LANSINGBURGH COMMITTEE TO JAY. 1 - John Jay, The Correspondence and Public Papers of John Jay, vol. 3 (1782-1793) [1891]
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. 3 (1782-1793).
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LANSINGBURGH COMMITTEE TO JAY.
Lansingburgh, June 30, 1792.
Sir:
We beg leave to address you in the simple style of free men, and in the name of the citizens of Lansingburgh, to congratulate you on your arrival at our infant settlement.
Fully impressed with a sense of your patriotism, we embrace this opportunity of expressing our gratitude for your unwearied exertions through the struggles of an oppressive war; and your eminent services as a statesman and minister at home and abroad.
Our respect for your character, in the dignified office of chief justice of the United States, and our regard for your person, as a man possessing the confidence of the people, give us a most lively hope of shortly embracing you as the chief magistrate of this State: nor can we refrain on this occasion from expressing our sincere regret and resentment at the palpable prostitution of those principles of virtue, patriotism, and duty, which has been displayed by a majority of the canvassing committee, in the wanton violation of our most sacred and inestimable privileges, in arbitrarily disfranchising whole towns and counties of their suffrages.
It was, perhaps, little contemplated, that the constitution of this State, which you had so great a share in framing, should to your prejudice, in the first instance, be in so flagrant a manner violated. However desirous we may be of seeing you fill the office of governor of the State of New-York, we only wish it from the free and fair suffrages of a majority of electors. That majority you have; and though abuse of power may for a time deprive you and the citizens of their right, we trust the sacred flame of liberty is not so far extinguished in the bosoms of Americans as tamely to submit to wear the shackles of slavery, without at least a struggle to shake them off.
Jay at this date was on his return home from his eastern circuit which he had just terminated in Vermont. His friends and political adherents received him everywhere with enthusiasm and respect as the legally elected Governor of the State, whom the party in power had fraudulently debarred from the office. The people of Lansingburgh welcomed him with the above address and on his way down the River further ovations were tendered him, as at Albany, Hudson, and New York. The New York Advertiser and Greenleaf’s Journal and Register for this period indicate the extent and intensity of the election excitement.
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