JAY TO GENERAL SCHUYLER. - 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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JAY TO GENERAL SCHUYLER.
Esopus, 20th June, 1777.
Dear Sir:
It would have given me pleasure to have acknowledged the receipt of your letters of the 10th and 14th inst. I returned on Tuesday last from Fishkill, and postponed writing till I could collect a little information.
The elections in the middle district have taken such a turn as that, if a tolerable degree of unanimity should prevail in the upper counties, there will be little doubt of having, erelong, the honour of addressing a letter to your Excellency.
Clinton by being pushed for both offices may have neither; he has many votes for the first and not a few for the second. Scott, however, has carried a number from him, and you are by no means without a share. The conclusions to be drawn from such divisions are obvious.
A report that Albany designed General Ten Broeck for Lieutenant-Governor excited jealousy. What influence it may have had is difficult to conjecture. I believe not very great, as it had not time to spread wide or take root deep.
I have casually hinted at holding the first session of the Legislature at Albany, and find a general disinclination to it. Some object to the expense of living there as most intolerable, and others say that should Albany succeed in having both the great officers, the next step would be to make it the capital of the State. In my opinion the election should be determined before it will be proper to say much on this subject, and then should the governor only come from Albany, and could assurances be given that the members might live as cheap there as here, a removal may be practicable and prudent; but should such a measure be occasioned by a coalition of the upper counties, and carried by a slender majority, it would be productive of more evil than its advantages would probably compensate.
You may rely on receiving by express the earliest notice of the event alluded to.
Although Jay had declined to stand as a candidate in this first gubernatorial election in New York, he received a considerable number of votes, as appears from the following note on p. 164 “Civil List, State of New York, 1886”: “A fragment of the canvass of 1777 shows the returns from Albany, Cumberland, Dutchess, Tryon, Ulster, Westchester as follows: George Clinton, 865; John Morin Scott, 386; Philip Schuyler, 1,012; John Jay, 367; Philip Livingston, 5; Robert R. Livingston, 7. The votes from Orange and other Southern counties gave the election to Clinton. The returns were made to the Council of Safety, July 9, and the Governor was sworn in on the 30th at Kingston.”
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