John Jay

“ During Jay's residence in Spain he had learned much of the aims and methods of the Bourbon policy, and a memoir submitted to him by Rayneval, as his “personal views” against our right to the boundaries, an intercepted letter of Marbois, secretary of legation at Philadelphia, against our claim to the fisheries, and the departure for England with precautions for secrecy of Rayneval himself, the most skilful and trusted agent of Vergennes, convinced him that one object of Rayneval's mission was to prejudice Shelburne against the American claims. ”

“ The two subjects to which Judge Jay's efforts were chiefly devoted were those of war and slavery. His writings on the first, both before and after he became president of the American peace society, had no little influence at home and abroad. In his volume entitled “War and Peace; the Evils of the First, with a Plan for securing the Last” (New York, 1848) , he suggested stipulation by treaty referring international disputes to arbitration, as a plan based upon obvious principles of national policy, and adapted to the existing state of civilized society. ”

“ In October of the same year the New York city anti-slavery society was formed, and in December an Anti-slavery convention met at Philadelphia to form the American anti-slavery society. Each of these bodies, at Judge Jay's suggestion, disclaimed the right of congress to interfere with slavery in the states, while claiming for congress power to suppress the domestic slave-trade and to abolish slavery in the territories under its exclusive jurisdiction. ”

“ His great learning and strength of intellect, his masterly reasoning, his wisdom and his pre-eminent moral excellence, combined with his thorough refinement and dignity as a man, made him a very marked and remarkable jurist and member of society. Mr. Jay was one of the members of the Kent club, composed of prominent members of the bar, and was active in the social affairs of New York city. ”

“ A new commission in the form drafted by Jay, authorizing Oswald to treat with “the United States” of America, was at once ordered, and Lord Shelburne wrote to Oswald that they had said and done “everything which had been desired,” and that they had put the greatest confidence ever placed in man in the American commissioners. ”

“ Jay was a delegate to the congress, which met in Philadelphia, 5 Sept. As one of a committee of three he prepared the “Address to the People of Great Britain,” which Jefferson, while ignorant of the authorship, declared to be “a production certainly of the finest pen in America.” Jay was an active member of the committee of observation in New York, on whose recommendation the counties elected a provincial congress, and also of a committee of association of 100 members, invested by the city of New York with general undefined powers. ”

“ An interesting memoir in the French archives, among the papers under the head of “Angleterre,” shows that the interests of France required that the ambition of the American colonies “should be checked and held down to fixed limits through the union of the three nations,” England, France, and Spain. Before the arrival of Jay, Franklin had had an informal conversation, first with Grenville, and then with Mr. Oswald, who had been sent by the cabinet of Rockingham. ”

“ He was an active member of the New York convention, which, after a long struggle, adopted the constitution “in full confidence” that certain amendments would be adopted, and Jay was appointed to write the circular letter that secured the unanimous assent of the convention. On the organization of the Federal government, President Washington asked Jay to accept whatever place he might prefer, and Jay took the office of chief justice of the supreme court, when he resigned the post of president of the Abolition society. ”

“ These governments declared their wish that the states between which any serious misunderstanding might arise should, before appealing to arms, have recourse, as far as circumstances might allow, to the good offices of a friendly power. ”

“ He prepared also, for the American anti-slavery society, an address to the public, restating their views and principles, which was widely published throughout America and Europe. In 1834 Judge Jay published his “Inquiry into the Character and Tendency of the American Colonization and American Anti-Slavery Societies,” which was read “by scholars and statesmen and exerted a powerful influence!” “The work,” wrote Prof. E. Wright, Jr., “sells faster than it can be printed,” and it was presently reprinted in London. ”