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

1808. - 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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1808.

JAY TO JUDGE RICHARD PETERS.

Bedford, 30th August, 1808.

Dear Sir:

Accept my thanks for your obliging letter of the 9th ult., which was lately sent to me, and for the memoirs of your Agricultural Society, which accompanied it. Marks of friendly attention from those we esteem are particularly grateful, and I have delayed making my acknowledgments to you because I wished to first read the memoirs; this I have done with pleasure.

As to what you have heard of my living very retired, it is to a certain degree true.1 The fact is, that I live very much as I have long wished to do. I have a pleasant situation, and very good neighbours. I enjoy peace and a competency proportionate to my comforts and moderate desires, with such a residue of health as, while it constantly whispers “memento mori,” still permits me to see my friends with cheerfulness and pleasure. The burthen of time I have not experienced; attention to little improvements, occasional visits, the history which my recollections furnish, and frequent conversations with the “mighty dead,” who in a certain sense live in their works, together with the succession of ordinary occurrences, preserve me from ennui. They who endeavour to grow wiser and better as their years wear away, feel little temptation to permit the fable of the countryman and his ass to be applicable to them. So much respect only is due to the dictums of the day as they may be worth; everything beyond it is mere vox et præterea nihil. Party feuds give me concern, but they seldom obtrude upon me. The mass of the people of this town were steady Whigs during the Revolution, and have been steady Federalists since the date of our new Constitution. They live so peaceably that their law business would scarcely afford wages to an attorney’s clerk.

. . . . . .

With the best wishes for the health and happiness of yourself and family, and with great esteem and regard, I am, dear sir,

Affectionately yours,

John Jay.

[1 ]In his letter of July 9th Judge Peters wrote to Jay from his home at Belmont, Penn.:

“It is said that you have turned hermit, and I am not much behind you. Both of us are old enough to wish for repose; but the disturbed state of the world will not permit us to enjoy it. Old Gates used to tell me in 1776 that if the bantling Independence lived one year, it would last to the age of Methuselah. Yet we have lived to see it in its dotage, with all the maladies and imbecilities of extreme old age. Quacks and empirics are not likely to prolong its existence. Those who laboured in bringing this bantling into the world, and nursed and fostered it in its infancy, have not the less merit, because, in its manhood, it has lived too fast and got into bad company. Theories and wild speculations are the order of the day, and we must submit with as good a grace as we can. When present circumstances are disgusting, I endeavour to re-enjoy what is past. Among these retrospective pleasures is the sincere satisfaction produced by the recollection of the constant regard with which I have been, and still remain, very affectionately yours.”