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JOHN JAY,

FIRST CHIEF JUSTICE OF THE UNITED STATES

SUPREME COURT.

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HEN, in 1685, Louis XIV. of France revoked the Edict of Nantes, that famous act of toleration under which French Protestants had for so long lived and flourished, his bigotry set in motion forces whose efforts reached every nation of the earth, and turned the current of history for centuries after. Among the multitudes of industrious and ingenious men who were then driven from France to other lands was one Pierre Jay, a merchant of La Rochelle, who fled to England to escape persecution. His son, a West India merchant, came to New York, and married the daughter of one of the early Dutch settlers; and

thus their distinguished son, John Jay, one of the founders

of our government, and its first chief justice, was remarkable among early American statesmen as having not a drop of English blood in his veins.

There is little in the history of Jay that is picturesque or striking; but there are few among the worthies of the Revolution to whom posterity owes a greater debt. "Life," says the poet Lowell,

"may be given in many ways,

And loyalty to truth be sealed

As bravely in the closet as the field."

That Jay had the true heroic spirit is shown by an episode of his life in college. A number of his fellow-students, in some rough play in the college hall, which he saw but had no part in, broke a table. The noise reached the ears of the president, who suddenly appeared, but not in time to discover them in the act. All those present, except Jay and one other student, flatly denied that they broke the table, or knew who did. Jay and his comrade admitted that they knew who did it, but refused to tell their names, Jay maintaining that there was nothing

in the laws of the college requiring him to play the part of an informer. This manly conduct, however, was deemed by the authorities a grave offense, and Jay and his companion were suspended.

Upon his graduation from college Jay entered on the study of the law, and was admitted to the New York bar in 1768. He is said to have "combined in a remarkable degree the dignity and gravity of manhood with the ardor of youth." He soon acquired a large practice, and great influence in political affairs. As a member of the Continental Congress, in 1774, he drew up the famous Address to the People of Great Britain, which at once gave him the reputation of being one of the ablest and most eloquent writers in America. "Are not the proprietors of the soil of Great Britain," he says, "lords of their own property? Can it be taken from them without their own consent? Why, then, are the proprietors of the soil of America less lords of their property than you are of yours? or why should they submit it to the disposal of your Parliament, or any other parliament or council in the world not of their own election? . . . Such declarations we consider as heresies in English politics, and can no more operate to deprive us of our property than the interdicts of the Pope can divest kings of scepters which the laws of the land and the voice of the people have placed in their hands.

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Referring to the ability and character of the men who formed the famous Continental Congress, Lord Chatham said: "When your lordships look at the papers transmitted to us from America, when you consider their decency, firmness, and wisdom, you cannot but respect their cause, and wish to make it your For myself, I must declare and avow that, . . . for solidity of reasoning, force of sagacity, and wisdom of conclusion, . . . no nation or body of men can stand in preference to the General Congress at Philadelphia."

own.

JAY'S TRIALS IN SPAIN.

In 1778 Jay was chosen President of Congress, and fulfilled the difficult duties of that station for nearly two years, when he was sent as minister to Spain to negotiate for a loan of $5,000,000, and for the free navigation of the Mississippi. "While I am sensible," wrote another delegate to Jay, "of the advantages we shall reap from your eminent services there, I have my fears that they will be missed importantly where you now are." The trials and vexations of his new position were very great. "The Spaniards will not easily give their dollars," truly wrote Lafayette to Washington; and, far from giving up to America the navigation of the Mississippi, they wished to obtain sole control of it themselves. "Poor as we are," wrote Franklin to Jay, "as I know we shall be rich, I would rather agree with them to buy, at a great price, the whole of their right on the Mississippi than to sell a drop of its waters. A neighbor might as well ask me to sell my street door."

TREATY OF PEACE WITH ENGLAND.

95

Jay wasted many months of fruitless and vexatious labor in Spain, Congress in the meantime not only failing to provide him with any means of sup port, but expecting him to beg or borrow from Spain hundreds of thousands of dollars to pay bills of exchange which they drew upon him. When in the greatest extremity, Franklin, whose influence at the French court was very great, sent Jay $25,000 to aid in meeting these bills. "If you find any inclination to hug me for the good news of this letter," wrote Franklin, "I constitute

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BANKS OF THE MISSISSIPPI TO-DAY, FOR WHOSE FREE NAVIGATION JAY NEGOTIATED.

and appoint Mrs. Jay my attorney, to receive in my behalf your embraces." Soon afterward Jay left Spain, and took a most important part in negotiating a treaty of peace with England, at Paris, in 1783,-a treaty so advantageous to America that the French Prime Minister remarked that "England had bought a peace, rather than made one." On his return to America Jay was made Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, and filled that office until 1789.

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In 1787 met that renowned body of statesmen, the Constitutional Conven

tion of 1787, which, "in order to form a more perfect union," drafted the pres ent Constitution of the United States. In the labors of this convention probably no member bore a more important part than Jay. When the work of the convention was at last complete, and submitted to the people, there was violent opposition to it, especially in Jay's own State-New York. In this state of the public mind that trio of great men, Madison, Jay, and Hamilton, undertook to explain and vindicate the proposed instrument in The Federalist, a series of articles, originally published in the New York papers. "No constitution," says Chancellor Kent, "ever received a more masterly and successful vindication." The opposition to its adoption was finally removed; it was ratified by the States, and went into effect with the election of Washington as first President, in 1789.

Washington manifested his opinion of Jay's character and abilities by giving him a choice of the offices under the new government. He preferred the chief-justiceship, as being most suited to his turn of mind and his training. In an address at one of the first sessions he said: "Nothing but a strong government of laws, irresistibly bearing down arbitrary power and licentiousness, can defend it against those two formidable enemies. Let it be remembered that civil liberty consists, not in a right to every man to do just as he pleases, but in an equal right to all citizens to have, enjoy, and do, in peace, security, and without molestation, whatever the equal and constitutional laws of the country admit to be consistent with the public good."

STRONG LANGUAGE ABOUT SLAVERY.

Of all the statesmen of the Revolution, Jay was one of the most pronounced and uncompromising opponents of slavery. The inconsistency of demanding freedom for ourselves, while holding others in bondage, was one which his strong, logical mind could not tolerate, and which he did not attempt to reconcile. In 1780, writing from Spain to a friend in America, he says: “An excellent law might be made out of the Pennsylvania one for the gradual abolition of slavery. Till America comes into this measure, her prayers to Heaven for liberty will be impious. . . . I believe God governs the world, and I believe it to be a maxim in his, as in our court, that those who ask for equity, ought to do it." Again he says: "It is much to be wished that slavery may be abolished. . . . To contend for our own liberty, and to deny that blessing to others, involves an inconsistency not to be excused."

Jay continued on the bench of the Supreme Court until 1794, when his services were required as special minister to England, to adjust the differences between the two countries, which were so great as to threaten war. His abilities as a diplomatist were shown by the treaty which he negotiated, under which England paid over ten millions of dollars for illegal captures of American pro

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