If it be asked why so good a patriot as Jay was not a signer of the Declaration of Inde pendence, the answer is, that in 1776, while a member of the Continental Congress, Jay was also elected to the New York Provincial Con gress, and the Continental Congress having di rected the colonies to each adopt a government, Jay, on the call of his colony, proceeded to New York to take part in the formation of the local government, where he was forced to re main while the Declaration of Independence was being signed. During 1777, and while the war was going on in the vicinity of New York, the Provincial Congress, then styled the Con vention of the Representatives of the State of New York, was laboring with exceeding diffi culty, the members, as is recorded, performing "all the various and arduous duties of legislators, soldiers, negotiators, committees of safety and ways and means, judges, juries, fathers and guardians of their own families, flying before the enemy, and then protectors of a beloved commonwealth." Yet amid all this turmoil and unrest a constitution was drafted by Jay which was, in the main, adopted as drafted, and was published upon 22 April 1777, by being read in front of the courthouse in Kingston. A committee was at once appointed, Jay being a member, to organize a new government; and a council of safety was created to act until the legislature should meet. Robert R. Livingston was appointed chancellor and Jay chief justice, and the judicial department of government was temporarily organized.
Jay was urged to be a candidate for gover nor at the first election under the constitution, but declined. General Clinton was elected over his opponent, General Schuyler, and took the oath of office, it is said, while "clothed in the uniform of the service, standing on the top of a barrel in front of the Court-House in Kings On 9 September following, Chief jury Jay delivered an address to the grand Jury at Kingston, which is to be found in the first volume of his correspondence and public papers. The address is a much prized document of Revolutionary times, and was, undoubtedly, in tended to reach and affect a much larger con stituency than the grand jury to whom it was delivered. Of course, in those unsettled days, with the struggle between the old and the new countries raging, but little litigation of im portance came before the Supreme Court, so that during Jay's chief justiceship the work of the court was mainly confined to criminal trials, and the court never sat in banc. During 1778 he was active in the Council of Revision, of which he was a member ex-officio. The legis lature in 1779 appointed Jay to Congress with out requiring him to vacate the office of chief justice, it being resolved that owing to serious questions between certain States Ca special case" obtained under the constitution. Shortly afterward Congress elected him its president. Later in the year, however, he resigned the office of chief justice, designing, he said, to recoup his failing fortunes. But his desires in
that direction were not to be gratified. More than 21:1 years elapsed before the public he had served so well would submit to be deprived of his services.
In October, 1779, Jay resigned the presidency of Congress to accept the office of Minister to Spain. His instructions in part were to secure if possible a commercial treaty with Spain simi lar to that existing with France, to acquire a port in Spanish dominion on the Mississippi, and to negotiate a loan of $5,000,000. That his mission was not entirely successful, and was personally disagreeable, was due to the fact that Spain disliked the new nation because it occupied lands formerly held by Spain, and it was apprehended that with increasing strength it might reach out and take more — fears• that we know now were not groundless. While Minister to Spain, Jay was appointed, with Franklin, Jefferson, Adams and Laurens, com missioner for a general peace. Their instruc tions rested on the mistaken theory that France would aid in procuring for us the best possible terms. In June 1782, Jay joined Franklin, then Minister to France, in Paris, and promptly but cautiously entered upon an investigation which disclosed that France had other interests to serve than those of the United States. Pos sessed of the situation, he boldly entered upon negotiations with England's representative without even consulting his only colleague in Paris, whom he regarded as necessarily embar rassed by his position as Minister to France, and his instructions. With firmness, and yet with great tact, he conducted the negotiations alone until joined by Adams, who enthusiastically approved of his action, and so advised Mr. Franklin, who, after consultation, agreed that the negotiations should be concluded without consulting the French court. The result of these most interesting negotiations with Eng land was a treaty by which the United States gained more than Congress had ever ventured to propose. And Jay's part in this great triumph of diplomacy is well summed up in a letter writ ten by his fellow commissioner John Adams to Jonathan Jackson, °a man and his office were never better united than Mr. Jay and the com mission for peace. Had he been detained at Madrid, as I was in Holland, and all left to Franklin, as was wished, all would have been lost." He was appointed by Congress Secretary of Foreign Affairs. This office he filled with his usual ability, settling international questions, and advocating the building of a navy, and the organization of a Federal government under a constitution. His papers in the Federalist evidence both his activity and forcefulness in this direction; and his influence contributed in no small degree in bringing New York to the support of the Federal Constitution.