From John Jay to Alexander McDougall, 8 December 1775
To Alexander McDougall
[Philad. 8 Decr 1775]
Dear Sir
Accept my Thanks for your Letter of the 6th. Inst.1 which I recd. yesterday. It gave me great Satisfaction to find you had at length made a Convention,2 my apprehensions on that Head occasioned much Anxiety, and am still grieved that the People of our Province have so little Firmness as to be duped by the Artifices of Men whose Views are obvious, & of the Rectitude of whose Intentions there has long been Reason to doubt.
The printed Paper inclosed in your Letter is alarming and that for the Reasons you suggest.3 It is a Piece of Finesse difficult to obviate, considering the Temper of the Province. The Conduct proper to observe on the occasion turns so much on Circumstances that it is difficult at this Distance to advise what would be best.
To declare absolutely against having any more Assemblies would be dangerous, because the people are too little informed to see the Propriety of such a Measure and yet the Reasons you urge for supplying their Place by Conventions are very forceable.
If an Assembly of proper Members could be formed, it would give me little Uneasiness. For then should Lord Norths4 proposition be laid before them, it would be in their Power to reduce Administration to a disagreable Dilemma. My plan in that case would be to assure the Governor of their Desire of seing Peace between Britain & the Colonies reestablished, and of their Readiness to declare their Sentiments respecting Lord North’s Proposals whenever his majesty would be pleased to direct some mode of hearing the joint Proposals and offers of his American Subjects—That hitherto the Petitions both of Assemblies & Congress had remained unanswered, & therefore that they must decline attempting to signify their Sentiments on the subject till such Time a way for their being heard was opened. That they had no Reason to expect
that his Majesty would pay greater attention to their Desires when signified by a Governors Letter to a Secretary of State, than he had done to their Petitions, & therefore that the Faith of the Ministry had not be kept with the Colony for that a former assembly had been invited to petition, and after being drawn into that Measure were neglected. That they were determined to share the Fate of their Neighbours, and tho disposed for Reconciliation, were determined to defend their Liberties.
The Jersey Troops are ordered to ^proceed to^ your Town as fast as they can procure Arms & Barack Necessaries.5
I hope Mr. Hamilton continues busy, I have not recd. Holts paper these 3 months & therefore cannot Judge of the Progress he makes.6 Adieu yours most sincerely
John Jay
ALS, NHi: McDougall (EJ: 750). Addressed: “To/Collonel Alexander Mc.Dougall/in/New York.” Franked: “free,” with JJ’s franking signature: “J. Jay.” Endorsed.
1. Letter not located.
2. JJ referred to the New York Provincial Congress as the “convention.” See also, below, JJ to McDougall, 13 Dec. 1775.
3. The enclosed printed paper may have been a copy of Governor William Tryon’s letter of 4 Dec., which was published as a broadside. See McDougall to JJ, 18[–19] Dec., below, n. 2.
4. Lord North’s reconciliation propositions of 20 Feb. 1775. See “Provincial Maneuvers” (editorial note) on p. 168 and McDougall to JJ, 18[–19] Dec., and Hamilton to JJ, 31 Dec. 1775, below.
5. Congress ordered two battalions of New Jersey troops to march to New York City on 8 Dec. 1775. , 3: 416.
6. Alexander Hamilton’s contributions to John Holt’s (1721–84) N.Y. Journal in late 1775 have not been definitively identified. For a discussion of the tracts that may have been involved, including those written under the pseudonym “Monitor,” see Broadus Mitchell, Alexander Hamilton (2 vols.; New York, 1962), 1: 60–61, and , 70–71.