Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 06.djvu/78

 JAY

JAY

most candid and confidential communications upon all subjects to the ministers of our generous ally, the King of France ; to undertalie nothing in their negotiations for peace and truce, without their knowledge and concurrence, and ultimately to govern yourselves by their advice and oiDinion,"

and on Aug. 6, 1782, matters were fur- ther complicated by the presentation of a commission to Jay and Franklin by Richard Oswald, who had already held conversations with Franklin by aiithority of Lord Shelburne. That commission author- ized him to treat THE /ALBANY, NY. STATE HOUSE, with the colonies \7QV — 1 ao5. concerning peace

and this developed a difference of opinion be- tween the commissioners. Franklin had hoped to secure the end, wliile Jay was disinclined to treat unless the new government was rec- ognized. The British cabinet was unfavor- able to Jay's view and negotiations were suspended. On hearing of the departure for England of a secret emissary from Vergennes under an assumed name, and after gaining knowledge of the rights to be denied, Jay, without the knowledge of Franklin, prepared a list of considerations for the British ministers, setting forth : 1. Tliat as Britain could not con- quer the United States, it was for her interest to conciliate them ; 3. That the United States would not treat, except on an equal footing ; 3. That it was the interest of France, but not of England, to postpone the acknowledgment of indepen- dence to a general peace ; 4. That a hope of dividing the fisheries with France would be futile, as America would not make peace without them ;

5. That any attempt to deprive the United States of the navigation of the Mississippi or of that river as a boundary would irritate America ; and,

6. That such an attempt, if successful, would sow the seeds of war In the very treaty of jDeace ; and he dispatched Benjamin Vaughan to England to counteract Rayneval's adverse influence. Vaughan presented the considerations, and a new commission was drafted authorizing Oswald to treat with the "United States" of America. Vaughan returned with the commission, Sept. 27, 1782, and it was presented to Oswald, Oct. 5, 1782, and this practically closed the treaty. On his return to New York in July, 1784, Jay found that he had been chosen by congress secretary of foreign affairs, which post he held till the

establisliment of the Federal government in 1789, when President Washington offered him his choice of the Federal ofiices in his gift. He accepted that of chief justice of the U.S. supreme court, and took office in the spring of 1790. From 1784 to 1790 he was regent of the Univer- sity of the State of New York. He was an un- successful candidate for governor of New York against George Clinton in 1792. He was sent from Paris as special envoy to Great Britain and signed the treaty of peace known as "Jay's Treaty," Nov. 19, 1794, which was denounced most bitterly by the Jefferson party. During his absence in Great Britain in the spring of 1795, he was elected governor of New York, his opponent being Robert Yates, who was supported by the Clinton party. "Washington desired that he should remain in London, and offered Iiim the position of minister resident in place of Pinckney, which offer he declined. He was notified of his election on his arrival in New York, where he was received with demonstrations of enthusiasm, and he resigned his seat as chief justice in tlie summer of 1795, and assumed the executive office. He was re-elected in April, 1798, and at the close of his second term he refused to accejDt re-nomina- tion. He also declined the chief-justiceship of the supreme court, to which lie had been ap- pointed by President Washington and confirmed by the senate, having decided to retire from public life. The closing quarter of a century of his life was spent at his country seat in Bedford, Westchester county, N.Y. His last office was that of president of the American Bible society. He received the degree of LL.D. from Columbia and from Harvard in 1790 ; from Brown in 1794, and from the University of Edinbui'gh in 1792. His name, with thirty-six others, made up the list of " Class M, Rulers and Statesmen." eligible for a place in the Hall of Fame, New York uni- versity, and received, in October, 1900, twenty- five votes, standing fifteenth in the class, fifty-one votes being necessary'- to secure a place. See Life- of John Jay, by his son, William Jay (1833), and by Henry B. Renwick (1841), and Life and Times of John Jay, by William Whitelock (1887). He died at Bedford, N.Y., May 17, 1829.

JAY, John, publicist, was born in New York city, June 23, 1817 ; son of Judge William and Augusta (McVicar) Jay. He was graduated at Muhlenberg's institute. Flushing, L. I.,N.Y., in 1832 and at Columbia college in 1836, and was ad- mitted to the bar in 1839. Like his father he opposed slavery, and he advocated the cause of St. Philip's colored church, which after nine j^ears of struggle was admitted to the Protestant Epis- copal convention. In 1847 he was secretary of the Irish Relief society and was in that and sub- sequent years counsel for many fugitive slaves.