During a brief respite at Clermont during the height of summer 1775 Livingston wrote to John Jay; “I must confess that after breathing the pure air of the country I dread the idea of a hot room in Philadelphia.”[i] Nevertheless he soon returned to Philadelphia where much of the rest of the year was spent in debates about how the war should be fought, particularly financially. Trade deals, non-importation acts and port closures were all up for discussion. For Livingston talk of trade was especially important. Despite being a well known lawyer, at that point the majority of his and his family’s money came from trade in agricultural products. The Livingston tenants paid their rents primarily in grain and farm animals. What was not used on the Manor was sold down river in New York City or sent overseas. In the 1760’s Livingston flour was being sold in Jamaica, Curacao, and New Orleans.[ii]
Robert Livingston was very much against port closures. On October 4 Livingston gave an impassioned plea against port closures and their far reaching effects. Nowhere in the colonies were there facilities capable of meeting the needs of an America independent of Great Britain, particularly one that was at war. Furthermore he saw that closing the ports was essentially the same as closing down the businesses of the colonies as they would not have the markets in which to sell all of their products. This would drive people away from the cause and back into the arms of the English. The speech as recorded by John Adams in his notes on the debates:
“We should go into a full Discussion of the Subject. Every Gentleman ought to express his Sentiments. The 1st Q[uestion]. is how far we shall adhere to our Association- What advantages we gain, What Disadvantages we suffer, by it. An immediate Stoppage last year would have had great Effect: But at that time the Country could not bear it. We are now out of Debt, nearly.
The high price of Grain in B[ritain] will be an advantage by the Farmer. The Price of Labour is nearly equal in Europe. The Trade will be continued to G[reat] B[ritain] will learn to look upon America as insignificant. If We export to B[ritain] and dont import, they must pay us in Money. Of great Importance that We should import. We employ our Ships and Seamen. We have nothing to fear but Disunion among ourselves. What will disunite us, more than the Decay of all Business. The people will feel, and will say that Congress tax them and oppress them worse than Parliament.
Ammunition cannot be had unless We open our Ports. I am for doing away our Non-Exportation Agreement entirely. I see many Advantages in leaving open the Ports, none in shutting them up. I should think the best way would be to open all our Ports. Let us declare all those Bonds illegal and void. What is to become of our Merchants, Farmers, Seamen, Tradesmen? What an Accesion of Strength should We throw into the Hands of our Enemies, if We drive all our Seamen to them.”[iii]
Later that day Livingston spoke again, this time willing to concede to some non- exportation, particularly in the south where it would not directly effect him:
“the exception of tobacco and lumber [from allowable exports] would not produce disunion. The Colonies affected can see the principles, and their virtue is such that they would not be disunited. The Americans are their own carriers now chiefly; a few British ships will be out of employ. I am against exporting lumber. I grant that if we trade with other nations, some of our vessels may be seized, and some taken. Carolina is cultivated by rich planters; not so in the northern Colonies; the planters can bear a loss; and see the reason of it; the northern Colonies can’t bear it. Not in our power to draw people from the plough to manufactures. We can’t make contracts for powder without opening our ports. I am for exporting where Britain will allow us, to Britain itself. If we shut up our ports, we drive our sailors to Britain; the army will be supplied, in all events.”[iv]
Closing down the ports for business would hurt the war effort in every possible way from manpower to supplies to the very support of the people. This stance put Livingston in direct opposition to the more radical members of Congress like John Adams, who favored a sharp and complete break with Great Britain, regardless of the effects.
A few days later as the debate still raged, Livingston was recognized, stood and declared: “We are between Hawk and Buzzard. We puzzle ourselves between the commercial and warlike opposition.”[v] The debate continued through October. On the 27th Livingston opened the day, continuing the debate of previous days. He said:
“Cloathing will rise tho Provisions will fall. Labourers will be discharged. One Quarter Part of R[hode] Island, N[ew] York, and Pennsylvania depend upon Trade, as Merchants, Shopkeepers, Shipwrights, Blockmakers, Riggers, Smiths &c. &c. &c.
The 6 Northern [colonies] must raise 9 million Dollars to support the Poor.
This vote will stop our Trade for 14 months, altho it professes to do it only until the 20th of March. For the Winter when the Men of War cannot cruise upon the coast is the only Time that We can trade.
Wealthy Merchants, and monied Men cannot get the Interest of Money.
More virtue is expected from our People, than any People ever had. The low Countries did not reason as We do about speculative opinions, but they felt the oppression for a long Course of Years, rich and poor.”[vi]
In all of the debates Livingston argued for action against Britain but for the continuation of business in the colonies. In fact, he wanted to put Great Britain in debt to the colonies and let British money fight the war to free the colonies from British rule. The idea that hurting the British merchants financially would force Parliament to rectify their policies was not a new one. Livingston also foresaw a situation, caused by the cessation of trade, that would create a huge numbers of jobless men. These men would punish the closest target for their sudden poverty which would be the Congress. This of course would have brought the war to a quick end. This fear of a division amongst the colonies leading to the end of the chance of improving their lot in the British Empire had nagged Livingston for months. In July of 1775 he wrote to Jay: “For my own part I dread a division among our selves infinitely more than the power of Great Britain.”[vii]
Livingston left Philadelphia in the November of 1775. He had been assigned to the Committee to the Northward along with Robert Treat Paine of Massachusetts and John Langdon of New Hampshire. The Committee was tasked with traveling to Canada to consult with the military commanders there on the state of the army and the prospects of bringing Canada into the war on the side of the colonies. On November 10, 1775 Congress voted to give the Committee $1,000 dollars for their mission.[viii]
Livingston jumped at the opportunity to make the dangerous trek, and not simply because he was eager to escape Congress. While General Philip Schuyler was supposed to be in command of the Northern Army he was incapacitated by illness and could not make the journey to Canada. Command of the army had devolved onto Schuyler’s second in command, General Richard Montgomery, New York’s brigadier general and Livingston’s brother-in-law and close friend.
Richard Montgomery was an Irish born former British army officer. He had resigned from the British army when his prospects of promotion had dwindled. He purchased a 67 acre farm outside of New York City at Kingsbridge, which would be ruined when Fort Independence was built upon the land. He married Janet Livingston, Robert’s older sister. When the couple moved to Rhinebeck, a few miles south of Clermont, to be closer to Janet’s family, Richard and Robert became very close friend, more like brothers than brothers-in-law. They were both well-read men who enjoyed dabbling in whatever fields caught their interest from science to philosophy to agriculture. Richard owned a microscope which he would often leave set with an interesting specimen for his younger sister in laws to study. Montgomery felt, as many men who have spent most of their lives at war, that his domestic bliss would be short lived. He was heard to say “I never was so happy in all my life; everything conspires to make it so. It cannot last; it cannot last.” In a particularly happy moment, he wrote to a former army friend; “I begin to think I shant die by a pistol.”[ix]
When an assembly was called for New York, Montgomery was chosen along with Livingston to represent the people of Dutchess County. Montgomery was not chosen to attend Congress in Philadelphia but stayed in New York City as a member of New York’s rebel government. When Congress selected officers for the army Montgomery was an easy choice. Montgomery was placed second on the seniority list for brigadier generals. On June 19, 1775 Livingston had written to his grandfather, Robert the Builder, that he believed a bloody summer was to come. He then went on to detail the senior command of the army that the congress had just created. General Washington would command it, with Major Generals David Wooster, Charles Lee, Philip Schuyler and Israel Putnam below him. He went on to say
“It is not improbable that some very high command will be given to Cap’t Montgomery- as no persons can or should wish to be excused at this critical time I do not care how many of my relations step forth.”[x]
The Committee to the Northward first stopped in the Hudson Highlands to inspect the defenses there. This was another personal project for Livingston. Even at that early stage of the war, strategic minds realized that the Hudson River which divides New England from the rest of the colonies would be one of the keys to the war. The river was also the key to Livingston’s land. A British force moving up the river would be able to ravage his land easily. The Committee was less than impressed by what it found. On November 23 they wrote a report to John Hancock on their visit to the forts on the 17th of that month.
“The Garrison consisted of 100 men, being the remainder of two companys, from which drafts were made to compleat those that were sent up to the Northward while they continued recruiting. Exclusive of these were at the fortress 27 Carpenters, 16 Masons, 2 Smiths & 59 Labourers, a Clerk & a Steward. We must own that we found the fort in a less defensible Scituation than we had a reason to expect, owing chiefly to an injudicious disposition of the labour which has hitherto been bestowed on the Barracks, the Blockhouse & South West Curtain.”
The report continued:
“The fortress is unfortunately commanded by all the Grounds about it, & is much exposed to an attack by Land, but the most Obvious defect is that the Grounds on the West point are much higher than the Fortress behind which point an Enemy may land without the Least danger. In order to render this Post impassable it seems necessary that this Place Should be Occupied & batteries thrown up on the opposite Shore, where they may be erected with little expense as the Earth is said to be pretty free from stone.”[xi]
From the Highlands the Committee sailed up the river to Albany. From Albany the Committee to the Northward set out, woefully unprepared, for Fort Ticonderoga. From Fort George on the Southern edge of Lake George, where they were detained by weather, Livingston wrote to John Jay; “After we got over the mountain, within the reach of the woods that close from the lake it was like leaping from Octr. To Decr.” He said of their preparations that they had “prepared tinder boxes & axes for an enca[m]pment on shore, as we can hardly expect as they tell us to get over in one day & hope to experience the pleasure of laying on hemlock beds. They laugh at us here for having brought but one blanket with us, but we hope to make it up in fire.”[xii]
When the Committee finally arrived at Fort Ticonderoga they consulted with General Schuyler but decided not to venture any further north. Livingston wrote to Montgomery to tell him that the committee would not be continuing on to Canada; “I believe we shall leave you to manage what you have so prosperously begun, I shd. Almost say finished.” He also discouraged Montgomery from resigning his post; “Your country still wants you, nor do I know how your loss will be supplied, & yet the sacrifice you must make is such as can hardly be borne by a man of any sensibility or feeling, heaven direct you to what is best.”[xiii] In their official letter to Montgomery the committee wrote they would not be journeying to Canada:
“on Account of the Advanced season of the year and the improbability of your being able to lend us any assistance, while the enemies of the Natural Rights of man continue their hostilities against our fellow Subjects in that Province, and Confine your Attention to those Military opperations which are Necessary to procure their Relief.”
They also expressed, in general terms, what the Canadians would be offered if they joined the war on the side of the colonies;
“on their Uniting with them they will exert their utmost endeavours to procure, for them and their posterity the blessing of a free government and that Security to their property and persons which is derived from the British Constitution-that they hold Sacred the rights of Conscience, and will never disturb them in the free enjoyment of their Religion.”[xiv]
Livingston also wrote to John Jay on the Committee’s failure to reach their assigned destination.
“You judging from the climate of Philadelphia may wonder we did not proceed to Canada but if I had been so inclined We should have met with many obstructions, besides that Canada is not yet in a state to negotiate… You brought us into this scrape, pray get us out…”[xv]
When the Committee headed south again in early December, Livingston split off from them to visit with friends in Albany. He was still in Albany when his father, Judge Robert Livingston died unexpectedly on December 9. The Judge’s death was the second in a series of deaths that rocked Robert and the entire Livingston family over the course of six months. Livingston’s paternal grandfather, Robert Livingston, the builder of Clermont, had died in June, shortly after the Battle of Bunker Hill. Family legend alleges his final words were;” What news from Boston?” an ardent patriot to the end. At the outbreak of hostilities a few months earlier, again according to family lore, Robert of Clermont had expressed a desire to join the army outside of Boston. When his son, The Judge, asked what he would do there Robert of Clermont supposedly replied “If I stopped a bullet, I might save a better man.”[xvi] Robert’s maternal grandfather, Colonel Henry Beekman, passed away shortly after the new year, leaving Robert’s mother Margaret Beekman Livingston the sole heir to the Colonel’s Rhinebeck, Wittenberg and Beekman patent lands. Perhaps the most devastating blow came just after the new year. General Richard Montgomery had been killed at Quebec City on the last day of 1775, leading a desperate nighttime assault on the city.
Many years later Janet Montgomery wrote in her memoirs of a declaration her grandfather, Robert of Clermont, had once made during a family evening shortly before the war broke out. He said to the Judge: “You and I will never live to see this country independent. Montgomery, you may, but,” he turned to his grandson, “Robert-you will.”[xvii] There is no way he could have known how true his words would be or how soon his prediction would come true.
Livingston’s grief over the deaths in his family consumed him that winter. To respond to Jay’s letter of condolence Livingston had to “Snatch a moment from grief, from the melancholy attention I owe to widowed parent,..”[xviii] He was actually sickened and spent weeks rarely moving from his bed. His friends began to fear for his life. Livingston himself began to doubt survival was worth it. In an effort to motivate Livingston, Jay wrote:
“But remember my Friend that your Country bleeds and calls for your Exertions. The Fate of those very Friends whose Misfortune so justly afflicts You is linked with the Common Cause and cannot have a separate Issue.”[xix]
Livingston was deep in his depression though. He wrote to Jay in February:
“I am not so much in love with life as to be very uneasy on my own account, but I think myself necessary to my family, and I should be sorrey to add to the affliction of those who have already felt as much as their constitution will bear. A similarity between my disorder and that which deprived them of a father alarms their fears; and I in compliance with their requests, and the directions of my Phisicians I am nursing myself here instead of attending to those publick duties which demand my attention.”[xx]
He added:
“…I have had philosophy enough to bear it with patience, to submit with resignation to the wise degrees of the supreme disposer of all events, and to acknowledge that it is infinitely better to die in the full career of glory when our reputation is at the hight, to be followed to the grave by the sorrows of the wise and good than to out live our enjoyments, and be forgotten before we die.”[xxi]
Livingston’s grief over the death of Montgomery led him to reconsider the invasion of Canada. Rather than a key part of the war he had begun to see the invasion as a drain on the strength of the colonies. In January of 1776 Livingston wrote to Thomas Lynch of South Carolina:
“When the expedition agt. Canada was first projected I opposed it for reasons which have been too often reiterated to make any mention of them necessary & our success has not changed my sentiments but whether the loss which I have sustained by the death of my very worthy friend a relation may not have confirmed me in (what is possible) an error I will not pretend to determine. However it is indisputable that the possession of Canada will drain our specie, disapate without adding to our strength, for it is most evident that the Canadians are not to be relied on & that they will always side with the stronger power & it is more than probable that if we should at any time be unfortunate when our enemies had an army in the country that their perfidy may be the total destruction of any troops we have sent there. It is true indeed that if our enemies returned that country it might lay us under a necessity of defending an extensive frontier not only from the incursions of such inhaabitants of Canada as chose to take up arms but against the Indians who would in such case be very much under their influence.”[xxii]
Further complicating matters were the condolences of the Congress, the state government, representatives and other various dignitaries that rolled in during these months. Eighteenth century gentlemen could not let the passing of a luminary like Judge Livingston go without at least a note. James Duane wrote to Livingston: “it is with unaffected Sympathy that I condole with you on the sudden Death of your most worthy Father… rescued from the Vexations and Calamities of a Jarring world he is translated to the Manshions of eternal Rest and Happiness.”[xxiii] Robert Treat Paine, who had been with Livingston shortly before the calamities, wrote: “…I Should have found my mind overcharged to express to you my Sympathy with you in your Loss of the best of Parents & bewail with you the Loss of a Father of his Country in the Death of Judge Livingston; but how shall I now address you! In vain do I seek Expression Suitable to my Grief when I attempt to lament your reiterated loss in the brave, the amiable Montgomery.”[xxiv]
Many of them felt the need to add notes urging Livingston to return to Congress and pick up his work or to rebuild his father’s gun powder mill that had blown up shortly before the Judge’s death. Even Jay added a post script to his condolence letter that read: “50 Tons of Salt Petre arrived this Day.” On January 11, 1776 the New York Committee of Safety drafted their official letter of condolence to Livingston:
“While we most heartily condole with you on the loss of so significant a publick character, as that of your late worthy father, your known attachment to the publick cause will readily excuse our intermixing a few considerations of publick utility with our sypathetick expressions on that distressing event.
We have full evidence of a large importation of Saltpetre into Philadelphia; our frineds in New-England are pushing the manufacture of that article, and we hope our Congress at their next meeting will give all due encouragement to so useful a manufacture in this Colony. In this view, it is probable, that there will be full employ for Powder-Mills, and for this reason we beg leave to recommend the re-erection of the patriotick work of the late Mr. Justice Livingston to your immediate attention.”[xxv]
Livingston wrote back to the Committee on February 3rd, 1776 thanking them for the kind words they expressed about his father and toward him. He also went on to explain that “My brother John has finished the powder mill, and will be obliged to you for procuring him the necessary materials to render it as useful as I wish it to be.”[xxvi] With his note Livingston made no commitments to the cause and passed the responsibility for the powder mill to his brother. It would still be months before Robert was able to work for the cause again.
When Livingston had arrived at Philadelphia, in May of 1775, he was the grandson of wealthy land owners. In January of 1776 he was in control of one of the largest estates in the colonies. As the new de facto leader of the Livingston faction he controlled almost a million acres of land and in theory held sway over thousands of tenants. In addition to the Clermont lands, his mother and by extension Livingston controlled all the Beekman land inherited from Margaret’s father. Livingston also inherited a large percentage of the Hardenburgh Patent on the west shore of the river. When time allowed he divided that land between all of his siblings, with each brother getting 30,000 acres and each sister 20,000. Who got what land was decided by lots. [xxvii]
On a more personal note Livingston now bore a responsibility for his widowed mother and all of his siblings. Robert’s older sister, Janet was almost as much a martyr to the cause as her late General and would be a welcome guest in Continental Army camps for the duration of the war. She was still grieving her husband but would soon be back on her feet, seeking financial advice from her brother as well as a loan of books every fall to see her through the winter. Robert’s two adult brothers who were involved in the war effort, Henry in the army and John as a supplier to the army, both of whom needed their careers looked after. The youngest brother Edward was still of school age and needed an education, which would later include spending time at the headquarters of the army with General George Washington and his staff.[xxviii] His younger sisters Margaret, Catharine, Gertrude, Joanna and Alida all needed to be protected and eventually married off to suitable matches, a role which he took quite seriously. When Dr. Thomas Tillotson proposed to Margaret, Livingston asked Gouverneur Morris to check into the man’s character. Morris reported the following:
“I have asked every of the Representatives from the State of Maryland. I am sorry to add that I can learn Nothing. I then asked negatively and find that he is of Maryland but not of any distinguished Family not of great and Distinguished Abilities and the like. I enquired his Proffesional Knowledge and I learn that he is not eminent in that Line. To all this I must add my own that I think I have met him in my Walk thro Life tho at which of the Stages or odd Corners I know not that he appeared to me neither above or below the common Mass of Men Brilliant in Nothing and yet of that Kind of Being calculated to take Care of his own Menage, cure the Fever and the Ague, superintend hi Farm and kiss his Wife and his Children and the like.”[xxix]
This was apparently good enough for Robert, as Margaret and Tillotson were married in February of 1779. The irony of having Gouverneur Morris, a notorious rake, check on the moral character of anyone else seems to have been lost on both men.
As the spring of 1776 arrived Livingston started to rally. He decided he would go back to Congress. Jay first hinted that he should return in March; “Suppose, when the season becomes more mild, you were to take lodgings at Bristol? The waters would probably be useful to you, you would see as much and as little company as you pleased, and I promise to go to church with you every Sunday.”[xxx]This stirred Livingston to action. He planned to room with Jay and their respective wives.[xxxi] He found rooms outside of Bristol, Pennsylvania.
“However I have provided three Bedrooms & a large parlour in a retired country house, about two miles from Bristol upon the banks of the Shamony[Delaware] where we shall have plentiful provisions for our horses, good fishing before the door, a tavern about ¼ of a mile from us to lodge our friends, & in short every thing that we can wish to render our situation agreeable.”[xxxii]
It should be noted that even during his time of illness and grief Livingston kept up with affairs related to the war. Shortly after taking the rooms at Bristol, Livingston wrote to Jay wondering where he was but included; “You have doubtless seen the account brought by the Rifleman from London, by which it appears we shall have at least 34,000 commissioners.”[xxxiii] Livingston was of referring to the invasion force of British and German soldiers that Parliament had assembled to attack New York City and put an end to the rebellion. He also suggested that Congress order the construction of gun boats to defend the river.
Unfortunately Jay’s wife suffered an illness that prevented Jay from joining Livingston in his return to Congress. In fact Jay would not return Congress at all in the coming months. Undeterred Livingston returned to Philadelphia in the spring of 1776 in time to take part in the independence debates.
[i] Robert R. Livingston to John Jay July 17, 1775 in Morris, Richard B. John Jay: The Making of a Revolutionary p.158.
[ii] Humphrey, Thomas J. Land and Liberty p 33.
[iii] Notes of Debates in the Continental Congress, Diary of John Adams Volume 2 Massachusetts Historical Society
[iv] Journals of the Continental Congress Volume III p 479-480.
[v] “[Notes of Debates, Continued] Octr. 6.,” Founders Online, National Archives, version of January 18, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/01-02-02-0005-0004-0003. [Original source: The Adams Papers, Diary and Autobiography of John Adams, vol. 2, 1771–1781, ed. L. H. Butterfield. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1961, pp. 194–198.]
[vi] “[Notes of Debates in the Continental Congress] 1775. Octr. 27.,” Founders Online, National Archives, version of January 18, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/01-02-02-0005-0004-0012. [Original source: The Adams Papers, Diary and Autobiography of John Adams, vol. 2, 1771–1781, ed. L. H. Butterfield. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1961, pp. 219–220.]
[vii] Robert R. Livingston to John Jay, July 17, 1775 Morris, Richard B. John Jay: The Making of a Revolutionary p. 159.
[viii] Journals of the Continental Congress Volume III p 344.
[ix] Shelton, Hal T. General Richard Montgomery and the American Revolution: From Redcoat to Rebel p. 40-41, Babbitt, Katherine M. Janet Montgomery: Hudson River Squire Library Research Associates, New York 1975 p 8-9.
[x] Robert R. Livingston to Robert Livingston 19 June 1775 Collection of Clermont State Historic Site. An attached note indicates this was the final letter that Robert the Builder received from anyone before he passed away.
[xi] Committee to the Northward to John Hancock, September 2, 1775 LDC Volume 2 p 378-379.
[xii] Robert R. Livingston to John Jay, September 2, 1775 LDC Volume 2, p 397.
[xiii] Robert R. Livingston to Richard Montgomery November 29, 1775 LDC Volume 2 p 408-409.
[xiv] Committee to the Northward to Richard Montgomery November 30, 1775 LDC Volume 2 p 413.
[xv] Robert R. Livingston to John Jay December 6, 1775 LDC Volume 2 p 449-451
[xvi] Delafield, Julia Biographies of Francis Lewis and Morgan Lewis 1877 p 134-135
[xvii] Babbit, Katherine M. Janet Montgomery: Hudson River Squire p. 10.
[xviii] Robert R. Livingston to John Jay December 29, 1775 Morris, Richard B. John Jay: The Making of a Revolutionary p 218.
[xix] John Jay to Robert R. Livingston January 6, 1777 Ibid p 222.
[xx] Robert R. Livingston to John Jay February 15, 1776 Ibid p 227.
[xxi] Robert R. Livingston to John Jay February 15, 1776 Ibid p 226-227.
[xxii] RRL to Thomas Lynch January 1776 LDC Volume 3 p 178-179.
[xxiii] James Duane to Robert R. Livingston December 20, 1775 LDC Volume 2, p 498-499.
[xxiv] Robert Treat Paine to Robert R. Livingston January 26, 1776 LDC Volume 3 p 156.
[xxv] New York Committee of Safety to Robert R. Livingston, American Archives Series 4, Volume 4, p 1037.
[xxvi] Robert R. Livingston to Pierre Van Cortlandt Correspondence of the Provincial Congress, Provincial Convention, Committee of Safety and Council of Safety of the State of New York Vol II Thurlow Weed, Printer to the State, Albany 1842 p. 128.
[xxvii] Babbitt Janet Montgomery p 19.
[xxviii] “From George Washington to Robert R. Livingston , 19 September 1782,” Founders Online, National Archives (http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/99-01-02-09528 [Last update: 2016-03-28]) Source: The Papers of George Washington
[xxix] Gouverneur Morris to Robert R. Livingston September 6, 1778 LDC Volume 10 p 591.
[xxx] John Jay to Robert R. Livingston March 4, 1776 The Correspondence of John Jay Volume 1 p 45.
[xxxi] Jay had married a distant cousin of Robert R. Livingston’s, Catherine, daughter of William Livingston of New Jersey
[xxxii] Robert R. Livingston to John Jay May 17, 1776 The Correspondence of John Jay Volume 1 p 59.
[xxxiii] Robert R. Livingston to John Jay May 21, 1776 The Correspondence of John Jay Volume 1 p 62.