should extend, at the rate of an Acre for every Dollar to be paid, I have herein stated a few facts which...
8To John Adams from Jonathan Dayton, 4 July 1798 (Adams Papers)
The Members of the society of Cincinnati of New Jersey this day convened at their annual meeting for the purposes of perpetuating their friendships, a& of commemorating together, the great events which gave Independence to the United States, do now beg leave, in common with our fellow citizens to address our Chief Magistrate for the purpose of expressing our entire satisfaction with his...
9To Alexander Hamilton from Jonathan Dayton, 22 March 1799 (Hamilton Papers)
Elizabethtown [ New Jersey ] March 22, 1799 . “Your letter addressed to Major Ford reached the Post office in Newark a few minutes after the mail for Morris was sent off.… I was compelled to hire an express for 3 & ½ Dollars who delivered the letter to the Major this morng & brought back from him the enclosed to you.” ALS , Hamilton Papers, Library of Congress. For background to this letter,...
10To James Madison from Jonathan Dayton, 5 August 1807 (Madison Papers)
I have been informed since my arrival in this place that the assent of Government is necessary before I can be admitted to bail, & I flatter myself with the hope that it will freely be granted to me. In almost every feature my case is variant from that of every person standing under a similar accusation. For eighteen months past, I had not been within three hundred miles of the Ohio river, nor...
11To Thomas Jefferson from Jonathan Dayton, 15 June 1804 (Jefferson Papers)
I take the liberty of transmitting the enclosed two letters lately received from N. Orleans upon the subject of the office, vacated, or about to be vacated, of Surgeon & Physician of the troops & hospital at New Orleans. The approach of the sickly season, rendering it important that such a vacancy should be immediately filled, the desire & expectation of Doctr. Spencer & his friends that I...
12To Alexander Hamilton from Jonathan Dayton, [25 March 1798] (Hamilton Papers)
[ Philadelphia, March 25, 1798. On March 30, 1798, Hamilton wrote to Dayton : “Your letter of the 25th gave me much pleasure.” Letter not found. ] Printed in this volume.
13To Alexander Hamilton from Jonathan Dayton, 9 August 1794 (Hamilton Papers)
Elizabethtown [ New Jersey ] August 9, 1794 . “Will you be so obliging as to turn your attention immediately to the subject of Judge Symmes’s purchase between the Miamis, in order to have the different writings prepared for executing upon his arrival in Philadelphia, which will be in four or five days? …” ALS , Hamilton Papers, Library of Congress. Dayton was a member of the House of...
14To James Madison from Jonathan Dayton, 6 September 1814 (Madison Papers)
Assured that any suggestions tending to promote the public good will not be unacceptable, I venture at this crisis, to offer some. There can exist little doubt of there having been force sufficient on our side, to have prevented the enemy from reaching Washington, or to have defeated & destroyed the greater part of those who did reach it. The true use of the two different descriptions of the...
15To Alexander Hamilton from Jonathan Dayton, 6 August 1798 (Hamilton Papers)
Forseeing that Mrs. Dayton’s illness & other unavoidable causes of detention at home would prevent me from visiting N. York very soon, I was anxious to see and converse with you in this place upon your passage to, or from Philadelphia, relatively to some military arrangements. One, & not the least important, object of attention is to give efficacy to the third section of the provisional army...
16To Thomas Jefferson from Jonathan Dayton, 6 August 1807 (Jefferson Papers)
Learning that the President of the U. States is at Monticelli I venture to intrude upon his retirement with the assurances of my highest respect, & to solicit from his humanity and goodness the single favor of his intimating by a line to the Atty. Genl. his approbation of my being admitted to bail. I am confident that the Government have no desire to treat me with unnecessary rigor—I believe...
17To Alexander Hamilton from Jonathan Dayton, [April 1799] (Hamilton Papers)
I intended to have crossed to N York this morning in compy. with Colo: Ogden for the purpose of suggesting to you some alterations very important to the military service both in the arrangements of the relative ranks of the Company officers, & of the recruiting districts. Indisposition has prevented me, but the Colonel persists in the intention. We have perfectly concurred in the alterations...
18To Alexander Hamilton from Jonathan Dayton, 15 January 1796 (Hamilton Papers)
Philadelphia, January 15, 1796. “Your letter of the 4th is before me.… There cannot, I presume, exist a doubt as to my right to a portion of the Certificates alluded to in your letter.… Mr Stevens the elder declared before his death to my father that he would transfer them to me.… The short Interrogatory respecting our political prospect with which you conclude your letter, cannot be answered...
19To Thomas Jefferson from Jonathan Dayton, 27 December 1803 (Jefferson Papers)
I take the liberty of presenting to you the usual compliments & best wishes of this season of festivity & joy, and particularly of expressing my congratulations upon the happy event of the peaceable delivery of possession of one of the Forts in the city of New Orleans at the demand of the Prefect, to a company of our countrymen embodied under Mr. Clark. This may be regarded as a sure pledge...
20Enclosure: Jonathan Dayton to Theodore Sedgwick, [12 November 1796] (Hamilton Papers)
I cannot forbear my dear friend to congratulate you on your appointment to a seat in the Senate, altho it is impossible for me not to lament your separation from the House of Representatives where you could have been more useful. I know you too well to suppose that you can regard with indifference the preparations which are making for the approaching election of a President. Is not the success...
21To George Washington from Jonathan Dayton, 21 May 1782 (Washington Papers)
Mr Skinner, whose immediate departure did not afford me an opportunity of writing upon the subject, has without doubt reported to your Excellency the circumstance of the detention of Mr Lenox Depy Commissary of naval prisoners, his vessel and the hands as prisoners, agreable to your Excellency’s orders communicated by a letter to Colonel Dayton some time since. They will be continued at this...
22To George Washington from Jonathan Dayton, 13 May 1782 (Washington Papers)
Upon the return of Colonel Stewart to Camp, I put into his hands to be delivered to your Excellency the latest English and New York papers which I could collect. I have now the honor of enclosing to your Excellency the hand bill of yesterday relating to the engagement upon the 12th Ultimo, between the French and English fleets, lest report might have given to the story a degree of truth and...
23To James Madison from Jonathan Dayton, 26 May 1813 (Madison Papers)
The military operations pursuing this year, are so similar to those recommended by me last year, (anonymously, it is true, but not concealedly) that I have felt less apprehension than I otherwise should, as to their issue. The project of cutting the snake in two, or of compressing so closely & strictly in the middle, all it’s channells of circulation as to occasion the perishing of the upper...
24To Alexander Hamilton from Jonathan Dayton, 21 November 1799 (Hamilton Papers)
I write to you in confidence, & altho’ in the language, yet not in the temper of complaint. A practice has prevailed with some of the Regts. in your Division of drawing mony & rations on acct. without regular rolls & returns. This, I am sure, needs only to be known by you in order to be reprobated & corrected, for it’s tendency is most pernicious not only in encouraging indolence, inattention...
25To James Madison from Jonathan Dayton, [ca. 17 September] 1812 (Madison Papers)
Your political enemies are taking every possible advantage of our unaccountable disasters at Detroit, to render your Presidency unpopular, & your cabinet Council odious & contemptible. This is not doing by Federalists alone, but with equal zeal, tho’ greater caution by “the Democratic Republicans .” The great object of the former is to remove the Chief magistracy, not from you only, but from...
26To Alexander Hamilton from Jonathan Dayton, 22 June 1799 (Hamilton Papers)
Acquainted with Capt. Joel Davis of your State, I take the liberty of recommending him to you for the command of a compy. in the eventual army. He is active, temperate and, I believe, in every respect well qualified for that charge and station. His zeal in support of our Government & it’s Administration knows no bounds and furnishes a sure ground of reliance upon him in any critical emergency....
27To Alexander Hamilton from Jonathan Dayton, 20 March 1799 (Hamilton Papers)
Your favor dated the 18th. was received this morning. The letter accompanying it for Majr. Ford was immediately sent to the Post office at Newark, from whence a Mail goes this afternoon to Morris. In answer to your enquiry respecting the Major’s character, I can assure you that he has ever been considered a good officer, and that I know him to be perfectly sound, correct & firm in his...
28To George Washington from Jonathan Dayton, 23 April 1782 (Washington Papers)
I have the honour and happiness of communicating to your Excellency the agreable and important news of the capture of the whole Island of Minorca the 17th of February by our allies and of the treaty offensive and defensive between France and the States of Holland which has been lately concluded. These events we learn from a vessel which has just arrived in a short passage from Lisbon and from...
29To James Madison from Jonathan Dayton, 14 July 1813 (Madison Papers)
There are few, very few indeed, to whom the intelligence of your recovery from a late dangerous illness, has afforded a more sincere & heartfelt pleasure, as well from considerations purely personal, as those which regard our beloved country’s welfare and tranquillity. I almost tremble, sir, when I think of the contentions, divisions & disasters, to which your sudden removal at this critical...
30To James Madison from Jonathan Dayton, 26 October 1808 (Madison Papers)
The enclosed pamphlet is sent you by a Federalist, who sincerely desires your election to the Chief Magistracy. He has no views to office, for there is none which he would accept. He has nothing to ask for his friends. They, with but few exceptions, differ from him in his choice. His motives in writing to you are purely disinterested, unless indeed his interest in the prosperity of his...