1To John Jay from Robert R. Livingston, 17 July 1775 (Jay Papers)
I take the opportunity of Bensons going to New York to let you know what pleasure I should receive in hearing from by the return of the Post, since Benson will return in a few days & deliver safely any Letter you may enclose ^ him ^ & and I shall wait here till [ illegible ] ^ you think ^ that it is necessary I should come to you— I must confess that after breathing the pure air of the country...
2To John Jay from Robert R. Livingston, 27 November 1775 (Jay Papers)
I am now on the borders of lake George where we have been detained this day & part of yesterday by a head wind & extream severe wheather. It is almost impossible to conceive the difference we found in the climate in half a miles riding After we got over the mountains, within the reach of the winds that blew from the lake it was like leaping from Oct r . to Dec r .—we hope to leave this...
3To John Jay from Robert R. Livingston, 6 December 1775 (Jay Papers)
I wrote to you on my first arrival at lake George & hoped to have found a Line from you here on my return. My disappointment has not however so angered me as to prevent my appologizing for you, of which this second letter is a proof—I most sincerely congratulate you upon our amazing success in Canada, if you knew the Obstacles we have had to strugle with you would think it little short of a...
4To John Jay from Robert R. Livingston, 15 February 1776 (Jay Papers)
I received your truly affectionate Letter—And most sincerely congratulate you upon the an event which the share I take in your happiness makes me rejoice in tho’ it deprived me of what I should think my greatest happiness the pleasure of seeing you here—may the extension of your tender connections give you as much pleasure as the narrowing of mine has given me pain—you rightly judge that I...
5To John Jay from Robert R. Livingston, 4 June 1776 (Jay Papers)
I own I was very much mortified at not hearing from you nor can I quite forgive your neglect since it takes but little time to write when the pen is only copying from the heart. I am very sorry that we are not to have the pleasure of M rs . Jays company but greatly rejoyced at the prospect of her recovery about which from your Letter to Duane I had some uneasy apprehensions. We have been for...
6To John Jay from Robert Livingston, 12 August 1776 (Jay Papers)
I wrote Coll o . Porter, by Express, desiring him to Spare me two of his moulders to assist my hands, in Casting doubleheaded Shott, & the Trux you desired me to cast for the Convention of the State of New York; he wrote me immediately that he Could not possibly fulfill the orders he had from his Honor The Governour if he Spared one of his hands; upon which I went out to Speak with him my Self...
We were much surprized at your Letter to M r . Hobart as we could not perceive the Danger which would result from permitting the several Courts to appoint their own Clerks while on the other Hand great Inconveniences must arise from suffering them to be independent of such Courts and of Consequence frequently ignorant always inattentive. Neither had we the most distant Idea that a Clause of...
8To John Jay from Robert R. Livingston, 8 October 1778 (Jay Papers)
I should have been with you some days ago but for a continued fever with very short intermissions accompanied with violent sickness at the stomach & headache which totally unfit me for business & oblige me to spend one third of the day in bed— I yesterday had a consultation with the two Jones’s & Doc r . Cooper, they agree in orders: regular diet, & exercise, & a suspension of all business...
9To John Jay from Robert R. Livingston, 3 February 1779 (Jay Papers)
The pleasure I felt from your Letter of the 13 th Ult: which I just now rec d : was great in proportion to the pain I experienced from your neglect, and your friendly penitance has disarmed my resentment, & convinced me that there is no impropriety in supposing (at least if Angels resemble men) that there may be “more joy in heaven over one repentant sinner, than over 99 just that need no...
10To John Jay from Robert R. Livingston, 4 March 1779 (Jay Papers)
Your Letter & one I lately rec d . from Morris have given me pain. They have represented me to myself as negligent of the duties of a man, & a citizen, as buried in indolence, or lost in the pursuit of enervating pleasures— When I consider these charges as coming from those who should, & do, know me better than I do myself, & who see my faults with the eye of freindship, thro’ the narrow end...