Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume IX.djvu/601

JOHN JAY 581 to the people of Canada soliciting their co- operation in the contest which had now be- come inevitable, and the paper reported by the committee was from his pen. On Sept. 22 he was appointed on a committee with Franklin, Rutledge, Randolph, and others, to consider the state of the trade of America. Their report led to an animated debate, in which Jay ad- vocated the policy of continuing the trade with Great Britain and the British West Indies from New York, North Carolina, and Georgia, in opposition to those who maintained that, as the rest of the colonies had been excluded from this trade by the " restraining act " of parlia- ment, the three colonies excepted should volun- tarily relinquish it. On Dec. 4 Jay, Dickinson, and Wythe were appointed a committee to confer with the assembly of New Jersey, and endeavor to dissuade that body from sending a petition to the king of Great Britain, separate from the petition of united America presented by congress. The remonstrances of the con- gressional committee prevailed with the assem- bly, and the design of petitioning the king was abandoned. On Nov. 29, 1775, congress appointed Harrison, Franklin, Johnson, Dick- inson, and Jay a committee to correspond with the European friends of American liberty. A secret agent of the French government had shortly before given to a committee, consisting of Jay, Franklin, and Jefferson, indirect assu- rances that the revolted colonies might rely on receiving aid from France. The committee of correspondence at once entered into negotia- tions with friends of the American cause in England, France, and Holland, the result of which was that in the spring of 1776 Silas Deane was privately sent as a political agent of America to the court of France. His let- ters from Paris were addressed to Jay. In ad- dition to his labors in congress, Jay was at this time much occupied with the affairs of New York, where the tories were numerous, and the provincial congress was suspected of being lukewarm in the cause of freedom. It was difficult at this time to induce men of standing and character to accept commissions in the militia of the state. Jay, as an example to others, allowed himself to be commissioned as colonel of the second regiment of foot in the city of New York, though his duties in con- gress kept him from the field. In April, 1776, he was chosen a member of the provincial con- gress ofJfew York, and at the special request of that body he returned from Philadelphia to assist in its deliberations. He was thus pre- vented from becoming a signer of the Declara- tion of Independence, which passed the conti- nental congress while he was serving in the congress of New York. He however gave that measure his cordial approval and support. In the next New York congress, or convention as it was called, he took a leading part, serving on the most important committees, and was also actively engaged in taking measures to re- pel the incursions of the enemy up the Hud- son, and to suppress the conspiracies of the tories. To arouse the people from the gloom occasioned by the reverses of the army, he drew up an address which was issued by the convention, Dec. 23, 1776. This document was deemed of such importance that the con- tinental congress specially recommended it to the perusal of the people of the United States, and ordered it to be translated into German and printed and circulated at the national ex- pense. When the convention undertook in August, 1776, to form a government for the state of New York, he was appointed one of the committee to frame a constitution and bill of rights. The report of the committee, made March 12, 1777, was written by him, and the constitution was chiefly his work. The con- vention, just before its dissolution, May 13, ap- pointed a council of safety invested with dic- tatorial powers consisting of 15 members, of whom Jay was one. The convention also ap- pointed Jay chief justice of the state until the legislature should meet, and the constitutional power of appointment be organized, and he presided at the first term of the supreme court at Kingston, Sept. 9. On the next day the legislature met, and Jay was duly reappointed chief justice under the constitution. On Nov. 4 he was elected by the legislature a delegate to the national congress, on the ground that the withdrawal of Vermont from the jurisdic- tion of New York furnished a special occasion for requiring his services at Philadelphia. He took his seat Dec. 7, 1778, and on the 10th was elected president of congress, Laurens, the former president, having resigned. On Sept. 27, 1779, he was appointed minister to Spain, and reached Cadiz Jan. 22, 1780, and Madrid on April 4. His mission had two objects, to obtain a loan of $5,000,000, and to secure the right to the free navigation of the Mississippi. The Spanish court received him coldly, and many months passed in fruitless negotiations. Congress, without waiting to hear even of his arrival in Spain, had directed its treasurer to draw on him at Madrid for $500,000. When these bills arrived, rather than let the credit of the country be damaged by their going to pro- test, he accepted them at his own risk. He was afterward enabled to meet them when due, partly by remittances from Franklin at Paris, and partly by some smaller sums reluc- tantly given by the Spanish government. He quitted Madrid, May 20, 1782, and proceeded to Paris to assist in the negotiation of a treaty of peace with Great Britain, congress in 1781 having appointed him a commissioner for that purpose, together with Adams, Franklin, Jef- ferson, and Laurens. He arrived in Paris June 23. Of his colleagues, Franklin alone was there, Jefferson being detained in America by the delicate health of his wife, Laurens a prisoner in the tower of London, and Adams in Holland negotiating a loan. On Franklin and Jay therefore the primary formation of the treaty devolved. To the value of Jay's ser-