To James Madison from Joseph Jones, 28 July 1783
From Joseph Jones
RC (LC: Madison Papers). Unsigned and not docketed but in Jones’s hand. Spring Hill was his estate.
Spring Hill 28th. July 1783.
Dr. Sr.
Yours of the 7th. inst. came duly to hand.1 It is strange we have yet no satisfactory accounts of the definitive Treaty. the settlemt. of a British Ministry, I hoped, wod. have speedily brought that important matter to a close; but for any thing we are at present informed the time of its completion is very uncertain.2 has any step been taken on our part towards a treaty of Commerce. they seem to have moved cautiously in that business. surely we shall not be precipitate, who are, compared to Britain, but novices, very young actors on the Theatre of commerce.3
I recollect not giving any intimations to your friends that it wod. be inconvenient for you to take part in the legislative concerns next fall. on the contrary I think I rather encouraged the notion or at least left it quite free for your choice as I hoped and still wish it may suit you to give us your assistance at that time.4
I hope such of the Leaders of the late mutiny as shall appear to be guilty will merit the punishment due to their crimes.5 some of the officers of that line (I mean Pa.) are if we are to judge from former transactions old offenders and having before been pardoned for similar misconduct are the less entitled to favor now.6 it is to be regretted those princip[ally] concerned have escaped. I doubt whether it wod. be pro[per] for Congress to return to Philada. even upon an address of the Citizens unless couched in terms expressive of the disapprobation of the conduct of the Executive and willingness then as well as at all future times when properly required to turn out in support of the dignity of the fœderal government, which has, (if the report of the Com: deserves credit and we have no reason to doubt any part of it) been grossly disregarded by the Executive Authority of the State. I think at prese[nt] I shod. reluctantly return upon the proposed address and not willingly untill the legislature by some proper resolution paved the way.7 The Treasurer still leaves me in suspence. whetr. Tomorrows post will produce any thing that will prepare the way to my return [I] cannot now inform you. If I shod. revisit the City my hopes still are I shall see you before your departure.8
Yr. aff Friend
1. JM’s letter of 7 July is missing, but, judging from Jones’s remarks, its contents may in part have approximated what JM wrote in the last two paragraphs of his letter to Randolph on 8 July (q.v.). See also Jones to JM, 31 May 1783, n. 1.
2. JM to Jefferson. 17 July, and n. 2; Livingston to JM, 19 July, n. 4; Jones to JM, 21 July, and n. 7. The “settlemt. of a British Ministry” refers to the replacement of the Earl of Shelburne’s government by that of the Duke of Portland on 1 April (, VI, 504, n. 3; JM to James Madison, Sr., 27 May 1783, n. 9).
3. , VI, 452–53; 453, n. 5; JM to Jefferson, 13 May, and n. 7; to Randolph, 20 May, and nn. 4–6, 13–14; Instruction to Delegates, 23–24 May 1783, and ed. n. and n. 1.
4. In this paragraph Jones may have reflected a comment by JM in his missing letter of 7 July. Among “your friends” Jones probably above all included William Moore and Johnny Scott (, I, 148, n. 2), the incumbent delegates in the General Assembly from Orange County. The resignation of either would have provided a vacancy that JM by special election might have filled in time to “take part” in many of “the legislative concerns next fall” (, IX, 115). JM’s evident wish not to commit himself in this regard may signify his lack of certainty about the date of his expected marriage and hence about the date of his return from Philadelphia to Montpelier. JM’s engagement to Catherine Floyd, if known to Jones or to Randolph, was never mentioned in the letters of either of them to JM. See Jefferson to JM, 7 May, and nn. 14, 16, 19; JM to Jefferson, 20 May, and n. 10; to James Madison, Sr., 27 May; to Randolph, 3 June; Randolph to JM, 24 May 1783.
5. JM Notes, 21 June, n. 8; JM to Randolph, 30 June; Delegates to Harrison, 5 July 1783, and nn. 4, 5.
6. Jones probably referred to the mutinies early in January 1781 and again in June 1781 of Pennsylvania continental troops, even though they did not discreditably involve the officers who would be implicated in the mutiny of June 1783. Captain James Christie, one of those officers, had been reprimanded after being court-martialed for riotous behavior in 1778 (, XII, 256–57). See also ibid., XXI, 55–280, passim; XXII, 191; Carl Van Doren, Mutiny in January: The Story of a Crisis in the Continental Army … (New York, 1943), passim; , II, 279–80; 280, nn. 2, 3; 281, nn. 4, 7–9; 282–84; 287; 301, n. 5. The noncommissioned officers, William Robinson (alias Taylor), John Smith, and Solomon Townsend, who were prominent among the mutineers of June 1783, had all been punished on earlier occasions for serious misconduct, but not for mutiny (, V, 30; VIII, 211; XIII, 137; XXIV, 310–11; XXV, 90–91, 252). Colonel Walter Stewart, who had served ably in helping to suppress the mutiny in January 1781, was among those Pennsylvanians who appear to have stimulated the discontent among some of Washington’s officers in the main army at Newburgh in February and March 1783 (, VI, 266; 269, nn. 18, 20; 286; 348; 349, nn. 1, 2; 497, n. 33).
7. JM to Randolph, 30 June, and n. 7; 8 July; 15 July; 21 July; Delegates to Harrison, 5 July; Hamilton to JM, 6 July, and nn. 5, 7; Jones to JM, 14 July; 21 July, and n. 4; JM to Mercer, 16 July, and n. 4; to Jefferson, 17 July 1783, and nn. 7, 9.
8. Jones to JM, 14 July, and n. 8; 21 July, and n. 5.