1David Hartley to the American Peace Commissioners, 4 September 1783 (Franklin Papers)
Copy and press copy of copy: National Archives; copies: William L. Clements Library, Library of Congress, Massachusetts Historical Society, Public Record Office It is with the sincerest Pleasure that I congratulate you on the happy Event which took Place Yesterday, viz., the Signature of the Definitive Treaty between our two Countries. I consider it as the auspicious Presage of returning...
2John Adams to Benjamin Franklin and John Jay, 20 February 1784 (Adams Papers)
The Day before Yesterday the Baron de Thuilemeyer the Envoy to their High Mightinesses, from the King of Prussia, did me the Honour of a Visit, but as I had Company, he stayed but a short time. As I accompanied him to the Door, he whis told me, that he had Something to Say to me from the King, and desird me to name an Hour, when he might call upon me again. I told him his Hour should be mine,...
3John Adams to Franklin and John Jay, 20 February 1784 (Franklin Papers)
AL (draft): Massachusetts Historical Society The Day before Yesterday the Baron de Thuilemeyer the Envoy to their High Mightinesses, from the King of Prussia, did me the Honour of a Visit, but as I had Company, he stayed but a short time; As I accompanied him to the Door, he told me, that he had Something to Say to me from the King, and desird me to name an Hour, when he might call upon me...
4John Adams to Benjamin Franklin and John Jay, 2 April 1784 (Adams Papers)
I duely received the Letter, you did me the Honour to write me, on the Subject of a Treaty with Prussia and have communicated it to the Baron de Thuelemeier. The King agrees to take the Treaty with Sweeden for a Model and if your Excellencies have any Alterations to propose I should be obliged to you for the Communication of them. The Baron waits the further Instructions of the King, before he...
5John Adams to Benjamin Franklin and John Jay, 20 April 1784 (Adams Papers)
I have just now received the Letter which D r Franklin did me the Honour to write me on the 16 th. with the Copy of the Treaty with Sweeden. I have before inclosed the King of Prussias Project of a Treaty, prepared as I am assured by his Minister with his own Hand in his private Cabinet. I believe it has been reserved to the present Age when the subtilties of Aristotle and the schools are...
6John Adams to Franklin and John Jay, 10 April 1784 (Franklin Papers)
AL (draft): Massachusetts Historical Society Inclosed is Copy of a Letter from the Baron de Thulemeier and Copy of a Project of a Treaty transmitted to me by order of the King of Prussia: I should be glad if your Excellencies would examine it, and write me your objections, and proposals of alterations, which I shall immediately communicate to his Majesty through his Minister. I presume too...
7John Adams to Franklin and John Jay, 2 April 1784 (Franklin Papers)
Copy: Massachusetts Historical Society I duely received the Letter, you did me the Honour to write me, on the Subject of a Treaty with Prussia and have communicated it to the Baron de Thuelemeier. The King agrees to take the Treaty with Sweeden for a Model and if your Excellencies have any Alterations to propose I should be obliged to you for the Communication of them. The Baron waits the...
8John Adams to Franklin and John Jay, 20 April 1784 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Columbia University Library; copy: Massachusetts Historical Society I have just now received the Letter which Dr Franklin did me the Honour to write me on the 16th. with the Copy of the Treaty with Sweeden. I have before inclosed the King of Prusisas Project of a Treaty, prepared as I am assured by his Minister with his own Hand in his private Cabinet. I believe it has been reserved to...
9John Adams to Benjamin Franklin and John Jay, 10 April 1784 (Adams Papers)
Inclosed is Copy of a Letter from the Baron de Thulemeier and Copy of a Project of a Treaty transmitted to me by order of the King of Prussia: I should be glad if your Excellencies would examine it, and write me your Objections, and proposals of alterations, which I shall immediately communicate to his Majesty through his Minister. I presume too that your Excellencies will transmit it to...
10John Adams to Franklin and John Jay, 27 March 1784 (Franklin Papers)
Copy: Massachusetts Historical Society I have the Honour to inclose a Letter from Mr Edward Browne of Ostend and another from Mr De Berdt.— Mr Browne was introduced to me in London by Mr De Berdt, and appears to be an accomplished Person well acquainted with the Language Laws and Commerce of the Place where he is.— If your Excellencys judge proper, I should be obliged to you if you would...
11To John Jay from Diego de Gardoqui, 19 September 1788 (Jay Papers)
Mui Señor mio. Mis ultimos achaques me han privado de contextar à la appreciable de V.S. de 5. del Corriente con la puntualidad que acostumbro, pero me aprovecho del primero Momento, para acusar su Rezivo con los Extractos No. 1. 2. 3. y 4., que se sirbe incluirme de Orden del Honorable Congreso. Tendrè particular cuidado de Remitirlos à S. M. por primera ocacion, como pruevas de la atencion...
12From John Adams to John Jay, 30 November 1786 (Adams Papers)
Your Favour of the fourth of october, I have had the Honour to receive, and have dispatched the Resolution inclosed in it to Paris to go from thence to Spain: but I hope M r Lamb is already on his Passage for America. The Commotions in New England, will terminate in additional Strength to Government, and therefore they do not allarm me I have lately received from Lord Carmarthen officially the...
13From John Adams to John Jay, 11 October 1788 (Adams Papers)
The multiplied Cares attending the Removal of a Family, from one Country to another; and beginning a new Course of Life or resuming an old one, after an interruption of fourteen years; must be my apology, if any apology is neccessary, for having omitted, till this time, to Solicit the final Settlement of my Accounts, with the United States.— As M r Barclay has, for many years, had the...
14To John Jay from John Adams, 13 February 1784 (Jay Papers)
I have rec d a Letter from M r . Gerry, at Phil a 23 Nov. Thaxter arrived there the night before, I presume he has written by M r Reed, and that his Letter is gone to You, as he probably addressed the Letter to Us all. M r Morris has drawn afresh by this Vessell. Let me beg of you and the D r , to advise him to Stop his Hand. If I can possibly, save those already drawn, which however I still...
15John Adams to John Jay, 15 December 1784 (Adams Papers)
I venture to address myself to you as Minister of foreign Affairs, because I Sincerely hope you have accepted that important Office. The Emperor of Morocco, Sent an Abassador last Winter to Holland to demand Materials for some Frigates, and as none of the great Maritime Powers, have the Courage or the Will to refuse Such Requisitions, obtained them. it now appeas probable, that they have been...
16From Thomas Jefferson to John Jay, 17 June 1785 (Jefferson Papers)
I had the honour of addressing you on the 11th. of the last month by young Mr. Adams who sailed in the packet of that month. That of the present is likely to be retarded to the first of July if not longer. On the 14th. of May I communicated to the Count de Vergennes my appointment as minister plenipotentiary to this court and on the 17th. delivered my letter of credence to the king at a...
17To John Jay from John Adams, 30 November 1787 (Jay Papers)
I do myself the Honour to inclose the Kings speech at the Opening of Parliament as it has been transmitted to me from the Marquis of Carmarthen: and the Morning Chronicle of the 28, which contains, not the debates for there were none, but the Panegyricks upon it. I have long Seen Sir, in Silent astonishment and Grief the negligent and imprudent Conduct of a deceased French Minister of foreign...
18To John Jay from Elias Boudinot, 1 November 1783 (Jay Papers)
I was honored by your several private favours, recommending M r . Vaughan and some other Gentlemen, to whom I have endeavoured to pay every civility in my power— Also one enclosing my Nephew’s Letter from Madeira, for which I am much obliged to you. Congress has thought proper to appoint him their Commercial Agent at that Island. He is a deserving young American, who I doubt not will do honor...
19To John Jay from John Adams, 8 May 1785 (Jay Papers)
In executing the Instructions of Congress of the Seventh of March last, as well as all former Orders, which concern the Court of Great Britain, the Ministry will no doubt find my Commission and Letter of Credence Sufficient Authority. But you will See by a Letter from the Duke of Dorsett, which your Ministers here sometime since transmitted, that the British Cabinet have conceived doubts,...
20To John Jay from Lafayette, 7 February 1787 (Jay Papers)
This Letter Goes in the first packet from the Havre, a Change Advantageous Both to Passengers and Correspondants, and through the Hands of C ol . Franks whose Good Conduct at Morocco Has Entitled Him to a share of that Respect which Has Been deservedly paid to the American Embassy. M r . Barklay’s Refusal of the patents, Has Been a Matter of wonder to Every Affrican, and I dare Say to Some...
21From Thomas Jefferson to John Jay, 13 August 1786 (Jefferson Papers)
The inclosed letter from Mr. Barclay, and one from Mr. Carmichael, of which I send you extracts, are come to hand this morning, which is in time for them to go by the same gentleman who carries my letter of the 11th. I observe what Mr. Carmichael says on the subject of the Portuguese treaty, and am sorry it meets with difficulties. I doubt however whether he ascribes them to their true cause,...
22To John Jay from George Washington, 15 August 1786 (Jay Papers)
I have to thank you very Sincerely for your interesting letter of the 27 th . of June, as well as for the other communications you had the goodness to make at the same time. I am sorry to be assured, of what indeed I had little doubt before, that we have been guilty of violating the treaty in some instances. What a misfortune it is the British should have so well grounded a pretext for their...
23To John Jay from James Duane, 27 August 1784 (Jay Papers)
I feel the disappointment in being deprived of the pleasure of your own and M rs . Jays Company! I now send my Judgem t in M rs Rutgers’s Cause, & entreat you to peruse ^ it ^ and to give me your candid opinion whether the publication of it is likely to produce any politick advantage and whether my decisions will stand a Scrutiny— Yours most respectfully & Affect ly ALS , NNC ( EJ :
24From Benjamin Franklin to John Jay, 30 March 1784 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Columbia University Library Yesterday late in the Evening arrived here an Express from Congress with the Definitive Treaty ratified, which I enclose with the Resolutions, Proclamation, and the President’s Letter. The Congress anxious that the Ratification should arrive within the Term stipulated, dispatch’d it seems three Expresses, by different Vessels, with authenticated Copies. This...
25To John Jay from Sarah Livingston Jay, 6 November 1783 (Jay Papers)
This Even g . M r . & Miss Laurens favor’d me w th . their Company, and as they set out tomorrow for England I could not suffer them to go without a little token of my remembrance, & that they might be ennabled to give you an account of y r . little girls I sent for them down, & was not a little flatter’d by Miss Maria’s behaviour—she does not yet speak, but she improves in her health & looks....
On the intimation contained in your first letter of the 2 d . Congress have been pleased to pass an Act of which the enclosed is a copy, vesting you with the necessary powers. It is the desire of Congress that this be kept as secret as the nature of the case will admit; for which reason I have not entrusted it to the inspection of any of the young men in my Office. In consequence of a report...
27From Thomas Jefferson to John Jay, 3 November 1787 (Jefferson Papers)
My last letters to you were of the 8th. and 27th. of October. In the former I mentioned to you the declaration of this country that they would interpose with force if the Prussian troops entered Holland, the entry of those troops into Holland, the declaration of England that if France did oppose force they would consider it as an act of war, the naval armaments on both sides, nomination of the...
28From John Adams to John Jay, 26 February 1786 (Adams Papers)
The Envoy from Portugal, has received from his Court an Answer to his Dispatches relative to the Treaty with the United States, and the enclosed Extract from it, which has been delayed sometime by the Sickness of the Chevalier de Freire, the Portuguese Secretary of Legation, this Minister did me the Honour to deliver to me two days ago, with his request that it might be transmitted to...
29To John Jay from George Washington, 15 April 1788 (Jay Papers)
Your Card of the 24 th . Ult, and first Vol. of the Fœderalist came safe, for which I pray you to accept my thanks, and assurances of the sincere esteem & regard with which I am, Dear Sir, Y r . most Obed t . and Affect e . H ble Serv t ALS , ICN : Ruggles ( EJ : 13397
30To John Jay from David Hartley, 2 March 1784 (Jay Papers)
I return you my best thanks for your much esteemed favour of the 22 d of february last and particularly for those very friendly sentiments w h you are so good as to express towards me. I assure you that similar sentiments are most sincerely reciprocal on my part. Your public & private conduct has impressed me with unalterable Esteem for you as a public and private friend.— I shall be very...
31John Adams to John Jay, 14 February 1784 (Adams Papers)
Last Evening, after mine to you of Yesterdays date, was gone to the Post office, yours of the Sixth, was sent me from thence. If I were to pray to Neptune, for Liberty of passing thro his Realm, again I should be tempted to Use the Form of a new converted American Indian, at Cape Cod, who went off in a fishing Vessell further to sea than he had ever been before, & was over taken by a storm. He...
32From John Adams to John Jay, 25 May 1786 (Adams Papers)
I have not presented a formal Memorial in the Name of our Sovereign concerning the Negroes carried off contrary to the Treaty, although it has been frequently and constantly, insisted upon with the British Ministry, for Several Reasons, one was a desire to confine the first Memorial to one point, the frontier Posts that the real Motives and Intensions of the Cabinet might be the more...
In your letter, inclosing the Morocco signals, you desire them to be delivered to American masters of vessels. The council have interpreted this expression to mean masters of American vessels; that is, of vessels belonging to American citizens. They seem justified in this construction, by the Morocco treaty itself. One instance only of granting these signals has occurred; and the captain was...
34To John Jay from Lafayette, 11 May 1785 (Jay Papers)
This opportunity Being Very Safe, Congress will Have Been fully informed By their Minister, and The Bearer, M. john Adams’s Son is Himself very Well Fit to Give them proper intelligences—I Have Been not a little Surprised to Hear M. de Longchamps Had Been demanded—But Upon Inquiry found that Before My Return Such Orders Had Gone to America—Since which Government were Satisfied with the Good...
35From Benjamin Franklin to John Jay, 15 September 1784 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Yale University Library; press copy of ALS : American Philosophical Society I have just seen in the English Newspapers that you and your Family are safe arrived in New York, which gives me great Pleasure. I send you herewith some of our latest News Papers. Mr Hartley is at length recall’d, having remain’d here Six Months without doing or proposing any thing towards the Commercial Treaty....
36To John Jay from Robert Morris, 19 May 1785 (Jay Papers)
On my return here I find your obliging letter of the 13 th . which arrived during my absence. I was unfortunate in not having the pleasure to meet you either at Elizabeth Town or at New York, and it vexed me much that I could not perform a promise made to M rs . Jay, but I was detained by business untill there was danger of losing my passage in the Waggons from Paulus Hook to Elizabeth Town,...
37From Thomas Jefferson to John Jay, 23 October 1786 (Jefferson Papers)
In a letter of Jan. 2. I had the honor of communicating to you the measures which had been pursued here for the improvement of the commerce between the U.S. and France, the general view of that commerce which I had presented to the C. de Vergennes, the circumstance of the renewal of the farms which had obliged me to press separately and in the first place, the article of tobacco, and that...
38From John Adams to John Jay, 26 January 1786 (Adams Papers)
Give me Leave to introduce to you John Anstey Esq Barrister at Law and a Member of Parliament, who goes out by Authority to verify the Claims of the Loyalists, as they call themselves.— I believe it to be the Design of M r Pitt to pay their Demands which shall be found to be Supported, and withdraw their Pensions and then leave them to Seek their Fortunes. in Such a Case if our States repeal...
39To John Jay from Richard Price, 25 November 1785 (Jay Papers)
I have received both the letters with which you have honored me, and I return you many thanks for them. I know your time must be much engaged by the duties of your office, and therefore I cannot but feel very Sensibly your kind attention which exceeds all that I could have any reason to expect. Your civility and friendship to M r . Curtauld deserve my particular gratitude. His mother and...
40From Thomas Jefferson to John Jay, 27 May 1786 (Jefferson Papers)
In my letter of the 12th. inst. which goes by the same packet, but was delivered to a private hand, I had the honour of inclosing to you letters from Mr. Carmichael, Mr. Barclay and Mr. Lambe on the Barbary affairs. Others came to hand last night which are now copying, and will be inclosed to you by the post of this day as far as they can be copied. The whole cannot possibly be in readiness...
41To John Jay from John Adams, December 1785 (Jay Papers)
I am anxious to convey to you, if I can, in as Strong a light as that in which I see myself, the Impossibility of our doing any thing satisfactory with this Nation, especially under this Ministry, that the States may neither neglect nor delay any Measure, which they would judge necessary or expedient, upon the certainty that England will not alter her Conduct. In order to do this, I must be...
42From Thomas Jefferson to John Jay, 4 May 1787 (Jefferson Papers)
I had the honour of receiving at Aix your letter of Feb. 9. and immediately wrote to the Count de Montmorin, explaining the delay of the answer of Congress to the king’s letter, and desired Mr. Short to deliver that answer with my letter to Monsieur de Montmorin , which he accordingly informs me he has done. My absence prevented my noting to you in the first moment the revolution which has...
43From George Washington to John Jay, 8 June 1788 (Washington Papers)
By the last Mail, I had the pleasure to receive your letter of the 29th of May—and have now the satisfaction to congratulate you on the adoption of the Constitution by the Convention of South Carolina. I am sorry to learn there is a probability that the majority of members in the New York Convention will be Antifederalists. Still I hope that some event will turn up before they assemble, which...
44From John Adams to John Jay, 4 November 1785 (Adams Papers)
Yesterday at the Ministers Levee, one of the foreign Ministers put into my hand a Leyden Gazette, in which I found announced to the Public, an Arret of the King of France of the 18 th. of September, in which a Bounty of Ten Livres per Quintal is promised to any French Merchants who shall import into the Markett of the French West India Islands, or of Spain Portugal or Italy any Fish, of the...
45To John Jay from James Duane, 20 December 1788 (Jay Papers)
I set off in a hurry which alone prevented my calling upon you for which I had a variety of motives. One was to explain the reasons which induced me to transmit to you a State of facts on a subject which I thought somewhat interesting, and the more so as it ^had^ produced a Visit from three reverend Doctors the evening before I commenced my Journey— Their object was to prevent a flame which...
46To John Jay from William Bingham, 10 March 1784 (Jay Papers)
I received your agreable Letter of the 22 d . Novem r & exceedingly regret your Speedy Intention of Speedily departing for America, more especially as it will deprive M rs Bingham & myself of the pleasure of personally assuring M rs Jay & you of our own affectionate Regards— We shall leave England in the Beginning of May, & Shall take Holland in our Route to Spa, where we intend to remain...
47From Thomas Jefferson to John Jay, 22 September 1787 (Jefferson Papers)
The letters of which the inclosed are copies, are this moment received, and as there is a possibility that they may reach Havre before the packet sails, I have the honor of inclosing them to you. They contain a promise of reducing the duties on tar, pitch and turpentine, and that the government will interest itself with the city of Rouen to reduce the local duty on Potash. By this you will...
48To John Jay from John Adams, 16 December 1787 (Jay Papers)
Two Days ago, I received the Letter, you did me the Honour to write me, on the 16 of Oct r . with its Enclosures. The Approbation of my Conduct in Europe expressed in the Resolution of Congress of the fifth of October, does me honour, and demands my Acknowledgments. The Permission to return to America and the termination of my Commission in Holland, having removed all Difficulties, It is my...
49From John Adams to John Jay, 1 June 1785 (Adams Papers)
In my Letter of the 29 th. Ult o. I inclosed Copies of the Letters which had passed between the secretary of State and myself—wherin this Day was fixed upon for my introduction to His Majesty—agreable to that arrangement the Master of Ceremonies waited on me at one and accompanied me to the secretary’s Office, from whence Lord Carmarthen accompanied me to the Palace— I was in a very short time...
50To John Jay from Samuel Shaw, 19 May 1785 (Jay Papers)
The first vessel that has been fitted out by the inhabitants of the United States of America, for essaying a commerce with those of the empire of China, being, by the favor of Heaven, safe returned to this Port, it becomes my Duty to communicate to you, for the information of the Fathers of the Country, an account of the reception their subjects have met with, and the respect with which their...