It is said that after the first election of Washington to the presidency he offered Jay the choice of any office in the government, and that he chose that of chief justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, which he justly regarded as the most exalted position next to the presidency. but be that as it may, Washing ton appointed 'him to that position, and in his letter to Jay, advising him of the nomination, said, °I not only acted in conformity with my best judgment, but I trust I did a grateful thing to the good citizens of these United States" His term of office was effective in shaping the foreign policy of the United States as well as in establishing the dignity and independence of the Federal judiciary. He resigned in 1795; but in the meantime and in 1792 the Federalists supported him unsuccessfully against Governor Clinton for the governorship of New York. In 1794 President Washington urged him to go to Great Britain as special envoy to settle differ ences growing out of the failure of that country to keep the obligations of the Treaty of 1784, differences which had aroused a strong war spirit all over the land. It was easy for Jay to foresee that the outcome of the situation would in all probability be unpopular with the people, but he did not hesitate to meet the responsibility that Washington believed he could meet better than any other man, Partly because of the reputation he had established in England while negotiating the Treaty of Peace of 1784. A treaty resulted, known on this side of the ocean as °Jay's which settled the eastern boundary of Maine; recovered for illegal cap tures by British cruisers $10,000,000; secured the surrender of the Western forts still gar risoned by the British, and came to a point of agreement about the West India trade. With the exception of the latter article the treaty was approved by the President and ratified by the Senate. But many were not satisfied, and they denounced him with tongue and pen, and even burned him in effigy in Boston, Philadelphia and at his own home, New York.
He found on his return that he had been elected governor of New York before the public had knowledge of the terms of the treaty, of course. Before the close of that term, and in April 1799 he was re-elected by a majority so large as to constitute a personal triumph. During this term the statute was passed providing for the gradual emancipation of slaves within the State, then numbering about 22,000. The six years of his incumbency of the office of governor were crowded with interesting legislative and executive events in which he performed his part with that staunch devotion to the public interests which ever characterized his efforts throughout his career as a servant of the public, as is well illustrated by his refusal to be a party to the scheme of certain leaders of the Federalists to secure the electoral vote of New York for the ensuing election. The unexpected result of the spring elections of 1800 assured the Republicans of a substantial working majority on joint ballot, and hence of the Presidential electors under the law as it then stood. It was generally con
ceded that New York would determine the choice of the next President. Although the Federalists had, in March prior to the elections, defeated the attempt of the Republicans to re district the State, and had insisted that it was necessary that the State should act as a unit in the choice of Presidential electors, the leaders changed their position after the election had gone against them and insisted that the electors should be chosen by districts. Alexander Hamilton wrote Governor Jay on 7 May advis ing that he call an extra session of the legis lature to enact such a statute before July first, the end of the legislative year. Philip Schuy ler also wrote a letter strongly urging that such a course furnished the only means of saving the "nation from more disasters.° But Jay, al though a staunch Federalist, who had received the votes of New Jersey and Delaware, five votes from Connecticut and one from Rhode Island for the Presidency in the preceding electoral college, refused to take such action, and endorsed on Hamilton's letter these words: °Proposing a measure for party purposes which I think it would not become me to adopt? He refused a renomination for the office of governor on the ground that he now intended to retire from public life, and his pur pose' was unshaken by President Adams an nouncing to him his nomination and confirma tion a second time as chiefjustice of the United States. This office he held until 1801 when he retired from public life.
Consult 'Correspondence and Public Papers of John Jay' edited by H. C. Johnston (1890 93) ; Jay, William, 'Life of John Ja) (1833) ; J Whitelocke, 'Life and Times of John ; Pellew, 'John jay' (1890).
Aurozi B. PARKER, Late Chief Judge of the Court of Appeals of the State of New York.
JAY,ohn, American diplomatist: b. New J York, 23 1817; d. there, 5 May 1894. He was the son of William Jay (q.v.). He was graduated from Columbia in 1836, studied law in New York, was admitted to the bar in 1839, became a prominent opponent of slavery, was Secretary of the Irish relief committee in 1847 and was counsel for several fugitive slaves. He organized the meetings at the Broadway Taber nacle, New York, in 1854, and took a leading part in the organization of the Republican party at Syracuse, 27 Sept. 1855. From 1869 until his resignation in 1875 he was United States Minister to Austria, in 1877 was ap pointed chairman of the so-called Jay commis sion for the investigation of the New York customs-house administration, and in 1883 was appointed the Republican member of the New York State Civil Service Commission. He was long corresponding secretary of the New York Historical Society. In 1889 he became dent of the American Historical Association, and published several pamphlets, among them 'The Dignity of the Abolition Cause) (1839), and 'The American Church and the American Slave-trade) (1860).