ROBERT R. LIVINGSTON TO JAY. - John Jay, The Correspondence and Public Papers of John Jay, vol. 1 (1763-1781) [1890]
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The Correspondence and Public Papers of John Jay, ed. Henry P. Johnston, A.M. (New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1890-93). Vol. 1 (1763-1781).
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ROBERT R. LIVINGSTON TO JAY.
Claremount, 20th March, 1776.
Dear John:
Your letters of 26th Jan., 25th Feb., and 4th inst., are all before me. They are written with so much friendship and affection as to afford me great consolation, and convince me, notwithstanding my heavy losses, that in you I have more left than falls to the lot of most of my fellow-mortals. May the blessing be continued to me, and I know how to value it.
I sympathize most sincerely with you in your melancholy apprehensions about your parents. I know and I can feel such a loss; but you draw your consolation from a never-failing source, which will enable you to bear this misfortune whenever it shall happen, with that resignation to the will of Heaven which becomes one who is satisfied both of its wisdom and goodness. If we could shake off human frailty in the hour of affliction, we should certainly think it less reasonable to lament the death of a good man than to complain of the absence of a friend, who by that absence infinitely increases his happiness; to wish them back is selfish and unworthy of true friendship, and yet we may, we must grieve when we are not permitted to take leave. It is, I am sensible, a weakness, but I cannot help suffering myself to be afflicted at this circumstance. I know the pleasure that the best of fathers always took in my company and conversation; and when I indulge the thought, I am unhappy that by my absence I lessened any of his enjoyments. But where am I running. God bless you—farewell.
Your friend,
Robert R. Livingston.
In a letter of the 25th February, Jay writes to Livingston:
“Your letter of the 15th inst. informs me that you continue indisposed and that you are nursing yourself at home. I am sorry for both. The first alarms me on account of your health and the second forbodes your being long sick. Amusement and exercise ought to be your objects; at home you can have little of either. Domestic concerns, variety of business, and twenty things going wrong for want of that care and attention which a sick man should not think of, agitate your mind and prevent that even flow of spirits and that calm throughout the whole man so necessary to invite the return of health. This would be my case were I in your situation. If it be yours get rid of it. The spring advances fast and as soon as the roads will permit you, go to the camp, to Philadelphia, in short anywhere, so that you are but moving. You must, however, leave off riding post—no more sixty or seventy miles a day. Travel like a citizen of the world who thinks himself at home at every inn, and leaves it as you would your house when you are about to take an airing. If I can with any tolerable propriety leave the Congress I will accompany you, and as I have often done, save your horse from many a sweat.”
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