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

JAY TO JUDGE PETERS. - 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 PETERS.

Bedford, January, 1811.

Dear Sir:

I have received your letter of the 25th November. Although the privations you voluntarily submit to, exceed the ne quid nimis of the wise man, they evince a sound mind, and will, I hope, tend to preserve it long in a sound body.

My inquiries respecting speltz were in terms too general. To sow wheat here is like taking a ticket in a lottery; more blanks than prizes. The fly destroys more than we reap. A substitute therefore is desirable; and if speltz, like rye, escapes the ravages of that insect, it might be a good one. I did not recollect that it required a particular process for cleaning; as we have no mill here adapted to that purpose, it would be useless to introduce it.

From your description of the rye sent to you from France, it appears far to exceed the kind we have. I wish that instead of dividing it, you had sowed the whole in your own ground, and distributed parcels of the increase. It is said that the quality of rye depends greatly on that of the soil. The prevailing opinion here is, that the rye of this country is all of one and the same species, and yet in some parts the rye bread is excellent, and in others black and strong. The weight and quality of the rye you mention lead me to suspect that it is of another species, or a distinct variety. I doubt there being danger of its depreciating, unless sown too near our own, or in particular cases of neglect. I know but of one kind of grain which, notwithstanding good management, depreciates here, and that is oats.

I am glad your second volume will soon be published. I expect to read it with pleasure, especially as there has been a hand in it which can make “a goose quill diffuse the utile and the dulce” through many a page. I suppose a number will be printed for sale; if so, be so good as to desire the bookseller to send for me six sets (comprehending both volumes) directed to my son, Peter Augustus Jay, at New York, and to name to him some person there to receive the price of them. I mean to place a set in our town library, and to distribute others among certain persons in the neighbourhood who, in my opinion, would make a proper use of them.

Among the accounts you received from Doctor Logan, there are some which I did not expect, particularly those which respect the relative state of the manufactures and agriculture of England. In the present violent fluctuations of European affairs, it does not appear to me extraordinary that bullion should occasionally be scarce, and paper depreciate, even in England. I suspect it to be merely occasional and transient; for I have heard of no adequate cause which could produce and continue to produce such effects. That nation, I am persuaded, wish to be and remain on friendly terms with us. I have some reason to believe that the idea of “dividing” is not a new one. If the micrometer is practically accurate, the inventor has done more than I should have expected.

Civil discord, it seems, is assigning to Spanish America a part in the prodigious tragedy now exhibiting on the theatre of the world. We have seen and heard of strange things, and unless you should take your “French leave” before the curtain drops, you will doubtless see and hear of many more. I expect to take my leave more deliberately, but probably more early. Be that as it may, it is a comfortable reflection that when we do, hope will be the only article in Pandora’s box that we shall take with us. Although a little more indisposed than I lately was, I am still less unwell than I was at this time last year, so that at present there is some prospect of my living to see further proofs of the perfectibility of human nature by modern philosophers, and of the increased illumination of this age of reason.

Adieu, my dear sir,
Yours sincerely,

John Jay.