Jay, John (1745-1829)

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John Jay (1745-1829)

First chief justice of the supreme court

Early Years. John Jay was born on 12 December 1745 in New York City. The son of a prosperous merchant family and nephew of a judge, Jay benefited from a solid and well-rounded education. He graduated from King’s College (now Columbia University) in 1760 fluent in French, Greek, and Latin. Jay began his apprenticeship in the law in 1764, serving as clerk to Benjamin Kissam, and soon became known for quickness of mind and the strength of his reasoning. After being licensed to practice law on 26 October 1768, he began a partnership with Robert Livingston, a friend since their college days. Jay and Livingston became a preeminent New York law firm, taking on all manner of cases and building important reputations.

Public Service. Jay’s public career began in 1774 as a delegate to the First Continental Congress. There followed afterward a virtual explosion of public service. In 1775 he attended the Second Continental Congress and served on the New York Provincial Congress. The following year Jay collaborated with Gouverneur Morris and William Duer to draft a new state constitution for New York. Jay served as chief justice of New York’s Supreme Court from 1777 to 1779 and in 1778 served as president of the Continental Congress. He was sent to Paris in 1782, along with John Adams and Benjamin Franklin, to negotiate a peace treaty with England. Upon his return to America in 1784 he was named Secretary of Foreign Affairs for the United States under the Articles of Confederation.

Staunch Federalist. The significant question of those first years of independence was whether the former colonies, now loosely connected by the unsatisfactory Articles of Confederation, should adopt a new constitution in order to “form a more perfect union.” Jay joined with James Madison and Alexander Hamilton to write The Federalist (1788), a series of newspaper essays that addressed the question. Overcome by illness in the fall of 1787, Jay wrote only five of the eighty-five papers—numbers 2 through 5 and 64. Nevertheless, he penned one of the most memorable lines of the series. In essay number 2 he wrote “This country and this people seem to have been made for each other.”

Supreme Court. Jay’s contributions to the formation and development of the new nation, and his renown as a lawyer, made him a clear candidate for selection to the Supreme Court. President George Washington, who had been lobbied by Livingston and others for the post of chief justice, turned to Jay for this high honor. In his letter of appointment to Jay, Washington wrote: “In nominating you for the important station which you now fill, I not only acted in conformity to my best judgment, but I trust I did a grateful thing to the good citizens of these United States.” Jay accepted Washington’s appointment and was quickly confirmed by the Senate in late 1789. He joined with Associate Justices William Cushing and James Wilson for the first meeting of the Supreme Court in New York City on 1 February 1790.

Tenure. Jay’s service as America’s first chief justice is largely unremarkable. Few cases of any importance came before the Supreme Court during his tenure. Much time and energy went into the grueling requirement that the justices “ride the circuit,” that is, travel throughout a designated region to hold court in places not easily accessible. Jay’s circuit assignment required him to travel throughout New York and New England, a challenging task in a time when roads were either poor or nonexistent. Perhaps Jay’s most important contribution as chief justice was his firm but polite refusal to advise President Washington and Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton on questions of public policy. Jay’s refusal affirmed the separation of powers.

Test Case. The most significant decision to come before the Jay Court, and the first great case to be decided by that body, occurred in 1793. Chisholm v. Georgia raised important issues of state sovereignty. The question to be decided by the Court was whether a citizen of another state could sue the State of Georgia in federal court. Jay and the Court (except Judge James Iredell) said yes, that Georgia had abandoned its sovereignty when it joined the Union and thus could be sued. This first expression of federal primacy caused a stir throughout the states and prompted congressional reversal through the adoption of the Eleventh Amendment. In a less celebrated case Jay wrote the Court’s opinion in Glass v. The Sloop Betsey (1794), where the question was whether foreign consuls or U.S. courts had authority over captured vessels brought to American ports by foreign ships. Jay struck an important blow for American sovereignty when he held that foreign consuls had no admiralty jurisdiction in the United States.

Treaty. Washington sent Jay to England in 1794 to negotiate several matters still outstanding between the new nation and the old mother country. Antagonism was particularly strong over British trade restrictions in the Caribbean and boundary lines in the Northwest. Jay’s Treaty was roundly criticized by many Americans who believed he had given too much away. The most notorious item was Jay’s agreement that American molasses, sugar, cotton, and coffee would not be shipped to Europe. The Senate adopted the treaty in the summer of 1795, but without the offending trade restrictions. That same year Jay resigned as chief justice to become governor of New York, a post he held until 1801.

Reappointment. On 18 December 1800 President John Adams offered Jay reappointment as chief justice to replace Oliver Ellsworth. In his letter to Jay, President Adams urged him to accept the position for a second time in order to maintain a Federalist point of view at the highest levels of government. The “firmest security we can have against the effects of visionary schemes … will be in a solid judiciary,” wrote Adams, “and nothing will cheer the hopes of the best men so much as your acceptance of this appointment.” Jay declined the honor. The rigors of riding the circuit and the relative lack of consequence of court proceedings up to that time made the post singularly unattractive, and Jay retired from public service. He died in New York on 17 May 1829.