It may seem confusing at first, but before George Washington took office as America's "first President of the United States of America," nine other men held the office! These men were all presidents of the United States (Congress). The first president of the United States Congress is immortalized on the Declaration of Independence. He signed his signature very large, and even today we sometimes hear people say, "Put your John Hancock here." This references the overly large signature of "John Hancock, President of the Congress of the United States."
John Jay was President of the Congress of the United States from 1778-1779. In 1780, he resigned from the Congress and represented the United States on a mission to get formal diplomatic recognition and much needed monetary assistance for the United States from Spain. The mission failed for a variety of fascinating reasons, but that is the subject for another of my blogs about American History.
Most people today do not realize that America had nine presidents before George Washington took office as :America's first President." Each man held the office for a single year and was addressed as "President of the United States."
One of the men, John Jay, is famous today for two reasons: First, he was America's first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. Having been offered any position John Jay wanted other than that of Vice-President by President George Washington, John Jay stated he was most qualified to be that of a judge. George Washington knew and respected John Jay's abilities and capabilities and immediately signed the order. No one in the Senate disagreed and Jay's nomination proceeded without a hitch. Second, he is famous for writing five chapters of the world famous Federalist Papers. One question often heard about John Jay is why he only wrote five pamphlets. Without going into a long explanation here, the answer is two-fold. He was too busy holding the office of Secretary of Foreign Affairs under the Articles of Confederation, and second, the writing took a great deal of time and effort. Normally, official correspondences were written by a professional secretary who transcribed John Jay's abysmal handwriting. However, writing the arguments for the Constitution under strict secrecy meant John Jay had to physically write his own arguments legibly enough for the printer to read. Unfortunately, it is evident that John Jay probably had carpel tunnel problems. So when combined with his enormous professional workload, his obligations in trying to secure a treaty with Spain to settle the southern boundary of the United States and to reopen the Mississippi River to Americans.
John Jay left Spain in 1782 for Paris, depressed and angry and newly indoctrinated into the world of espionage. Someone had been intercepting his mail. In 1780, John Jay wrote Congress strongly suggesting America needed a diplomatic service to deliver its correspondence to Ambassadors and that some sort of coded system should be used. His advice proved valuable and eventually, Thomas Jefferson successfully created a coded system that remains almost unbreakable today. That cypher system remains one of the standard system of encryption that is taught and used today in intelligence organizations around the world.
Once in Paris, John Jay joined Benjamin Franklin. America was still at war with Great Britain. The American's had just won their second major battle and Great Britain needed to save face some way. Congress had instructed Jay and Franklin not to enter into any peace agreement without the consent and advice of France and Spain. While Franklin felt obligated to follow the instructions, Jay did not. Jay knew that France and Spain did not want a strong America for several reasons. He had also experienced their subterfuges first hand and did not trust either country to look out for America's sovereignty. He also knew spies were reporting everything to England, France, and Spain. We now know that Franklin's private secretary was spying for England.
With Franklin laid up in bed with gout, Jay took over as lead negotiator. Since Adams had not arrived from the Netherlands, Jefferson still at Monticello, and Henry Laurens was being held as a POW in the Tower of London, John Jay was not only the lead negotiator, but the only negotiator available.
The first thing he did was demand England agree to the sovereignty of the United States. Jay refused to treat with anyone from anywhere who did not recognize the sovereignty. Under Franklin, the British negotiators kept calling the United States, "colonies in rebellion." Franklin did not protest, but Jay did. Once the second major battle was won and England knew it had lost the colonies, they immediately came to the table and settled terms. Under Jay's guidance and insistence, France and Spain remained ignorant of the talks between John Jay and the British peace commission.
The peace was signed without consent or advice of France or Spain. This created a rift that nearly created a war with France. John Jay left Paris for England to see first hand how the British people felt about American Independence. He left England even more disgusted than before. He now had no blinders on and no rose colored glasses about foreign affairs. He had seen and experienced too much. The Congress knew and understood John Jay's experiences made him the perfect candidate to fill the position left vacant by John Jay's wife's uncle, Robert R. Livingston. So while John and Sara Jay and their children were returning to New York by ship, Congress elected John Jay to be the second Secretary of Foreign Affairs.
John Jay remained Secretary of Foreign Affairs and elevated the office to what we know as the Secretary of State today under the Constitution. After the Constitution was signed, John Jay remained as the acting Secretary of State for several months until Thomas Jefferson took over as the official first Secretary of State. When that happened, John Jay left the State Department for the Judicial Branch as its first Chief Justice.
As Chief Justice, one of the most important things he did was to formally separate the Judicial Branch from the Executive Branch. George Washington had written Jay to ask for his opinion concerning a treaty obligation. Jay wrote back in a now famous letter signed not only by Jay, but all the other justices as well telling the President that the Supreme Court could not offer any opinions to the President because the court is not part of the Executive Cabinet. The only suggestion the court could offer to the President was to get the Congress to write a law signed by the President concerning the issue. Once the law was signed, it could be challenged in the court. But until then, according to the Constitution, the Judiciary Branch could not be consulted about the constitutionality of a proposed law because it is not part of the Executive Branch.
Since then, the Supreme Court has struck down numerous laws. The several states responded by creating new constitutional amendments to circumvent the inadequate laws. The most direct example of this was the eleventh Amendment to the Constitution which was in response to a person living in one State trying to sue another State for services rendered. The Eleventh Amendment settled a question concerning state sovereignty and legitimacy that the Supreme Court could not address on its own.
If asked about John Jay in the 1830s, most people would have remembered him as the man who almost tore apart the United States. The Jay Treaty, as it has become known, did its job of keeping America out of a war with Great Britain, but it ignited a firestorm that pitched the North against the South, Federalist against Republican, Farmer agains Manufacturer, and Slave Holder against Abolitionist. Worse yet, it placed the United States in the uncomfortable position of either going to war with Great Britain or with France. For most Americans, there seemed no way for America not to go to war.
President George Washington, Vice President John Adams, John Hancock, Aaron Burr, and the other great leaders of America collectively held their breaths. America was in no position to fight another war. It had no standing army or navy. Its new government was under siege from within and from without. Politics was a deadly and viscous way of life. Only the angelic like George Washington seemed to be unscathed by the public. But after the Jay Treaty, even George Washington was attacked in the press. No one was safe. John Jay once joked that he could have traveled at night from Philadelphia to New York by the fires burning his effigy. Even in New York, John Jay was not safe. His house was attacked, but thankfully the Jay family was gone at the time.
Jay left politics and the Supreme Court in 1800. By then, war had been everted. From 1800 until his death on May 17, 1829, John Jay worked with his local church helping people. His reputation is now thoroughly repaired and his philanthropic work well documented. Now, on this anniversary of John Jay's death, I hope his hard work and dedication will be newly re-appreciated too.
John Jay: He did not sign the Declaration of Independence. He did not sign the Constitution. He is not remembered as one of America's Presidents. However, he is remembered for writing part of the Federalist Papers and as the first Supreme Court Justice. But now, I hope you remember him for more; Patriot, Founding Father, and Ambassador, John Jay was instrumental in not only creating the United States, but for keeping her free once she gained her independence. John Jay did not fire a gun in anger. He used the law to propel American into the modern world. His work lives on.
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