John Jay

(noun)

December 12, 1745 – May 17, 1829, an American statesman, patriot, diplomat, a Founding Father of the United States, and the first Chief Justice (1789–95). Jay was one of the representatives of the United States at the signing of the Treaty of Paris.

Related Terms

Examples of John Jay in the following topics:

  • Finance

    • John Jay, president of the Continental Congress, and the Congress responded in May by requesting $45 million from the States.
    • In an appeal to the States to comply, Jay wrote that the taxes were "the price of liberty, the peace, and the safety of yourselves and posterity. " He argued that Americans should avoid having it said "that America had no sooner become independent than she became insolvent" or that "her infant glories and growing fame were obscured and tarnished by broken contracts and violated faith. " The States did not respond with any of the money requested from them.

  • Financial Chaos and Paper Money

    • For example, in 1779, George Washington wrote to John Jay , who was serving as the president of the Continental Congress, "that a wagon load of money will scarcely purchase a wagon load of provisions".
    • Jay and the Congress responded in May by requesting $45 million from State legislatures.
    • In an appeal to the States to comply, Jay wrote that the taxes were "the price of liberty, the peace, and the safety of yourselves and posterity"; however, the States did not respond with any of the requested money.

  • In Quest of Freedom

    • The latter was headed by powerful politicians: John Jay, Alexander Hamilton (who were later Federalists), and Aaron Burr (who later served as the Democratic-Republican Vice-President of the United States).
    • John Jay (1745–1829), founder of the abolitionist organization New York Manumission Society in 1785.

  • The Marshall Court

    • John Marshall (September 24, 1755–July 6, 1835) was chief justice of the Supreme Court from 1801 until 1835.
    • House of Representatives from 1799 to 1800, and was secretary of state under President John Adams from 1800 to 1801.
    • The incumbent Chief Justice Oliver Ellsworth was in poor health, so Adams first offered the seat to ex-Chief Justice John Jay, who declined on the grounds that the Court lacked, "energy, weight, and dignity."
    • The three previous chief justices (John Jay, John Rutledge, and Oliver Ellsworth) had minimal legacies beyond setting up the forms of office.
    • John Marshall was the chief justice of the Supreme Court from 1801–1835.

  • The Treaty of Paris

    • The treaty was signed at the Hotel d’York by U.S. representatives John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, and John Jay, as well as David Hartley, a member of the British Parliament who represented King George III in negotiations.
    • This matter was finally settled by the Jay Treaty in 1794, and America's ability to bargain on all these points was greatly strengthened by the creation of a new constitution in 1787.
    • Benjamin West's painting of the delegations at the Treaty of Paris: John Jay, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Henry Laurens, and William Temple Franklin.

  • Jay's Treaty

    • John Jay was sent to Britain—with instructions from Hamilton—to secure compensation for captured American ships; to ensure the British leave the northwest outposts they still occupied (despite the terms of the 1783 Treaty of Paris, which recognized this as American territory); and to gain an agreement for American trade in the West Indies.
    • The terms of the treaty were designed primarily by Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton, and negotiated by John Jay, all with the support of President Washington.
    • However, Jay failed to negotiate an end to British impressments; this spurred arguments against ratifying the treaty and the issue remained unresolved until the War of 1812.

  • The Republican Alternative

    • This new coalition was composed of politicians who were vehemently opposed to Hamilton's economic policies, the expanse of federal power under the direction of Washington and Adams, and the Jay Treaty with Britain.
    • It selected presidential candidates through its caucus in Congress, but in the late 1820s, that system broke down with the party split between Andrew Jackson and the incumbent President John Quincy Adams.
    • The intense debate over the Jay Treaty in 1794–95, transformed those Democratic-Republicans opposed to anglophile Federalists from a loose movement into a true political party.
    • The Jeffersonians mounted a public campaign against the ratification of the Jay Treaty, and encouraged public outcry against John Jay and the Federalists.

  • The XYZ Affair

    • After the United States' Jay Treaty with Britain, French outrage mounted.
    • When Adams sent a three-man delegation, Charles Pinckney, John Marshall, and Elbridge Gerry, to Paris to negotiate a peace agreement with France, French agents demanded major concessions from the United States as a condition for continuing diplomatic relations.
    • The United States had offered France many of the same provisions found in the Jay Treaty with Britain, but France reacted by deporting Marshall and Pinckney back to the United States and refusing any proposal that would involve these two delegates, both key Federalists.
    • Several weeks prior to the meeting with X, Y, and Z, the dispatches detailed how the American commission had met with French foreign minister Talleyrand to discuss French retaliation against the Jay Treaty, which the French government perceived as evidence of an Anglo-American alliance.

  • J.P. Morgan and the Financial Industry

    • John Pierpont Morgan was an American financier who consolidated many industries.
    • John Pierpont Morgan was an American financier, banker and art collector who dominated corporate finance and industrial consolidation during his time .
    • Morgan died in Rome, Italy, in his sleep in 1913 at the age of 75, leaving his fortune and business to his son, John Pierpont "Jack" Morgan, Jr., and bequeathing his mansion and large book collections to The Morgan Library & Museum in New York.
    • He wrested control of the Albany and Susquehanna Railroad from Jay Gould and Jim Fisk in 1869.
    • He led the syndicate that broke the government-financing privileges of Jay Cooke, and soon became deeply involved in developing and financing a railroad empire by reorganizations and consolidations in all parts of the United States.

  • Across the Atlantic: France and Britain

    • Hence, John Adams began drafting conditions for a possible commercial treaty between France and the future independent colonies of the United States, carefully stipulating that there would be no presence of French troops in the United States or any French authority in colonial affairs.
    • The purpose of the Jay Treaty, ratified February 29, 1796, was to relieve post-war tensions between Britain and the United States.
    • The Jay Treaty (also known as Jay's Treaty, The British Treaty, and the Treaty of London of 1794), was officially known as the Treaty of Amity, Commerce, and Navigation, Between His Britannic Majesty and The United States of America.