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Subject Area: Political Theory
Topic: The American Revolution and Constitution

JAY TO JUDGE LOWELL. - John Jay, The Correspondence and Public Papers of John Jay, vol. 4 (1794-1826) [1893]

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. 4 (1794-1826).

Part of: The Correspondence and Public Papers of John Jay, 4 vols.

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JAY TO JUDGE LOWELL.

New York, 29th February, 1796.

Dear Sir:

I have been favoured with yours of the 15th inst. by Mr. Parkman; am much pleased with him and his fellow-traveller, Mr. Cooledge. Their representation of the state of things in Massachusetts corresponds with the hints on that head suggested in your letter. There is too much intelligence in the Northern States to admit of their being greatly and long deceived and misled; and I hope the same remark will in time become equally applicable to all the others. Considering the nature of our governments, a succession of demagogues must be expected; and the strenuous efforts of the wise and virtuous will not cease to be necessary to frustrate their artifices and designs. They will always be hostile to merit, because merit will always stand in their way; and being actuated by envy, ambition, or avarice, and not unfrequently by them all, will be diligently at work, while better men will take their rest.

It seems strange, but so it is in all republics, that many excellent men who are happy in their families and fortunes and in the esteem of society and of their friends, who enjoy their villas and their gardens and neglect not to guard their trees and vines from caterpillars and their favourite plants and flowers from nipping frosts, yet omit attending to the political grubs, who are constantly and insidiously labouring to wound and prey upon the roots of all their temporal enjoyments. Several gentlemen of this description with us becoming alarmed have been very useful; and I presume this has been, more or less, the case in other States.

Be assured of the esteem and regard with which I am,

Yours, etc.,

John Jay.