"John Jay." Encyclopedia of World Biography. 2004. Encyclopedia.com. 2 Dec. 2012<http://www.encyclopedia.com>.
John Jay's tenacity helped him survive the sectional battles and placed him in the inner councils of the Federalist party.
As chief justice, he gave the Supreme Court a national approach under the new Constitution.
John Jay was born on Dec. 12, 1745, in New York; he was the eighth child in a wealthy merchant family. Descended from French-Dutch stock and reared in the Huguenot tradition, Jay had few of the sentimental ties with England that made some Americans ambivalent in their allegiance after 1765. He graduated from King's College (later Columbia University) and trained in the law by a 5-year apprenticeship. In 1778 he was chosen president of the Continental Congress.
Jay explained the commercial treaty to Congress in August but did not mention the military alliance Gardoqui also sought. Congress, voting along sectional lines, approved the pact, but by less than the required two-thirds majority. Tempers on both sides were heated, and the matter was unresolved when the Constitution was sent to the states for ratification.
He joined Alexander Hamilton and James Madison in supplying articles for New York newspapers in support of the Constitution under the pen name "Publius." Of these Federalist papers, Jay wrote Publius 2, 3, 4, 5, and 63.
Meanwhile, George Washington had prevailed on Jay to accept the position of chief justice of the Supreme Court. Jay held this office until 1796 and presided over several fundamental cases. http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/John_Jay.aspx http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/related/jay.htm e had already been appointed Secretary of Foreign Affairs. proceeded to King's College (now Columbia University) at age fourteen
In 1787 Jay authored three of the articles now collectively called The Federalist, in