From John Jay to Edmund Pendleton, 21 September 1779
To Edmund Pendleton
Pha. 21 Septr. 17791
Dear Sir
This morning I had Yesterday the Pleasure of recg your Favor of the 8th: Inst and am happy to find that my supplying our Friends absence by in the Instance alluded to ^to,^ no less acceptable to You than agreable me—2
In the Packet enclosed with this are two Copies of a circular Letter from Congress to their Constituents which you I imagine. We recd ^have^ good intelligence yesterday of three Regiments having within a few Days embarked at & sailed from New York their Destination is unknown. opinions are divided on this Head some supposing theym are bound for the W Indies others for Georgia
There is Reason to believe Count DEstaing is on the American Coasts having lately been left by an Eastern Vessel on the Latitude of Bermudas—3
The Committees here ^are^ losig. Ground,4 I doubt their existing much longer, It is a Pity they were called into Being— Admitting the Rectitude of their Intentions, the Policy of their Object & their wisdom of their Measures to attain it, will never be demonstrated—
Be pleased to present my best Respects to the Governor & Col Harrison5 both of whom I sincerely esteem and permit me to assure you that I am with great Truth & Regard Your most obt & most hble Servt
J. J.
Col. Pendleton
Dft, NNC (EJ: 8592). Endorsed. Enclosures: two copies of JJ’s circular letter of 13 Sept. 1779, printed above.
1. Edmund Pendleton (1721–1803) of Virginia served with JJ in the Continental Congress, 1774–75, and thereafter held high positions in his native state. Pendleton praised the circular in his letter to JJ of 4 Oct., ALS, NNC (EJ: 7043).
2. ALS, NNC (EJ: 7041). Pendleton thanked JJ for the offer to send news of Continental affairs, for he had “Great anxiety to hear the progress of our important conflict.” The friend Pendleton mentions is his kinsman John Penn (1741–88), a lawyer from Granville, N.C., and a delegate to Congress in 1778–79. Penn had served as Pendleton’s correspondent in Philadelphia.
3. More than 3,000 troops arrived in New York City on 25 Aug. However, their presence delayed rather than hastened a dispatch of British forces from the city, since the fleet brought with it an epidemic of fever that hospitalized more than 6,000 British soldiers.
4. Extralegal committees set up by radicals in Philadelphia and elsewhere in Pennsylvania had been attempting since spring to regulate prices by popular action. They had increasingly taken the law into their own hands, and their example encouraged mob violence, which culminated in an incident at the home of James Wilson, the noted lawyer who defended the Penn family and merchants accused of profiteering. For JJ’s further comments on Pennsylvania’s “deviation from the line of Constitutional Authority,” see his letter to George Clinton of 7 Oct. (, 14: 39). For Pendleton’s response on this subject, see his letter of 11 Oct., below.
5. Thomas Jefferson, who succeeded Patrick Henry as governor of Virginia, 1 June 1779. Colonel Benjamin Harrison, speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates in 1779. Both had previously served with JJ in the Continental Congress.