From John Jay to Ephraim M. Cunningham, 19 April 1824
To Ephraim M. Cunningham
Bedford—West Chester County—NYork. 19 April 1824
Sir
I recieved by the last Mail your Letter of the 8th. Inst—1 by which you inform me of your having a sealed Packet, which appears from an Indorsement made by your late Father,2 to contain a correspondence between him and me—3 and inquire whether a Delivery of those Papers into my Hands would meet with my approbation—and assureing me of your Readiness to dispose of the Packet as I may desire—
Accept my Thanks Sir! for these ^obliging^ Marks of Attention. I presume you will concur with me in opinion that, as I have Letters which on recieving the Packet, I ought to deliver to you, such an ^new [?]^ Exchange and reciprocal Delivery can better, [illegible] ^[illegible]^, be done personally, than otherwise—
It would not be reasonable for me to propose or expect, that you should incur and sustain the Trouble and Expense of making a Journey to this Place merely for the purpose of accomplishing ^doing^ this Business in the Manner which I prefer— on the contrary, I think that on such an occasion I ought to relieve you from those Inconveniences—and you may rely on its being done acordingly by Sir your obedt. Servt.
John Jay
P.S. on receiving this Letter, be pleased to inform me of it—
Ephraim ^m.^ Cunningham Esqr South Reading Massachusetts—
Dft, NNC (EJ: 08798). Ephraim May Cunningham (1792–1852).
2. William Cunningham Jr. (1767–1823), cousin of JA, Federalist and anti-Jeffersonian, who later became anti-Federalist. Committed suicide in 1823.
In an effort to harm JQA’s presidential bid, the younger Cunningham had published Correspondence between the Hon. John Adams, late president of the United States, and the late Wm. Cunningham, Esq.: beginning in 1803, and ending in 1812 (Boston, 1823), which came with a polemical introduction. This would inspire the response of TP, Review of correspondence between Adams and Cunningham. On this controversial publication, see JJ to TP, 8 June 1824, ALS, MHi: Pickering (EJ: 04819); TP to JJ, 23 Sept. 1824, Dft, MHi (EJ: 04838); and TP to JJ, 23 Sept. 1824, ALS, Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History (EJ: 90505). See also TP to JJ, 17 June 1800, above; Charles Francis Adams, Diary, vol. 1, Aida DiPace Donald and David Donald, eds. (Cambridge, Mass., 1964), 145n3.