 John
Jay was born in New York City on December 12, 1745. His
only formal education was received at King's College, now Columbia
University. After graduating, Jay read law, and became a successful
lawyer in colonial New York. In 1774, Jay married Sarah Livingston, a
member of the politically powerful Livingston family. Jay was elected to
both the First and Second Continental Congresses. As hostilities between
the colonists and the Crown escalated, Jay attempted to find common
ground between the two. Although he thought about returning to England
when independence was declared by the colonists, he remained in New
York, and assisted in the drafting of the New York constitution of 1777,
which was influential in the drafting, a decade later, of the federal
Constitution.
In 1782, Jay, Benjamin Franklin and John Adams were sent to Paris to
negotiate a peace treaty with England. When he returned to New York in
1784, he chose law practice over offers to act as the United States
minister to England and France. He then was asked by Congress to act as
secretary of foreign affairs. Jay shortly thereafter expressed his
disagreement with the
Articles of
Confederation. Jay wrote five of the Federalist Papers (he was too
ill to write more), which were to be used as a guide to the debates
concerning the Constitution. Jay was a delegate at New York's
Constitutional Convention, and supported adoption of the Constitution
(which New York did by a 30-27 vote). Jay was nominated and confirmed as
the first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Jay
served on the Court for six years, resigning when he concluded that the
Court could not create unity among Americans. In 1794, Jay left the
United States for England, and negotiated with the British a treaty that
bears his name. While absent, he was elected Governor of New York. Jay
then resigned from the Court. When asked by John Adams to return to the
Court after the resignation of
Oliver
Ellsworth, Jay declined. He spent the remainder of his long life
devoted to the Episcopalian church and the anti-slavery cause.
Further reading: Walter Stahr, John Jay:
Founding Father (2005); Selected Letters of John Jay and Sarah
Livingston Jay (Janet Wedge et al. eds. 2005). |
