JOHN JAY

New York, New York
December 12, 1745−May 17, 1829
Actions Speak as Loud as Words

John Jay had one of the sharpest pens in the patriots’ arsenal. He fired his first cursive shot with an Address to the People of Great Britain in 1774. Jay continued his attacks on paper as a delegate to the First and Second Continental Congresses; chief justice of New York; minister to Spain; secretary of foreign affairs; chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court; and governor of New York. His pen never ran out of ink, and his words almost always hit their target—as did his actions. But he didn’t exactly endear himself to Americans when he negotiated the Treaty of Amity, Commerce, and Navigation with the British in 1794, which led to the formation of political parties in the United States and affirmed the Senate’s sole right to ratify treaties.

A Precocious Child

At a time when some young people were just starting their college educations, John Jay graduated from King’s College in 1764 with the highest honors. He was only nineteen years old at the time. Four years later he passed the New York bar exam, which marked his entry into politics.

The Committee of Correspondence was a good place for Jay to start his political career. He made news in 1774, the year he became a member, when he politely warned the British that rebellion was a possibility in his Address to the People of Great Britain. He said, in part, “be not surprised… that we… whose forefathers participated in all the rights, the liberties, and the Constitution you so justly boast of… should refuse to surrender them to men who found their claims on no principles of reason, and who prosecute them with a design, that by having our lives and property in their power, they may with the greater facility enslave you.”

The publicity generated by his address helped get him elected to the First Continental Congress despite his youth (he was only twenty-nine when he became a delegate).

In 1775, he wrote similar addresses to the people of Canada, Jamaica, and Ireland. But in one way he became the victim of his own success. He was selected as a delegate to New York’s Fourth Provincial Congress, which took him away from Philadelphia and deprived him of a chance to sign the Declaration of Independence.

Justice Is Done

New York state had big things in store for Jay. He was named as the chief justice of the state’s Supreme Court in September 1777. But he was too much in demand nationally to stay there long, especially after the state made a special exception for him and sent him to the Continental Congress.

When Jay was appointed as chief justice of New York state, its constitution prohibited justices from holding any post other than in the U.S. Congress, and then only if there was a “special occasion.” One arose: Vermont seceded from New York and New Hampshire in November 1778. New York sent Jay to Congress to settle territorial claims arising from the secession.

Within three days of his arrival at Congress, he was named its president.

Jay stayed in Congress for a year and then assumed the post of American ambassador to Spain. That was a steppingstone to his next major assignment in 1781: working with Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and Henry Laurens to negotiate a treaty with Britain.

The original plan was to seek the guidance of the French government in the negotiations. Jay did not understand why the Americans had to rely on any foreign power for advice. He wrote a letter to Congress encouraging it to bypass French involvement and deal directly with Britain. Congress agreed. The team negotiated terms that were favorable to the United States, such as British recognition of America’s independence and the formation of boundaries that would allow U.S. expansion in the west. That was a coup for the United States—and Jay.

FEDERAL FACTS

When the Treaty of Paris was signed on September 3, 1783, the most surprised people in the room were the representatives of the French and Spanish governments. They did not realize how effectively Jay and his friends had dealt with the British without their help.

No Rest for the Weary

Jay returned to the United States on July 24, 1784, to accolades and new assignments. He was elected to Congress, which named him secretary of foreign affairs. He held the position until 1790. At the same time, he used his pen to argue for ratification of the U.S. Constitution.

REVOLUTIONARY REVELATIONS

Using the pen name “Publius,” Jay wrote five of the eighty-five essays known as the “Federalist Papers”: numbers 2, 3, 4, 5, and 64. Alexander Hamilton and James Madison wrote the others. The “Federalist Papers,” a series of documents that pushed for the ratification of the U.S. Constitution, appeared in two New York newspapers between October 1787 and August 1788.

President George Washington asked Jay to pick any position in his administration. Jay opted for chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. He remained in that position from November 1789 to June 1795, during which time Washington also asked Jay to negotiate a treaty with Britain to wrap up the loose ends left over from the Treaty of Paris. What resulted was the Treaty of Amity, Commerce, and Navigation, also known as the Jay Treaty. Americans were so displeased with the terms of the Treaty of Amity, Commerce, and Navigation they burned Jay in effigy.

According to the terms, British control of northwestern posts would be eliminated within two years, the Americans could file claims for damages from British ship seizures, and the United States was granted limited trade rights in the West Indies. Those outcomes displeased ordinary Americans, who believed it was a one-sided treaty that favored the British.

Some citizens threw stones at Alexander Hamilton in New York City to express their displeasure after he spoke in defense of the treaty; others roundly protested against President Washington for signing it. It was not Jay’s finest moment.

FEDERAL FACTS

The Treaty of Amity, Commerce, and Navigation that Jay negotiated had two major impacts on American politics. It led to the formation of political parties and established the precedent by which only the Senate could approve treaties. After Congress ratified the treaty, Americans formed angry mobs and accused senators of signing a “death warrant to America’s liberties.” The bloc that approved the treaty was known from that point as Federalists. The senators who voted against the treaty became the Jeffersonian Republicans. When the House of Representatives asked to review the treaty, President Washington refused its request. That preserved the Senate’s exclusive role in approving treaties.

Final Acts

After his stint on the United States Supreme Court, John Jay returned to New York, where he served two terms as governor. In 1801, he decided he was more suited to farming than to public office. He retired to the land that he loved, and which he believed no one should be able to take away.

Quotations to Live (and Die) By!

“NO POWER ON EARTH HAS A RIGHT TO TAKE OUR PROPERTY FROM US WITHOUT OUR CONSENT.”

—JOHN JAY

He spent the next twenty-eight years on that farm. After writing, regulating, and ruling in support of his country for twenty-seven years, he had earned the rest. Jay had compiled a record of achievement that few of his peers could equal.