On the 24th of July 1784 Jay landed in New York, where he was presented
with the freedom of the city and elected a delegate to Congress. On the
7th of May Congress had already chosen him to be secretary for foreign
affairs, and in December Jay resigned his seat in Congress and accepted
the secretaryship. He continued to act in this capacity until 1790, when
Jefferson became secretary of state under the new constitution. In the
question of this constitution Jay had taken a keen interest, and as an
advocate of its ratification he wrote over the name "Publius," five
(Nos. 2, 3, 4, 5 and 64) of the famous series of papers known
collectively as the _Federalist_ (see HAMILTON, ALEXANDER). He published
anonymously (though without succeeding in concealing the authorship) _An
Address to the People of New York_, in vindication of the constitution;
and in the state convention at Poughkeepsie he ably seconded Hamilton in
securing its ratification by New York. In making his first appointments
to federal offices President Washington asked Jay to take his choice;
Jay chose that of chief justice of the Supreme Court, and held this
position from September 1789 to June 1795. The most famous case that
came before him was that of _Chisolm_ v. _Georgia_, in which the
question was, Can a state be sued by a citizen of another state? Georgia
argued that it could not be so sued, on the ground that it was a
sovereign state, but Jay decided against Georgia, on the ground that
sovereignty in America resided with the people. This decision led to the
adoption of the eleventh amendment to the federal constitution, which
provides that no suit may be brought in the federal courts against any
state by a citizen of another state or by a citizen or subject of any
foreign state. In 1792 Jay consented to stand for the governorship of
New York State, but a partisan returning-board found the returns of
three counties technically defective, and though Jay had received an
actual majority of votes, his opponent, George Clinton, was declared
elected.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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