To John Jay from Henry Van Schaack, 11 November 1784
From Henry Van Schaack
Richmond, 11 November, 1784,
Commonwealth of the Massachusetts.1
Sir
I should have done myself the Honor long ago of congratulating you, Sir, by letter on your safe arrival in your native Country, but that I flattered myself that my business would have allowed me to make my personal respects— As that on many accounts cannot happen this fall permit me, Sir, now to wish you much felicity upon your return to America and that the remainder of your life may be spent in ease and tranquility in that Country which gave you birth.— Allow me also to add that every branch of our family are impressed with too deep a sense of your kindness towards my Brother in England to pass your merit to him over in Silence.— Accept, Sir, our warmest thanks for your polite and very flattering attentions to him, and be assured whenever favorable occasions present we shall be eager by actions to manifest the high sense we entertain of your goodness to a relation so near our hearts.
While you have honored the Father with your freindship abroad, I hope I shall stand excused for asking your attention to the Son at home. The young Gentleman in whose behalf I wish this is my Brother Peters eldest Son2 (who will have the Honor of delivering this Letter) was designed by his relations to complete his Education in Connecticut; but young Mr Silvester,3 a near relation of mine, and of unblemished morals was lately put into College at New York made me consent that my Brothers son should go there also— Mr Silvester has altered his mind about living with his family in your Metropolis and finding the expense of Education there too great to continue his Son,4 he has it in contemplation to withdraw him and place him in some one of the Seminaries in the Country where the expense of Education runs lower.— As the two young Gentlemen are much attached to each other it would hurt me exceedingly to have them separated.— Motives of oeconomy weigh with me as well as Mr Silvester yet I should consent to my Nephews remaining in New York if you, Sir, and some of his other freinds should think best he shod continue where he is; For I well know my Brother will shew great ^defference^ to your opinion and advice on this or any other occasion. I have the Honor to be with every Sentiment of Respect Sir Your most obedient humble Servant
H V Schaack
The Honorable John Jay Esqr.
ALS, NNC (EJ: 9430). Endorsed.
1. During the war, Henry Van Schaack (1733–1823), Peter Van Schaack’s eldest brother, had been paroled by the New York Patriot authorities on condition of his removal to Schodack and then Fishkill. An attempted prisoner exchange failing, Van Schaack returned from New York City to Albany, where he was continued on parole. V. H. Paltsits, ed., Minutes of the Commissioners for Detecting and Defeating Conspiracies in the State of New York. Albany County sessions, 1778–1781 (3 vols.; Albany, 1909–10), 1: 213, 265, 266, 269, 477; Hugh Hastings, ed., Public Papers of George Clinton, First Governor of New York (10 vols.; Albany, N.Y., 1899–1914), 4: 127, 207–8; 6: 167. Following the British evacuation, he settled in Massachusetts, first in Great Barrington and then in Pittsfield, which town he represented in the state legislature. New-York Hist. Soc., Colls., 57: 315; Henry C. Van Schaack, Memoirs of the Life and Times of Henry Van Schaack, Embracing Selections from his Correspondence during the American Revolution (Chicago, 1892), 62–63, 77, 108, 118, 142.
2. Henry Van Schaack (1769–97), Peter’s eldest son, not to be confused with Peter’s son by his second marriage, Henry Cruger Van Schaack (1802–87).
3. Francis Silvester (1767–1845), later a prominent lawyer in Kinderhook, N.Y., was Henry Van Schaack’s nephew, the son of Peter Silvester.
4. According to a policy established by the Regents in 1784, fees for Columbia tuition and room rent were not to exceed those prevailing at Princeton. The following year the college advertised that “the course of education” was “as cheap in this College as it is in any other.” David C. Humphrey, From King’s College to Columbia, 1746–1800 (New York, 1976), 284; Jonathan Baldwin to Henry Brockholst Livingston, 7 Dec. 1784, ALS, NNC: College, proposing a way of holding down the cost of board despite high food prices in New York City.