John Jay Papers
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To John Jay from Robert R. Livingston, 15 February 1776

From Robert R. Livingston

ClareMount, 15th Feby 1776

Dr John

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 severely feel the reiterated misfortunes which have clouded my prospect of happiness & abriged if not anihilated all that felicity with which rural ease & the converse of such dear & tender friends flattered me—yet I have had philosophy enough to bear it with patience, to submit ^with resignation^ to the wise degrees of the supreme disposer of all events, with pat & tho to acknowledge that that it is infinitely better to die in the full carreer of glory when our reputation is at the hight, than with to be followed to the grave by the sorrows of the wise & good than to out live our enjoyments, & be forgotten before we die—And yet even in this view some years might have been added to the life of my tender father and many to that of my Dr friend;1 his ^loss^ affects me the more as from him I had vainly hoped to derive some consolation, some assistance in the discharge of those duties which (with a numerous family) have devolved upon me—It is still more agravated by his solemn resolutions to quit the army & enjoy that rural ease for which he so eagerly panthed—He assures ^me^ in his last letter that he had lost those ambitious hopes which were the spring of action in his youthful days—that a sense of duty alone had called him forth, that our affairs were too prosperous to make him longer necessary, & he was resolved to retire at the end of this campaign and concludes with this ominous exclamation “O Rus quando te asspicium.”2 but enough of this. Gods will be done—You do not tell me whether you received a letter which I sent to Philadelphia to you some time since it was melancholy enough to make you conclude that my illness arises from the source you mention, but tho’ that may perhaps have in some measure increased it, yet it is an old complaint that has been lurking in my veins for some time, & for ought I see bids fair to undermine my constitution—I am not so much in love with life as to be very uneasy on my own acct. but I think myself necessary to my family, & I shd. be sorrey to add to the affliction of those who have already felt as much as their constitutions will bear—a similarity between my disorder & that which deprived them of a father alarms their fears—3 And in compliance with their requests, & the directions of my Phisicians I am nursing myself here instead of attending to those publick duties which demand my attention—I congratulate you on your the success of your election—It is no small pleasure to me that we meet in all our walks, heaven seems to regard our friendship, & by puting ^it^ in our power to be useful to each other cements it—4 Let us my Dr John embrace ^acknowledge^ the omen tho’ our first ^object^ is, & I hope ever will be the Interest of our ^Country^ yet let us not lose sight of the second but endeavour to improve & serve each other—I do not imagine that you will pro the assembly will proceed to business, if it shd. pray let me hear what they are about—If they shd. not, let me know that also—You have not given me a word of politicks since I left you, in which I have been greatly disappointed for nothing will ever render me inattentive to events that affect my country, & if I do not hear more I shall be obliged in spite of every thing to come to you—Genl. Schuyler has wrote for a committee to set at Albany in case the whole congress can not remove;5 I am fully convinced of its necessity from what passed under my own observation while I was there, & indeed to the want of it I attribute all our miscariages there this campaign, & the grosist & most palpable impositions on the public—I think I can demonstrate that we paid to our every man in Canada cost us at least £6 a month & that instead of an army of between 5 & 6000 men we had at no time above 2000 & that too very late in the season—If a Committee should be sent to superintend the operation of the Canada expedition I shd like to be one of the number—I can not go far from home in my present state of ill health ^without exciting great uneasiness here^ nor can my attendance on the affairs of my ^this^ family be yet dispenced with altogether—and yet I can not bear to be entirely useless to those who have thought proper to honour me with a publick trust—This if it shd. take place will rid me of my uneasiness on these several accounts. you will manage this matter—

I have been some what hurt ^at^ a story I had from Nichs: Hoffman6 not on acct. of the thing itself but because I did not hear it from you, since from his relation I thought it could not have escaped you—I mean a suspicion of my having betrayed the secrets of the congress to Mr. Tryon—The report itself gave me no pain because whatever they my own character may be the little contemptible resentment which Mr. Tryon discovered in suspending my father from his office, shews that he did not think he had many friends in this family; nor do I believe do I believe that that the most credulous could have found any thing in my conduct which shd. induce them to think that I would belie the acknoledged principles of my father, & two Brothers, both of whom thro’ my means were armed, [and one of them killed?] in defence of those rights which I am not less interested in the defence of, than any other person at congress, or elswere. But I am asshamed of having said that much upon the subject, if my conduct needs a justification I shd not be trusted. I am only hurt that my friends shd be silent on a subject in which I was so deeply interested—

I would be obliged to you if you would draw for my wages for my attendance on Congress 162 days which amounts to 648 dollars—You can pay off my bond in your hands & deliver the remainder to John7 who will wait upon I have like wise given him an order to receive it least you should not be in town—

I have been alarmed on Mrs. Jays acct. Dr. Bard who called to see told me that she was not quite free from danger when he left her—Mr. Ketteltas8 who is here tells me she is better—present my affectionate compls [to] her & the rest of your good family & congratulate them upon its encrease—farewell God bless you. Your sincere friend &c.

Robt R Livingston

Mrs. Livingston joins in my comps. & wishes to you & yours—

ALS, NNC (EJ: 6853). Addressed: “To John Jay Esqr/New York/^at William Livingston’s^/Elizabeth Town/pr favor of Mr. Kettletas”. Endorsed.

1Richard Montgomery.

2A slightly garbled version of “O rus quando ego te aspiciam,” from a passage in Horace, Satires, 2.6.60–62: “Oh, Countryside, when shall I behold you.” It is quoted as “O Rus quando te aspiciam” in Tobias Smollett’s The Expedition of Humphrey Clinker, written just before Smollett’s death in 1771.

3Livingston suffered from a low fever, as had his father during his last illness in December 1775. Dangerfield, Robert R. Livingston description begins George Dangerfield, Chancellor Robert R. Livingston of New York, 1746–1813 (New York, 1960) description ends , 66–67.

4On 2 Jan. 1776 Governor Tryon dissolved the existing assembly and called for new elections. In the resulting polls, JJ was returned to the assembly from New York City, and Livingston from Dutchess County. FAA, 4th ser. description begins Peter Force, ed., American Archives: Fourth Series, Containing a Documentary History of the English Colonies in North America, from the King’s Message to Parliament, of March 7, 1774, to the Declaration of Independence by the United States (6 vols.; Washington, D.C., 1837–46) description ends , 4: 542.

5Gen. Philip Schuyler wrote the Continental Congress from Albany on 13 Jan. 1776: “Congress undoubtedly conceives it to be advantageous to the Cause of America to sit at Philadelphia; but they will be good enough to permit me to suggest the Necessity of a full-empowered Committee immediately to repair to this place.” DNA: PCC, item 153, 1: 396.

6Nicholas Hoffman, a New York merchant and member of the Committee of One Hundred.

7John R. Livingston.

8The Reverend Abraham Keteltas (1732–98), a Queens County delegate to the Second New York Provincial Congress.

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