William Jay to Richard Peters, 20 June 1828
William Jay to Richard Peters
Bedford 20 June 1828
Sir
My Father desires me to thank you for your letter of the 10 Inst:1 & for the friendly sentiments it expresses. He regrets that it is not in his power to assure you in his own hand writing that those sentiments are sincerely reciprocated.
In the Spring of last year a slight injury recd. in his ^right^ hand was succeeded by violent inflammation & gangrene— The Ulcer was healed after the lapse of some months, but not until it had caused a stiffness in the joints of some of his fingers, which still renders him unable to use a pen. His health has not latterly undergone much alteration. A general debility unaccompanied however by acute pain, confines him to the house & sometimes to his room.2
John Clarkson Jay, by Samuel F. B. Morse, c. 1828. Oil on canvas. (John Jay Homestead State Historic Site, Katonah, NY; New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation [JJ.1982.1])
It would give him pleasure could he commit his ideas to paper to enlarge on those ^the^ political topics Mentioned in your letter & on which, his opinions coincide with your own.3 He is happy to perceive from your letter that your advanced age is attended by so large a portion of health & comfort, & he begs you to be assured of his affectionate wishes for its continuance I have the honor to be Sir with very great respect Your Obedt. Sevt.
The Hon’ble Richard Peters—
Dft, NNC (EJ: 09588).
2. See WJJ to PAJ, 28[–29] Mar. 1827, above. For a detailed description of JJ’s injury and subsequent illness, see Ann Jay to WJ: Memorandum on John Jay’s Illnesses, [after 17 May 1829], below.
3. In his letter of 10 June, RP in particular referred to the election of Andrew Jackson to the presidency: “Of all the instances of political delirium, there is none greater than would be the choice of a Chief Magistrate with no qualifications for the civil & diplomatic duties of that high & important Station. Military achievement is, in its place, meritorious; but it is the most dangerous propensity which should govern the incumbent of an Office, in which Peace is the leading policy abroad, & Law the very essence of happiness & security at home.”
RP also returned to the issue of the contested authorship of GW’s Farewell Address, noting that “I think that question is, for the present, put to rest. But who knows when its Ashes may be raked up or stirred? Washington’s Address is our political bible; & who can tell when future political infidels may, for base purposes, endeavor to take away Washington’s name from that hallowed instrument? I will prevail on Claypole, the printer, to place the manuscript in the General’s handwriting from which it was printed by him (Claypole,) in some secure depository, as irrefutable Evidence in addition to the proofs already exhibited. Its principles should guide this & future generasions of our country.” After Daniel C. Claypoole’s death in 1849, his effects were auctioned. The Address was bought by the New York bibliophile James Lenox, whose collection became part of the foundation of the New York Public Library. Paltsits, Washington’s Farewell Address, 96–102. For more on the controversy surrounding the authorship of GW’s Farewell Address, see the editorial note “Jay, History, and Memory,” above.