John Jay Papers
Documents filtered by: Recipient="Morris, Gouverneur"
sorted by: date (ascending)
Permanent link for this document:
https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jay/01-01-02-0257

From John Jay to Gouverneur Morris, 21 July 1777

To Gouverneur Morris

Kingston 21 July 1777

Dr. Morris,

The Situation of Tryon County is both shameful & deplorable Such abject Dejection & Despondency as mark the Letters we have recd. from thence disgrace human Nature. God knows what to do with or for them. Were they alone interested in their Fate, I should be for leaving their Cart in the Slough till they wd. put their Shoulders to the Wheel.1

Be more cautious in your Letters to the Council. It was imprudent to say that the Gen. offered you two N England for one York Soldier, or that Sinclair alone of the 4 Gen. was worth a Crown—2 Schuyler has his Enemies here, & they use these things to his Disadvantage— Suspicions of his having been privy to the Evacuation of Tycond. spread wide—& twenty little Circumstances which perhaps are false are tromped up to give Colour to the Conjecture—

We could wish that Your Letters would might contain Paragraphs for the Public— We are silent because we have Nothing to say, & the People suspect every thing B the worst because we say Nothing— Their Ears ^Curiosity^ must be constantly gratified, with or they will be restless and uneasy— Indeed I dont wonder at their Impatience, The late northern Events having been such as to have ^given^ occasion to Alarm & Suspicion— I have not Liesure to add any Thing more than that I am &c.

Dft, NNC (EJ: 12846). Endorsed by JJ. E, NN: Bancroft (EJ: 2830).

1On the situation in Tryon County, see the Council of Safety to the General Committee of Tryon County, 22 July 1777, below.

2On 16 July in a letter addressed to its president, Pierre Van Cortlandt, Morris wrote the Council of Safety from Fort Edward: “Excepting the General [Schuyler] and Genl. Sinclair, you have not a general officer here worth a crown,” and “it would give him [Schuyler] great pleasure to command the troops of this state; so much that he offers to give two men for one.” JPC description begins Journals of the Provincial Congress, Provincial Convention, Committee of Safety and Council of Safety of the State of New-York (2 vols.; Albany, N.Y., 1842) description ends , 2: 511.

Index Entries