To John Jay from Jedidiah Morse, 23 May 1800
From Jedidiah Morse
Charlestown May 23. 1800
Respected & dear Sir,
A private conveyance offering, I hastily improve it to acknowledge the receipt of your favor of the 24th ultmo1 & to tender you my sincere thanks for it— Your approbation of the several communications I had the honour of forwarding to you, has yielded me no small satisfaction— Some of them have drawn upon me, as I had expected indeed, the bitter hatred of some of the party they were intended to expose.2 Some of the first who were ^unjustly^ offended with me in this quarter, have, within a few months, offered me terms of peace which I have accepted.—
The events of this year will, I conceive, be of immense moment to our National happiness— Our unhappy divisions, I fear will terminate in our ruin. How much to be lamented is the division, (which I am afraid the removal of Mr Pickering3 has established) between the Federalists?— A preparation work for this calamitous state of things, has long been in progress & early efforts to prevent check it in its embryo state, were made but in vain. What is now to be done? The friends of government here seem at a loss what course to pursue to save the Republic. Are we destined to undergo a Revolution after the manner of France?— We deserve to be punished for our gross abuse of great National blessings.— But we are in the Hands of the Merciful, as well as a Righteous GOD— While we have reason to tremble at the idea of his Justice, we will hope in his Mercy.
The issue of the late Elections in N. York has given us much concern—It has disappointed our hopes, & it is feared will ^be the means of^ accomplishing the wishes of the Antifederalists. Unhappy indeed must that Christian people be whose Chief Magistrate is an Atheist.4
I fear that events will prove that Washington was Mercifully taken “from evil to come”.5 Ever since his death the clouds seem to have been gathering for a storm. I pray that when it bursts upon us, its effects may be less terrible & destructive than is apprehended.—
With best regards to Mrs Jay, & your good family, I am, Sir, with the most sincere respect & esteem, Your most obdt Servt
Jedh Morse
ALS, NNC (EJ: 09552).
1. JJ to Morse, 24 Apr. 1800, above.
2. For Morse’s published writings warning of the French revolutionary government and the Illuminati conspiracy, and the threats that they posed to morality, governance, and religion in the United States, see JJ to Morse, 24 Apr. 1800, note 4, above.
3. For JA’s dismissal of TP as secretary of state in May, and his subsequent appointment of John Marshall, see JA to TP, 10 and 12 May 1800, MHi: Pickering; TP to JA, 12 May 1800, MHi: Adams; Gerald H. Clarfield, Timothy Pickering and the American Republic (Pittsburgh, Pa., 1980), 211–12.
4. For more on the Republican legislative victories in New York and their implications for the upcoming presidential election, see the editorial note “Republican Ascendancy in 1800,” above.
5. Morse is here paraphrasing Isaiah 57: 1. For responses to GW’s death, see the editorial note “New York Mourns the Death of Washington,” above.