1From John Adams to John Jay, 30 August 1798 (Adams Papers)
I had last night the pleasure to receive the letter your Excellency did me the honor to write me on the 21st of this month inclosing the resolutions of the Senate & assembly of New York & their unanimous address. I can scarcely imagine any event that could do me more honor or give me greater satisfaction. The unanimity of New–York, of vast importance in the union, is an happy omen of success...
2From John Adams to John Jay, 17 October 1798 (Adams Papers)
I received last night your favour of the 26. of September, with a Copy of an Act of the Legislature of the sState of New York, for the further Defence of the State and for other Purposes. I shall transmit these Papers to the Secretary at War, that a proper consultation may be had upon their Contents and a final Arrangement made according to Rules which generally obtain in Such Cases. In the...
3From John Adams to John Jay, 21 December 1798 (Adams Papers)
I am informed by my son at New York, that Mr. Samuel B. Malcom has applied for an office under your Excellency, ad and desired me to write to you in his behalf. This I can do without hesitation and with pleasure. Mr. Malcom lived in my family as my private Secretary for about an year and half, and conducted himself always like an amiable and honorable young gentleman. In my service he was...
4From John Adams to John Jay, 24 November 1800 (Adams Papers)
I received, last week your friendly private Letter of the tenth—The assurance of the continuance of your friendship was unnecessary for me, because I have never had a doubt of it—But others invent and report as they please. They have preserved hitherto, however more delicacy to wards the friendship between you and me than any other. The last Mission to France, and the consequent dismission of...
5From John Adams to John Jay, 19 December 1800 (Adams Papers)
Mr Elsworth afflicted with the Gravel and the Gout in his kidneys and intending to pass the Winter in the south of France after a few Weeks in England, has resigned his office of Chief Justice, and I have nominated you to your old station. This is as independent of the Inconstancy of the People, as it is of the Will of a President. In the future Administration of our Country the firmest...
6From Alexander Hamilton to John Jay, 24 April 1798 (Hamilton Papers)
I have received your two favours of the 19th instant. I feel as I ought the mark of confidence they announce. But I am obliged by my situation to decline the appointment. This situation you are too well acquainted with to render it necessary for me to enter into explanation. There may arrive a crisis when I may conceive myself bound once more to sacrifice the interest of my family to public...
7From Alexander Hamilton to John Jay, 27 August 1798 (Hamilton Papers)
I was very sorry when at Albany not to have seen you. I called the day after my arrival but you were then indisposed or abroad & the rest of my stay I was very unwell. An apprehension is excited here that in consequence of the Petitions of the Militia Officers the persons named to the new Companies will not be appointed. I take it for granted that this must be a groundless apprehension as far...
8From Alexander Hamilton to John Jay, 8 September 1798 (Hamilton Papers)
I beg your pardon for having omitted to attend earlier to the suggestion in your letter of the 30th. of August respecting the defence of our ports. I am sincere in saying that a charge of this kind would on various accounts be unpleasant to me among the rest as likely to involve ill natured & foolish criticism. But I shall not decline the trust if you think proper to repose it provided the...
9From Alexander Hamilton to John Jay, 17 September 1798 (Hamilton Papers)
The death of Mr. Remsen presents a vacancy of Notary which will be sought. Two applications are made to me—one by James Inglis Junr. who has just finished a Clerkship with me & taken a license as Atty in the Supreme Court—the other William Coleman lately connected in law business with Col Burr. Inglis is a young man of handsome abilities, of application & of irreproacheable conduct. He is a...
10From Alexander Hamilton to John Jay, 29 October 1798 (Hamilton Papers)
I received this day a letter from the President of the United States, requesting me to concert with you the plan, & to superintend the execution of it, for giving effect to the Act of the Legislature of this state for the further Defence of this state and for other purposes. This I am accordingly ready to do, whenever you shall be pleased to require it. With very great respect & esteem I have...
11From Alexander Hamilton to John Jay, 8 November 1798 (Hamilton Papers)
The Attorney General has shewn me, in confidence, a late letter of yours to him and has asked my good offices as far as may consist with my judgment. These I always readily yield to misfortune. I have had a full and minute explanation with him of the money subject, and in my mind, there results a full conviction that there is no cause of reproach from that source, whatever may have been...
12From Alexander Hamilton to John Jay, 19 November 1798 (Hamilton Papers)
Your letter of the 5 of November has recently reached me at this place and found me amongst avocations that scarcely leave me a moment to spare. You will probably have learnt from General Clarkson that the survey of the Port has been completed. But I do not recollect that I have had any answer to a suggestion in one of my letters respecting the employment of Engineers to assist in forming the...
13From Alexander Hamilton to John Jay, 18 December 1798 (Hamilton Papers)
New York, December 18, 1798. “You may remember that I have heretofore recommended to you Mr. Inglis, who studied the law with me, for the Office of Notary. He entertains an idea that a vacancy for such an appointment now exists, and has reminded me of my promise to be useful to him—I with pleasure reiterate my recommendation.…” ALS , Columbia University Libraries. Space left blank in MS. James...
14From Alexander Hamilton to John Jay, [26–30 January 1799] (Hamilton Papers)
I have received your Letter of the 25th. Various circumstances have prevented my being ready to make the Report you desire. The Survey of the Port made while I was at Philadelphia was but partial; not extending beyond the Narrows. A survey of the lower part of the Bay, which presents some objects worthy of Consideration, was effected by some of the Commanders of the British Army—And is in the...
15From Alexander Hamilton to John Jay, 12 February 1799 (Hamilton Papers)
The survey of this port to the narrows inclusively has been executed and the expence defrayed out of the funds of the Corporation. But it is interesting to the question of the defence of our port to have a survey of the bay below the narrows to Sandy Hook. There are sand banks critically situated which merit consideration as proper sites for fortification. Such a survey was made under the...
16From Alexander Hamilton to John Jay, 12 February 1799 (Hamilton Papers)
After a plan for fortifying our port shall have been settled, the execution of it with energy & dispatch will demand a very great portion of the time and attention of a competent character as Superintendant. This task I cannot undertake consistently with my other occupations. Col Burr will be very equal to it and will I believe undertake it, if an adequate compensation be annexed. He would...
17From Alexander Hamilton to John Jay, 29 July 1799 (Hamilton Papers)
The completion of the works in the vicinity of our City proceeds heavily. Some embarrassment is understood to arise in the War Department from the Question of Appropriations. I beg to be informed whether the sum appropriated by the Legislature of this State will come in aid of the Operation. Limited as that sum is, nothing upon a large scale can be undertaken in reference to it. Its Agency in...
18From Alexander Hamilton to John Jay, 4 March 1800 (Hamilton Papers)
We are all here very anxious for the success of Mr Coleman. We know his abilities and we believe in his integrity. Your good disposition towards him is well understood—Yet it is feared that his pecuniary situation may prove an obstacle. It is undoubtedly a good rule to avoid embarrassed men in appointments—yet this like every other general rule may admit of exceptions in special cases. If I...
19From Alexander Hamilton to John Jay, 7 May 1800 (Hamilton Papers)
You have been informed of the loss of our Election in this City. It is also known that we have been unfortunate throughout Long Island & in West Chester. According to the Returns hitherto, it is too probable that we lose our Senators for this District. The moral certainty therefore is that there will be an Anti-fœderal Majority in the Ensuing Legislature, and this very high probability is that...
20From Alexander Hamilton to John Jay, 19 August 1800 (Hamilton Papers)
I have occasion for a public purpose to allude to the reprobated instructions to our commissioners for making peace with Great Britain obliging them to act under the direction of the French Assembly. But though I have a general recollection of their tenor it is not precise enough for my object. I take it for granted your papers can afford the exact information. You will much oblige me by...
21From Alexander Hamilton to John Jay, 3 September 1800 (Hamilton Papers)
I thank you for your three letters in compliance with my request. They contain what I desired. But as they mingle the fact, respecting the communication of my letter to you to Lord Grenville, which I always understood to be confidential, I will thank you to send me a certificate of the sentiment which you recollect to have been given by me, and I will beg you to let it be as full and as...
22From Alexander Hamilton to John Jay, [30–31 October 1800] (Hamilton Papers)
It is an awkward thing now to tell you that it was early my intention to send you the inclosed. But it is nevertheless true that the idea was repeatedly in my mind with the design of executing it & was as often driven out by the distractions of business &c. Always very truly Dr Sir yr Obed ser ALS , sold by Forest H. Sweet, Battle Creek, Michigan, January, 1958, Lot No. 141. Jay endorsed...
23To John Jay from Peter Thacher, 19 April 1797 (Jay Papers)
The board of commissioners in Boston from the society in Scotland for propagating christian knowledge have directed me to address your excellency, upon a subject which is important to the interests of christianity and of the society whom they represent. This society have, for a number of years past, supported a mission to the Oneida indians who live in your state. M r . Kirkland, who has been...
24To John Jay from Jedidiah Morse, 21 April 1797 (Jay Papers)
I should have acknowledged the receipt of your obliging & acceptable Letter of the 28th of Feby. earlier, but for the great & unremitting attention I have been obliged to pay to my Gazetteer wh[ic]h is in the press. The plan of a History of our Revolution wh[ic]h you, Sir, have suggested, is certainly natural, plain, concise, comprehensive & judicious— & your directions, as to the objects of...
25To John Jay from Sebastian Bauman, [15 May 1797] (Jay Papers)
To his Excellency John Jay Esq r . Governor and Commander in chief of the Militia of the State of New York & c & c I am sorry that circumstances have finally brought me to quit and give up my Military Commission, which I cannot hold any longer without the greatest degradation, inadmissable and incoherent with the Character of a Soldier. The Appointment of Brigadier General Hughes who was a...
26To John Jay from Timothy Pickering, 8 June 1797 (Jay Papers)
The manner in which you have noticed my letter to General Pinckney, at its first publication, and recently in your letter of the 27th ult. has given me the truest satisfaction; while the reproaches of the whole body of democrats, of French Devotees , excite no other sensation than that of regret for the mischief their lies and misrepresentations produce thro’ the country. I am well informed...
27To John Jay from John Trumbull, 10 June 1797 (Jay Papers)
You will permit me to present to your acquaintance the Bearer of this Letter. M r . Neimsiwits a Polish Gentleman the Friend & Companion of the unfortunate Kosciusko. M r Neimsiwits was a member of the constitutional Assembly of Poland;— was afterwards wounded by the Gen ls . side:—and carried with him a Prisoner to Petersburg, where, so long as the Empress lived, He was confined & treated in...
28To John Jay from John Trumbull, 20 July 1797 (Jay Papers)
On the 9 th . instant, M r . King put into my hands your Letter of the 3 d . June, containing duplicate of one dated 20 th . October the original of which never came to hand.— I beg you to accept my thanks for both, and particularly for the wise reflexions & Counsel contained in that of October:— Experience has shewn that my apprehensions of delicate and high responsibility, were not...
29To John Jay from John Trumbull, 7 August 1797 (Jay Papers)
Lest Kemp , by whom the original of the above was sent, should be taken, I have written duplicate— Our Awards had all been drawn payable at the Treasury here on the First of July:— for want of proper previous arrangements, they remained unpaid , at the date of the foregoing:— Of course, as there was I believe only one, in which the Board had been unanimous—and many ^in^ which there had been...
30To John Jay from Rufus King, 16 August 1797 (Jay Papers)
I had the pleasure to receive your Letter by M r . Flemming; that for Lord Amherst was but just in time to be delivered before his Death.— From the very great Reserve that every where exists concerning the negotiations in Italy and at Lisle, it is not easy to form a satisfactory opinion respecting their termination; indeed the great struggle that exists between the Directory and the two...
31To John Jay from Timothy Pickering, 9 September 1797 (Jay Papers)
Perhaps you may think the rude and insolent letter of the Chevalier de Yrujo to me, dated the 11th of July, not entitled to an answer, especially as the documents which had been made public proved to every well informed man and attentive reader that his observations were either futile or unfounded. But I thought it would be necessary to make some remarks on his letter, to be eventually...
32To John Jay from Rufus King, 9 September 1797 (Jay Papers)
What we know of the negotiations between france Austria and England, gives little encouragement to hope that their issue will be pacific— The internal Situation of france is alarming; instead of a Reconciliation between the Directory & the Councils, the breach appears to grow wider— Both sides court the Armies, and a civil war seems to be organizing itself— I send you a posthumous work of M r...
33To John Jay from Peter Augustus Jay, 24 October 1797 (Jay Papers)
On Saturday Cæsar put on board Capt Hanson’s Sloop several Articles which Mama requested me to send viz a Jug of Oil, the Racks for the Spit a Box of Rush-lights & the Safe— in the latter was a Bag containing Salt Petre Isinglass &c and also a small Pot of Ointment for you which Doctor Charlton had given me a day or two before,— The enclosed Letter accompanied it, but I thought it would go...
34To John Jay from Timothy Pickering, 28 October 1797 (Jay Papers)
Last evening I received the inclosed letter for you from M r . King. With His dispatches by the W m . Penn I received a copy of the treaty of commerce & navigation between G. Britain & Russia, concluded the 21st of February last. There is no provision, that free ships shall make free goods. The articles of contraband are confined to those immediately relating to war, and do not comprehend...
35To John Jay from Rufus King, 31 October 1797 (Jay Papers)
Our Envoys have been at Paris from the first of the month— during the last fortnight there has been no Person from France by whom I could have heard from them— Col. Trumbull is at Paris on his Return from Germany, and we expect him here in a day or two; we shall be better able after his arrival than at present to form an Opinion concerning the issue of our Negociation— It remains still...
36To John Jay from Rufus King, 12 November 1797 (Jay Papers)
By M r . Seton I sent you the Dec[larati]on of this Government on the rupture of the Negociation at Lisle— I now send you Lord Malmesburys correspondence with a number of News Papers— The treaty between Portugal & France has been annulled by the latter, because it had not been ratified by the former within the time first prescribed for that Purpose, tho it is asserted that this time had been...
37To John Jay from Christopher Gore, 13 November 1797 (Jay Papers)
I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your friendly letter of June last— Since that time you have doubtless heard, how far our board has progressed, in the business of their commission. There is little prospect of our doing much more in relation to claims, on the Brit. Govt, until next April; when the term of 18 M[onth]s, limited, by the article, for the reception of complaints,...
38To John Jay from Peter Augustus Jay, 26 November 1797 (Jay Papers)
I have been amused for a week past with daily promisses by the Agents of two Furnaces respecting the Stove you wrote for, there being none of that Kind to be had ready made— As I am informed the River is closed for a Distance below Albany, and as from the weather it is doubtful whether it will again be open I do not think it will be prudent to wait any longer— You had better therefore provide...
39To John Jay from Timothy Pickering, 13 December 1797 (Jay Papers)
Yesterday, in conversation with M r . FitzSimons (who, you will doubtless recollect, is one of the commissioners on the claims of British debts) he mentioned two questions of vast importance which were presented at the threshold of the business: one, ^on^ which side lay the onus probandi respecting the solvency or insolvency of the debtor—the other, whether interest should or should not be...
40To John Jay from Josiah Ogden Hoffman, 14 December 1797 (Jay Papers)
I concieve it my Duty to state to Your Excellency the Situation of and proceedings in the two Suits instituted against Mary Lindsley and others, and against Abraham Miller, by Samuel Fowler and Jonathan Lyman Citizens of the State of Massachusets for the Recovery of Lands situate within the Counties of Steuben and Tioga in this State, to which the Plaintiffs claim Title by Virtue of and under...
41To John Jay from Ebenezer Stevens, 6 January 1798 (Jay Papers)
I have the honor to enclose Your excellency a return of the field artillery ammunition and small arms which I have received from the Commissioners appointed by the Legislature to procure the same and also of the issues therefrom to the different counties agreeable to your Excellency’s orders— I beg leave to inform your Excellency that fifty cases small arms recently missorted were damaged and...
42To John Jay from Richard Varick, 10 January 1798 (Jay Papers)
I have the Honor of once more troubling Your Excellency & perhaps calling a Moments Attention from more important public Concerns, to inform You of a Measure proposed to the Common Council of this City this Day by the Recorder & myself & by them unanimously adopted, to wit, We have discovered by Experience that the public Business of the Sessions could not be dispatched in four Terms only of 7...
43To John Jay from John Trumbull, 6 March 1798 (Jay Papers)
The last letter which I have had the honor to receive from you is dated in Albany the 27 th . Oct r . and the last which I wrote to you was of the 10 th . December.— Our Commissioners have not ^been^ received to an Audience in Paris, nor has any Negotiation with them been fairly opened:— Decrees more offensive than all the acts of which they had to complain have been passed under their...
44To John Jay from Timothy Pickering, 9 April 1798 (Jay Papers)
The dispatches from our envoys in Paris being published this morning, I do myself the pleasure to inclose you a copy. Unless the corruption of the French Government and their unjust, tyrannical, rapacious and insulting conduct towards the U. States shall rouse the indignant spirit of the people , our independence is at an end. The leaders of the opposition in Congress, while thunderstruck with...
45To John Jay from Peter Augustus Jay, 15 April 1798 (Jay Papers)
I had the pleasure of rec g : your Letters of the 6th, 7th, & 9th. inst on Friday, & another which accompanied the Pardon for M r . Meeks’s Man yesterday— I shall immediately attend to the different directions contained in them— Most of the Prints are already very neatly boxed; the Cases containing Copies of the U. S. Laws I have put on board Bleeckers Sloop (the same in which Maria came down)...
46To John Jay from Peter Augustus Jay, 19 April 1798 (Jay Papers)
I yesterday rec d . your Letter of the 16th inst: & the Bundle which accompanied it— The latter shall be sent to Rye by the Boat— I am almost sorry you intend to dispose of the Coach, & should prefer parting with the Chariot which in a few years more will be unfit for use, or at any Rate a constant Bill of Cost— Besides that the former will probably sell for much less than its Value— I shall...
47To John Jay from Peter Augustus Jay, 26 April 1798 (Jay Papers)
I have this Afternoon put on board Capt Lansings Sloop 15 Barrels of Wine, 1 Case of Flasks with d o Nine Boxes of Prints & Pictures & small Articles of Glass & China & one small black trunk— I have sent you all the wine except two Barrels whose hoops appeared too insecure to be trusted— I will send you a List of the Contents in a Letter by Capt. Lansing— I have just returned from the Society...
48To John Jay from Peter Augustus Jay, 6 May 1798 (Jay Papers)
I have at length compleated the evacuation of the Gov t . House & taken Possession of my Rooms at M rs . Wests from whence I now write— The Trouble of moving which was much greater than I expected to find it, prevented my writing during the last week. I sent you a number of Articles by Capt: Dusenberry, all those that remain are at M r . Munro’s, who has had one of his unfinished rooms floored...
49To John Jay from Peter Augustus Jay, 13 May 1798 (Jay Papers)
It is now some time since I had the pleasure of hearing from you— this I attribute to your having been at Schenectady where I perceive by the Papers you was present at the Commencement— M r . Seth Marvin some time ago applied to me to purchase your Share of Lot N o . 18 in Cheesecocks Patent (containing as he says 195 Acres) for which he offered 24/pr. Acre, but it appeared during our...
50To John Jay from Ebenezer Stevens, 30 May 1798 (Jay Papers)
I am honoured with your favour of the 26 th . instant, and sincerely thank you, for the attention paid to M r . Smith— I agree with you that we ought to be united in our Councils, and uninfluenced by Considerations in which the public has little interest: be assured, it is my sincere wish, that the greatest unanimity take place, for it is absolutely necessary; and no Steps should be neglected,...