John Jay

• Born: 12 December 1745
• Birthplace: New York, New York
• Died: 17 May 1829
• Best Known As: One of the authors of The Federalist Papers

John Jay was one of the heavy-hitters in the early days of the United States, a "founding father" who was a member of the Continental Congress and the first Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court. Jay was a lawyer from New York whose service in drawing up the state constitution led to his appointment as a delegate and, later, president of the Continental Congress. He held the post of American Minister to Spain in 1779 before joining Ben Franklin and John Adams in Paris for the peace negotiations with Great Britain (1783). Upon his return to the U.S. Jay discovered that he had been appointed as the Secretary of Foreign Affairs. To explain the new U.S. Constitution, he teamed with Alexander Hamilton and James Madison to author a series of essays collected as The Federalist Papers (although it was published anonymously, it is generally accepted that Jay wrote five of the 85 essays). President George Washington appointed Jay as the first Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court and he was easily approved in 1789. In 1794 and 1795 Jay's diplomatic skills were again called upon for peace negotiations with Great Britain to resolve continuing conflicts in and around U.S. territories (Jay's Treaty, signed in 1795). When Jay returned from peace negotiations in Europe, he discovered that Hamilton had engineered a victory for him in the gubernatorial election of New York; Jay resigned from the Supreme Court and served two terms as New York's governor (1795-1801). He was offered a spot on the Supreme Court by President Adams, but Jay declined and retired from public life.

As a delegate to the Continental Congress, Jay was not enthusiastic about independence from Great Britain and refused to sign the Declaration of Independence.

For more information on John Jay, visit Britannica.com.

(b. New York City, 12 Dec. 1745; d. Bedford, Westchester County, N.Y., 17 May 1829; interred at Jay family churchyard, Rye, N.Y.), chief justice, 1789–1795. The eldest son of Peter and Mary (Van Cortlandt) Jay, John Jay was educated privately until matriculation at King's College (Columbia University), from which he graduated in 1764. He read law with attorney Benjamin Kissam; four years later, he was admitted to the New York bar. His law practice prospered. In 1774, he married Sarah Van Brugh Livingston, the daughter of New York governor William Livingston.

The American Revolution altered Jay's career. A member of New York's Committee of Correspondence, he served in the First and Second Continental Congresses. As colonists edged toward rebellion, Jay opposed war with Britain. He was instrumental in formulating the Olive Branch Petition and seriously considered expatriation; however, after adoption of the Declaration of Independence, his ambivalence dissipated. In 1776, Jay helped draft New York's constitution; and, while his attendance was erratic, he sat until 1779 as the state's chief justice. After 1778, national affairs occupied ever‐larger portions of Jay's calendar. In late 1778, New Yorkers again sent him to Congress, where he was elected president; less than a year later, he became minister plenipotentiary to Spain and in 1782 one of the commissioners in Paris to negotiate a peace treaty with England.

When Jay returned to New York in July 1784, his future as a diplomat was assured; yet, when offered positions as minister to Britain and then to France, he demurred in favor of law practice. Within weeks, Jay was drafted by Congress to be secretary of foreign affairs, a post he retained until 1789. His early misgivings about the impotence of the confederation solidified. By 1784–1785, he became a vocal advocate of a coercive, departmentalized federal government with vigorous executive and judicial branches and a Congress capable of securing economic stability. He took great satisfaction in the move toward a strong federation. While Jay was prevented by illness from writing more than three Federalist essays, he gladly accepted President George Washington's 1789 nomination as chief justice.

When the Court convened in the New York City Stock Exchange, Jay expected that its original and exclusive jurisdictions might be exploited to ensure the supremacy of federal law and to force state compliance with key obligations such as the war debts addressed in the Treaty of Peace. (See Treaties and Treaty Power.) He was disappointed. Jay's Court lacked legitimacy. Antifederalist antipathy toward the federal judiciary still carried weight; the justices' circuit riding duties eroded morale.

Still, Jay's contributions were substantial. In a 1792 New York circuit court hearing of Hayburn's Case, he defended the separation of powers by refusing to allow federal courts to pass judgment, as an Act of Congress mandated, on the claims of invalid pensioners. He made creative use of grand jury charges to educate the citizenry on the rudiments of federal governance. On two occasions, Jay wielded federal judicial power in defense of both the Treaty of Paris and American sovereignty in relations with Europe. His dissent on circuit in Ware v. Hylton (1796) paved the way for High Court insistence upon adherence to treaty provisions in a 1796 appeal of the same case; and in Glass v. The Sloop Betsy (1794), the Jay Court ruled against France's use of its American consul as a prize court.

Jay finally concluded that the Court was an ineffective instrument of domestic unification and diplomacy. When Georgia responded to the Court's ruling against the state's claim of sovereign immunity in Chisholm v. Georgia (1793) with defiance and the introduction of the Eleventh Amendment in Congress, Jay abandoned the federal bench. In 1794, while still sitting as chief justice, he sailed to England as envoy extraordinaire to defuse tensions with Britain over unpaid debts, sequestration of Loyalist estates, and New World trading rights. The Jay Treaty established mixed commissions to resolve economic disputes, granted trade concessions to Britain, and shifted responsibility for payment of defaulted loans to Congress. While resistance to the treaty was formidable, the Senate ratified it in 1795.

Elected governor of New York in absentia, Jay resigned as chief justice in 1795. When President John Adams asked him to resume his duties as chief justice in 1800, he refused on the ground that the Court lacked “energy, weight and dignity.” Nor could he abide Jeffersonian America. In 1801, Jay retired to his farm in Westchester County, New York; despite ill health, he devoted the next quarter century to the Episcopal church and antislavery causes.

Bibliography

• Richard Morris, John Jay, the Nation and the Court (1967).
• Sandra VanBurkleo, ‘Honour, Justice and Interest’: John Jay's Republican Politics and Statesmanship on the Federal Bench, Journal of the Early Republic 4 (Fall 1984): 239–274

— Sandra F. VanBurkleo

John Jay (1745-1829), American diplomat and politician, guided American foreign policy from the end of the Revolution until George Washington's first administration was under way. Jay headed the U.S. Supreme Court during its formative years.

Long accustomed to a colonial status, Americans were ill-prepared to negotiate with foreign powers after the Revolution. The handful of men with diplomatic skill who emerged worked from a difficult position as the new nation experienced crises of credit and unity. John Jay's tenacity helped him survive the sectional battles and placed him in the inner councils of the Federalist party. Inclined to favor northern interests, he worked in a trying atmosphere until the Constitutional Convention of 1787 set a firmer tone for both domestic and diplomatic concerns. Jay's treaty with England, though highly controversial, probably avoided war. As chief justice, he gave the Supreme Court a national approach under the new Constitution.

John Jay was born on Dec. 12, 1745, in New York; he was the eighth child in a wealthy merchant family. Descended from French-Dutch stock and reared in the Huguenot tradition, Jay had few of the sentimental ties with England that made some Americans ambivalent in their allegiance after 1765. He graduated from King's College (later Columbia University) and trained in the law by a 5-year apprenticeship.

Admitted to the bar in 1768, Jay was briefly in partnership with Robert R. Livingston. Before 1774 Jay served on a royal commission formed to settle a boundary dispute between New York and a neighboring state, thus gaining his first experience as a negotiator. As a member of the "Moot Club" in New York, he associated with the lawyers who led the resistance movement against England a few years later. He married the beautiful and ambitious Sarah Livingston, daughter of William Livingston, on April 28, 1774.

Coming of Revolution

Almost before his honeymoon was over, Jay was serving on the New York Committee of Fifty-one, organized to control local anti-British measures. The committee manifesto, reportedly drafted by Jay, urging a convocation of deputies from all the Colonies to aid Boston and seek a "security of our common rights," led to the First Continental Congress. The cautious tone of the manifesto, however, brought some criticism from more militant groups that favored immediate boycott of British goods.

The Congress began Sept. 4, 1774; as Jay saw it, the Colonies were bound to try negotiations, to suspend commerce with Great Britain if these failed, and to go to war only when all other methods proved futile. Prudent to the point of timidity, Jay favored the narrowly defeated Galloway Plan of reconciliation. In Congress, Jay won a reputation as a skillful writer and moderate Whig, qualities that bore him into the New York Convention of 1775 and back to the Second Continental Congress. Meanwhile, the first battles of the Revolution at Lexington-Concord made discussion of a peaceful solution academic.

Jay's capacity for hard work brought him into the vortex of the congressional struggle. He served on the committee that drafted the July 6 declaration justifying armed resistance against England, but he also worked for one last attempt at reconciliation. By November 1775 he was on a secret congressional committee charged with engendering friendship abroad.

In May 1776, upon his return to New York, Jay cautiously supported a motion that disavowed any declaration favoring independence from Great Britain. However, the votes of his colleagues back in Philadelphia compelled Jay to submerge his views and work for independence.

President of the Continental Congress

In 1777 Jay took a leading part in drafting the New York constitution, an essentially conservative document peppered with Jay's concept of justice and blended with the mercantile spirit of the Dutch-Huguenot merchants. Jay himself became chief justice of New York in the transition government, but because of wartime circumstances the court functioned in desultory fashion. In 1778 he was chosen president of the Continental Congress. While Congress tottered on the verge of bankruptcy, many private citizens made paper fortunes in land dealings and mercantile speculations. Jay wrote Washington that there was "as much intrigue in this State House as in the Vatican, but as little secrecy as in a boarding-school." On Aug. 10, 1779, Jay resigned as chief justice of New York, and on Oct. 1 he left the Congress to resume his law practice.

Instead of returning to private life, however, Jay was appointed minister to Spain in October 1779. He was instructed to seek a commercial treaty with Charles III which would establish American rights to Mississippi navigation and to secure a sizable loan. The Spanish court withheld formal recognition (possibly because of its own colonial interests), and Jay ended his mission in May 1782 on a note of failure.

Sectional jealousy had made the negotiations with Spain difficult, for New England congressmen were eager to trade away navigation rights on the Mississippi provided their fisheries gained a Spanish market. Jay showed little sympathy for the Kentuckians, who insisted that they needed a waterway to market their products, and ultimately their anger brought into focus the conflict of interests between the North and South. Jay found the Spanish ministry too arrogant to negotiate anyway, and he journeyed to Paris in June 1782 for the preliminary peace negotiations then in motion. Suspicious of French motives, Jay led the American commissioners in Paris to sign a separate agreement with England, in violation of their instructions from Congress. The French were not pleased.

Secretary of Foreign Affairs

Jay declined posts as minister to both France and Great Britain, but Congress would not permit him to retire from public service. In July 1784 he was appointed secretary of foreign affairs, although New York had also elected him to serve in Congress. Jay resigned the congressional seat and took the foreign affairs assignment.

Jay's immediate concerns as foreign secretary were the British occupation of western posts (in defiance of a treaty) and the festering Mississippi problem. Jay made indiscreet remarks supporting British complaints that they would hold the forts until prewar debts were paid, and the Spanish emissary, Diego de Gardoqui, reported that Jay was "a very self-centered man" with a vain and domineering wife. The Spanish emissary had instructions that permitted negotiation of a treaty that would have pleased the North because it promised hard cash for fish but would have kept the gateway to the West closed. The gift of a prized stallion from Charles III to Jay may have been only incidental; at any rate, Jay decided to recommend concessions which the Spaniards believed would restrict America's western expansion.

Jay explained the commercial treaty to Congress in August but did not mention the military alliance Gardoqui also sought. Congress, voting along sectional lines, approved the pact, but by less than the required two-thirds majority. Tempers on both sides were heated, and the matter was unresolved when the Constitution was sent to the states for ratification.

The Federalists

Though not a delegate to the Constitutional Convention, Jay was to be an outspoken supporter of its handiwork. He joined Alexander Hamilton and James Madison in supplying articles for New York newspapers in support of the Constitution under the pen name "Publius." Of these Federalist papers, Jay wrote Publius 2, 3, 4, 5, and 63. He might have contributed more but for an injury received in the "Doctor's Riot" of April 1788.

Jay recovered in time to write An Address to the People of New York, which pointed out the unique dangers inherent in New York's failure to ratify the Constitution. Such a prospect was likely, as a 2-to-1 Antifederalist majority had been elected to go to the state ratifying convention scheduled for June. Jay himself was a delegate from New York and, with Hamilton, worked a political miracle: the convention voted for ratification by a slender majority. The Federalist victory was tempered by instructions to Jay to prepare a circular letter to all the states seeking a second constitutional convention. Though some Federalists feared that this device would create trouble, its effect was dissipated by the general goodwill apparent in the winter of 1788/1789.

Supreme Court

In the interim period Jay continued to serve as foreign secretary to the expiring Continental Congress, more as a caretaker than a policy maker. American relations with France had remained generally on an excellent footing, but Jay's policy toward the Barbary pirates was ineffective. Jay served as acting secretary of state until Thomas Jefferson returned from France and assumed the office in March 1790. Meanwhile, George Washington had prevailed on Jay to accept the position of chief justice of the Supreme Court. Jay held this office until 1796 and presided over several fundamental cases.

While still chief justice, Jay undertook negotiations to end Anglo-American differences stemming from irritating events that had followed their 1783 peace treaty. Known to history as Jay's Treaty, the new document bore Jay's signature, but it was chiefly the work of Alexander Hamilton, whose advice and information leaks allowed the British diplomats to move confidently. Jay became a special envoy at Washington's request. He left for England in 1794 and signed a treaty with Lord Grenville that gained a British promise to evacuate western posts and negotiate boundaries but made considerable concessions to British creditors and to the British concept of neutrality. France interpreted the treaty as a direct rebuff, and its hostile reception in America strengthened the rising opposition to Washington's government by followers of Thomas Jefferson. The treaty was ratified by the Senate after a stormy debate.

Meanwhile, Jay had been elected governor of New York. Four years earlier Jay had won the popular vote for governor, but a legislative board had nullified his election. His victory in 1795 was clear-cut, however, and Jay gave up his Court position to serve in his last public office. His administration (1795-1801) was conservative and consolidating, marked by a refusal in 1800 to rig an election at Hamilton's suggestion. After two terms Jay announced his retirement and declined the offer to resume his old place on the Supreme Court. Within a year after his long-delayed return to Bedford, N.Y., Jay's wife (who had seven children) died. But for this, Jay's long retreat from public life bore out his repeated expectations of a pleasant "domestic life in rural leisure passed." He died on May 7, 1829, at Bedford.

Further Reading

Frank Monaghan, John Jay (1935), is readable but uncritical. A good short account is in Samuel Flagg Bemis, ed., The American Secretaries of State, vol. 1 (1927). Also valuable is Bemis's Jay's Treaty (1923; rev. ed. 1962). See also Henry P. Johnston, ed., Correspondence and Public Papers of John Jay (4 vols., 1890-1893).

Additional Sources

Johnson, Herbert Alan, John Jay, colonial lawyer, New York: Garland Pub., 1989.

McLean, Jennifer P., The Jays of Bedford: the story of five generations of the Jay family who lived in the John Jay Homestead, Katonah, N.Y.: Friends of John Jay Homestead, 1984.

Pellew, George, John Jay, New York: Chelsea House, 1980.

• Born: Dec. 12, 1745, New York, N.Y.
• Education: King's College (Columbia University), B.A., 1764; read law with Benjamin Kissam in New York, N.Y.
• Previous government service: secretary, Royal Boundary Commission, 1773; Continental Congress, 1774, 1775, 1777, president, 1778–79; New York Provincial Congress, 1776–77; chief justice, New York State, 1777–78; U.S. minister to Spain, 1779; U.S. secretary of foreign affairs, 1784–89
• Appointed by President George Washington Sept. 24, 1789, to be the first chief justice of the United States
• Supreme Court term: confirmed by the Senate Sept. 26, 1789, by a voice vote; resigned June 29, 1795
• Subsequent government service: governor of New York, 1795–1801
• Died: May 17, 1829, Bedford, N.Y.

John Jay was one of the great founders of the United States. Jay was elected to the First Continental Congress in 1774 and at first resisted independence from Great Britain, but he became a fervent patriot in 1776, after the Declaration of Independence.

Jay was the main author of the New York state constitution of 1777. In 1778, he was elected president of the Continental Congress. During the 1780s he was involved in making and conducting foreign policy for the United States.

Although Jay did not attend the Constitutional Convention of 1787, he worked effectively for ratification of the federal Constitution. Toward this end, he wrote five of The Federalist Papers (Nos. 2, 3, 4, 5, and 64), which were originally printed in New York newspapers to support the ratification of the U.S. Constitution. Other authors were James Madison and Alexander Hamilton, who were leaders in the movement to write and ratify the Constitution. Later, Hamilton became U.S. secretary of the Treasury under President George Washington, and Madison served as a Virginia member of the House of Representatives in the first federal Congress. Madison became the fourth President of the United States in 1809.

President George Washington appointed Jay as the first chief justice of the United States. The most important decision over which Jay presided was Chisholm v. Georgia (1793), in which the Court ruled that citizens of one state could bring suit in a federal court against another state.

Overall, however, Jay was disappointed at the apparent weaknesses and insignificance of the Court in comparison to the executive and legislative branches of the federal government. Political leaders seemed to pay slight attention to the Court, and few cases were taken to it. For this reason, Jay resigned as chief justice in 1795 to become governor of New York, a position for which he was elected while serving as chief justice.

President John Adams wanted to reappoint Jay as chief justice in 1800, but Jay refused because he believed the Court lacked “the energy, weight and dignity which are essential to its affording due support to the national government.” In 1801, he retired from public life.

See also Chisholm v. Georgia

Sources

• Richard B. Morris, John Jay, the Nation and the Court (Boston: Boston University Press, 1967)

(1745-1829), member of the Continental Congress, diplomat, and first chief justice, U.S. Supreme Court. The descendant of French Protestant refugees who came to New York in the late seventeenth century, Jay began a distinguished career in national politics with his election to the First Continental Congress in 1774. A lawyer by training and a cautious politician by temperament, Jay was one of a group of moderate delegates who resisted independence until all hopes for reconciliation with Britain were gone. In the New York provincial convention in 1777, Jay was the principal author of a state constitution that limited legislative domination of government far more effectively than the charters that had just been written in other states.

In 1778 Jay was elected president of Congress. In this capacity he became deeply involved in a bitter dispute about foreign policy that disrupted Congress through much of 1779. In the autumn of that year, he accepted appointment as the American minister to Spain, which had entered the war against Britain as an ally of France but not the United States. Jay's more notable accomplishment came when he joined the American peace commission. In the crucial negotiations of 1782, he and John Adams prevailed on Benjamin Franklin to ignore their formal instructions from Congress and to seek the best terms they could obtain from Britain without relying on guidance from France.

Jay returned to America in 1784 to learn that Congress had elected him for the position of secretary of foreign affairs. His most important actions again involved relations with Spain. In 1786 Jay asked Congress to allow him to surrender American claims to the free navigation of the Mississippi--which Spain controlled from New Orleans--in exchange for a satisfactory commercial treaty. This request met intense opposition from the southern states and precipitated a dispute within Congress that led many national leaders to wonder about the durability of the American union.

Although not a member of the Constitutional Convention of 1787, Jay strongly supported ratification of the Constitution and would have contributed far more than the five essays he wrote for The Federalist had ill health not sapped his strength.

President George Washington nominated Jay to be the first chief justice of the Supreme Court. Although the Court reached several notable decisions under his leadership, it was again as a diplomat that he exerted his greatest influence. In 1795 he was sent as special envoy to Great Britain to resolve the crisis that had erupted in 1794 when the Royal Navy seized hundreds of American merchantmen carrying contraband from the French West Indies. The treaty Jay negotiated resolved many of the outstanding issues of Anglo-American relations, but by the standards of those who opposed the administration's foreign policy, it failed to secure adequate British recognition of American neutral rights. The public controversy over Jay's Treaty was the single most important factor leading to full-scale political competition between the Federalist and Democratic-Republican parties.

Jay resigned from the Supreme Court after his return to America. After serving two terms as governor of New York, he retired from politics and sought a deeper consolation in religion. He died in 1829, one of the last of the revolutionary patriarchs.

Bibliography:

Richard B. Morris, John Jay: The Nation and the Court (1967); Richard B. Morris, The Peacemakers: The Great Powers and American Independence (1965).

Author:

Jack N. Rakove

See also Federalist Papers; Jay's Treaty; Paris, Treaty of (1783); Ratification of the Constitution; Revolution; Chisholm v. Georgia .

John Jay was a politician, statesman, and the first chief justice of the Supreme Court. He was one of the authors of The Federalist, a collection of influential papers written with James Madison and Alexander Hamilton prior to the ratification of the Constitution.

Jay was born in New York City on December 12, 1745. Unlike most of the colonists in the New World, who were English, Jay traced his ancestry to the French Huguenots, His grandfather, August Jay, immigrated to New York in the late seventeenth century to escape the persecution of non-Catholics under Louis XIV. Jay graduated from King's College, now known as Columbia University, in 1764. He was admitted to the bar in New York City in 1768.

One of Jay's earliest achievements was his participation in the settlement of the boundary line between New York and New Jersey in 1773. During the time preceding the Revolutionary War, Jay actively protested against British treatment of the colonies but did not fully advocate independence until 1776, when the Declaration of Independence was created. Jay then supported independence wholeheartedly. He was a member of the Continental Congress from 1774 to 1779, acting as its president from 1778 to 1779.

In 1776, Jay was a member of the Provincial Congress of New York and was instrumental in the formation of the constitution of that state. From 1776 to 1778, he performed the duties of New York chief justice.

Jay next embarked on a foreign service career. His first appointment was to the post of minister plenipotentiary to Spain in 1779, where he succeeded in gaining financial assistance for the colonies.

In 1782, Jay joined Benjamin Franklin in Paris for a series of peace negotiations with Great Britain. In 1784, Jay became secretary of foreign affairs and performed these duties until 1789. During his term, Jay participated in the arbitration of various international disputes.

Jay recognized the limitations of his powers in foreign service under the existing government of the Articles of Confederation, and this made him a strong supporter of the Constitution. He publicly displayed his views in the five papers he composed for The Federalist in 1787 and 1788. Jay argued for ratification of the Constitution and the creation of a strong federal government.

In 1789, Jay earned the distinction of becoming the first chief justice of the United States. During his term, which lasted until 1795, Jay rendered a decision in Chisholm v. Georgia, 2 U.S. (2 Dall.) 419, 1 L.Ed. 440 (1793), which subsequently led to the enactment of the Eleventh Amendment to the Constitution. This 1793 case involved the ability of inhabitants of one state to sue another state. The Supreme Court recognized this right but, in response, Congress passed the Eleventh Amendment denying the right of a state to be prosecuted or sued by a resident of another state in federal court.

During Jay's tenure on the Supreme Court, he was again called upon to act in foreign service. In 1794 he negotiated a treaty with Great Britain known as Jay's Treaty. This agreement regulated commerce and navigation and settled many outstanding disputes between the United States and Great Britain. The treaty, under which disputes were resolved before an international commission, was the origin of modern international arbitration.

In 1795 Jay was elected governor of New York. He served two terms, until 1801, at which time he retired.

He died May 17, 1829.

For other uses, see John Jay (disambiguation).

John Jay
Portrait of John Jay painted by Gilbert Stuart
1st Chief Justice of the United States
In office September 26, 1789 – June 29, 1795
Nominated by	George Washington
Succeeded by	John Rutledge
2nd Governor of New York
In office July 1, 1795 – June 30, 1801
Lieutenant	Stephen Van Rensselaer
Preceded by	George Clinton
Succeeded by	George Clinton
2nd United States Secretary of Foreign Affairs
In office May 7, 1784 – March 22, 1790
Preceded by	Robert Livingston
Succeeded by	Thomas Jefferson (as United States Secretary of State)
President of the Continental Congress
In office December 10, 1778 – September 28, 1779
Preceded by	Henry Laurens
Succeeded by	Samuel Huntington
Born	December 12, 1745(1745-12-12) New York, New York
Died	May 17, 1829 (aged 83) Westchester County, New York
Spouse(s)	Sarah Livingston (see Livingston family)
Alma mater	King's College (now Columbia University)
Religion	Episcopalian
Signature

John Jay (December 12, 1745 – May 17, 1829) was an American politician, statesman, revolutionary, diplomat, a Founding Father of the United States, President of the Continental Congress from 1778 to 1779 and, from 1789 to 1795, the first Chief Justice of the United States. During and after the American Revolution, he was a minister (ambassador) to Spain and France, helping to fashion United States foreign policy and to secure favorable peace terms from the British (the Jay Treaty) and French. He co-wrote the Federalist Papers with Alexander Hamilton and James Madison.

As leader of the new Federalist Party, Jay was Governor of New York from 1795 to 1801 and became the state's leading opponent of slavery. His first two attempts to pass emancipation legislation failed in 1777 and 1785, but the third succeeded in 1799. The new law he signed into existence eventually saw the emancipation of all New York slaves before his death.

Contents 1 Early life 1.1 Birth 1.2 Education 1.3 Entrance into lawyering and politics 2 During the American Revolution 2.1 As a diplomat 3 Secretary of Foreign Affairs 3.1 Federalist Papers 1788 4 The Jay Court 4.1 Jury nullification 5 1792 campaign for Governor of New York 6 Jay Treaty 7 Governor of New York 8 Death 9 Personal views 9.1 As an abolitionist 9.2 Religion 10 Legacy 11 Notes 12 References 12.1 Primary sources 13 Further reading 14 See also 15 External links

Early life

Birth

Jay was born on December 12, 1745, to a wealthy family of merchants in New York City.^[1] He was the eighth child and the sixth son in his family.^[2] The Jay family was of French Huguenot origin and was prominent in New York City.^[3] In 1685 the Edict of Nantes was revoked, thereby abolishing the rights of Protestants and confiscating their property. Among those affected was Jay's paternal grandfather, Augustus Jay, causing him to move from France to New York and to establish the Jay family there.^[4] Peter, Augustus's son, and John's father, was a merchant and had ten children with his wife, Mary Van Cortlandt. Only seven of the ten children survived.^[5] After Jay was born, his family moved from Manhattan to Rye for a healthier environment; two of his siblings were blinded by the smallpox epidemic of 1739 and two suffered from mental handicaps.^[5]

Education

Jay spent his childhood in Rye, New York, and took the same political stand as his father, who was a staunch Whig.^[6] He was educated there by private tutors until he was eight years old, when he was sent to New Rochelle to study under Anglican pastor Pierre Stoupe. In 1756, after three years, he would return to homeschooling under the tutelage of George Murray. In 1760, Jay continued his studies at King's College, the then-sixteen-year-old forerunner of Columbia University.^[7] In 1764 he graduated^[8] and became a law clerk for Benjamin Kissam.^[5]

Entrance into lawyering and politics

In 1768, after being admitted to the bar of New York, Jay, with Robert Livingston, established a legal practice and worked there until he created his own law office in 1771.^[5] He was a member of the New York Committee of Correspondence in 1774.^[9]

His first public role came as secretary to the New York committee of correspondence, where he represented the conservative faction that was interested in protecting property rights and in preserving the rule of law while resisting what it regarded as British violations of American rights. This faction feared the prospect of "mob rule". He believed the British tax measures were wrong and thought Americans were morally and legally justified in resisting them, but as a delegate to the First Continental Congress in 1774 he sided with those who wanted conciliation with Parliament. Events such as the burning of Norfolk, Virginia, by British troops in January 1776 pushed Jay to support independence. With the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War, he worked tirelessly for the revolutionary cause and acted to suppress the Loyalists. Thus Jay evolved into first a moderate and then an ardent Patriot once he decided that all the colonies' efforts at reconciliation with Britain were fruitless and that the struggle for independence which became the American Revolution was inevitable.^[10]

During the American Revolution

Main articles: American Revolution and American Revolutionary War

Having established a reputation as a "reasonable moderate" in New York, Jay was elected to serve as delegate to the First and Second Continental Congresses which debated whether the colonies should declare independence. He attempted to reconcile the colonies with Britain, up until the Declaration of Independence. Jay's views became more radical as events unfolded; he became an ardent separatist and attempted to move New York towards that cause.

The Treaty of Paris, Jay stands farthest to the left.

In 1774, at the close of the Continental Congress, Jay returned to New York.^[11] There he served on New York City's Committee of Sixty,^[12] where he attempted to enforce a non-importation agreement passed by the First Continental Congress.^[11] Jay was elected to the third New York Provincial Congress, where he drafted the Constitution of New York, 1777;^[13] his duties as a New York Congressman prevented him from voting on or signing the Declaration of Independence.^[11][14] Jay served on the committee to detect and defeat conspiracies, which monitored British Actions.^[15] New York's Provincial Congress elected Jay the Chief Justice of the New York Supreme Court on May 8, 1777,^[11][16] which he served on for two years.^[11]

Jay served as President of the Continental Congress from December 10, 1778, to September 28, 1779. The Continental Congress turned to John Jay, an adversary of the previous president Henry Laurens,^[14] only three days after Jay become a delegate and elected him President of the Continental Congress. Eight states voted for Jay and four for Laurens.^[17]

As a diplomat

Main article: Treaty of Paris (1783)

On September 27, 1779, Jay resigned his office as President of the Continental Congress and was appointed Minister to Spain. In Spain, he was assigned to get financial aid, commercial treaties and recognition of American independence. The royal court of Spain refused to officially receive Jay as the Minister of the United States,^[18] as it refused to recognize American Independence until 1783, fearing that such recognition could spark revolution in their own colonies. Jay, however, convinced Spain to loan $170,000 to the US government.^[19] He departed Spain on May 20, 1782.^[18]

On June 23, 1782, Jay reached Paris, where negotiations to end the American Revolutionary War would take place.^[20] Benjamin Franklin was the most experienced diplomat of the group, and thus Jay wished to lodge near him, in order to learn from him.^[21] The United States agreed to negotiate with Britain separately, then with France.^[22][23] In July 1782, Earl of Shelburne offered the Americans independence, but Jay rejected the offer on the grounds that it did not recognize American independence during the negotiations; Jay's dissent halted negotiations until the fall.^[22] The final treaty dictated that the United States would have Newfoundland fishing rights (extending its Western border), Britain would acknowledge the United States as independent and would withdraw its troops in exchange for the United States ending the seizure of Loyalist property and honoring private debts.^[22][24] The treaty granted the United States independence, but left many border regions in dispute, and many of its provisions were not enforced.^[22]

Secretary of Foreign Affairs

Jay served as the second Secretary of Foreign Affairs from 1784-1789, when in September, Congress passed a law giving certain additional domestic responsibilities to the new Department and changing its name to the Department of State. Jay served as acting Secretary of State until March 22, 1790. Jay sought to establish a strong and durable American foreign policy: to seek the recognition of the young independent nation by powerful and established foreign European powers; to establish a stable American currency and credit supported at first by financial loans from European banks; to pay back America's creditors and to quickly pay off the country's heavy War-debt; to secure the infant nation's territorial boundaries under the most-advantageous terms possible and against possible incursions by the Indians, Spanish, the French and the English; to solve regional difficulties among the colonies themselves; to secure Newfoundland fishing rights; to establish a robust maritime trade for American goods with new economic trading partners; to protect American trading vessels against piracy; to preserve America's reputation at home and abroad; and to hold the country together politically under the fledgling Articles of Confederation.^[25]

Jay believed his responsibility was not matched by a commensurate level of authority, so he joined Alexander Hamilton and James Madison in advocating for a stronger government than the one dictated by the Articles of Confederation.^[5][26] He argued in his Address to the People of the State of New-York, on the Subject of the Federal Constitution that the Articles of Confederation were too weak and ineffective a form of government. He contended that:

The Congress under the Articles of Confederation] may make war, but are not empowered to raise men or money to carry it on—they may make peace, but without power to see the terms of it observed—they may form alliances, but without ability to comply with the stipulations on their part—they may enter into treaties of commerce, but without power to [e]nforce them at home or abroad...—In short, they may consult, and deliberate, and recommend, and make requisitions, and they who please may regard them.^[27]

Federalist Papers 1788

Jay did not attend the Constitutional Convention but joined Hamilton and Madison in aggressively arguing in favor of the creation of a new and more powerful, centralized but balanced system of government. Writing under the shared pseudonym of "Publius,"^[28] they articulated this vision in the Federalist Papers, a series of eighty-five articles written to persuade the citizenry to ratify the proposed Constitution of the United States.^[29] Jay wrote the second, third, fourth, fifth and sixty-fourth articles. All except the sixty-fourth concerned the "[d]angers from [f]oreign [f]orce and [i]nfluence".^[30]

The Jay Court

[T]he people are the sovereign of this country, and consequently that fellow citizens and joint sovereigns cannot be degraded by appearing with each other in their own courts to have their controversies determined. The people have reason to prize and rejoice in such valuable privileges, and they ought not to forget that nothing but the free course of constitutional law and government can ensure the continuance and enjoyment of them. For the reasons before given, I am clearly of opinion that a State is suable by citizens of another State. —John Jay in the Court Opinion of Chisholm v. Georgia[31]

In 1789, Jay was offered the new position of Secretary of State by George Washington; he declined. Washington nominated Jay as the first Chief Justice of the United States.^[26] Washington also nominated John Blair, William Cushing, James Wilson, James Iredell and John Rutledge as Associate Judges;^[32] Jay would later serve with Thomas Johnson,^[33] who took Rutledge's seat,^[34] and William Paterson, who took Johnson's seat.^[34] The court had little business through its first three years and its first decision was West v. Barnes (1791) strictly interpreting statutory procedural requirements.^[32]

In Chisholm v. Georgia, the Jay Court had to answer the question: "Was the state of Georgia subject to the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court and the federal government?"^[35] In a 4-1 ruling (Iredell dissented), the Jay Court ruled in favor of two South Carolinan Loyalists who had had their land seized by Georgia. This ruling sparked debate, as it implied that old debts must be paid to Loyalists.^[32] The ruling was overturned by the Senate when the Eleventh Amendment was ratified, as it ruled that the judiciary could not rule on cases where a state was being sued by a citizen of another state or foreign country.^[5][32] The case was brought again to the Supreme Court in Georgia v. Brailsford, and the Court reversed its decision.^[36][37] However, Jay's original Chisholm decision established that states were subject to judicial review.^[35][38]

In Hayburn's Case, the Jay Court ruled that courts could not comply with a federal statute that required the courts to decide whether individual petitioning American Revolution veterans qualified for pensions. The Jay Court ruled that determining whether petitioners qualified was an "act ... not of a judicial nature".^[39] and that because the statute allowed the legislature and the executive branch to revise the court's ruling, the statute violated the separation of powers as dictated by the United States Constitution.^[39][40][41]

Jury nullification

In 1794 in Georgia v. Brailsford (1794), Supreme Court Justice John Jay upheld jury instructions stating "you [jurors] have ...a right to take upon yourselves to ...determine the law as well as the fact in controversy." Jay noted for the jury the "good old rule, that on questions of fact, it is the province of the jury, on questions of law, it is the province of the court to decide," but this amounted to no more than a presumption that the judges were correct about the law. Ultimately, "both objects [the law and the facts] are lawfully within your power of decision."^[42][43]

1792 campaign for Governor of New York

In 1792, Jay was the Federalist candidate for governor of New York, but was defeated by Democratic-Republican George Clinton. Jay received more votes than George Clinton, but on technicalities the votes of Otsego, Tioga and Clinton counties were disqualified and therefore not counted, giving George Clinton a slight majority.^[44] The state constitution said that the cast votes shall be delivered to the secretary of state "by the sheriff or his deputy," but, for example, Otsego County Sheriff Smith's term had expired, so at the time of the election, the sheriff's office had been legally vacant, and the votes could not be brought to the state capital by anybody legally authorized. Clinton partisans in the state legislature, in state courts and federal offices were adamant not to accept any argument that this would in practice subtract the constitutional right to vote from the voters in these counties, and these votes were disqualified.^[45]

Jay Treaty

Main article: Jay Treaty

Relations with Britain verged on war in 1794. British exports dominated the U.S. market, while American exports were blocked by British trade restrictions and tariffs. Britain still occupied northern forts that it had agreed to surrender in the Treaty of Paris. Britain’s impressment of American sailors and seizure of naval and military supplies bound to enemy ports on neutral ships also created conflict.^[46] Madison proposed a trade war, "A direct system of commercial hostility with Great Britain," assuming that Britain was so weakened by its war with France that it would agree to American terms and not declare war.^[47] Washington rejected that policy and sent Jay as a special envoy to Great Britain to negotiate a new treaty; Jay remained Chief Justice. Washington had Alexander Hamilton write instructions for Jay that were to guide him in the negotiations.^[48] In March 1795, the resulting treaty, known as the Jay Treaty, was brought to Philadelphia.^[48] When Hamilton, in an attempt to maintain good relations, informed Britain that the United States would not join the Danish and Swedish governments to defend their neutral status, Jay lost most of his leverage. The treaty eliminated Britain's control of northwestern posts^[49] and granted the United States "most favored nation" status,^[46] and the U.S. agreed to restricted commercial access to the British West Indies.^[46] Washington signed the treaty, and the Senate approved it on a 20-10 vote.^[46][49]

The treaty did not resolve American grievances about neutral shipping rights and impressment,^[50] and the Republicans denounced it, but Jay, as Chief Justice, decided not to take part in the debates.^[51] The failure to get compensation for slaves taken by the British during the Revolution "was a major reason for the bitter Southern opposition".^[52] Jefferson and Madison, fearing a commercial alliance with aristocratic Britain might undercut republicanism, led the opposition. Jay complained he could travel from Boston to Philadelphia solely by the light of his burning effigies. However, led by Hamilton's newly created Federalist party and support from Washington, strongly backed Jay and thus won the battle of public opinion.^[53] Washington put his prestige on the line behind the treaty and Hamilton and the Federalists mobilized public opinion. The Senate ratified the treaty by a 20-10 vote (just enough to meet the 2/3 requirement.) Graffiti appeared near Jay's house after the treaty's ratification, reading, "Damn John Jay. Damn everyone that won't damn John Jay. Damn everyone that won't put up the lights in the windows and sit up all nights damning John Jay."^[54]

In 1812, relations between Britain and the U.S. faltered. The desire of a group of members in the House of Representatives, known as the War Hawks, to acquire land from Canada and the British impressment of American ships led, in part, to the War of 1812.^[55]

Governor of New York

Certificate of Election of John Jay as Governor of New York (June 6, 1795)

While in Britain, Jay was elected in May, 1795, as the second governor of New York State (following George Clinton) as a Federalist. He resigned from the Supreme Court and served six years as governor until 1801.

As Governor, he received a proposal from Hamilton to gerrymander New York for the Presidential election of that year; he marked the letter "Proposing a measure for party purposes which it would not become me to adopt," and filed it without replying.^[56] President John Adams then renominated him to the Supreme Court; the Senate quickly confirmed him, but he declined, citing his own poor health^[26] and the court's lack of "the energy, weight and dignity which are essential to its affording due support to the national government."^[57]

While governor, Jay ran in the 1796 presidential election, winning five electoral votes, and in the 1800 election, winning one vote.

Jay declined the Federalist renomination for governor in 1801 and retired to the life of a farmer in Westchester County, New York. Soon after his retirement, his wife died.^[58] Jay remained in good health, continued to farm and stayed out of politics.^[59]

Death

On the night of May 14, 1829, Jay was stricken with palsy, probably due to a stroke. He lived for three more days, dying on May 17.^[60] He chose to be buried in a private cemetery which he had defined on his family's Rye property in 1807, returning to the place where he grew up as a boy. This original family estate of the Jays, first established in 1745 when Jay was 3 months old, is a National Historic Landmark site overlooking Long Island Sound. The Jay estate in Rye passed into John Jay's possession in 1815 and he conveyed it to his eldest son, Peter Augustus Jay, in 1822. The property remained in the Jay family through 1904. Today the cemetery is still privately held and used by Jay's descendants. What remains of the original 400 acre Jay estate is a 23 acre parcel called the Jay Property and the 1838 Peter Augustus Jay House built by Peter Augustus Jay over the footprint of his father's original home "The Locusts." Stewardship of the site and restoration of several of its buildings for educational use was entrusted by the New York State Board of Regents to the Jay Heritage Center.^[61]

Personal views

As an abolitionist

Jay was a leader against slavery after 1777, when he drafted a state law to abolish slavery; it failed as did a second attempt in 1785.^[62] Jay was the founder and president of the New York Manumission Society, in 1785, which organized boycotts against newspapers and merchants in the slave trade and provided legal counsel for free blacks claimed as slaves.^[63] The Society helped enact the gradual emancipation of slaves in New York in 1799, which Jay signed into law as governor.

Jay was pushing at an open door; every member of the New York legislature (but one) had voted for some form of emancipation in 1785; they had differed on what rights to give the free blacks afterwards. Aaron Burr both supported this bill and introduced an amendment calling for immediate abolition.^[64] The 1799 bill settled the matter by guaranteeing no rights at all. The 1799 "An Act for the Gradual Abolition of Slavery" provided that, from July 4 of that year, all children born to slave parents would be free (subject only to apprenticeship) and that slave exports would be prohibited. These same children would be required to serve the mother’s owner until age twenty-eight for males and age twenty-five for females. The law thus defined a type of indentured servant while slating them for eventual freedom.^[65] All slaves were emancipated by July 4, 1827; the process may perhaps have been the largest emancipation in North America before 1861,^[66] except for the British Army's recruitment of runaway slaves during the American Revolution.^[67]

In the close 1792 election, Jay's antislavery work hurt his election chances in upstate New York Dutch areas, where slavery was still practiced.^[68] In 1794, in the process of negotiating the Jay Treaty with the British, Jay angered Southern slave-owners when he dropped their demands for compensation for slaves who had been captured and carried away during the Revolution.^[50] He made a practice of buying slaves and then freeing them when they were adults and he judged their labors had been a reasonable return on their price; he owned eight in 1798, the year before the emancipation act was passed.^[69]

Religion

Jay's home, near Katonah, New York, is a New York State Historic Site and National Historic Landmark.

Jay was Anglican, a denomination renamed the Protestant Episcopal Church in America after the American Revolution. Since 1785 Jay had been a warden of Trinity Church, New York. As Congress's Secretary for Foreign Affairs, he supported the proposal after the Revolution that the Archbishop of Canterbury approve the ordination of bishops for the Episcopal Church in the United States.^[69] He argued unsuccessfully in the provincial convention for a prohibition against Catholics holding office.^[70]

In a letter addressed to Pennsylvania House of Representatives member John Murray, dated October 12, 1816, Jay wrote, "Providence has given to our people the choice of their rulers, and it is the duty, as well as the privilege and interest, of our Christian nation to select and prefer Christians for their rulers."^[71]

Legacy

John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City

John Jay Hall is a residence building across from Hamilton Lawn at Columbia University in New York City.

Several geographical locations have adopted John Jay's name, including: Jay, Maine; Jay, New York; Jay, Vermont; Jay County, Indiana and Jay Street in Brooklyn. In 1964, the City University of New York's College of Police Science was officially renamed the John Jay College of Criminal Justice. The colonial Fort Jay on Governors Island is also named for him. Mount John Jay, also known as Boundary Peak 18, a summit on the border between Alaska and British Columbia, Canada, is also named for him.^[72][73]

There are also high schools named after Jay located in Cross River, New York; Hopewell Junction, New York and San Antonio, Texas. The Best Western Hotel chain named several of their colonial motif hotels the John Jay Inn.

Exceptional undergraduates at Columbia University are designated John Jay Scholars, and one of that university's undergraduate dormitories is known as John Jay Hall. The John Jay Center on the campus of Robert Morris University and the John Jay Institute for Faith, Society & Law are also named for him. Jay's house, located near Katonah, New York, is preserved as a National Historic Landmark and as the John Jay Homestead State Historic Site.^[74]

Notes

1. ^ "John Jay 1789-1795". www.supremecourthistory.org. http://www.supremecourthistory.org/02_history/subs_timeline/images_chiefs/001.html. 
2. ^ Pellew p.1
3. ^ "John Jay". The John Jay Institute for Faith, Society and Law. http://www.johnjayinstitute.org/?get=get.johnjay. Retrieved 2008-08-20. 
4. ^ Pellew, George: "American Statesman John Jay", page 1. Houghton Mifflin, 1890
5. ^ ^{a b c d e f} "A Brief Biography of John Jay" (in English) (HTML). The Papers of John Jay. Columbia University. 2002. http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/digital/jay/biography.html. 
6. ^ Pellew p.6
7. ^ Stahr, page 9
8. ^ Barnard edu retrieved August 31, 2008
9. ^ "John Jay". www.ushistory.org. http://www.ushistory.org/Declaration/related/jay.htm. Retrieved 2008-08-21. 
10. ^ Klein (2000)
11. ^ ^{a b c d e} "Jay and New York" (in English) (HTML). The Papers of John Jay. Columbia University. 2002. http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/digital/jay/jayandny.html. Retrieved 2008-08-23. 
12. ^ Stahr, page 443
13. ^ "The First Constitution, 1777." (in English) (HTML). The Historical Society of the Courts of the State of New York. New York State Unified Court System. http://www.courts.state.ny.us/history/elecbook/lincoln/pg9.htm. Retrieved 2008-08-23. 
14. ^ ^{a b} "John Jay" (in English) (HTML). NNDB. http://www.nndb.com/people/374/000049227/. Retrieved 2008-08-23. 
15. ^ James Newcomb (2007-12-13). "Remembering John Jay, One of Our Founding Fathers" (in English) (HTML). The John Birch Society. http://www.jbs.org/index.php/jbs-news-feed/689-remembering-john-jay-one-of-our-founding-fathers. 
16. ^ "Portrait Gallery" (in English) (HTML). The Historical Society of the Courts of the State of New York. New York State Unified Court System. http://www.nycourts.gov/history/Gallery_C.htm#r_2. Retrieved 2008-08-23. 
17. ^ Stanley Louis Klos. "John Jay" (in English) (HTML). Virtualology.net. Evisium Inc.. http://johnjay.net. Retrieved 2008-08-25. 
18. ^ ^{a b} United States Department of State: Chiefs of Mission to Spain
19. ^ "John Jay". Independence Hall Association. http://www.ushistory.org/Declaration/related/jay.htm. Retrieved 2008-08-22. 
20. ^ Pellew p.166
21. ^ Pellew p.170
22. ^ ^{a b c d} "Treaty of Paris, 1783" (in English) (HTML). U.S. Department of State. The Office of Electronic Information, Bureau of Public Affairs. http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ho/time/ar/14313.htm. Retrieved 2008-08-23. 
23. ^ Stanley L. Klos. "Treaty of Paris" (in English) (HTML). Virtuolology.com. Evisum Inc.. http://treatyofparis.com/. Retrieved 2008-08-23. 
24. ^ "The Paris Peace Treaty of 1783" (in English) (HTML). The University of Oklahoma College of Law. http://www.law.ou.edu/ushistory/paris.shtml. 
25. ^ Whitelock p.181
26. ^ ^{a b c} "John Jay" (in English) (HTML). Find Law. http://supreme.lp.findlaw.com/supreme_court/justices/pastjustices/jay.html. Retrieved 2008-08-25. 
27. ^ "Extract from an Address to the people of the state of New-York, on the subject of the federal Constitution." (in English) (HTML). The Library of Congress. http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/bdsdcc:@field(DOCID+@lit(bdsdccc0501)). Retrieved 2008-08-23. 
28. ^ WSU retrieved August 31, 2008
29. ^ "The Federalist Papers" (in English) (HTML). Primary Document in American History. The Library of Congress. http://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/ourdocs/federalist.html. Retrieved 2008-08-21. 
30. ^ "Federalist Papers Authored by John Jay" (in English) (HTML). Foundingfathers.info. http://www.foundingfathers.info/federalistpapers/jay.htm. Retrieved 2008-08-21. 
31. ^ "CHISHOLM V. GEORGIA, 2 U. S. 419 (1793) (Court Opinion)" (in English) (HTML). Justia & Oyez. http://supreme.justia.com/us/2/419/case.html. Retrieved 2008-08-21. 
32. ^ ^{a b c d} "The Jay Court ... 1789-1793" (in English) (HTML). The Supreme Court Historical Society. http://www.supremecourthistory.org/02_history/subs_history/02_c01.html. Retrieved 2008-08-21. 
33. ^ "Thomas Johnson" (in English) (HTML). Law Library - American Law and Legal Information. http://law.jrank.org/pages/7836/Johnson-Thomas.html. Retrieved 2008-08-22. 
34. ^ ^{a b} "Appointees Chart" (in English) (HTML). The Supreme Court Historical Society. http://www.supremecourthistory.org/myweb/fp/courtlist.htm. Retrieved 2008-08-22. 
35. ^ ^{a b} "Chisholm v. Georgia, 2 U.S. 419 (1793)" (in English) (HTML). The Oyez Project. http://www.oyez.org/cases/1792-1850/1793/1793_0/. Retrieved 2008-08-21. 
36. ^ "Georgia v. Brailsford, Powell & Hopton, 3 U.S. 3 Dall. 1 1 (1794)" (in English) (HTML). Oyez & Justia. http://supreme.justia.com/us/3/1/index.html. Retrieved 2008-08-21. 
37. ^ "John Jay (1745 - 1829)" (in English) (HTML). The Free Library. Farlex. http://jay.thefreelibrary.com/. Retrieved 2008-08-21. 
38. ^ Johnson (2000)
39. ^ ^{a b} "HAYBURN'S CASE, 2 U. S. 409 (1792)" (in English) (HTML). Justia and Oyez. http://supreme.justia.com/us/2/409/case.html. Retrieved 2008-08-22. 
40. ^ Robert J Pushaw Jr. "[Georgetown Law Journal Why the Supreme Court never gets any "Dear John" letters: Advisory opinions in historical perspective]" (in English) (HTML). Georgetown Law Journal. Bnet. Georgetown Law Journal. Retrieved 2008-08-22. 
41. ^ "HAYBURN'S CASE" (in English) (HTML). Novelguide.com. http://www.novelguide.com/a/discover/dah_04/dah_04_01862.html. Retrieved 2008-08-22. 
42. ^ We the Jury by Jefferey B Abramson pp.75-76
43. ^ Mann, Neighbors and Strangers, pp. 75,71
44. ^ Jenkins, John (1846) (in English) (HTML). History of Political Parties in the State of New-York. Alden & Markham. http://books.google.com/books?id=Gm04AAAAMAAJ&pg=PA42#PPA44,M1. Retrieved 2008-08-25. 
45. ^ Dr. James Sullivan (1927). "The History of New York State". Lewis Historical Publishing Company. http://www.usgennet.org/usa/ny/state/his/bk12/ch3/pt2.html. Retrieved 2008-08-20. 
46. ^ ^{a b c d} "John Jay’s Treaty, 1794–95" (in English) (HTML). U.S. Department of State. The Office of Electronic Information, Bureau of Public Affairs. http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ho/time/nr/14318.htm. Retrieved 2008-08-25. 
47. ^ Elkins and McKitrick p 405
48. ^ ^{a b} Kafer p.87
49. ^ ^{a b} "Jay's Treaty" (in English) (HTML). Archiving Early America. http://www.earlyamerica.com/earlyamerica/milestones/jaytreaty/. Retrieved 2008-08-25. 
50. ^ ^{a b} Baird, James. "The Jay Treaty". www.columbia.edu. http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/digital/jay/jaytreaty.html. Retrieved 2008-08-22. 
51. ^ Estes (2002)
52. ^ quoting Don Fehrenbacher, The Slaveholding Republic (2002) p. 93; Frederick A. Ogg, "Jay's Treaty and the Slavery Interests of the United States." Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1901 (1902) 1:275-86 in JSTOR.
53. ^ Todd Estes, "Shaping the Politics of Public Opinion: Federalists and the Jay Treaty Debate". Journal of the Early Republic (2000) 20(3): 393-422. ISSN 0275-1275; online at JSTOR
54. ^ Walter A. McDougall, Walter A. (1997) (in English). Promised Land, Crusader State: The American Encounter with the World Since 1776. Houghton Mifflin Books. pp. 29. ISBN 9780395901328. http://books.google.com/books?id=Gr6atcdK37EC. Retrieved 2008-08-22. 
55. ^ "WARS - War of 1812" (in English) (HTML). USAhistory.com. http://www.usahistory.com/wars/1812.htm. 
56. ^ Monaghan, pp.419-21; Adair, Douglass; Marvin Harvey (April 1955). "Was Alexander Hamilton a Christian Statesman?". The William and Mary Quarterly 12 (3rd Ser., Vol. 12, No. 2, Alexander Hamilton: 1755-1804): 308–329. doi:10.2307/1920511. http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0043-5597%28195504%293%3A12%3A2%3C308%3AWAHACS%3E2.0.CO%3B2-4. 
57. ^ Laboratory of Justice, The Supreme Court's 200 Year Struggle to Integrate Science and the Law, by David L. Faigman, First edition, 2004, p. 34; Smith, Republic of Letters, 15, 501
58. ^ Whitelock p.327
59. ^ Whitelock p.329
60. ^ Whitelock p.335
61. ^ "News and Events: Pace Law School, New York Law School, located in New York 20 miles north of NY City. Environmental Law.". www.pace.edu. http://www.pace.edu/LawSchool/News/lectures/jaylecture.html. Retrieved 2008-08-22. 
62. ^ John Jay and Sarah Livingston Jay, Selected Letters of John Jay and Sarah Livingston Jay (2005) pp 297-99; online at [1]
63. ^ Roger G. Kennedy, Burr, Hamilton, and Jefferson: A Study in Character (2000) p. 92
64. ^ "Timeline of Events Leading up to the Duel" (in English) (HTML). The Duel. PBS. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/duel/timeline/index.html. Retrieved 2008-08-25. 
65. ^ Edgar J. McManus, History of Negro Slavery in New York
66. ^ Jake Sudderth (2002). "John Jay and Slavery". Columbia University. http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/digital/jay/JaySlavery.html. 
67. ^ Gordon S. Wood, American Revolution, p. 114
68. ^ Herbert S. Parmet and Marie B. Hecht, Aaron Burr (1967) p. 76
69. ^ ^{a b} Crippen II, Alan R. (2005). "John Jay: An American Wilberforce?". http://www.johnjayinstitute.org/index.cfm?get=get.johnjaypaper. Retrieved 2006-12-13. 
70. ^ Kaminski, John P. (March 2002). "Religion and the Founding Fathers". Annotation: the Newsletter of the National Historic Publications and Records Commission 30:1. ISSN 0160-8460. http://www.archives.gov/nhprc/annotation/march-2002/religion-founding-fathers.html. Retrieved 2008-08-25. 
71. ^ Jay, William (1833) (in English). The Life of John Jay: With Selections from His Correspondence and Miscellaneous Papers. J. & J. Harper. pp. 376. http://books.google.com/books?id=V50EAAAAYAAJ. Retrieved 2008-08-22. 
72. ^ John Jay, Mount in the BC Geographical Names Information System
73. ^ USGS GNIS: Mount John Jay
74. ^ "Friends of John Jay Homestead". www.johnjayhomestead.org. http://www.johnjayhomestead.org/. Retrieved 2008-08-24. 

References

• Bemis, Samuel F. (1923) (in English). Jay's Treaty: A Study in Commerce and Diplomacy. New York, New York: The Macmillan Company. 
• Brecher, Frank W. Securing American Independence: John Jay and the French Alliance. Praeger, 2003. 327 pp.
• Casto, William R. The Supreme Court in the Early Republic: The Chief Justiceships of John Jay and Oliver Ellsworth. U. of South Carolina Press, 1995. 267 pp.
• Combs, Jerald. A. The Jay Treaty: Political Background of Founding Fathers (1970) (ISBN 0-520-01573-8); concludes the Federalists "followed the proper policy" because the treaty preserved peace with Britain
• Elkins, Stanley M. and Eric McKitrick, The Age of Federalism: The Early American Republic, 1788-1800. (1994), detailed political history
• Estes, Todd. "John Jay, the Concept of Deference, and the Transformation of Early American Political Culture." Historian (2002) 65(2): 293-317. ISSN 0018-2370 Fulltext in Swetswise, Ingenta and Ebsco
• Ferguson, Robert A. "The Forgotten Publius: John Jay and the Aesthetics of Ratification." Early American Literature (1999) 34(3): 223-240. ISSN 0012-8163 Fulltext: in Swetswise and Ebsco
• Johnson, Herbert A. "John Jay and the Supreme Court." New York History 2000 81(1): 59-90. ISSN 0146-437X
• Kaminski, John P. "Honor and Interest: John Jay's Diplomacy During the Confederation." New York History (2002) 83(3): 293-327. ISSN 0146-437X
• Kaminski, John P. "Shall We Have a King? John Jay and the Politics of Union." New York History (2000) 81(1): 31-58. ISSN 0146-437X
• Kefer, Peter (2004) (in English). Charles Brockden Brown's Revolution and the Birth of American Gothic. 
• Klein, Milton M. "John Jay and the Revolution." New York History (2000) 81(1): 19-30. ISSN 0146-437X
• Littlefield, Daniel C. "John Jay, the Revolutionary Generation, and Slavery" New York History 2000 81(1): 91-132. ISSN 0146-437X
• Michael, William Henry History of the Department of State of the United States (1901) United States Dept
• Monaghan, Frank. John Jay: Defender of Liberty 1972. on abolitionism
• Morris, Richard B. The Peacemakers: The Great Powers and American Independence 1965.
• Morris, Richard B. Seven Who Shaped Our Destiny: The Founding Fathers as Revolutionaries 1973. chapter on Jay
• Morris, Richard B. Witness at the Creation; Hamilton, Madison, Jay and the Constitution 1985.
• Morris, Richard B. ed. John Jay: The Winning of the Peace 1980. 9780060130480
• Pellew, George John Jay 1890. Houghton Mifflin Company
• Perkins, Bradford. The First Rapprochement; England and the United States: 1795-1805 Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1955.
• Stahr, Walter (March 1 2005) (in English). John Jay: Founding Father. New York & London: Continuum International Publishing Group. pp. 482. ISBN 9781852854447. http://books.google.com/books?id=oHVLBRTz2T0C. 
• Whitelock, William (1887) (in English). The Life and Times of John Jay. Statesman. pp. 482. 

Primary sources

• Landa M. Freeman, Louise V. North, and Janet M. Wedge, eds. Selected Letters of John Jay and Sarah Livingston Jay: Correspondence by or to the First Chief Justice of the United States and His Wife (2005)
• Morris, Richard B. ed. John Jay: The Making of a Revolutionary; Unpublished Papers, 1745-1780 1975.

Further reading

• Abraham, Henry J. (1992). Justices and Presidents: A Political History of Appointments to the Supreme Court (3rd ed.). New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-506557-3. 
• Cushman, Clare (2001). The Supreme Court Justices: Illustrated Biographies, 1789–1995 (2nd ed.). (Supreme Court Historical Society, Congressional Quarterly Books). ISBN 1568021267. 
• Frank, John P. (1995). Friedman, Leon; Israel, Fred L.. eds. The Justices of the United States Supreme Court: Their Lives and Major Opinions. Chelsea House Publishers. ISBN 0791013774. 
• Hall, Kermit L., ed (1992). The Oxford Companion to the Supreme Court of the United States. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195058356. 
• Martin, Fenton S.; Goehlert, Robert U. (1990). The U.S. Supreme Court: A Bibliography. Washington, D.C.: Congressional Quarterly Books. ISBN 0871875543. 
• Urofsky, Melvin I. (1994). The Supreme Court Justices: A Biographical Dictionary. New York: Garland Publishing. pp. 590. ISBN 0815311761. 

See also

Demographics of the Supreme Court of the United States List of Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States List of United States Chief Justices by time in office

List of U.S. Supreme Court Justices by time in office New York Manumission Society United States Supreme Court cases during the Jay Court 1838 Peter Augustus Jay House

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: John Jay

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: John Jay

Wikisource has original works written by or about: John Jay

• The John Jay Institute for Faith, Society and Law
• Digitized Collection of 217 John Jay Letters, 1776 thru 1827.
• Essay: John Jay and the Constitution Online exhibition for Constitution Day 2005, based on the notes of Professor Richard B. Morris (1904-1989) and his staff, originally prepared for volume 3 of the Papers of John Jay.
• John Jay at Find a Grave
• History of the Court, the Jay Court 1789-1795, Supreme Court Historical Society.
• John Jay, Supreme Court Historical Society.
• John Jay bust, by John Frazee (1790-1852), Marble, circa 1831, Size: 24" h., Catalog No. 21.00010, S-141, Old Supreme Court Chamber, U.S. Senate Collection, Office of Senate Curator.
• The Papers of John Jay An image database and indexing tool comprising some 13,000 documents scanned chiefly from photocopies of original documents from the Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Columbia University in the City of New York and approximately 90 other institutions.
• Jay Heritage Center
• Jay's Treaty, Library of Congress
• Oyez Project U.S. Supreme Court media on John Jay.
• Works by John Jay at Project Gutenberg
• John Jay at MetaLibri

John Jay's Federalist Papers on Federalist #2 Concerning Dangers from Foreign Force and Influence Federalist #3 Concerning Dangers from Foreign Force and Influence (continued) Federalist #4 Concerning Dangers from Foreign Force and Influence (continued) Federalist #5 Concerning Dangers from Foreign Force and Influence (continued) Federalist #64 The Powers of the Senate

Legal offices
New office	Chief Justice of the United States September 26, 1789 – June 29, 1795	Succeeded by John Rutledge
Political offices
Preceded by George Clinton	Governor of New York July 1, 1795 – July 1, 1801	Succeeded by George Clinton
Preceded by Robert Livingston	United States Secretary of Foreign Affairs May 7, 1784 – March 4, 1789	Succeeded by Thomas Jefferson as United States Secretary of State
Preceded by Henry Laurens	President of the Continental Congress December 10, 1778 – September 28, 1779	Succeeded by Samuel Huntington
Diplomatic posts
New ministerial post	United States Minister to Spain September 29, 1779 – May 20, 1782	Succeeded by William Carmichael

v • d • e Chief Justices of the United States Jay • Rutledge • Ellsworth • Marshall • Taney • Chase • Waite • Fuller • White • Taft • Hughes • Stone • Vinson • Warren • Burger • Rehnquist • Roberts

v • d • e Presidents of the Continental Congress First Continental Congress Peyton Randolph · Henry Middleton Second Continental Congress Peyton Randolph · John Hancock · Henry Laurens · John Jay · Samuel Huntington Confederation Congress Samuel Huntington · Thomas McKean · John Hanson · Elias Boudinot · Thomas Mifflin · Richard Henry Lee · John Hancock1 · David Ramsay · Nathaniel Gorham · Nathaniel Gorham · Arthur St. Clair · Cyrus Griffin Italics indicate acting presidents    1 Did not serve

v • d • e Governors of New York G. Clinton · Jay · G. Clinton · Lewis · Tompkins · Tayler* · D. Clinton · Yates · D. Clinton · Pitcher · Van Buren · Throop · Marcy · Seward · Bouck · Wright · Young · Fish · Hunt · Seymour · Clark · King · Morgan · Seymour · Fenton · Hoffman · J. Adams Dix · Tilden · Robinson · Cornell · Cleveland · Hill · Flower · Morton · Black · T. Roosevelt · Odell · Higgins · Hughes · White · J. Alden Dix · Sulzer · Glynn · Whitman · Smith · Miller · Smith · F. Roosevelt · Lehman · Poletti · Dewey · Harriman · Rockefeller · Wilson · Carey · Cuomo · Pataki · Spitzer · Paterson (*) denotes Acting

v • d • e Federalist Papers List of Federalist Papers Authors: Alexander Hamilton | John Jay | James Madison 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 | 39 | 40 | 41 | 42 | 43 44 | 45 | 46 | 47 | 48 | 49 | 50 | 51 | 52 | 53 | 54 | 55 | 56 | 57 | 58 | 59 | 60 | 61 | 62 | 63 | 64 | 65 | 66 | 67 | 68 | 69 | 70 | 71 | 72 | 73 | 74 | 75 | 76 | 77 | 78 | 79 | 80 | 81 | 82 | 83 | 84 | 85 Related topics: Anti-Federalist Papers

v • d • e Cabinet of President George Washington (1789–1797) Vice President John Adams (1789–1797) Secretary of Foreign Affairs John Jay (1789) Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson (1790–1793) · Edmund Randolph (1794–1795) · Timothy Pickering (1795–1797) Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton (1789–1795) · Oliver Wolcott, Jr. (1795–1797) Secretary of War Henry Knox (1789–1794) · Timothy Pickering (1795) · James McHenry (1796–1797) Attorney General Edmund Randolph (1792–1794) · William Bradford (1794–1795) · Charles Lee (1795–1797) Postmaster General Samuel Osgood (1789–1791) · Timothy Pickering (1791–1795) · Joseph Habersham (1795–1797)

Supreme Court of the United States
The Jay Court Chief Justice: John Jay (1789–1795) 1789–1792: J. Rutledge | Wm. Cushing | J. Wilson | J. Blair | J. Iredell 1792–1793: Wm. Cushing | J. Wilson | J. Blair | J. Iredell | Th. Johnson 1793–1795: Wm. Cushing | J. Wilson | J. Blair | J. Iredell | Wm. Paterson

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