was employed in drafting patriotic addresses to his fellow citizens and to the British king and public. He was ever anxious for a strong central government and was the author of the first constitution of the State of New York, becoming- under it the first chief justice of the State, when only thirtytwo years old. He took a prominent part in the Continental Congress, and in December, 1778, was elected president thereof, a posi tion which he retained until October, 1779, when he was sent as minister to Spain. On his return from abroad in 1784, he was elected secretary for foreign affairs by the Confederate Congress, an office which at that time was undoubtedly the most im portant in the government, and his influence was such that Otto, the French minister, wrote to Vergennes in January, 1786: "The political importance of Mr. Jay increases daily, and Congress seems to me to be guided only by his directions, and it is as difficult to obtain anything without the co operation of that minister, as to bring about the rejection of a measure proposed by him." He was not a member of the Constitutional convention, being defeated therefor because of his well-known ultra-Federal opinions. but he gave to the instrument evolved by that body his most earnest support, and ma terially aided in having it adopted by the convention of the State of New York. His services, his ability and his character were such that Washington, long his friend, of fered him any post in the new government within the gift of the President. He chose that of Chief Justice, and, as such, inaugu rated the sittings of the Supreme Court of the United States, and for some five years main tained the dignity of that tribunal in a firm and becoming manner, until in 1795 he re signed to become governor of the State of New York. His brief administration as Chief Justice is chiefly memorable for his protest against the right of Congress to exact the exercise of non-judicial functions by the Federal ju diciary, already referred to (2 Dal. 409). and
for his judgment in Chisholm rs. Georgia (2 Dal. 419), in which he maintained the right of a citizen of one State to sue another State, a right which was, of course, taken away by the Eleventh Amendment. This case, al though obsolete, is of such paramount im portance historically, not only because it is the first authoritative enunciation of the supremacy of the Federal Constitution and the laws enacted under it, but also because it shows the sources of power from which the statesmen and jurists of that day believed that its authority was derived, that I venture to quote a pregnant paragraph from the Chief Justice's opinion: "The Revolution, or rather the Declara tion of Independence, found the people al ready united for general purposes, and at the same time providing for their more domestic concerns by State conventions, and other temporary arrangements. From the crown of Great Britain, the sovereignty of their country passed to the people of it; and it was not an uncommon opinion, that the unap propriated lands, which belonged to that crown, passed not to the people of the Col ony or States within whose limits they were situated, but to the whole people; on what ever principles this opinion rested, it did not give way to the other, and thirteen sover eignties were considered as emerged from the principles of the Revolution, combined with local convenience and considerations; the people, nevertheless, continued to con sider themselves, in a national point of view, as one people; and they continued without interruption to manage their national con cerns accordingly; afterwards, in the hurry of the war, and in the warmth of mutual con fidence, they made a confederation of the States, the basis of a general government. Experience disappointed the expectations they had formed from it; and then the peo ple, in their collective and national capacity, established the present Constitution. It is remarkable that in establishing it. the peo ple exercised their own rights, and their own proper sovereignty, and conscious of the
