Congress were yesterday pleased to pass the enclosed Resolutions on the subject of the payment of British Debts— The language they speak requires no Comment— I complained in my last of your long Silence, or rather laid before you the Complaint of Congress. These I think receive additional force from Intelligence I have since had, that the Negotiations are still going on, and that important...
Upon the receipt of the provisional Articles & a subsequent account brôt by a Vessel dispatched by Count d’Estaing, I wrote the Letter N o. 1. to S r. Guy Carleton, & N o. 2. to Admiral Digby: to which I recieved the Answers N o. 3. & 4. You will find them cold & distant— Those they wrote to the Minister of France, in answer to similar Communications made by him, were still more so, and...
3Robert R. Livingston to the American Peace Commissioners, 31 May 1783 (Franklin Papers)
Copy: Massachusetts Historical Society; AL (draft): New-York Historical Society; transcript: National Archives Congress were yesterday pleased to pass the enclosed Resolutions on the subject of the payment of British Debts— The language they speak requires no Comment— I complained in my last of your long Silence, or rather laid before you the Complaint of Congress. These I think receive...
4Robert R. Livingston to the American Peace Commissioners, 25 March 1783 (Franklin Papers)
Two copies: Massachusetts Historical Society; AL (draft): New York Public Library; transcript: National Archives On the morning of March 12 Congress learned from the hand of Joshua Barney, captain of the packet General Washington , that the American peace commissioners had signed conditional preliminary articles with Great Britain on November 30, 1782. In addition to delivering the provisional...
5Robert R. Livingston to the American Peace Commissioners, 21 April 1783 (Franklin Papers)
Copy: Massachusetts Historical Society; ALS (draft): New-York Historical Society; transcript: National Archives Upon the receipt of the provisional Articles & a subsequent account bro’t by a Vessel dispatched by Count d’Estaing, I wrote the Letter No. 1. to Sr. Guy Carleton, & No. 2. to Admiral Digby: to which I recieved the Answers No. 3. & 4. You will find them cold & distant— Those they...
By the direction of Congress, contained in the enclosd resolutions, I have the honor to transmit you the Correspondence between General Washington & Sir Guy Carlton, together with minutes of their Conference, when, in pursuance of the invitation of the first, they met in Orange-County. Nothing can be a more direct violation of the 7 th: Article of the Provisional Treaty, than sending off the...
7Robert R. Livingston to the American Peace Commissioners, 28 May 1783 (Franklin Papers)
Copies: Massachusetts Historical Society, South Carolina Historical Society; AL (draft): New-York Historical Society; transcript: National Archives By the direction of Congress, contained in the enclosed resolutions, I have the honor to transmit you the Correspondence between General Washington & Sir Guy Carlton, together with minutes of their Conference, when, in pursuance of the invitation...
I am now to acknowledge the favor of your joint Letter by the Washington, together with a Copy of the preliminary Articles —Both were laid before Congress— The Articles have met their warmest approbation, and have been generally seen by the People in the most favorable point of view. The steadiness manifested in not treating without an express acknowledgment of your Independence previous to a...
9To John Jay from the Committee for Foreign Affairs (James Lovell, Robert R. Livingston, and William Churchill Houston) … (Jay Papers)
By the inclosed Resolves of Congress you will find that we are become more dependent upon your vigorous Exertions for the Amelioration of our Currency than you perhaps expected when you left Philadelphia. We think it of so much Importance that you Should be early apprized of the measures determined upon respecting Bills of Exchange that we do not chuse to omit this good Opportunity of...
10To John Jay from Robert R. Livingston, 20 April 1782 (Jay Papers)
It gives me extreme pain not to have rec d a single line in answer to my public or private Letters to you tho’ no vessel has sailed from this or any of the nieghbouring ports for any part of Europe France or Spain ^ since Oct r . ^ without being charged with one or the other for you not because I infer therefrom the least neglect on your part I have too much confidence both in your punctuality...
11To John Jay from Robert R. Livingston, 6 October 1779 (Jay Papers)
I have just now heard that you are upon the point of leaving us. I might have expected to have rec d . this intelligence from yourself rather than from loose report since there is scarse a transaction in the world in which I feel myself more interested. I rejoice at it as it advances your fortune & reputation. I lament it, as it adds to the Loses I have already felt in the course of this war...
12To John Jay from Robert R. Livingston, 1 May 1783 (Jay Papers)
Your public & private Letters have remained long unanswered, owing to the stagnation of commerce here on the prospect of peace, & the delay occasioned by M r . Jeffersons disappointment who was charged with both for you. I have now before me your Letters of the 13 th . Aug t (which M r Wright did ^ not ^ deliver till about a fortnight ago) & the 7 th . & 14 th Dec r . I immediatly wrote to...
13To 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...
14To 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...
15To John Jay from the Secretary for Foreign Affairs (Robert R. Livingston), 27 April 1782 (Jay Papers)
I informed you in my Letter of the 16 th . inst. that yours of the 3 d . of October had been received & submitted to Congress during my absence, and, (as I had then reason to think) that it would be answered by them, this I wished because I was persuaded it would express their approbation of your conduct, & afford you that intimate knowledge of their Sentiments, which the delicacy of your...
16To 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...
17To John Jay from Robert R. Livingston, 22 December 1779 (Jay Papers)
I am told there will be an opportunity of send g . this to you, I wish therefore to imbrace it tho as I know not how safe the conveyance may be, I shall only deal in generals— You who know the share that you have in a heart too susceptible of tender emotions will easily believe the pain it gave me to find no token of your friendship, no farewell line at this place, where I hastened immediately...
18To John Jay from the Committee for Foreign Affairs (James Lovell, Robert R. Livingston, and William Churchill Houston) … (Jay Papers)
The Embarrassm t which the Depreciation of the currency had created in our publick affairs at the Time of your Departure for Europe, were, as you well remember, very distressing and have till lately continued to increase . Congress greatly anxious to avail themselves of every possible Means of checking this Evil, in Nov r last
19To John Jay from Robert R. Livingston, 26 August 1780 (Jay Papers)
I received yours from of the 23 d May from Madrid with Duplicates thereof & ^ of ^ the Letters you wrote from Cadiz & Martinico. The original of the first of these came to hand shortly after I wrote my Letters of the 22 d . Dec r . The last never— You had I flatter myself before this time rec d four Letters which I directed to the care of Doct r Frankling. I sh d
20To 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...
21To John Jay from the Secretary for Foreign Affairs (Robert R. Livingston), 23 June 1782 (Jay Papers)
The only letter, I have recieved from you, since that of the 6 th . of February last, was a few lines which covered an account of the surrender of Fort S t . Phillips, this success is important, as it not only weakens an Enemy, and operates against their future resources, but as, it gives reputation to the Arms of a Nation, that have our sincerest wishes for their prosperity, notwithstanding...
22To John Jay from the Secretary for Foreign Affairs (Robert R. Livingston), 9 May 1782 (Jay Papers)
Your letter of the 6 th . of February, with a duplicate of that of August last, directed to the President has been received and read in Congress— I am extremely surprized to find from that and yours to me that so few of my letters have reached you, since no Vessel has sailed from this, or indeed from any of the neighbouring ports without carrying letters or duplicates of letters from me—the...
23To John Jay from Robert R. Livingston, 21 April 1779 (Jay Papers)
A fortnight has already elapsed since I received yours of the 14 th . Ult., I feel my self ashamed of my neglect, tho’ as far as business & company may plead my excuse I am excusable, since I have Opened my court at Albany, transacted some business for Duer there, & been ever since crouded with company. But I am more willing to own my fault than to offer an appology which you will too often...
24To John Jay from the Secretary for Foreign Affairs (Robert R. Livingston), 23 November 1782 (Jay Papers)
I have before me your letters of the 25 th . & 28 th June— I congratulate you on your safe arrival at Paris—where I venture to hope your residence will on many accounts be more agreable than it was at Madrid, nothing can be more agreable to us than your determination to write very frequently, since I am sorry to say that we have not yet been favored with such minute on many points of...
25To John Jay from Robert R. Livingston, 22 May 1782 (Jay Papers)
The express who is to carry my public letter waits while I hastily write this. These express having private & public Letters for you have been carryed to New York tho’ as I beleive the Letters were destroyed I learned of this opportunity so late that I cannot send you a duplicate of the Letters.— I most sincerely condole with you on the death of your father an event which you must too long...
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...
27To John Jay from Robert R. Livingston, 20 October 1781 (Jay Papers)
You will receive with this an official Letter informing you of my appointment to the Secretaryship for foreign affairs. If there is any thing peculiarly pleasing to me in this appointment to compensate for the difficulties with which it is attended it must be found in that new bond by which it unites our publick, as a much earlier and more agreeable one has our private characters. My publick...
28To John Jay from the Secretary for Foreign Affairs (Robert R. Livingston), 2 February 1782 (Jay Papers)
Having heard that a Vessel is soon to go to Cadiz from Baltimore, I embrace the opportunity to send quadruplicates of my last former Letters, & to add thereto the little information which this inactive Season affords— Nothing passes here between the armies—they are cantoned at a distance from each other, the Enemy is secure from attack by the nature of their situation, & we by our numbers, our...
29To John Jay from the Secretary for Foreign Affairs (Robert R. Livingston), 8 August 1782 (Jay Papers)
Your Letter of the 28th April was received by Major Franks, when the Contents were communicated to Congress . The repeated Slights and Neglects you have experienced excited their warmest Resentment. Several Members feeling that our Obligations to Spain were extreamly Small; that our affairs here and in Europe gave us a Right to think as an independent People were for entering into Resolutions...
30To John Jay from the Secretary for Foreign Affairs (Robert R. Livingston), 16 April 1782 (Jay Papers)
Returning from an excursion to the State of New York, I found your letter of October, which on account of my absence had been committed to a Committee of Congress. They have shewn me their report, it will try their sentiments on a very interesting point, if it goes thro’, but ^ as ^ they may not suddenly come to a Resolution, and I have just heard of a Vessel will sail in two hours for Cadiz,...