New York [March] 22nd 1786.
Dr Sir
I have had the pleasure of receiving both your letters, & for which I am much obliged to you though I am sorry to observe you do not speak more decidedly on your intended junction with your brother delegates. If it depends on our removal to Philada. some time must necessarily elapse, as there is but little hopes that such an event will take effect witht. a full representation of the Southern States. N. Carolina, Delawar & Georgia are still absent & we do not know when they will appear; it seems as if many of the States had forgot the relation in which they stood to the Union As well as to foreign powers. Congress have done very little since their last meeting; indeed with so few States, it is out of their power to do any thing of material consequence.
They have been lately alarmed at the conduct of our Sister Jersey in consequence of a resolution passed by the House of delegates of that state revolting agt. the requisition of 1785 & declaring they would neither consent to this or any other requisition unless the 5 Per Cent Impost is adopted: the apprehensions of Congress in consequence of this abdication of Jersey induced them to send a Commee. to Trenton to remonstrate to them on the fatal consequences that must result from their adherence to their resolution.
1
A few days ago the Commee. consisting of Mr. Pinkney, Mr Gorham & myself had an audience, & the Assembly were polite enough to rescind the resolution.
2
They are however still very much dissatisfied & complain heavily of the injuries they suffer from imposts laid by N. York on the one hand & Pensylvany on the other. They alledge that they pay as much to these States by way of commerce as their proportion of the specie part of the requisition would amount to; Some of them wish for annihilation & that E. Jersey might be joined to N. York & W. Jersey to Pensylvany.
Our foreign affairs are much in the same situation as when you left us. Mr. Adams has done nothing with the Brittish Ministry; and Mr. Jay has done about as much with Mr. Gardoqui. The Commrs. in Europe have dispatched Mr. Berclay, Mr. Franks, Mr. Lamb & a Mr. Randal to negotiate with the Barbary powers, & we understand that they have actually arrived at the Court of the Emperor of Morocco.
3
As they are authorized to give only 80,000 dolls. to the four most greedy sovereigns in the world; which is a little better than £4000 Sterling a man, I think there is every reason in the world to suppose that some of the dramatis personae will get incarcerated. I think it not improbable that these people will look upon the offer as an insult & that we are laughing at them.
There has been a great exertion in Jersey & this State for paper money. It is lost for the moment in Jersey 8 to 5 in the Council:
4
the fate of it is suspended here but I believe it will pass in the affirmative before the session breaks & with a tender to it. The Antients were more candid than we are, they contended directly for an abolition of debts, in so many words while we politely ask for the same thing in the soft and specious language of paper money.
Your friends here are all well. Mr. Monro is lately married to Miss Eliza. Kortright: many other conjunctions copulative are talked of. Mr. King is about being married to Miss Alsop: they say that Mr. Hindman is thinking about some tender connections: in short we seem as if we had all got into Calypso's Island. The Hon'ble Mr. Lee is not entirely an unconcerned spectator among all this good business; he has been assiduous at the Sycamore & at Mrs. Levingstons; various rumors have circulated in consequence of the Doctor's maneuvres: all parties agree that a storm is gathering but whether it will ultimately burst on Miss Alleday Levingston or Esther Kortright is yet in the womb of fate:
5 if I was to give my own opinion on so intricate a question & forced to bett on the occasion I should stake the Sycamore against the field. I shall be extremely obliged by a continuance of your favors, and will give you from time [to time] such occurrences as I think may be worth your notice.
From yr. Affect. frd. & most Obed. Servt.,
Willm. Grayson
[P.S.] Since writing above I understand that Georgia & Rhode Island have both passed the 5 Per Cent Impost; the legislature of N. York are now sitting; the impost is before them, but it is matter of great doubt whether it will go through: if this state passes it, it will become efficient. I shall attend particularly to what you say respecting the Post Office. The Ordinance is ready to be produced when there are a sufficient number of states collected.6 It being a doubt whether a Member out of Congress & before he has taken his seat is exempted from Postage: I have pro majori cautela, franked this. W G [March] 24. There are great thoughts among some of the principal members in Congress to recommend a Convention of the States for the purpose of amending the confederation, which it is said is perfectly inefficient: A resolution to this effect is now before Congress, brought forward by Pinkney.7
Receiver's copy, Lee Family Papers, University of Virginia Library.
1 See Charles Thomson to Nathaniel Gorham, et al., March 7.
2 See Committee of Congress to William Livingston, March 12; and Charles Pinckney's Speech to the New Jersey Assembly, March 13.
3 See Virginia Delegates to Patrick Henry, November 7, 1785, note 3.
4 See Grayson to Henry Knox, note 4.
5 Nothing came of these "maneuvres." Arthur Lee never married; Alida Livingston, sister of Chancellor Robert R. Livingston, later married John Armstrong, Jr.
6 When the committee appointed under the resolve of June 17, 1782, "to enquire into the Proceedings of the Department of the Post Office" reported on February 28, 1785, it recommended that another committee be appointed "to prepare an additional Ordinance for better regulating the Post Office." A committee appointed that day and renewed March 14 took no action. Grayson became a member of the committee reconstituted on December 27 which was also assigned a request from Secretary at War Henry Knox to establish a post to Vincennes. The committee reported on January 6, 1786, in favor of a post route from Philadelphia to Fort McIntosh on the Ohio River, but failed to submit an ordinance. It was renewed again on February 25, with Grayson as chairman, and given the same assignment. Although an ordinance was quickly drafted it was not submitted until June 15 when it was ordered published, but again no action was taken. The report was not revived until February 14, 1787, when it was entered on the journals. See JCC, 28:109n, 110n, 158n, 29:904n, 30:15, 84n, 31:963, 32:45 - 56; and PCC, item 190, fols. 15, 21, 84.
7 Pinckney may have offered a motion for calling a convention in late February that was swept aside by the pressing concern over New Jersey's refusal to comply with Congress' 1785 requisition, for which see Nathaniel Gorham to Caleb Davis, March 1, note 2. Pinckney, Gorham, and Grayson were subsequently chosen to convince the New Jersey Assembly of the pressing need to reverse its decision (see Charles Thomson to Gorham, Grayson, and Pinckney, March 7), and in his March 13 speech to that body Pinckney had specifically noted the availability of this remedy. If New Jersey "conceives herself oppressed under the present confederation, let her, through her delegates in Congress, state to them the oppressions she complains of, and urge the calling of a general convention of the states for the purpose of increasing the powers of the federal government, and rendering it more adequate to the ends for which it was instituted." Upon his return from New Jersey Pinckney may have revived his earlier motion or offered a new one which was not acted on. He subsequently altered his approach and on May 3 called for a committee of the whole to consider "the state of public affairs." Pinckney eventually served on the grand committee which on August 7 presented seven amendments to the thirteen original Articles of the Confederation. See JCC, 30:230, 354, 387n, 31:494 - 98; and Thomas Rodney's Diary, May 3, note 1.