The History Book Club discussion

This thread is about the first chief justice of the United States: John Jay.

Biography

John Jay was born to a prominent New York family. He was tutored at home and attended King's College, graduating at nineteen. He was admitted to the bar four years later.

Jay was New York's representative at the First and Second Continental Congress. In 1788, Jay was elected president of that body. He was sent on diplomatic missions and he helped negotiate the Treaty of Paris in 1783, ending the war with Great Britain.

Jay was a strong advocate for a strengthened national government. Though he did not attend the Constitutional Convention, he did contribute five essays to a series of newspaper articles (later called "The Federalist Papers") in support of ratification.

Jay declined Washington's offer to serve as secretary of state. Washington returned with an offer as the first chief justice, which Jay accepted. Jay continued diplomatic missions while on the Court. He negotiated a treaty with England in 1794 to ease growing hostilites between the two countries.

Upon his return from the treaty negotiations, Jay discovered that he had been elected governor of New York. He immediately resigned his position as chief justice. He served two three-year terms as governor.

In 1800, President John Adams nominated Jay for a second appointment as chief justice. The nomination was quickly confirmed by the Senate, but Jay refused citing his poor health and because he concluded that the Court lacked "the energy, weight, and dignity which are essential to its affording due support to the national government."

Personal Information

Born:
Monday, December 13, 1745

Died:
Sunday, May 17, 1829

Childhood Location:
New York

Childhood Surroundings:
New York

Position:
Chief Justice
Seat:
1

Nominated By:
Washington

Commissioned on:
Friday, September 25, 1789

Sworn In:
Sunday, October 18, 1789

Left Office:
Sunday, June 28, 1795

Reason For Leaving:
Resigned

Length of Service:
5 years, 8 months, 10 days

Home:
New York



Source:

The Oyez Project, Justice John Jay
available at: (http://oyez.org/justices/john_jay)
(last visited Now!!!! Tuesday, January 25, 2011).

Walter Stahr

Summary

John Jay was a central figure in the early history of the American Republic. A New York lawyer, born in 1745, Jay served his country with the greatest distinction and was one of the most influential of its Founding Fathers. In the first full-length biography in almost seventy years, Walter Stahr brings Jay vividly to life, setting his astonishing career against the background of the American Revolution. Drawing on substantial new material, Walter Stahr has written a full and highly readable portrait of both the public and private man. It is the story not only of John Jay himself, the most prominent native-born New Yorker of the eighteenth century, but also of his engaging and intelligent wife, Sarah, who accompanied her husband on his wartime diplomatic missions. This lively and compelling biography presents Jay in the light he deserves: as a major Founding Father, a true national hero, and a leading architect of America's future

Thanks Bentley.

You are welcome.

Thank you Kathy

Jay and Ellsworth, The First Courts: Justices, Rulings, and Legacy

by Matthew P. Harrington (no photo)

Synopsis:

This is an exploration of the first two Supreme Courts and how they laid the groundwork for the modern-day court. It features biographies of key justices such as Oliver Ellsworth and John Jay and also contains a background reference section on people, such as George Washington and John Adams.

The Quartet: Orchestrating the Second American Revolution, 1783-1789

by Joseph J. Ellis

Synopsis:

The prizewinning author of Founding Brothers and American Sphinx now gives us the unexpected story--brilliantly told--of why the thirteen colonies, having just fought off the imposition of a distant centralized governing power, would decide to subordinate themselves anew.

The triumph of the American Revolution was neither an ideological nor political guarantee that the colonies would relinquish their independence and accept the creation of a federal government with power over their individual autonomy. The Quartet is the story of this second American founding and of the men responsible--some familiar, such as George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison, and some less so, such as Robert Morris and Gouverneur Morris. It was these men who shaped the contours of American history by diagnosing the systemic dysfunctions created by the Articles of Confederation, manipulating the political process to force a calling of the Constitutional Convention, conspiring to set the agenda in Philadelphia, orchestrating the debate in the state ratifying conventions, and, finally, drafting the Bill of Rights to assure state compliance with the constitutional settlement.

John Jay: Founding Father

by Walter Stahr (no photo)

Synopsis:

John Jay was a central figure in the early history of the American Republic. A New York lawyer, born in 1745, Jay served his country with the greatest distinction and was one of the most influential of its Founding Fathers. In the first full-length biography in almost seventy years, Walter Stahr brings Jay vividly to life, setting his astonishing career against the background of the American Revolution. Drawing on substantial new material, Walter Stahr has written a full and highly readable portrait of both the public and private man. It is the story not only of John Jay himself, the most prominent native-born New Yorker of the eighteenth century, but also of his engaging and intelligent wife, Sarah, who accompanied her husband on his wartime diplomatic missions. This lively and compelling biography presents Jay in the light he deserves: as a major Founding Father, a true national hero, and a leading architect of America's future.

Thank you Francie for all of the adds on the Supreme Court threads

John Jay

Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States October 9, 1789 - June 29, 1795


The Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States (Artist: Casimir Gregory Stapko (after Gilbert Stuart))

John Jay, the first Chief Justice of the United States, lead his contemporaries in legitimizing the reputation of the Court overseas, while also crafting the boundaries and responsibilities of the Supreme Court of the United States. John Jay grew up on a farm just outside of New York City, as the youngest of eight siblings. His lineage differs from most founders in that his parents were not British citizens, but French Huguenot refugees. His mother was in charge of his schooling until Jay left for formal education at French Huguenot Church School. From there, Jay continued to King’s College, now known as Columbia University. The law was not of any interest to Jay until his final year. After graduating with honors, Jay began clerking for one of New York’s most prominent attorneys. In 1765, however, all legal activities in New York came to a standstill; in protest of unfair taxation from England via the Stamp Act, attorneys in the state of New York went on strike. Jay did not waste any time during this break. Instead, he returned to King’s College to earn his Master of Arts degree. After the strike, he continued clerking for a year until he was admitted to the bar. 

Jay threw himself into the political world and became a successful attorney. Soon, the crisis of strained relations with England would force Jay to balance his loyalties between the crown and colonial America. Though Jay eventually sided with the revolutionaries, he was hesitant to engage. Like many of his contemporaries, he held on to the idea of reforming and ultimately salvaging the colonies’ relationship with England and disagreed with the majority view of separation. A visit to London, however, altered his view. He was sent as a delegate to try and negotiate a peace before potential war. Jay quickly learned that the British government would not take the colonies seriously unless America declared and won a war. It was after this revelation that he began his efforts to promote revolution in the colonies. 

War promoted many young and inexperienced politicians to elevated posts within the new government. In 1778, 33-year-old Jay was appointed President of the Continental Congress, the highest civilian position during wartime. Within the year, he was reappointed to a diplomatic position in Spain to ensure their allegiance. Then, he traveled to Paris to assist in negotiating a peace treaty with England. This mission was considered a success as the treaty favored American interests. Upon returning to his home, Jay found he was appointed secretary for foreign affairs under the Articles of Confederation. Jay enjoyed the honorable and important work of a diplomat until the Articles proved to be a failing system. In drafting and ratifying the new constitution, Jay played a large role. He contributed five essays to The Federalist Papers, a collection from three different authors that pushed for the Constitution to be ratified. These essays outlined the issues with the failing Articles and how the Constitution would solve those problems. Eventually, the Constitution was ratified, and it established the Supreme Court of the United States.

When George Washington began considering appointments for the new government, he knew he wanted John Jay to hold a leadership position. He eventually appointed Jay as the first Chief Justice of the United States in 1789. Jay had high expectations of what he could accomplish using this avenue, mainly in creating stability and legitimizing America as a new sovereign nation overseas. When making decisions, Jay always had the effects of those decisions on Britain in the back of his mind. As the first Chief Justice, Jay laid the foundation for the protocol of the Court. Jay reinforced the separation of powers by refusing to give formal counsel to members of the executive branch, but he informally offered any guidance necessary. Even with his ability to forge a new path and affect the future of the courts by leading, Jay was often disappointed with his occupation. Reaction to the Court's holding in the early landmark case kChisholm v. Georgia, that citizens could sue states, would help push Jay to retirement. Some thought this would interfere with the sovereignty of the states, and this view would lead to passage of the Eleventh Amendment, establishing sovereign immunity to such suits. Jay saw this political maneuver as an attack on the reputation and importance of the Court and retired to become the governor of New York. In 1800, Jay left his political life behind to move back to his farm where he lived a life studying and engaging with the church until his death in 1829.  

Other:

by Walter Stahr (no photo)

Source: Oyez

Thank you for all of the adds in the Supreme Court folder.

A look at the first Chief Justice, John Jay

By NCC Staff - Constitution Daily September 26, 2014

In 1789 on this day of September 26, John Jay was sworn in as the first chief justice of the United States—two days after George Washington nominated him.



Along with Alexander Hamilton and James Madison, Jay was the third (and often forgotten) writer of The Federalist Papers.

Jay wrote one about the powers of the Senate and four about “dangers from foreign force and influence” on the United States. He may have been able to write more, but Jay was injured during the 1788 Doctors' Riot in New York, when he tried to calm down a mob that was incensed by body snatching from local graveyards.

The Supreme Court’s most influential decision when he was chief justice came in Chisholm v. Georgia in 1793—sometimes called “the first great case” decided by the Court.

By a 4-1 decision, the Court ruled that a citizen of South Carolina could sue the state of Georgia for the value of clothing the citizen had supplied during the Revolutionary War, because Article III of the Constitution gave the federal judiciary power over controversies between “a State and Citizens of another State.”

In a separate opinion, Jay endorsed the Federalist view that the states were subordinate to the federal government: He wrote that “the people are the sovereign of this country” and that Georgia wasn’t a sovereign when it came to lawsuits like this one.

The decision provoked a backlash against nationalist sentiment and was the first Court decision overturned by a constitutional amendment. The 11th Amendment took away from the Court’s jurisdiction lawsuits against a state by a citizen of another state or a foreign nation. One Jay scholar wrote that the controversy led him to the conclusion “that the Court was an ineffective instrument of domestic unification and diplomacy.”

Jay was talked about as successor to Washington as president, but the Jay Treaty that he negotiated in 1794 to settle unpaid American debts and economic disputes between citizens of the countries, to help avoid another war, was denounced as a sell-out to the British.

Instead, he was elected governor of New York, in 1795. In that role, he became the state’s leading proponent of abolishing slavery.

In 1799, the state passed a law calling for gradual emancipation of all slaves in New York, which happened by the time he died at the age of 83 in 1829.

President John Adams had asked him to become chief justice again in 1800, but Jay had declined, saying that the Court lacked “energy, weight and dignity.”

Link to article:https://constitutioncenter.org/blog/a...

Other:

by Alexander Hamilton

Source: National Constitution Center

Thank you for the add Lorna on one of our founding fathers

A Brief Biography of John Jay

John Jay's long and eventful life, from 1745 to 1829, encompassed the movement for American independence and the creation of a new nation — both processes in which he played a full part. His achievements were many, varied and of key importance in the birth and early years of the fledgling nation. Although he did not initially favor separation from Britain, he was nonetheless among the American commissioners who negotiated the peace with Great Britain that secured independence for the former colonies. Serving the new republic he was Secretary for Foreign Affairs under the Articles of Confederation, a contributor to the Federalist, the first Chief Justice of the United States, negotiator of the 1794 "Jay Treaty" with Great Britain, and a two-term Governor of the State of New York. In his personal life, Jay embraced a wide range of social and cultural concerns.

His paternal grandfather, Augustus (1665-1751), established the Jay family's presence in America. Unable to remain in France when the rights of Protestants were abolished by the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685, Augustus eventually settled in New York where, with an advantageous marriage and a thriving mercantile business, he established a strong foundation for his descendants. His son Peter, like Augustus a merchant, had ten children with his wife Mary Van Cortlandt, seven of them surviving into adulthood. John was the sixth of these seven. Shortly after John's birth, his family moved from Manhattan to Rye in order to provide a more salubrious environment for the raising of John's elder siblings, two of whom had been struck by blindness following the smallpox epidemic of 1739 and two others of whom suffered from mental handicaps.

Educated in his early years by private tutors, Jay entered the newly-founded King's College, the future Columbia University, in the late summer of 1760. There, he underwent the conventional classical education, graduating in 1764, when he became a law clerk in the office of Benjamin Kissam. On admission to the bar in 1768 Jay established a legal practice with Robert R. Livingston, Jr., scion of the "Lower Manor" branch of the Livingston family, before operating his own law office from 1771. Among other tasks during these years, Jay served as clerk of the New York-New Jersey Boundary Commission.

In the spring of 1774, Jay's life took two momentous turns. In April he married Sarah Livingston (1756-1802), the daughter of New Jersey Governor William Livingston, thus gaining important connections to a politically powerful Colonial family. In May he was swept into New York politics, largely as a result of the worsening relations with Great Britain. New York conservatives, seeking to outmaneuver more radical responses to the Intolerable Acts, nominated a "committee of 50," including Jay, to arrange the election of delegates to a Continental Congress. Throughout the revolutionary struggle, Jay followed a course of moderation, separating himself clearly from loyalists but resisting what he considered the extremism of more radical politicians. Thus, in the months before Independence he favored exploring the possibilities of rapprochement fully, helping to draft the Olive Branch Petition as a delegate to the second Continental Congress. As a delegate to the New York Convention of 1776-77, Jay had a formative influence in shaping the new state's constitution. Jay remained an important actor at the state level, becoming the Chief Justice of the state Supreme Court before moving to the national arena to assume the Presidency of Congress in late 1778.

The fall of 1779 found Jay selected for a mission to Spain, where he spent a frustrating three years seeking diplomatic recognition, financial support and a treaty of alliance and commerce. He was to spend the next four years abroad in his nation's service both as commissioner to Spain and then in Paris, where he was a member of the American delegation that negotiated the peace terms ending America's War of Independence with Britain. This process culminated with the signing of the Treaty of Paris in September 1783.

He returned to the United States in July, 1784 to discover that he had, in his absence, been elected Secretary for Foreign Affairs. In that role he was confronted by difficult issues stemming from violations of the Treaty of Paris by both countries — issues that he would later revisit in negotiations with Britain in 1794 and which would be addressed again in the resulting "Jay Treaty." Beyond his dealings with Great Britain, Jay succeeded in having the French accept a revised version of the Consular Convention that Franklin had earlier negotiated; he attempted to negotiate a treaty with Spain in which commercial benefits would have been exchanged for a renunciation of American access to the Mississippi for a number of years; and he endeavored, with limited resources, to secure the freedom of Americans captured and held for ransom in Algiers by so-called Barbary pirates. The frustrations he suffered as Secretary for Foreign Affairs, a post he held until 1789, clearly impressed upon him the need to construct a government more powerful than that under the Articles of Confederation. Though not selected to attend the Philadelphia Convention, he was a leading proponent of the principles that the new Constitution embodied and played a critical role in its ratification.

In 1787 and 1788 Jay collaborated with Alexander Hamilton and James Madison on the Federalist, authoring essays numbers two, three, four, five and, following an illness, sixty-four, thus contributing to the political arguments and intellectual discourse that led to Constitution's ratification. Jay also played a key role in shepherding the Constitution through the New York State Ratification Convention in the face of vigorous opposition. In this battle Jay relied not only on skillful political maneuvering, he also produced a pamphlet, "An Address to the People of New York," that powerfully restated the Federalist case for the new Constitution.

Read the remainder of the article: http://www.columbia.edu/cu/libraries/...

Other:
by Walter Stahr (no photo)

Source: Columbia Education

Great add - I sent you a link

The Declaration of Independence

When in the course of human events . . .

John Jay
Representing New York at the Continental Congress

Born: December 12, 1745
Schooling: King's (Columbia) College (Lawyer, Judge)
Work: Member of the New York Committee of Correspondence, 1774; Delegate to the Continental Congress, 1774-76; Member of the New York Constitutional Convention, First Chief Justice of New York, 1777; Delegate and elected President of Continental Congress, 1778; Minister to Spain, 1779, Minister to treat the peace with Great Britain, 1782; Secretary of Foreign Affairs, 1784; Contributor to The Federalist, 1788; First Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, 1789; Negotiator of Jay Treaty with Great Britain, 1794; Elected Governor of New York, 1797-1801.
Died: May 17, 1829


Portrait of John Jay

John Jay showed promise of an extraordinary life at a very young age indeed. He attended an exclusive boarding school in New Rochelle, New York at age eight, and proceeded to King's College (now Columbia University) at age fourteen. He graduated with highest honors in 1764 and proceeded to the study of law under Benjamin Kissam. He was admitted to the Bar of New York in 1768. In early 1774 he was one of the most prominent members of the New York Committee of Correspondence.

In September of that year he attended the First Continental Congress as the second youngest member, at age twenty eight. His authorship of the Address to the People of Great Britain, published by the first Continental Congress perhaps belied his resolute opinion for reconciliation with Gr. Britain. He retired from the Congress in 1776 rather than sign the Declaration of Independence. He became deeply involved in the development of a new state government for New York. In 1777 he attended the New York constitutional convention, and was selected to draft that constitution. He then served a the first Chief Justice of the state. He also served as a member of the state Council of Safety, acting as the sole council when the Legislature was not in session. He was again elected to the Continental Congress in 1778 and was voted president of that body upon arrival.

In 1779 Jay was appointed Minister to Spain in order to seek recognition of Colonial Independence, financial aid, and commercial treaties. In 1782 Jay, along with Adams, Franklin, and Laurens signed the treaty of peace with Great Britain. When he returned to Congress, he had already been appointed Secretary of Foreign Affairs.

In 1787 Jay authored three of the articles now collectively called The Federalist, in which he, James Madison, and Alexander Hamilton argued effectively in support of the ratification of the new Federal Constitution. In 1789, Washington appointed him Chief Justice to the Supreme Court under the new federal constitution. In 1794 he was appointed an envoy extraordinary to Great Britain, in order to seek a resolution to continuing conflicts on the western border, and in commercial relations. The result of this was the Jay Treaty, which proved very unpopular with the public, but was nonetheless approved of by the Washington administration. Upon his return home Jay found that, in his absence, he had been elected Governor of New York. Fellow Federalist Alexander Hamilton had secured his election in an effort to strengthen the party in New York. Jay withstood a great deal of party maneuvering and political trickery, earning respect form his friends and enemies alike. He was a very popular Governor who fought for many political reforms including judicial reform, penal reform and the abolition of slavery. He undertook extensive road and canal projects to improve the economy of his state. He retired from public life in 1801. President John Adams tried to appoint him to the Supreme Court again that year, but owing to the illness of his wife, Jay declined the office. Jay died on May 17, 1829 having survived his wife and both of his partners in The Federalist.

Link to article: https://www.ushistory.org/declaration...

More:

by Walter Stahr (no photo)

Source: US History

An upcoming book:
Release date: March 1, 2022

The First Chief Justice: John Jay and the Struggle of a New Nation

by Mark C. Dillon (no photo)

Synopsis:

The first Chief Justice of the United States, John Jay faced many unique challenges. When the stability and success of the new nation were far from certain, a body of federalized American law had to be created from scratch.

In The First Chief Justice, New York State Appellate Judge Mark C. Dillon uncovers, for the first time, how Jay's personal, educational, and professional experiences--before, during, and after the Revolutionary War--shaped both the establishment of the first system of federal courts from 1789 to 1795 and Jay's approach to deciding the earliest cases heard by the Supreme Court. Dillon takes us on a fascinating journey of a task accomplished by constant travel on horseback to the nation's far reaches, with Jay adeptly handing the Washington administration, Congress, lawyers, politicians, and judicial colleagues. The book includes the fascinating history of each of the nine cases decided by Jay when he was Chief Justice, many of which have proven with time to have enduring historical significance.

The First Chief Justice will appeal to anyone interested in the establishment of the US federal court system and early American history.

Thank you Jerome