1From John Jay to Gouverneur Morris, 28 October 1816 (Jay Papers)
Having heard much of your Discourse before the New York Historical Society, it gave me pleasure to recieve a Copy of it; and to find from the Direction that I owed it to your friendly attention. It abounds in interesting Remarks— The Diction is elevated throughout— perhaps in some Instances beyond the proportion which the Topics bear to each other. In Landscape we prefer Hill and Dale to a...
2Thomas Jefferson to Gouverneur Morris, 20 October 1816 (Jefferson Papers)
on On the eve of departure to a possession 90. miles Southwestwardly from hence, where my affairs will keep me until the end of the next month, I learn from a letter of mrs Morris ’s that we may expect the pleasure of a visit from her and yourself in this quarter. I shall be really mortified if I lose my share in it by absence. but an inference from the letter that your departure from New York...
3From John Jay to Gouverneur Morris, 21 September 1812 (Jay Papers)
I rec d . on the 19 th . your Letter of the 11 th . Inst.— The Diminution of my health since I left you, leaves me very little Reason to expect a Return of such a Degree of it, as would enable me to attend to any Business like that in Question— To undertake a Task without a Prospect and probability of performing it properly, is to deviate from the Path of prudence. The last is the only week,...
4From Alexander Hamilton to Gouverneur Morris, [7–11 May 1804] (Hamilton Papers)
[ New York, May 7–11, 1804. On May 7–11, 1804, H wrote to Elizabeth Hamilton : “… if Morris will come. Send him the enclosed note.” Letter not found. ]
5From Alexander Hamilton to Gouverneur Morris, [4 September 1802] (Hamilton Papers)
I fully intended to have dined with you to day but going to Town the two last days & forgetting that I ought to observe a regimen, I have brought back in some degree the complaint which lately annoyed me & which requires to be well watched. This must deprive me of the pleasure of seeing you. I send Schedules of the papers required of Tillier, all which have been put into my hands—the bill to...
6From Alexander Hamilton to Gouverneur Morris, [25 August 1802] (Hamilton Papers)
It was my intention to have come to see you this afternoon, among other things to confer about the affair of the loan. But the uncertain state of the weather & some bodily indisposition prevent me. As to the security for the loan: I hold it to be the better opinion that no foreigner can be in any form a cestuy que trust of land—that consequently no conveyance directly for the security of the...
7From Thomas Jefferson to Gouverneur Morris, 21 March 1802 (Jefferson Papers)
The inclosed papers will so fully explain to you their object that I need add nothing more than ask the favor of you to state to me whatever you may recollect relative to the paiment made to Houdon in assignats, which may enable us to ascertain & pay what remains still justly due to him on account of the statue of Genl. Washington. Accept assurances of my respect and attachment. RC ( NjP );...
8From Alexander Hamilton to Gouverneur Morris, 4 March 1802 (Hamilton Papers)
You have seen certain resolutions unanimously pass our legislature for amending the Constitution 1 by designating separately the candidates for President and Vice President 2 by having the Electors chosen by the people in districts under the direction of the National Legislature. After mature reflection I was thoroughly confirmed in my first impression, that it is true Fœderal policy to...
9From Alexander Hamilton to Gouverneur Morris, [29 February 1802] (Hamilton Papers)
Your letter of the 22d is the third favour for which I am indebted to you since you left N York. Your frankness in giving me your opinion as to the expediency of an application of our bar to Congress obliges me. But you know we are not readily persuaded to think we have been wrong. Were the matter to be done over I should pursue the same course. I did not believe the measure would be useful as...
10From Thomas Jefferson to Gouverneur Morris, 1 November 1801 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favor of Oct. 28. is duly recieved, and I am very glad you have disposed of the service of plate which had been the subject of our correspondence. the purchase of indispensable articles of furniture for the house had gone so much deeper into the funds remaining on hand that they would not have been equal to what I had proposed to you. in fact the only articles of plate really wanting are...
11From Thomas Jefferson to Gouverneur Morris, 6 June 1801 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favor of May 20. is just recieved and I hasten to reply to it. the view of the funds for furnishing the President’s house which I [gave] you in my last was just. they are absolutely inadequate to the acquisition of the whole service of plate which you have been so kind as to propose. the terrines and Casserolles would have been desireable in the first degree; the dishes in the second;...
12From Thomas Jefferson to Gouverneur Morris, 8 May 1801 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favor of the 8th. Apr. found me at Monticello on a short visit to make some arrangements preparatory to my removal here. I returned on the 30th. and have taken time to examine into the state of our furniture funds. after procuring all other more essential articles I think there will be about 4000. D. which might be better invested in plate than in more perishable articles. if therefore it...
13From Alexander Hamilton to Gouverneur Morris, [13] January 1801 (Hamilton Papers)
I hasten to give you some information which may be useful. I know as a fact that overtures have been made by leading individuals of the Fœderal party to Mr. Burr, who declines to give any assurances respecting his future intentions and conduct saying that to do it might injure him with his friends and prevent their cooperation—that all ought to be inferred from the necessity of his future...
14From Alexander Hamilton to Gouverneur Morris, 10 January 1801 (Hamilton Papers)
I thank you, My Dear Sir, for your letter of the 5 instant. The scruples you express about the ratification of the Convention are very respectable. No well informed man can doubt that it is an exceptionable instrument; but I continue of the opinion that it is best upon the whole to ratify it unconditionally. It does not appear to me that on fair construction the existence of the old treaties...
15From Alexander Hamilton to Gouverneur Morris, 9 January 1801 (Hamilton Papers)
I have lately, My Dear Sir, written to you two letters. As they contained some delicate topics, I shall be glad to know that they got to hand. It has occurred to me that perhaps the Fœderalists may be disposed to play the game of preventing an election & leaving the Executive power in the hands of a future President of the Senate. This, if it could succeed, would be for obvious reasons a most...
16From Alexander Hamilton to Gouverneur Morris, 26 December 1800 (Hamilton Papers)
The post of yesterday gave me the pleasure of a letter from you. I thank you for the communication. I trust that a letter which I wrote you the day before the receipt of yours will have duly reached you as it contains some very free & confidential observations ending in two results—1 That The Convention with France ought to be ratified as the least of two evils 2 That on the same ground...
17From Thomas Jefferson to Gouverneur Morris, 25 December 1800 (Jefferson Papers)
I recieved last night from Colo. Wm. S. Smith the inclosed letters & documents with his request to lay them before the Senate, for their satisfaction on the subject of his late nomination. if the Senate had been in the course of daily meeting, it would have been my duty to have done so, that they might have been regularly referred to the committee of which you are chairman. but as you are...
18From Alexander Hamilton to Gouverneur Morris, 24 December 1800 (Hamilton Papers)
I will run the risk with you of giving countenance to a charge lately brought against me, though it has certainly had a very false direction—I mean that of being fond of giving advice. Several friends at Washington inform me, that there is likely to be much hesitation in the Senate about ratifying the Convention with France. I do not wonder at it, and yet I should be sorry that it should...
19From George Washington to Gouverneur Morris, 4 March 1796 (Washington Papers)
Altho’ I have but little expectation (from the information which I have received from your Sister, Mrs Ogden) that this letter, with a copy of my last to you, will reach London before you will have embarked for America, I have determined, nevertheless, to take the chance of it, and accordingly have put it under cover to Mr Pinckney. Hitherto the business of the Session, tho’ slow in its...
20From George Washington to Gouverneur Morris, 22 December 1795 (Washington Papers)
I am become so unprofitable a correspondent, and so remiss in my correspondencies, that nothing but the kindness of my friends in overlooking these deficiencies, could induce them to favor me with a continuance of their letters; which, to me, are at once pleasing, interesting, and useful. To a man immerced in debt, and seeing no prospect of extrication but by an Act of Insolvency, (in my case...
21From George Washington to Gouverneur Morris, 25 June 1794 (Washington Papers)
(Duplicate) (Private) My dear Sir, Mount Vernon 25th June 1794 The sole object of the enclosed letter, was to evince to you, that notwithstanding your recall, you held the same place in my estimation that you did before it happened. I expected to have got the letter into Colo. Monroes hands before the Vessel in which he was, had left Potapsco River; but a fresh & fair wind coming up, prevented...
22From George Washington to Gouverneur Morris, 19 June 1794 (Washington Papers)
(Private) My dear Sir, Baltimore June 19th 1794. The difficulty (under existing circumstances) of knowing what to write to you, had determined me to write nothing, but to let the matter rest altogether upon the public communications from the Secretary of State. Coming to this place, however, (on a flying visit to Mount Vernon) and finding the Vessel on which Mr Monroe is on board had not left...
23From Thomas Jefferson to Gouverneur Morris, 3 October 1793 (Jefferson Papers)
Mr. Duplaine, Vice-Consul of France at Boston, having by an armed force, opposed the course of the laws of this country within the same, by rescuing out of the hands of an officer of justice a vessel which he had arrested by authority of a precept from his court, the President has thought it necessary to revoke the Exequatur by which he had hitherto permitted him to exercise his functions...
24From Thomas Jefferson to Gouverneur Morris, 11 September 1793 (Jefferson Papers)
My late letters to you have been of Aug. 16. 23. and 26: and a duplicate of the two first will accompany this. Yours lately received are Apr. 4. 5. 11. 19. May 20. and June 1. being Nos. 26. to 31. I have little particular to say to you by this opportunity which may be less certain than the last.—The North Western Indians have refused to meet our Commissioners unless they would agree to the...
25From George Washington to Gouverneur Morris, 1 September 1793 (Washington Papers)
This letter will be presented to you by Mr Lear, whom I beg leave (if he should go to France) to recommend to your civilities. He is a person who possesses my entire friendship & confidence; and will not be found unworthy of your acquaintance, as he will have it in his power to give you an acct, which you may rely on, of the true Situation of things in this Country. Mercantile pursuits have...
26From Thomas Jefferson to Gouverneur Morris, 26 August 1793 (Jefferson Papers)
The inclosed papers should have been annexed to the documents of my letter of Aug. 16. but were omitted by inadvertence. They are therefore now inclosed to you separately. I have the honor to be with great esteem & respect Dr Sir your most obedt. servt. Mr. Genet’s answer to the address of the citizens of Philada. do. lately to do. at New York. The above contain his declaration that France did...
27From Thomas Jefferson to Gouverneur Morris, [23] August 1793 (Jefferson Papers)
The letter of the 16th. instant, with it’s documents accompanying this, will sufficiently inform you of the transactions which have taken place between Mr. Genet, the Minister of France, and the government here, and of the painful necessity they have brought on, of desiring his recall. The letter has been prepared in the view of being itself, with it’s documents, laid before the Executive of...
28IV. Thomas Jefferson to Gouverneur Morris, 16 August 1793 (Jefferson Papers)
In my letter of June 13th. I enclosed to you the copies of several letters, which had passed between Mr. Ternant, Mr. Genet, and myself, on the occurrences to which the present war had given rise within our ports. The object of this communication was to enable you to explain the principles on which our government was conducting itself towards the belligerent parties; principles which might not...
29From Alexander Hamilton to Gouverneur Morris, 25 July 1793 (Hamilton Papers)
[ Philadelphia, July 25, 1793. On October 17, 1793, Morris wrote to Hamilton and acknowledged the receipt of “yours of the 25th. of July.” Letter not found. ]
30From George Washington to Gouverneur Morris, 13 June 1793 (Washington Papers)
I have before me your letters of the 28th of December 1792.—6th &10th of Jany & 14th of Feby 1793. To do any thing more at present than acknowledge the receipt of these letters, and thank you most cordially for the information—& opinions contained in them is out my power (especially as notice of the opportunity is short); for you will readily believe, my dear Sir, that, what with the current...
31From Thomas Jefferson to Gouverneur Morris, 13 June 1793 (Jefferson Papers)
The insulated state in which France is placed with respect to all the world almost by the present war, has cut off all means of addressing letters to you through other countries. I embrace the present occasion by a private individual going to France directly, to mention that since the date of my last public letter, which was April 24. and which covered the President’s proclamation of Apr. I...
32From Thomas Jefferson to Gouverneur Morris, 13 June 1793 (Jefferson Papers)
It has long since been observed that of the three millions of livres given by the court of France to aid us in the commencement of our revolution, one million was unaccounted for by the hands into which it was paid. The date of the paiment is fixed to have been the 10th. of June 1776. but to whom it was paid has never been known. Suspicions are that it was to Beaumarchais; and that with this...
33From Thomas Jefferson to Gouverneur Morris, 1 June 1793 (Jefferson Papers)
The bearer hereof Majr. Jackson formerly of the army, and afterwards of the President’s family, is already too well known to you to need any recommendations from me. Yet a sense of his merit will not permit me to forbear mentioning that your attentions to him will confer an obligation on me. The circumstances of the times too may perhaps render the attentions of your office necessary for him,...
34From Thomas Jefferson to Gouverneur Morris, 24 May 1793 (Jefferson Papers)
The bearer hereof, Mr. Barnes, is, as I understand, the representative of the company concerned in the steam navigation of the late Mr. Rumsey, was the attorney of Mr. Rumsey here, and goes now to Europe to secure the benefit of his discoveries to those entitled to them. In times like these he may need your protection as a stranger, and at all times would merit it as a man of worth and...
35From Thomas Jefferson to Gouverneur Morris, 8 May 1793 (Jefferson Papers)
The bearer hereof Doctor Edwards, a citizen of the US. proposing to visit Paris, I take the liberty of presenting him to you as a gentleman of talents, information and worth. He will do ample justice to any attentions you may shew him and merit any services you can render him. His objects being health and information, it is uncertain what stay these may induce him to make in Paris. Should he...
36From Thomas Jefferson to Gouverneur Morris, Thomas Pinckney, and William Short, 26 April 1793 (Jefferson Papers)
The public papers giving us reason to believe that the war is becoming nearly general in Europe, and that it has already involved nations, with which we are in daily habits of commerce and friendship, the President has thought it proper to issue the Proclamation of which I enclose you a copy, in order to mark out to our citizens the line of conduct they are to pursue. That this intimation,...
37From Thomas Jefferson to Gouverneur Morris, 24 April 1793 (Jefferson Papers)
Mr. Robert Leslie a watchmaker of this city goes to establish himself at London. As his curiosity may lead him to Paris, I take the liberty of asking your patronage of him, so far as may be necessary to enable him to see what may be serviceable to him in his way. He is without exception one of the greatest mechanics I have ever known in any country, he is modest, and of pure integrity, and...
38From Thomas Jefferson to Gouverneur Morris, 20 April 1793 (Jefferson Papers)
Since my letters of the 12th. and 15th. of the last month, which went by Mr. Dupont, I have received one from Mr. Pinckney wherein he informs me that being unable to procure us a Chief Coiner in England he had written to you to desire you to engage Mr. Droz, whom he understood to be employed at Paris, not much to his satisfaction. We shall be glad, very glad, to receive Droz. But this matter...
39From Thomas Jefferson to Gouverneur Morris, 8 April 1793 (Jefferson Papers)
My letters of the 12th. and 15th. of Mar. with your newspapers and laws were to have gone in the care of a gentleman bound to London. The papers and laws being bulky, he had sent them on to New-York, being still here himself. In the mean time Mr. Dupont’s departure for France directly takes place. Of course I deliver to him the letters beforementioned and the present one. Whether we shall be...
40From George Washington to Gouverneur Morris, 25 March 1793 (Washington Papers)
(Private) My dear Sir, Philadelphia March 25th 1793. It was not ’till the middle of February that I had the pleasure to receive your letter of the 23d of October. If you, who are at the fountain head of those great and important transactions which have lately engrossed the attention of Europe & America, cannot pretend to say what will be their event—surely we, in this distant quarter, should...
41From Thomas Jefferson to Gouverneur Morris and Thomas Pinckney, 15 March 1793 (Jefferson Papers)
The President has seen with satisfaction that the Ministers of the United States in Europe, while they have avoided an useless commitment of their Nation on the subject of M. de la Fayette, have nevertheless shewn themselves attentive to his situation. The interest which the President himself, and our Citizens in general take in the welfare of this gentleman, is great and sincere, and will...
42From Thomas Jefferson to Gouverneur Morris, 12 March 1793 (Jefferson Papers)
Your Nos. 8. to 13. inclusive have been duly received. I am sensible that your situation must have been difficult during the transition from the late form of government to the reestablishment of some other legitimate authority, and that you may have been at a loss to determine with whom business might be done. Nevertheless when principles are well understood, their application is less...
43From Thomas Jefferson to Gouverneur Morris, 30 December 1792 (Jefferson Papers)
My last to you was of Nov. 7. since which I have recieved your Nos. 8. and 9. I am apprehensive that your situation must have been difficult during the transition from the late form of government to the re-establishment of some other legitimate authority, and that you may have been at a loss to determine with whom business might be done. Nevertheless when principles are well understood their...
44Enclosure: Commissaries of the French Treasury to Gouverneur Morris, 16 November 1792 (Hamilton Papers)
En reponse Monsieur à la lettre que vous nous aves fait L’honneur de nous Ecrire le 14 de ce mois, nous avons celui dernier dire que les Etats unis de l’Amerique ont été Credités sous les Livres a la Tresorerie Pour la datte du 5 Septembre dernier a la Somme de L. 6,000,000. pour le produit des Bco. f 1,625,000. a raison de 34 ⟨–⟩ ⅌ 8d. remis le dit Jour par Mess. Wilhem & Jan Willink, &...
45From Thomas Jefferson to Gouverneur Morris, 7 November 1792 (Jefferson Papers)
My last to you was of the 15th. of Oct. since which I have recieved your Nos. 1. 2. 3. 5. 6. 7. Tho’ mine went by a conveyance directly to Bordeaux, and may therefore probably get safe to you yet I think it proper, lest it should miscarry, to repeat to you the following paragraph from it. ‘We are informed by the public papers that the late constitution of France, formally notified to us, is...
46From Thomas Jefferson to Gouverneur Morris, 7 November 1792 (Jefferson Papers)
Your private letter of Aug. 1. came duly to hand, and as soon as the Baltimore member arrives here, I will make enquiry after Made. de la Mariniere, and take measures for fulfilling your wishes. That also on the subject of Henri I have recieved, and was really glad to find that he was better provided for. The prospect of my want of him had changed, by a change in the disposition of the servant...
47Enclosure: William Short to Gouverneur Morris, 27 October 1792 (Hamilton Papers)
Notwithstanding the immense length & prolixity of my letter of yesterday it wd. have been continued if I had not been interrupted & detained until the hour of the post. You desire me to consider well before hand as to the obligations, whether I would wish to come to a settlement previously with the ministry, in fixing the value &c. If as you suppose the obligations are only three, nothing more...
48Enclosure: William Short to Gouverneur Morris, 26 October 1792 (Hamilton Papers)
After more than four weeks interruption some of the French mails in arrear were recieved here yesterday & we had hoped therefore that this day, being the regular postday, would have brought us the rest—in this we have been disappointed, & of course conclude that the post communication with Paris is not yet freed from all its obstacles. I therefore send by the way of England my acknowlegement...
49From George Washington to Gouverneur Morris, 20 October 1792 (Washington Papers)
(Private) My dear Sir, Philadelphia Octr 20th 1792 . Although your letter of the 10th of June, which I have received, did not paint the prospects of France in the most pleasing colours; yet the events which have since taken place give a more gloomy aspect to the public Affairs of that Kingdom than your letter gave reason to apprehend. A thousand circumstances, besides our distance from the...
50From Thomas Jefferson to Gouverneur Morris, 15 October 1792 (Jefferson Papers)
I have duly received your favor of July 10. No. 4. but no other No. preceding or subsequent. I fear therefore that some miscarriage has taken place. The present goes to Bordeaux under cover to Mr. Fenwick who I hope will be able to give it a safe conveyance to you. I observe that you say in your letter that ‘the marine department is to treat with you for supplies to S. Domingo .’ I presume you...