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

JAY TO LINDLEY MURRAY. - 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 LINDLEY MURRAY.

Dear Sir:

I ought sooner to have written to you and thanked you for the books you sent me, and for the kind letter which accompanied them.

For a considerable time I had not leisure to pay sufficient attention to your work respecting our language. It has been much commended, and I think with much reason. Within thirty years past eloquence has made great progress in this country. Governments like ours are favourable to it. Every work which really facilitates the attainment of that influential science will meet with notice and respect. Some of our compositions, however, are not free from marks of incorrect taste, such as high-wrought verbiage and too little simplicity; new words have been admitted into our language incautiously, and in some instances old words are used in senses which did not formerly belong to them. It is to be wished that no alteration in the English language may take place in Britain or in America but such as the best writers in both countries will adopt.

Being retired from the fatigues and constraints of public life, I enjoy with real satisfaction the freedom and leisure which has at length fallen to my lot. For a long course of years I had been looking forward with desire to the tranquil retirement in which I now live, and my expectations from it have not been disappointed. I flatter myself that this is the inn at which I am to stop in my journey through life. How long I shall be detained is uncertain, but I rejoice in the prospect of the probability of being permitted to pass my remaining time in a situation so agreeable to me. Do not conclude from this that I am without cares and anxieties exclusive of those which are more or less common to all men. I have an excellent son, who has been obliged, by hectic complaints, to relinquish business and to pass two winters abroad. I hope he will recover his health, but until all doubts are removed some solicitude will remain. The truth is, that although in numerous respects I have abundant reason to be thankful, yet in others I experience the necessity and the value of patience and resignation.

That you may long continue in a capacity to do good, and to enjoy good, is the sincere wish of

Dear sir,
Your friend,

John Jay.