John Jay: life, ideas and books

Life

John Jay was born in New York City in 1745. He was a delegate to the First and Second Continental Congresses and served as President of the Continental Congress from 1778 to 1779. He drafted much of the first New York constitution in 1777 and was Chief Justice of the New York Supreme Court from 1777 to 1779. He was minister to Spain from 1779 to 1782 and a peace commissioner who helped negotiate the 1783 Treaty of Paris that ended the Revolutionary War.

He served as Secretary for Foreign Affairs under the Articles of Confederation from 1784 and as acting Secretary of State in 1789 and 1790. President Washington appointed him the first Chief Justice of the United States, and he held that office from 1789 to 1795. He was then governor of New York from 1795 to 1801 and died in 1829 at Bedford, New York.

Ideas

Jay's experience in diplomacy under the weak Confederation convinced him that the country needed a stronger national government, and he joined Alexander Hamilton and James Madison in writing The Federalist; he contributed numbers 2 through 5 and number 64, which deal with foreign affairs and the treaty power. He stressed the protection of property, the rule of law and an independent judiciary, and he distrusted mob rule.

He held antislavery views and helped found the New York Manumission Society, and as governor he signed the 1799 law providing for gradual emancipation, although he owned slaves himself. His religious convictions were strong and shaped his outlook on peace and public life.

Major works

• "Address to the People of Great Britain" (1774).
• The New York Constitution of 1777, which he drafted.
• The Federalist Papers, Nos. 2-5 and 64 (1787-1788).
• Address to the people of New York on the federal Constitution (1788).
• His opinion in Chisholm v. Georgia (1793).
• The Jay Treaty with Britain (1794).

Why conservatives read him

Jay belongs to the generation of founders who saw that liberty needs a government strong enough to defend it, and his writing in The Federalist on national unity and foreign relations is still cited in arguments about the treaty power and the proper reach of the executive. His brief tenure as Chief Justice set early precedents, among them in Chisholm v. Georgia, where he took the view that a state could be sued in federal court by a citizen of another state. The Eleventh Amendment reversed that result, and modern conservative justices still argue over its meaning.

The Jay Treaty of 1794 avoided war with Britain at a cost of fierce partisan quarrels and helped define the split between Federalists and Democratic-Republicans. His record on slavery is mixed, and he opposed it in principle while taking part in it as a master, a tension that students of the founding should note. Readers who want to understand how the new republic secured itself will find him a sober, steady figure beside George Washington and John Adams.