John Jay to the American Commissioners, 5 January 1778
John Jay to the American Commissioners
ALS: Historical Society of Pennsylvania
Poghkeepsie 5th: Jany 1778
Gentlemen
Your favors of the 2d. 8th: and 10 June last have been recd.6 and Copies transmitted to the Committee. The subject of them certainly merits their Attention, and I hope your Advice will be litterally complied with.
As I have not now the Honor of a Seat in Congress, having been called to an office which will confine me in this State, any Information I can give You will be far less satisfactory than what you will receive from the Committee.7 This Letter will therefore be less prolix than those I usually wrote to Mr. Deane.
By a Letter recd. sometime past from my Brother, I find he was lately in Paris, and may be so still.8 If you have heard or seen any thing of him, you will oblige me greatly by sending the enclosed Letter to him. I am Gentlemen with great Respect and Esteem Your obedient and humble Servant
John Jay
The Hon’ble Benjamin Franklin & Silas Deane Esqrs.
Notation: J. Jay 5. Jany. 1778.
6. Only the first one seems to have survived: above, XXIV, 106–8.
7. Jay had been on the committee of secret correspondence, now the committee for foreign affairs, from its inception until he stopped attending Congress in 1776; the following May he became Chief Justice of the New York Supreme Court of Judicature.
8. We have no idea of Sir James’s whereabouts at this time. The previous autumn he was reported to be in Spa: Doerner to BF above, Oct. 8.