ROBERT MORRIS TO JAY. - John Jay, The Correspondence and Public Papers of John Jay, vol. 1 (1763-1781) [1890]
Edition used:
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 MORRIS TO JAY.
Philadelphia, Feb. 4, 1777.
Dear Sir:
Your favour of the 7th ult. came safe to hand. Timothy Jones is certainly a very entertaining, agreeable man; one would not judge so from any thing contained in his cold insipid letter of the 17th Sept., unless you take pains to find the concealed beauties therein: the cursory observations of a sea captain would never discover them, but transferred from his hand to the penetrating eye of a Jay, the diamonds stand confessed at once. It puts me in mind of a search after the philosopher’s stone, but I believe not one of the followers of that phantom have come so near the mark as you, my good friend. I handed a copy of your discoveries to the committee, which now consists of Harrison, R. H. Lee, Hooper, Dr. Witherspoon, Johnson, you, and myself; and honestly told them who it was from, because measures are necessary in consequence of it; but I have not received any directions yet.
I should never doubt the success of measures conducted by such able heads as those that take the lead in your Convention. I hate to pay compliments, and would avoid the appearance of doing it, but I cannot refrain from saying I love Duane, admire Mr. Livingston, and have an epithet for you if I had been writing to another. I wish you had done with your Convention; you are really wanted exceedingly in Congress: they are very thin. Adieu, my dear sir; God bless you, and grant success to America in the present contest, with wisdom and virtue to secure peace and happiness to her sons in all future ages.
I am, with true regard
Your most obedient servant,
Robert Morris.
Reference is made here to the secret correspondence between Silas Deane and the committee of Congress mentioned in note, p. 97. Deane wrote his letters with invisible ink, which the committee were to decipher through some chemical preparation. To mislead the enemy in case of the interception of the letters, Deane would write a brief and unimportant note over an assumed name on the upper portion of the sheet of paper on which the hidden communication was entered. Timothy Jones, in Morris’ letter above, was one of Deane’s fictitious signatures. See “Life of Jay,” vol. i., p. 64.
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