To John Jay from Robert R. Livingston, 10 February 1780
From Robert R. Livingston
Philadelphia 10th. Feby 1780.
Dear John
I have just steped out of Congress to let you hear by this opportunity that your freinds in this part of the world are well & not unmindful of you & to acknowledge the rect of yours from Reedy Island which after long & weary-some peregrinations reached ^me^ three days ago at this place—1
The Cypher it contains is not sufficiently intricate to be in any wise relyed on if the conveyance by which this is to go shd: be delayed I will inclose one that you may venture to express your most hidden thoughts in— If not we will continue the use of yours till a better is established.2
The Winter has been so uncomly severe here as to exclude all foreign intelligence, & for some time all commerce between the several States. Chesapeek, Delaware, & New York bays, together with the sound, are all frozen so as to bear loaded carts & it is asserted that the Ice extends some miles into the sea. One hardly knows how to communicate information to a person so far removed from us, if we mention nothing but what is new in this part of the world we omit many things which may possibly not have reached the other, and by writing transactions which have passed long since, we run the hazard of obliging you to read what some more punctual correspondent has communicated before. However as the last is the last is the least evil, I will venture to inform you that Sir Henry Clinton sailed from New York with the light infantry & Granediers of the whole army together most of the cavalry, & so many other troops as made the whole number about 7000 men. They left the Hook the 26th: Decr. two days after which came on a most violent North East Storm accompanied with rain & snow. This was followed by North Westerly Winds, & the most extreme cold wheather that has been known in this climate, as several vessels foundered at their anchors within the North, we can not but promise ourselves that this fleet have suffered severely by it many of them being very probably lost & the remainder driven in a shattered condition to the West Indies what gives weight to this conjecture is, that neither the Enemy nor we have had the least intelligence of them since their departure, tho we have great reason to believe that they were designed for North & South Carolina, And had they arrived within the usual time I think we must have had intelligence from thence—3 You have doubtless recd. information of the operations of the Spanish Troops on the Missisipi where they have dispossessed the British of several posts & are as we are informed preparing a strong force at the Havanah to make an attempt upon St. Augustine, or Pensicola, which has very probably succeeded by this time, we having no accounts from Charlestown later than the 22d Decr: at which times the enemies army under Provost still remained at Savannah— I am this particular because I concieve every information from that quarter of the world may be particularly useful to you in your present situation, & I am fearful that you do not get all you shd from the committee for foreign Affairs of which I have at present the honor to be a member, and which I am labouring to get disolved in order to appoint a secretary for that department—4 Tho’ I know that our little differences
of sen[timent] can be of no great momment to you, yet I can not help telling you that Coll: Lawrance having refused to accept his appointment, we have been for some time endeavouring to supply his place— The Candidates Lovel Morris, Hamilton & Coll. Steward—the first had six votes on three different ballotings, the second five— As both parties were fixed the matter rests till some other expedient can be fallen upon. The Minister of france has done me the honor to express the warmest wish that I should go to his court, and as I am absolute in my determination not to fill the present vacantcy,5 he proposes to his freinds to appoint a resident as my desire to go abroad is extreamly languid. I have done nothing to promote this design, & I am inclined to think that its novelty will be a good osstensible reason with many for not going into the measure tho’ some embrace it very warmly—there is a method in which I could affect it—but then I shd place Lov[e]l [in a] situation which will give him ^too much^ influence over foreign negotiations,6 a thing by all means to be avoided. We have determined to make the greatest exertions this campaign & have called upon respective States for their quotas of Thirty five thousand men which is to be the number of our troops for the ensuing season & who may in a few days in the Northern States be encreased to twice that number if required to act upon any sudden emergency—7 While we anxiously wish for peace we see no other road to it but such as our arms account for us. This much for news & politicks. There is one other subject on which I might enter but it requires both more paper & more leisure than I have left— Let me then bid you adieu after requesting you to divide my best wishes with the partner of your heart & my other freinds which you carried from hence & believe me to be Yours Most sincerely
Rob R. Livingston
ALS, partly in cipher, NNC (EJ: 6865). Endorsed: “ . . . Recd 27 June 1780”.
1. See JJ to RRL, 25 Oct. 1779, : 719–20.
2. On the inadequacies of this monoalphabetic substitution cipher (WE074), see also JJ to RRL, 24 Dec. 1779, : 744. This situation prompted JJ to create dictionary codes based on Abel Boyer’s French Dictionary (London, 1771). See “John Jay’s Use of Codes and Ciphers” (editorial note) on pp. 8–9; and , 37, 48–49.
3. Clinton’s and Cornwallis’s forces did indeed encounter difficulties on their voyage south. The expedition was nearly wrecked during the unusually harsh winter storms off Cape Hatteras; most of the cavalry and artillery horses were lost, and the provisions were badly damaged. Thirty days after their departure from New York, the ships began to arrive off Tybee Island at the mouth of the Savannah River. After making repairs, they sailed for Charleston on 10 Feb. and on 11 Feb. finally landed the troops.
4. Congress began to seriously consider creating executive departments in May 1780. The Office of Foreign Affairs, the first of four executive departments, was established on 10 Jan. 1781. RRL was appointed to fill the position of secretary for foreign affairs on 10 Aug. 1781.
5. James Lovell reported to Samuel Adams a proposal in Congress to elevate the post of secretary to the minister to France to one of “Resident” and suggested that this proposal was designed to dignify the position enough to prompt RRL to accept it. Although unhappy about increasing the influence of New York in foreign affairs, Lovell stated that although he would attempt to defeat appointment of Gouverneur Morris, he would not oppose RRL. , 14: 425.
6. This encrypted sentence, deciphered by the editors of JJUP, uses the cipher (WE074) described in JJ to RRL, 25 Oct. 1779. See notes 1 and 2, above.
7. On 1 Feb. the Board of War submitted a report fixing quotas for the coming campaign. These quotas, designed to make up deficiencies from earlier drafts, amounted to 35,311 men. , 26: 117–21.