A Vision of Liberty

John Jay was born in New York on December 12, 1745, into a family heritage of French Protestants known as Huguenots. The revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685 abolishing all rights of Protestants drove Jay’s family from France, leading his ancestors to settle with thousands of others in Britain. Jay never forgot the welcome and kindness England showed his refugee family, and his receptiveness to both French and British perspectives would help him in his later service as a diplomat.

It was Jay’s grandfather who brought the family to America. He settled in New York and adopted its Anglo-Dutch culture joining the Church of England and becoming a prominent merchant in the city. Jay’s parents eventually left the city to settle on a comfortable estate 25 miles north in Rye, New York. Raised in a devout Anglican family, at a very early age Jay demonstrated strong moral character and academic prowess. He entered King's College (now Columbia University) in New York City at the age of 14, where he studied under the tutelages of its founding president, the Rev. Dr. Samuel Johnson, and his successor the Rev. Dr. Myles Cooper.

In 1764, Jay graduated from King’s with highest honors and began to pursue a career in law. On the occasion of his graduation at the age 18, he delivered a speech at St. George’s Chapel to the College’s students, faculty, president and governors, as well as to various city dignitaries, clergymen, and the British commander, General Thomas Gage. With the French and Indian War recently concluded, Jay spoke on the merits and advantages of peace based on his studies of Hugo Grotius’s tome, The Rights of War and Peace.

By the time Jay began practicing law, mounting tensions between the colonies and the British Government had begun to erupt into violent conflicts. A moderate in the early years of the revolution, Jay believed that these conflicts could be carefully negotiated and peacefully resolved. As Britain’s oppressive measures against the colonies escalated, however, Jay acknowledged the need for immediate reaction. In an urgent meeting of the New York Committee of Correspondence, Jay and his fellow committee members called on the colonies to come together and discuss methods for defending their inherited rights. Jay, along with other elected delegates, gathered in Philadelphia to form the First Continental Congress and debate the colonies’ next actions.

Significantly influenced by temperate advice of 28 year-old Jay, the Continental Congress agreed to appeal to Great Britain before considering further the possibility of revolt. “The Address to the People of Great Britain,” drawn up by Jay to communicate America’s rights, grievances, and to propose a means of redress, was later declared by Thomas Jefferson as "a production certainly of the finest pen in America.”

By the time the Second Continental Congress convened on May 10, 1775, the Battles of Lexington and Concord had signaled the start of a civil war. Plans to discuss further diplomacy with the British government instead became a conversation about how to take charge of the war effort. Jay still held out hope for a peaceful resolution, and persuaded the Congress to make one final attempt at reconciliation. The Olive Branch Petition, whose drafting committee included Jay and Delegates John Dickinson and Benjamin Franklin, was delivered to the British Crown with various conciliatory proposals for reconciliation and peace. 

King George III’s rejection of the petition or any talks of compromise marked a change in Jay’s attitude. With all avenues of peaceful rapprochement exhausted, he understood that revolution was inevitable to protecting and securing the liberties now threatened by British policies. "Before this time," he later wrote, "I never did hear any American of any class, or of any description, express a wish for the independence of the colonies." The peace-loving, diplomatic and conciliatory Jay had become a reluctant revolutionary and instrumental leader in the cause of the American independence.

The path to independence proved to be longer and more violent than many had hoped. By December of 1776, the morale of the Continental Army was at a low point. Faced with the bleak realities of the war, several devastating defeats, the encroaching enemy, and the punishing conditions of a brutal winter, continental forces appeared to be on the losing side of the fight for independence. It was during this time that one of Jay’s most important writings of the revolution was published. Written in a sermonic style that reflected his biblical knowledge, “the Address of the Convention of the Representatives of the State of New York to Their Constituents” called on citizens to rally against political enslavement and tyranny, and to acknowledge their God-given responsibility to defend their liberties.

In May 1782, Jay joined Benjamin Franklin in Paris to enter joint negotiations for peace with Great Britain. Through these talks, Jay and Franklin managed to secure surprisingly liberal terms with British leaders. Among the agreement’s most notable achievements was Britain’s recognition of American independence, for which Jay strongly advocated. The final Treaty of Paris was signed on September 3, 1783, and ratified by the Continental Congress early in 1784, thus concluding the Revolutionary War and, with it, achieving Jay’s vision of a nation free from imperial tyranny.

Shortly after the war ended Jay directed his efforts more fully to domestic matters of liberty—in particular, recommitting himself fully to the elimination of slavery in New York, a cause he had publicly championed as early as 1777. Jay believed the principles of liberty that led the nation to fight for its independence were incompatible with the institution of slavery, and he frequently spoke against its practice in public and private. Writing to a friend and political colleague while serving abroad, Jay suggested that, “an excellent law might be made out of the Pennsylvania one for the gradual abolition of slavery.” Jay, then sermonized, “Till America comes into this measure, her prayers to Heaven for liberty will be impious.” Despite this urging, slavery persisted in his home state. Jay decided to take the matter into his own hands.

In 1785 Jay, along with a group of mutually concerned leaders including Alexander Hamilton, founded the New York State Society for Promoting the Manumission of Slaves. The organization began its work by protesting the practice of kidnapping and transporting blacks for sale in other states. The society also provided assistance to slaves and former slaves in need of legal representation. 

Additionally, Jay believed in private and public support of education for African Americans. Two years after the founding of the manumission society, he helped to found the New York African Free School. The board members for the school raised funds for building infrastructure, teachers' salaries, and school supplies. Jay and his board also regularly visited and reported on the state of the school and its pupils, which totaled more than 1,000 students by the time it was handed over to the state for management.  

Under Jay’s leadership, the New York legislature adopted a measure for gradual abolition in 1799. The law freed slave children born after July 4, 1799, after they had served apprenticeships aimed at compensating owners for their financial losses. The measure also prohibited all export of slaves for sale across state lines. Jay’s example served to inspire his children and grandchildren, who continued his abolitionist causes into the 19th century.

In 1794, while serving as the country’s first Chief Justice of the United States, Jay was again tasked with defending America’s liberties. A decade after the Treaty of Paris, tensions began to escalate over British trade restrictions, impressment of American citizens, and the continuing presence of British military fortifications on American soil. President George Washington, fearing another war was imminent, sent Jay as a special envoy to Great Britain.    

Jay headed to London and negotiated what would later become known as the Jay Treaty. This agreement averted war by resolving many of the outstanding issues between the two nations. Despite a poor reception from many Americans who denounced it as appeasing Britain, President Washington endorsed the treaty. He saw that Jay’s efforts would aid commercial interests and ensure a much needed time of peace as the new country was established.