To John Jay from John Trumbull, 25 March 1799
From John Trumbull
72 Welbeck St. London March 25th. 1799
Dear Sir
Since I wrote to you last on the 20th. Septr:1 I have been honoured with your two Letters of the 29th. Septr. and 12 Decer. last,2 for both which I beg you to accept my thanks.
Our Business of the Commission creeps slowly on, and we are obliged to wend our way cautiously through the numberless obstacles & Delays which the ingenuity of Doctors Commons, or the complicated forms of Judicial Proceedings daily oppose to our Progress:— We shall get thro’ however in time: and with Justice, if our labours are not cut short by the misunderstandings which are said to have arisen at Philadelphia, among the Members of our Counterpart:— if we hear their Doctrines & Principles truly reported, they certainly act with more boldness and Independance than we have done;—but whether with more propriety Time must Shew.3
All the Letters from America of the same date with your last are full of joyous presages of the wonderful fruits to Spring from the Battle of the Nile:—4 It was a great & glorious day;— England acts her part in the mighty contest with great Dignity, & if She had been seconded with Energy, that Day might have had immense consequences;—but the Supineness, the mutual Jealousies, the infatuation which seem combined to precipitate the Successive ruin of all the Continental Powers, were such, that, since that Day, the Kingdoms of Sardinia & Naples have been suffered to be overthrown, & their two Kings to be transplanted to Sicily and Sardinia, almost without a Struggle. And now that the French Government by its promptitude and Address has secured all Italy & Switzerland— it has decreed that the Farce with which the World has been amused at Rastadt,5 for 18 Months, shall be followed by a new Tragedy.— The French Armies crossed the Rhine on the 1st. of March— on the 5th. an Action took place on the upper Rhine, above the Lake of Constance in which they were successful.—and it is said that on the 6th. & 7th. there was a Second, more important, in which Austria had the advantage. We will wish & hope for better success to the Allies than formerly they have had; but I confess my Expectations are not sanguine:— the Demon of Discord & Jealousy is busy among them, & there is another source of misfortune which seems incorrigible—a constant System of Acting defensively, in Detachments and on many points.
If the Campaign should terminate as I fear it will, favorably to the French activity, Spain & Portugal will be the first Victories of the Liesure which Success will afford,—and with them the Colonies in America will be revolutionized. All is prepared in Europe & those two Kingdoms will fall with as faint a Struggle as Sardinia & Naples have made:— I fear the combustibles are also but too well prepared among our neighbors:— What then will be our Situation, with Nations of Jacobins at our Door?
I confess I think that all the Attention of the U.S. should be from this moment turned to that point.— Europe is rotten to Her Heart; we have no friends here whose Connection is of any real weight towards our Safety or who cordially wish it:— all is hollow.— But by the emancipation of our Southern Neighbors,—by aiding to establish among them wise and just governments on the principles of rational liberty;—by the diffusion of knowledge, and the timely cultivation of the friendship of those with whom Providence has destined us to ^be^ necessarily & intimately connected either as friends or foes, it does appear to me that we shall do more to baffle the vast Designs of the Enemy, by anticipating them;—and to establish firmly our own Safety & Glory, than is possible in any other way.— if Commerce and Wealth be our object, they are there at our Door.— if great Maritime Power, there are the vast Materials which court the combining hand:— And if Safety be, as I wish it were our honest Ambition, America thus United might now defy, & might soon control the Power & Follies of Europe. I hope this will not be regarded as a wild dream of Enthusiasm.6
Old Mrs. Montagu is very infirm, & sees little or no Company:— I see the Juniors sometimes & will execute your Commission—7 I have lost sight of the other greatfolks: their former civilities were done to the Buttons of your Coat on the same principles as to me, and now that your back is turned, the Button sinks to its just unimportance— I beg to be remembered to Mrs. Jay & friends & am most truly yours
Jno Trumbull
1. See JT to JJ, 20 Sept. 1798, , 6: 695–97.
2. JJ’s letters of 29 Sept. and 12 Dec. 1798, not found.
3. On the suspension of the debt committee in Philadelphia and its impact on the claims committee, see the editorial note “Aftermath of the Jay Treaty: Responses, Ratification, and Implementation,” , 6: 286–87, and 291nn42–44; and JT to JJ, 3 June 1799, below.
4. The British victory of Horatio Nelson in Egypt known as the Battle of the Nile, 1–3 Aug. 1798, restored British naval supremacy, deterred invasions of England and Ireland, encouraged the Austrian and Russian empires to enter the war against France, and ended Napoleon’s plans for a Middle Eastern empire for France.
5. The Congress of Rastadt (Nov. 1797-Apr. 1799) was convened to settle difficulties arising from the Treaty of Campo Formio (17 Oct. 1797) between France and the Holy Roman Empire. Besides France and Austria, ninety German states sent representatives to the Congress.
6. JT urged that the United States focus its attentions on securing independence and good relations with the Latin American colonies in several of his letters for this period. See, for example, JT to JJ, 3 June 1799, below.
7. Elizabeth Montagu (1718–1800), a saloniste and social reformer, who had befriended the Jays during the Jay Treaty negotiations. The “Juniors” probably refers to her nephew, member of Parliament Matthew Montagu, born Robinson (1762–1831), whom she adopted, and his wife Elizabeth.