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| Nominated by | George Washington |
| Preceded by | None |
| Succeeded by | John Rutledge |
John Jay (December 12, 1745 – May 17, 1829) was an American politician, statesman, revolutionary, diplomat, writer, and a jurist. Considered one of the "founding fathers" of the United States, Jay served in the Continental Congress, and was elected President of that body in 1778. 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 1785, but he succeeded in 1799, signing the law that abolished slavery in the state and (gradually) emancipated the remaining slaves.
Early life
John Jay was born on December 12, 1745 to a wealthy family of merchants in New York City. His family, descended from French Huguenot stock, was prominent in New York City. Jay had numerous rich and prominent ancestors and relatives including his maternal grandfather Jacobus Van Cortlandt.
Jay attended King's College, the forerunner of today's Columbia University, and began the practice of law in 1768 in partnership with his relative by marriage, Robert Livingston. A successful lawyer, Jay also engaged in land speculation. 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 colony's efforts at reconciliation with Britain were fruitless, and that the struggle for independence which became the American Revolution was inevitable and necessary.
Roles in the American Revolution
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 was influential in moving New York towards independence.
Jay did not attend the Continental Congress as it debated the independence; He was needed back in New York. There he was quite busy:
- He served in the New York Provincial Congress and drafted the first state constitution.
- He served on the committee of correspondence which was attempting to coordinate the rebellious activities of the various colonial states with the actual fighting in Massachusetts.
- He served on the committee to detect and defeat conspiracies. This committee was active in gathering intelligence on British actions and in counter-intelligence about "loyalist" activities.
- He served as the first chief justice of the New York Supreme Court from April 1777 to December 1778.
Diplomat
Once he returned to America, Jay was chosen its President from December 10, 1778 to September 27, 1779. He then became one of the most important diplomats of the new nation, as minister plenipotentiary to Spain, and as peace commissioner (in which he negotiated treaties with Spain and France). In many ways, John Jay played an indispensable role as an American Patriot during the Revolutionary War and afterwards. As one of the most scholarly and dedicated of the “founders” of the United States, he was one of the three or four most important diplomats in “winning the peace.”
Abolition of Slavery
Jay founded the New-York Society for Promoting the Manumission of Slaves, and Protecting Such of Them as Have Been, or May be Liberated, or New York Manumission Society, in 1785. Led by prominent politicians, especially Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr, the Society organized boycotts against New York merchants and newspaper owners involved in the coastal and international slave trade. The Society had a special committee of antislavery militants who visited newspaper offices to warn publishers against accepting advertisements for the purchase or sale of slaves. Another committee kept a list of persons who either participated in or invested in the slave trade and urged members to boycott anyone listed. The Society helped enact the gradual emancipation of slaves in New York in 1799, which Jay signed into law as governor. No new slaves could be acquired and those currently in slavery were emancipated in stages ending July 4, 1827. It was the largest emancipation in America before the Civil War.
Secretary of Foreign Affairs
In 1784-89, Jay served as the first Secretary of Foreign Affairs, an office which 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:
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 inforce 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 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.
Federalist Papers 1788
Jay did not attend the Constitutional Convention, but he joined Hamilton and Madison in aggressively arguing in favor of the creation of a new and more powerful, centralized, but nonetheless 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 five of these articles:
- 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 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. Jay 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.
Chief Justice
In 1789, George Washington nominated Jay as the first Chief Justice of the United States. As chief justice during 1789-95, John Jay was instrumental in establishing the internal procedures of the Supreme Court and setting legal precedents. Jay's most notable case was Chisholm v. Georgia (1793), in which Jay and the court affirmed that some of the state's sovereignty was subordinate to the United States Constitution. Unfavorable reaction to the decision led to adoption of the Eleventh Amendment which denied federal courts authority in suits by citizens against a state. Jay's decision set the groundwork for judicial activism under Chief Justice John Marshall in the early 1800's.
The Jay Treaty of 1794 with Britain
Relations with Britain verged on war in 1795. Madison proposed a trade war, "A direct system of commercial hoistility 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 was 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. Thomas Jefferson and James 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 strongly backed Jay and Washington, and 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 prosperous trade between American and the world's strongest naval power, Britain. Peaceful relations broke down in 1805, followed by war 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 1800. As Governor, he received a proposal from Hamilton to gerrymander New York for the Presidential election of that year; he endorsed 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 1802, Jay declined and retired to the life of a gentleman farmer in Westchester County, New York. His 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, and is located on NY state route 22 in Katonah, near Bedford.
Jay died at home on May 15, 1829. He was buried in a family plot on his son Peter's farm in Rye, New York. This home today is a part of the Jay Heritage Center, located at 210 Boston Post Road in Rye. It is also open as a museum.
Jay Heritage Center (childhood home of John Jay)
210 Boston Post Road
Rye, New York 10580
John Jay Homestead State Historic Site
400 Route 22 (Jay Street)
Katonah, New York 10536
Quotes
- "The people who own the country ought to govern it." (This was reportedly "one of his favorite maxims.")
- "No power on earth has a right to take our property from us without our consent."
- "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."
- "Only one adequate plan has ever appeared in the world, and that is the Christian dispensation."
- "Providence has been pleased to give this one connected country to one united people — a people descended from the same ancestors, speaking the same language, professing the same religion, attached to the same principles of government, very similar in their manners and customs.... This country and this people seem to have been made for each other, and it appears as if it was the design of Providence, that an inheritance so proper and convenient for a band of brethren, united to each other by the strongest ties, should never be split into a number of unsocial, jealous, and alien sovereignties."
Trivia
- The Towns of Jay, New York and Jay, Vermont, and Jay County, Indiana are named after him. In 1964, the City University of New York's College of Police Science was officially renamed the John Jay College of Criminal Justice.
- James Fenimore Cooper's novel The Spy was based on the author's conversations with Jay about his service on the committee on conspiracies during the Revolution. The main character is based on Enoch Crosby who helped arrest Loyalists attempting to form militia regiments.
- Jay was named first among Columbia University's 250 Greatest Alumni by the Columbia Spectator. A large residence hall for undergraduates at Columbia is named for him, as well as the John Jay Award for alumni of Columbia College, and the John Jay Scholars program for exceptional students in the College. Columbia also has a John Jay professorship in classics.
- Columbia's most selective undergraduate merit scholarship (winners are designated John Jay Scholars) is named after him.
- Graffiti appearing near Jay's house after the 1794 treaty with Britain: "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."
See also
Bibliography
- Bemis, Samuel F. Jay's Treaty: A Study in Commerce and Diplomacy (1923)
- 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.
- Stahr, Walter (2005). John Jay: Founding Father. ISBN 1852854448
Primary sources
- Morris, Richard B. ed. John Jay: The Making of a Revolutionary; Unpublished Papers, 1745-1780 1975.
External links
- Richard Morris, "John Jay and the Constitution"
- Works by John Jay at Project Gutenberg
- The John Jay School of Diplomacy and International Affairs at Euclid University extension
- 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.
- D/Documents/17771819.JOH.pdf Jay documents on anti-slavery
- John Jay Homestead State Historic Site web page
- John Jay Homestead, Friends of
- John Jay at Find-A-Grave
| Preceded byHenry Laurens | President of the Second Continental Congress December 10, 1778 – September 27, 1779 |
Succeeded bySamuel Huntington |
| Preceded by(none) | U.S. Ambassador to Spain September 29, 1779 – May 20, 1782 |
Succeeded byWilliam Carmichael |
| Preceded byRobert Livingston | United States Secretary for Foreign Affairs May 7, 1784 – March 3, 1789 |
Succeeded byThomas Jefferson (as United States Secretary of State) |
| Preceded by(none) | Chief Justice of the United States October 19, 1789 – June 29, 1795 |
Succeeded byJohn Rutledge |
| Preceded byGeorge Clinton | Governor of New York 1795 – 1801 |
Succeeded byGeorge Clinton |
| Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States | |||||||
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'
- Klein (2000)
- Edgar J. McManus, History of Negro Slavery in New York
- Ferguson, (1999)
- Johnson (2000)
- Elkins and McKitrick p 405
- First Rapprochement p.3
- Elkins and McKitrick, ch 9; quote on p. 410
- Estes (2002)
- 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
- Monaghan, pp.419-21; Adair, Douglass. "Was Alexander Hamilton a Christian Statesman?". The William and Mary Quarterly: . 308-329.
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- 1745 births
- 1829 deaths
- American Episcopalians
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- American diplomats
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