From John Jay to Elbridge Gerry, 19 February 1784
To Elbridge Gerry
Paris 19 Feb. 1784
Dr Sr
It was not until the last week that your Favr. of the 24 Novr. last reached me.1 I was ^am glad to^ find it dated at Pha., as that Circumstance leads me to suppose that you was again serving our Country in Congress— It is of the last Importance that our federal Head should constantly possess both Wisdom & Power ^be a wise one^, & that every Art to diminish its Respectability should be fruitless—
A Report prevails that Connecticut will not acquiesce in the late Decision of her Controversey with Pennsylvania—Our Enemies They who fear our becoming ^being^ a united & consequently a great formidable Nation ^people^ (and I can hardly tell you who do not fear it) rejoice at this knowledge ^Intelligence^.2 Some of our best Friends think the order of Cincinnatus will eventually split ^divide^ us into two mighty Factions, & that our officers in solliciting the Permission ^the permission^ of the King of France to permit ^for^ his Officers to wear that Badge ^be of that Order^ seems to
admit that the ^was asked, but the^ like Compt. due to them was ^not paid to our^ own Sovereign. The King has consented without having requested the opinion of Congress on the Subject, that I can learn—3 We wish to recieve a Ratification of the Treaty of peace, and I sincerely hope that every article in it will be scrupulously adhered to on our Part—
Mrs Jay presents her Compts. to You—with sincere Regard & Esteem I am Dr Sir most obt. Servt.
P.S. Mr Adams is in Holland trying to save Mr Morris’s Bills
Dft, NNC (EJ: 8850). Endorsed.
1. Gerry to JJ, 24 Nov. 1783, typescript, MHi: Gerry Papers, reel 2. In this letter Gerry reported the reelection of William Livingston as the governor of New Jersey and the well-being of the Livingston family, and expressed “the sense I have of your important Negotiation in Europe” and assured him that nothing would be wanting on his part “to do that Justice to our faithful Ministers which their Services merit.” On Gerry’s correspondence with JA, see JA to JJ, 13 Feb. 1784, above.
2. A congressional court of arbitration instituted in August 1782 to determine disputes over Wyoming lands, located in Pennsylvania but settled by Connecticut adventurers, sat at Trenton from 12 Nov. to 30 Dec. 1782, and on 2 Jan. unanimously upheld Pennsylvania’s jurisdiction. However, conflicting private land claims remained unresolved. On 23 Jan. 1784, responding to a petition from Connecticut of 11 Nov. 1783, Congress adopted a resolution for the meeting in June of agents from the two states to select judges, “according to the said ninth Article of the Confederation, for determining the private right of soil” to lands claimed by Connecticut settlers in the Wyoming Valley. However, this plan failed, and the area suffered violent conflict throughout the 1780s. , 24: 6–32; 26: 45–46; , 6: 498–500.
3. The Society of the Cincinnati accepted all French officers of the rank of colonel or above who had served in America. When Major Pierre Charles L’Enfant sailed for France in the fall of 1783, he brought a letter from Washington to Lafayette requesting the marquis to superintend the organization of a French branch of the Society. Royal permission was granted 18 Dec. 1783. For concerns, principally voiced by critics of the Franco-American alliance, that the society resembled a noble order inappropriate in a republican nation and that it might be an avenue for French meddling in American affairs, and for the controversy it engendered in France, see Markus Hünemörder, The Society of the Cincinnati: Conspiracy and Distrust in Early America (New York and Oxford, 2006), 32–35, 125–36. On the response to the society, see also Richard Price to JJ, 22 Oct. 1784, below.