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John Jay is well-known as an American founding father, the first chief justice of the Supreme Court, and an early governor of New York. But did you also know he was a devoted Christian and advocate for the emancipation of slaves? Jay had a loving wife and six children who often travelled with him on his trips overseas as a foreign ambassador. This great man’s legacy is one that must not be forgotten in the mix of history.
JOHN JAY’S YOUTH
On December 23, 1745, John Jay was born into a wealthy, French Huguenot family in New York City. His parents, Peter Jay and Mary Jay (Van Cortlandt), had several children, seven of whom survived, and Peter Jay had a lucrative business as a commodities trader.
John Jay’s parents provided him with an education, and he bounced between homeschooling under his mother and receiving lessons from outside tutors. At age 14, King’s College in New York (now Columbia University) admitted him. Jay’s education paid off because King’s College’s entry requirement was that the student translate “the first ten chapters of the Gospel of John from Greek into Latin” (AmericanMinute). Jay graduated in 1764 and launched his career as a lawyer.
JOHN JAY’S DEBUT INTO POLITICS & THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR
Jay’s name quickly became well-known in the world of politics when he was selected “as a delegate from New York to the First and Second Continental Congress” (Constitution Facts) in 1774. Jay initially took a moderate stance in the turmoil surrounding Great Britain. He was not a loyalist, but he encouraged “a peaceful resolution with Great Britain instead of independence” (History). He soon gravitated from his moderate position to one of a firm need for independence.
He soon “became a member of New York’s Committee of Sixty and the Chief Justice of the New York Provincial Congress” where he eventually assisted in drafting the New York State Constitution (Constitution Facts). From there, he was elected as President of the assembly of the Continental Congress (December 10, 1778 to September 28, 1779) and by 1779, he was appointed as Minister to Spain to ascertain funding from Spain for the American Revolution. After three fruitless years in Spain (1779-1782), Jay had no luck beyond a $170,000 loan from Spain to the U.S. government.
JOHN JAY & THE TREATY OF PARIS
In 1782, the fighting in the Revolutionary War had largely died down, and Jay, accompanied with Benjamin Franklin and John Adams, travelled to Paris, France “to negotiate a peace treaty with Great Britain” (ThoughtCo).
The Treat of Paris was signed September 3, 1783, and at long last, Britain recognized America’s independence as a sovereign nation, and “lands secured through the treaty essentially doubled the new nation’s size” (ThoughtCo).
JAY’S TREATY
Even after the Treaty of Paris was signed, America still had unresolved issues as leftovers from the Revolution. British troops were still occupying the Old Northwest. America still owed money to the British to pay off loans from the Revolutionary War. The British were also seizing neutral American vessels trading with France (which was embroiled in the French Revolution at the time).
Jay travelled back to Paris in 1794 and negotiated what is now called Jay’s Treaty, thus securing “the exit of British troops from the Old Northwest and granted Britain most-favored-nation status ensuring that the best trade deal any other nation received from the United States would also be applied to British goods” (Mount Vernon). Jay’s Treaty was signed on November 19, 1794. This treaty, supported by both George Washington and Alexander Hamilton, allowed Jay to negotiate “ten years of peaceful trade with Britain while France was going through a bloody Revolution” (AmericanMinute).
JOHN JAY’S FAMILY
Before heading to Paris to sign Jay’s Treaty, John Jay married New Jersey Governor William Liveingston’s daughter Sarah Van Brugh Livingston on April 28, 1774. The Jay “couple had six children: Peter Augustus, Susan, Maria, Ann, William, and Sarah Louisa” (ThoughtCo).
Jay’s large family loved to accompany him on his diplomatic travels, and the family traveled to Spain and Paris and lived with Benjamin Franklin.
JOHN JAY: FOUNDING FATHER & AUTHOR OF THE FEDERALIST PAPERS
John Jay was Chief Justice of the Supreme Court from 1789 to 1795. He also authored a few of the Federalist Papers (pamphlets written by Alexander Hamilton and James Madison that supported a stronger federal government and the Constitution).
John Jay wrote to Washington in 1786 concerning the weak U.S. government, “the population ‘will be led, by the insecurity of property, the losing of confidence in their rulers, and the want of public faith and rectitude, to consider the charms of liberty imaginary and delusive’ and would embrace ‘almost any change that may promise them quiet and security’” (borrowed from Mount Vernon).
JOHN JAY: CHIEF JUSTICE OF THE U.S. SUPREME COURT
1789 was the year Jay truly became famous in American textbooks when President George Washington offered Jay the appointment of Secretary of State. Jay declined, and Washington turned around with the offer of Chief Justice of the United States. This position was unprecedented in American history, and Washington described it as “the keystone of our political fabric”. Jay’s confirmation was unanimous, and he was sworn in on September 26, 1789 and served until 1795.
Jay’s influence on the U.S. Supreme Court and law is priceless. He established “rules, procedure, and precedents” and introduced judicial review with his famous case Chisholm v. Georgia in 1793 (Constitution Facts).
JOHN JAY: GOVERNOR OF NEW YORK
In 1795, Jay was elected governor of New York and resigned from the Supreme Court to fulfill his new civic duty. In 1799, Jay “helped pass a gradual emancipation law in 1799 that led to the eventual end of slavery in Ne York in 1827” (Mount Vernon). Jay ran unsuccessfully for presidency in 1796 and 1800 and received crushing defeats (largely because his treaty [Jay’s Treaty] was so unpopular with the American people due to what they perceived as pro-British sentiments).
JOHN JAY AND THE FIGHT TO END SLAVERY
During his tenure as governor of New York, Jay organized the New York Manumission Society. Jay owned slaves during his life but eventually freed them and, through the New York Manumission Society, “arranged boycotts of merchants and newspapers involved in or supporting the trade of enslaved people and provided free legal assistance for free Black persons who had been claimed or kidnapped as captives” (ThoughtCo).
CONCLUSION
John Jay retired in 1801 and lived on his farm in Westchester County, New York. After his retirement, he largely avoided politics with the exception of continually fighting slavery and writing around 1819 that, “Slavery should not to be introduced nor permitted in any of the new states” (regarding the controversy around whether Missouri should be admitted as a pro-slave or anti-slave state).
In June 1826, the Corporation of the City of New York invited Jay to the celebration of America’s 50th anniversary. Jay was 82 when he replied.
“Earnest hope that the peace, happiness, and prosperity enjoyed by our beloved country may induce those who direct her national counsels to recommend a general and public return of praise to Him from whose goodness these blessings descend […] The most effectual means of securing the continuance of our civil and religious liberties is, always to remember with reverence and gratitude the Source form which they flow” (borrowed from AmericanMinute).
Jay served “as vice president and president of the American Bible Society from 1816 to 1827” and was a member of the Protestant Episcopal Church (ThoughtCo).
As Jay neared death at age 84, he wrote, “Unto Him who is the Author an dGiver of all good, I render sincere and humble thanks for His merciful and unmerited blessings, and especially for our redemption and salvation by His beloved Son.
“He has been pleased to bless me with excellent parents, with a virtuous wife, and with worthy children.
“His protection has accompanied me through many eventful years, faithfully employed in the service of my country; and His Providence has not only conducted me to this tranquil situation, but also given me abundant reason to be contented and thankful.
“Blessed be His Holy Name. While my children lament my departure, let them recollect that in doing them good, I was only the agent of their Heavenly Father, and that He never withdraws His care and consolations from those who diligently seek Him” (borrowed from AmericanMinute).
On May 17, 1829, Jay’s son, Judge William Jay, recorded that “John Jay was asked if he had any words for his children, to which he responded:
“’They have the Book’” (AmericanMinute).
Indeed, he must have been referring to the Bible – God’s Word.
Jay died May 17, 1829 in Bedford, New York, and his family buried him in the family cemetery (now part of the Boston Post road Historic District). John Jay was 84 and lived an amazing life of service to his country. Without John Jay, our country would not have the laws and structure that he established, especially during his time on the Supreme Court. As Americans, we should be grateful for his many years of service and efforts to create the great United States of America.