To John Jay from Gouverneur Morris, 10 March 1782
From Gouverneur Morris
Phila: 10 March 1782
Dr Jay
I have received and now acknowlege your Letter of the tenth of November which arrived by Captain Jackson a few Days since.1 The Enclosure of that Letter shall be properly made Use of.2 The Letter you mention to have written to me in September I never received.3 To explain what appears misterious in one of my Letters as to a Gentleman who wondered you did not write to him4 I say only that from his Indolence I had presumed that he did not write to you.
The enclosed are Copies of a Letter from Mr. Rendon the spanish Agent to me & of my Answer.5 I need not tell you that he was led to make the Request.6 Believe me ever yours
Dft, partly encoded, NNC: Gouverneur Morris (EJ: 11387). Encoded using “Office of Finance Cipher Number 1” (WE006). See “John Jay’s Use of Codes and Ciphers” (editorial note) on pp. 10–11.
2. Enclosure not identified.
3. JJ to Morris, 28 Sept. 1781, above.
4. Robert R. Livingston.
5. Rendón to Gouverneur Morris, 4 Mar., C, NNC (EJ: 8336, 8337); and Gouverneur Morris to Rendón, 5 Mar. 1782, C, NNC (EJ: 7597–603); , 4: 346–47, 350–59. For additional information sent to JJ by the Morrises, see Robert Morris to JJ, 8 Mar. 1782, and to RRL, 8 Mar. 1782, enclosed in Robert Morris to JJ, 23 Apr. 1782, LS, NNC (EJ: 7671, 7012).
6. Encoded portion marked “No. 1”. Codes for this passage are written interlinearly above the draft text. Letters written by Rendón to RRL on 30 Jan. and by RRL to Rendón on 6 Mar. 1782 together constituted a significant effort to provide updated information on questions initially raised by Floridablanca in his letter to JJ of 9 Mar. 1780 (above). In these letters, the Americans presented every argument they could devise to assist JJ’s efforts to negotiate a treaty and win substantial financial aid from Spain. Carefully tutored, Rendón prepared a memorandum on the finances of the United States, which he submitted to José de Gálvez under cover of a letter of 20 Apr. 1782. See Rendón to Gouverneur Morris, 4 Mar., and Gouverneur Morris to Rendón, 5 Mar. 1782, , 4: 346–47, 350–59, 593–631.