John Jay

John Jay
1 Sources Chief Justice of the United States
In office October 19 1789 – June 29 1795
Nominated by	George Washington
Preceded by	None
Succeeded by	John Rutledge
2 Not done Governor of New York
In office July 1 1795 – June 30 1801
Lieutenant	Stephen Van Rensselaer
Preceded by	George Clinton
Succeeded by	George Clinton
5 President of the Continental Congress 4th President of the Second Continental Congress
In office December 10, 1778 – September 27, 1779
Preceded by	Henry Laurens
Succeeded by	Samuel Huntington
Personal details
Spouse	Sarah Livingston
Alma mater	King's College

John Jay (December 12 1745 – May 17 1829) was an American politician, statesman, revolutionary, diplomat and Supreme Court Chief Justice. Considered one of the founding fathers of the United States, Jay served in the Continental Congress and was elected President of that body. During and after the American Revolution, he was a minister (ambassador) to Spain and France, helping to fashion American foreign policy and to secure favorable peace terms from the British and French. He co-wrote the Federalist Papers with Alexander Hamilton and James Madison.

Jay served on the U.S. Supreme Court as the first Chief Justice of the United States from 1789 to 1795. In 1794 he negotiated the Jay Treaty with the British. A leader of the new Federalist party, Jay was elected Governor of New York state, 1795-1801. He was the leading opponent of slavery and the slave trade in New York. His first attempt to pass emancipation legislation failed in 1777 and failed again in 1785, but he succeeded in 1799, signing the law that eventually emancipated the slaves of New York; the last were freed before his death.

Early life

Ancestry

John Jay was born on December 12, 1745, to a wealthy family of merchants in New York City. He was the 8th child, and the sixth son in his family. The Jay family was of French Huguenot origin and was prominent in New York City. Jay's paternal grandfather, Augustus, moved from France to New York to establish the Jay family. This was due to the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685, which abolished the rights of Protestants and all the property of Augustus was confiscated. Augustus's son Peter was a merchant and had ten children with his wife Mary Van Cortlandt. Only seven of the ten children survived and John Jay was the sixth. After John 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.

Education

As a boy, John Jay took the same political stand as his father, who was a staunch Whig.

John Jay spent his childhood in Rye, New York. He was educated there by private tutors until he was eight years old, when he was sent 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-six year old forerunner of Columbia University. In 1764 he graduated and became a law clerk for Benjamin Kissam. In 1768, after being admitted to the Bar of New York, Jay established with Robert Livingston a legal practice and worked there until he created his own law office in 1771. He was an member of the New York Committee of Correspondence in 1774.

Early politics

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 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 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 realized that all the colonies' efforts at reconciliation with Britain were fruitless and that the struggle for independence which became the American Revolution was inevitable.

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 America with Britain, up until the Declaration of Independence. Jay's views became more radical as events unfolded; he became an ardent Patriot and attempted to move New York towards independence.

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

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

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, 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.

As a Diplomat

Minister to Spain

On 27 September 1779, Jay resigned his office as President and was appointed Minister to Spain. In Spain, he was assigned to get financial aid, commercial treaties and recognition of American independence. Spain 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.

The Treaty of Paris

Main article: Treaty of Paris (1783)

On June 23, 1782, Jay reached Paris, where negotiations to end the American Revolutionary War would take place. Benjamin Franklin was the most experienced diplomat of the group, and thus Jay wished to lodge near him, in order to learn from him. The United States agreed to negotiate with Britain separately than with France. 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. 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 it's troops in exchange for the United States ending the seizure of Loyalist property and honoring private debts. The treaty granted the United States independence, but left many border regions in dispute, and many of its provisions were not enforced.

Secretary of Foreign Affairs

In 1784-90, Jay served as the second Secretary of Foreign Affairs, an office that after 1789 became Secretary of State. He 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.

Jay's heavy responsibility was not, however, matched by a commensurate level of authority, which helped to convince him that the national government under the Articles of Confederation was unworkable. Thus, he joined Alexander Hamilton and James Madison in attacking the Articles. 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.

Kaminsky (2002) argues that Jay was the de facto "prime minister" with the primary goal of strengthening the fledgling national government. Jay believed that both at home and abroad Americans must adhere to moral principles, among them honesty, patriotism, duty and hard work, along with obedience to God's will. At the same time he advocated economic and military strength for the United States and worked to avoid crippling foreign entanglements. Through his domestic policies, Jay hoped to remake Congress into a House of Commons. The weakness of Congress under the Articles, however, frustrated Jay, and, by 1786, he became pessimistic about America's future.

During the Transition from Confederation to Constitutional government, Jay continued to serve as Secretary of Foreign Affairs well into the first administration of George Washington, in fact remaining in office until Thomas Jefferson returned from France on March 22, 1790.

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," 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. Jay wrote the second, third, fourth, fifth and sixty-fourth articles. His second, third, fourth and fifth articles all concerned the "[d]angers from [f]oreign [f]orce and [i]nfluence".

Jay's essays were shaped most powerfully by his training as a lawyer and his deep grasp of the importance of the figure of the lawgiver in the tradition of republican political thought. He combined such elements with a Christian aesthetic vision glorifying the idea of national union, a rhetorical synthesis central to The Federalist's popular appeal in political debate.

The Jay Court, 1789-1795

[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

In 1789, George Washington nominated Jay as the first Chief Justice of the United States. Washington also nominated John Blair, William Cushing, James Wilson, James Iredell and John Rutledge as Associate Judges; Jay would later serve with Thomas Johnson, who took Rutledge's seat, and William Paterson, who took Johnson's seat. The court had little business through its first three years.

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?" In a 4-1 ruling (Iredell dissented), the Jay Court ruled in favor of two South Carolinan loyalist who had had their land seized by Georgia. This ruling sparked debate, as it implied that old debts must be payed to loyalist. 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. The case was brought again to the Supreme Court in Georgia v. Brailsford, and the Court reversed its decision. However, Jay's original Chisholm decision set the groundwork for judicial review that would be established under Chief Justice John Marshall in the early 1800s.

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". and that because the statute allowed the legislature and the executive branch to revise the courts ruling, the statute violated the separation of powers as dictated by the United States Constitution.

1792 campaign for Governor of New York

In 1792, he was the Federalist candidate for governor of New York, but he was defeated by Democratic-Republican George Clinton. John Jay received more votes than George Clinton, but on technicalities the votes of Otsego, Tioga and Clinton counties were disqualified and not counted, giving George Clinton a slight majority. 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 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.

Jay Treaty

Main article: Jay Treaty

Relations with Britain verged on war in 1794. 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. Washington rejected that policy and sent Jay as a special envoy to Great Britain to negotiate a new treaty; Jay remained Chief Justice. Alexander Hamilton, always a close collaborator with Jay, selected Jay and wrote the instructions. The main goals were to avert war with Britain, settle financial and boundary issues left over from the Revolution, open trading opportunities with British colonies in the Caribbean and establish friendly relations with America's chief trading partner. Jay achieved those goals in the Jay Treaty. The British also achieved their main goal, which was to keep the U.S. neutral in the ongoing war between Britain and France. Jay thought–and Washington agreed–that it was the best treaty he could negotiate, and Washington signed it. The Senate, however, would ratify only if a provision restricting American shipment of cotton were removed. When Washington consulted the British minister, it turned out that the British had no objection to removing the clause. Bradford Perkins wonders if a "more astute" negotiator might not have gotten better terms in the first place. The treaty did not resolve American grievances about neutral shipping rights and impressment. Elkins and McKitrick concluded that Britain would never have agreed to the neutral rights that Jefferson and Madison sought and that apart from Jay "no other American could have got anything nearly as good."

The Republicans denounced the treaty up and down the land, but Jay, as Chief Justice, decided not to take part in the debates. The failure to get compensation for slaves taken by the British during the Revolution "was a major reason for the bitter Southern opposition". 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, the new Federalist party, and Washington, strongly backed Jay and thus won the battle of public opinion. 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.) The treaty averted war, resolved the issues of the Revolution, gave America control over its western lands, expanded trade and brought a decade of peace and trade between America and Britain. Graffiti appearing near Jay's house after the treaty were: "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." Due to British impressment of American sailors and other issues, the relations between the two nations broke down and war broke out in 1812.

Governor of New York

While in Britain, Jay was elected governor of New York State as a Federalist. He resigned from the Supreme Court and served 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. President John Adams then renominated him to the US Supreme Court; the Senate quickly confirmed him, but he declined, citing his own poor health and the court's lack of "the energy, weight and dignity which are essential to its affording due support to the national government."

Despite Federalist nomination as governor in 1801, Jay declined and retired to the life of a gentleman farmer in Westchester County, New York; the home and part of his farm are now operated as the John Jay Homestead by the New York Department of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation.

Jay died at home on May 17, 1829. He chose to be buried in a private family plot that he had established on the Rye property where he grew up. It was left to him in 1813 by his family and which property he in turn gave to his son, Peter Augustus Jay in 1822. This estate overlooking Long Island Sound remained in the Jay family through 1904, and today a portion of it is managed and its buildings are being restored for educational use by the Jay Heritage Center, located at 210 Boston Post Road in Rye.

Slavery

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. Jay was the founder and president of the New York Manumission Society, in 1785. The Society organized boycotts against newspapers and merchants in the slave trade and provided legal counsel for free blacks claimed as slaves. 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. 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 4th 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. All slaves were emancipated by July 4, 1827; the process may perhaps have been the largest emancipation in North America before 1861, except for the British Army's recruitment of runaway slaves during the American Revolution. In the close 1792 election, Jay's antislavery work hurt his election chances in upstate New York Dutch areas, where slavery was still practiced. In 1794 Jay angered southern slave-owners when, in the process of negotiating the Jay Treaty with the British, he dropped their demands for compensation for slaves owned by patriots who had been captured and carried away during the Revolution.

Jay 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.

Religion

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

Jay had been a warden of Trinity Church, New York since 1785; and, 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 Protestant Episcopal Church in America.

In New York, Jay argued unsuccessfully in the provincial convention for a prohibition against Catholics holding office.

In a letter addressed to John Murray dated October 12 1816, the Chief Justice 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."

Legacy

John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City

John Jay has taken several geographical locations to his 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. There are also high schools named after Jay which are located in Hopewell Junction, New York, Cross River, New York and San Antonio, Texas. An undergraduate grant at Columbia University (winners of it are designated John Jay Scholars), 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.

See also

• United States Supreme Court cases during the Jay Court
• New York Manumission Society

References

• Bemis, Samuel F. (1923). 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
• 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
• 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). John Jay: Founding Father. New York & London: Continuum International Publishing Group. p. 482. ISBN 9781852854447. {{cite book}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)

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.

External links

John Jay's Federalist Papers on Wikisource
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

• Jay's Treaty, Library of Congress
• Richard Morris, "John Jay and the Constitution"
• Works by John Jay at Project Gutenberg
• Jake Sudderth, "John Jay and Slavery (2002) online from Papers of John Jay
• Columbia University's Jay Papers Project
• Parts of this article were incorporated from the public domain source Today in History: December 12 on the Library of Congress's American Memory website.
• Jay documents on anti-slavery
• John Jay Homestead, Friends of
• Digitized Collection of John Jay Letters