John Jay Wins Reelection as Governor in 1798: Editorial Note
John Jay Wins Reelection as Governor in 1798
By late 1797 the Republicans were mobilizing to build on their rising electoral strength in New York City and the opposition to the Jay Treaty to challenge Jay’s reelection for governor and replace him with his former longtime friend turned Republican opponent, Robert R. Livingston. As Federalist physician and author Elihu Hubbard Smith reported to Senator Uriah Tracy of Connecticut on 29 Nov. 1797: “In our own State, the political campaign is soon to open. Lately, we have recovered more courage, & think that there is less to fear from the change in the Representation—from this city in particular, than was originally apprehended. A very stren[u]ous effort, however, will certainly be made, at the ensuing election, to substitute Chancellor Livingston for Mr. Jay: perhaps with effect. The adherents of the first are confident of success—but nothing certain can be augured from their expectations.”1
The campaign for Jay’s reelection formally opened in March 1798 as various local committees of Federalists met to nominate him for governor. The first to meet was a large Federalist group that included many members of the legislature. Chaired by Leonard Gansevoort, it assembled in Albany on 6 March, nominated Jay for governor and Stephen Van Rensselaer for lieutenant governor, and appointed a committee to support their election. The election committee composed a circular letter dated 9 March and addressed “To the Electors of the State of New York” that was printed in newspapers throughout the state.2 Republicans met in New York City, in Albany and elsewhere in March and nominated Livingston as their candidate for governor and Van Rensselaer for lieutenant governor. They too formed an election committee to support their candidates that prepared a circular letter attacking the earlier Federalist circular as improperly composed by a “legislative committee” and depicting Jay and his treaty as the cause of conflict with France. It further condemned his administration for appointing only its supporters and for removing opponents from office.3
Although not as personal and bitter as the previous Jay campaigns, the 1798 campaign was an intense one because it was viewed as a referendum on John Adams’s defense policy toward France and the response to the XYZ Affair.4 As negotiator of the Jay Treaty, to which Republicans attributed French hostility to the United States, the governor was attacked for his inveterate opposition to France and his alleged support for war with that country, and blamed for the taxes raised to provide for state defense. Livingston on the other hand was depicted as a peacemaker and longtime supporter of France. Most opposition to Jay’s reelection focused on these issues.5
The campaign itself was generally peaceful, though newspapers reported the beating of one Livingston supporter, William Keteltas, in Herkimer. Federalists subsequently printed a broadside allegedly found in Keteltas’s possession labelled “War! War! War!,” that depicted Jay as a warmonger.6 At the same time Jay’s fitness to serve as commander-in-chief for the state was challenged as newspapers recalled his flight from Esopus to Connecticut during a British attack in 1777.7
Complaints about other aspects of his earlier life and career also were resurrected. One was the charge that he had refused to accept paper money in payment of debts during the 1780s, in defiance of state legal tender laws. Allegations that Jay had asserted there should be only two classes, the rich and the poor, made during the 1792 campaign, were revived. Republicans induced Jay’s former law clerk and agent John Strang to sign two affidavits on 23 March 1798. One stated the Jay had sent Strang to Westchester in 1792 to warn Daniel Horton against making such statements.8 The second reproduced a model bond Jay developed on his return from Europe in 1784 that stipulated that every loan payment should be “in good gold or silver coin, and not in paper, or other fictitious money, notwithstanding that the same should be made legal tender by act or acts of the legislature of the state of New York.”9 Strang’s affidavits were published in the newspapers and circulated as broadsides.
In response to Strang’s allegations of Jay’s statement regarding rich and poor, the governor directed Peter Augustus Jay to locate copies of the deposition he had obtained and published in 1792 denying that the deponents had ever heard him make such a statement. Once found, these were published in the newspapers to disprove Strang’s charge. Jay’s supporters also denied that his bond specifying payment in specie defied tender laws, but contended it merely sought to hold his debtors to honorable repayment of the true value of their loans. They also asserted that the bonds were developed in Jay’s capacity as an executor for his father’s estate, which had lost 10,000 pounds during the war to depreciation of the currency, and as trustee for the funds of his blind brother and sister, Peter and Nancy Jay.10
In the course of challenging Jay’s defenses, his opponents also revived references to old family disputes and depictions of Jay adopted by his estranged brother-in-law Brockholst Livingston. Jay’s alleged vindictiveness and refusal to forgive his brother (James Jay, or possibly Frederick), and brother-in-law, Brockholst, were raised, as well as his purported greed and preoccupation with money as shown by his determination to be paid in specie.11 To charges that Strang was a traitor to his former benefactor, it was alleged that Jay in fact had failed to pay Strang for services performed. Strang was at this time in financial difficulty; he was arrested for debt and then released under a state insolvency law in 1799. His accounts recorded Jay family debts to him, the legitimacy of which the family denied.12
The election was held the end of April, but canvassing of the votes to obtain the official count lasted until mid-June 1798. Newspapers reported votes from the various districts as they came in, and by mid-May most newspapers reported Jay was the probable winner, though Republicans did well in the congressional and legislative elections.13 Once Jay’s election was declared on 12 June, celebratory receptions were held in Albany and, as Jay traveled to New York City, also in Poughkeepsie. Jay reached New York City on 23 June and met with federal officials on defense policy.14
1. , 395.
2. On the meeting of 6 Mar. and circular letter of 9 Mar. by JJ’s supporters, see Daily Advertiser (New York), 17 Mar. 1798.
3. On the meetings and circular letter of RRL’s supporters, see New-York Gazette, 15 Mar. and 23 Apr.; Time Piece (New York), 21, 23, 30 Mar.; Greenleaf’s New York Journal, 31 Mar., 7, 12, 14, 17, 18, 21, 23 24, 25, 26 and 27 Apr.; Albany Register, 30 Mar. and 2, 6, and 9 and 16 Apr.; Albany Chronicle, 2 and 9 Apr.; Poughkeepsie Journal, 10 Apr. 1798; and Commercial Advertiser (New York), 23 and 26 April; and PAJ to PJM, 19 Feb. 1798, Dft, NNC (EJ: 90162). See also “Verity”’s attack on the pro-Jay circular letter in the Albany Register, 2 Apr. 1798. According to PAJ, JJ’s supporters produced another circular letter in response to the Republican circular, then decided against disseminating it. PAJ to JJ, 15 Apr. 1798, below.
4. Personal enmity and rivalry, however, was not entirely absent on RRL’s part in the contest for the governorship. Writing from Albany to AH, Philip Schuyler remarked that Livingston was “Assiduous in blackening Mr Jays Character.” Schuyler to AH, 31 Mar. 1798, , 21: 387–88. Abigail Adams remarked on this display to her eldest son: “An insatiable Ambition devours the Chancellor. To see Mr. Jay stand higher in the publick estimation and Elected chief over him; fills him with the same sensations, which Milton put into the mouth of the Arch fiend. ‘Better to Reign in hell, than serve in Heaven.’” Abigail Adams to JQA, 27 May 1798, MHi: Adams.
5. For instance, Livingston and his political allies warned that the 1794 Treaty and subsequent Federalist policies would bring the United States and Britain into a close relationship that was sure to cause an “impending rupture” with France. Schuyler to AH, 31 Mar. 1798, , 21: 387–88.
6. For the attack on William Keteltas (Ketteltas) at Herkimer, N.Y., see his letter of 26 Apr., originally printed in the Albany Register of 30 Apr., and reprinted in Greenleafs New York Journal of 9 May 1798. See also , 21: 468–69. For the broadside he purportedly circulated, see Crisis. To the People of New York. War! War! War! ([New York] and [Albany] [1798]; , series 1, nos. 48406 and 33277). For additional attacks on JJ’s role in the Jay Treaty and the consequent conflict with France, and for support for RRL as the peace candidate, see also “A Republican,” in the Time Piece (New York), 20 Apr., and “Victory,” 24 Apr. 1798, in the Time Piece (New York), 25 Apr. 1798. Other disruptive activities responding to the XYZ Affair and defense measures, such as those at the Society for Free Debate, were also believed to be related to the election campaign.
7. For publications challenging JJ’s military knowledge and courage and mentioning his flight to Connecticut in 1777, see “An Elector,” Albany Register, 20 Apr., Greenleaf’s New York Journal, and Argus, Greenleaf’s New Daily Advertiser (New York), 21 Apr. 1798. “An Elector” included a broad range of attacks on JJ’s career and governorship. He condemned JJ’s anti-immigrant and anti-religious freedom proposals during the state constitutional convention. He also took JJ to task for his disobedience to his instructions to consult France during the peace negotiations. “An Elector” further cited hostile British actions since the signing of the Jay treaty, before criticizing certain of JJ’s actions as governor, such as requesting an act declaratory of his powers with regard to appointments, his proposal for pensions for judges, and his appointment of former Tories to office.
8. On the depositions of JJ’s Westchester neighbors of 1792, and Strang’s affidavit regarding them, see Albany Centinel, and Albany Gazette, both 27 Apr.; Northern Centinel (Salem, N.Y.), 7 May 1798. For the deposition as published in 1792, see Joshua Purdy, Ezekiel Halstead, and Daniel Horton to the Public, [5 Apr. 1792], and note 1, , 5: 388–89. For JJ’s directions to locate the 1792 depositions, see JJ to PAJ of 6 Apr. 1798, ALS, NNC (EJ: 90216).
9. For the bond and Strang’s affidavit regarding its use, see PAJ to JJ, 19 Apr. 1798, below; Greenleaf’s New York Journal, 4 Apr. 1798. See also “Investigator,” Albany Register, 23 Mar. 1798; and “Philo-Investigator” in Albany Register, 30 Mar. 1798, which depicted JJ as brooding “over his good gold and silver coin with all the solicitude of a miser.”
For JJ’s statement as President of Congress of 13 Sept. 1779 expressing confidence that paper money would be redeemed that was cited by “Investigator” to contrast with his statement on tender laws in 1784, see , 1: 667–78.
10. For defenses of JJ’s postwar policies on paper money, see “A.B.” in the Albany Centinel, 3 Apr.; and “Obscure Individual” to “Mr. Investigator,” Albany Centinel, 6 Apr.; “Monitor” to “Philo-Investigator”, Albany Centinel, 13 Apr., and Albany Register, 16 Apr. See also “Tickler”’s reply to “Monitor,“ in Albany Register, 23 Apr.; and “A Tickling for the Tickler,” in Albany Centinel and Albany Gazette, both 27 Apr., and the Albany Register, 30 Apr. 1798.
11. For references to the Jay family conflicts, see “A Tickler” replying to “Monitor,” Albany Register, 23 Apr., and “A Tickling for the Tickler,” Albany Register, 30 Apr. 1798.
12. For allegations that JJ was no benefactor to Strang, but in fact his debtor, see “A Tickler,” Albany Register, 23 Apr. 1798. For Strang’s insolvency and allegations of Jay family indebtedness to him, see JJ to PAJ, 7 Dec. 1799, ALS, NNC (EJ: 10030); PAJ to JJ, 26 Nov. 1799, ALS, NNC (EJ: 06088); and 21 Aug. 1800, ALS, NNC (EJ: 06095); Dft, NyKaJJH (EJ: 09974). Just when Strang and JJ became estranged is unclear. “Monitor” claimed that Strang abused and forfeited JJ’s confidence, was dismissed, and was seeking revenge. Albany Gazette, 13 Apr. 1798.
13. For the various local election returns published in May and June, see, for example, Greenleaf’s New York Journal, 30 Apr., 5, 15, and 30 May, 6, 9, 13, and 27 June; Daily Advertiser (New York), 5, 6, 7, 8, and 11 June; and Spectator (New York), 9 May and 13 June 1798. On 13 June the New-York Gazette reported that JJ had won reelection with a majority of 2,380 votes. For a more detailed breakdown of the state’s voting patterns for the 1798 gubernatorial election, see , https:// elections.lib.tufts.edu/catalog/tufts:ny.governor.1798 (accessed July 2018).
On Republican legislative and congressional victories, see PAJ to JJ, 7 June 1798, ALS, NNC (EJ: 06068); and Abigail Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams, 21 July 1798, ALS, MHi.
14. For the celebrations and JJ’s travel to New York City, see Address from the People of Poughkeepsie to JJ, 18 June 1798; and JJ to William North, 25 June 1798, both below.