National University - Docket Yearbook (Washington, DC)

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When George Washington became the first President of the Federal Government under the new Constitution he offered John Jay, an eminent New Y ork jurist and statesman, any post that he might choose. What that choice would be was not known to the public until, at a state dinner, President Washington turned to Jay and said: “You will sit at my right, Mr. Chief Justice.” Then and there the Supreme Court of the United States was launched on its notable career. Of John Jay it is said that he never sought public office throughout his long and unusual career as a public official. He brought to his new task a high order of ability and a wide experience in many fields of endeavor. Born in New Y ork City in 1745 of French Huguenot and Dutch ancestry, and educated at King’s College, now Columbia University, he had served as chief justice of his State, minister to Spain, secretary of foreign affairs under the Articles of Confederation and as one of the five commissioners who negotiated the treaty of peace with Great Britain at the close of the Revolution. He was for a time president of the Continenal Congress and was a member of that body when the Declaration of Independence was signed. His name would have appeared on that historic document had he not been detained in New Y ork on State business when the signing took place. Thus it happened that the name of no Chief Justice appears among the signers. As a holdover from the old system Jay was the first Secretary of State in Washington’s cabinet, acting ad interim pending the arrival of Thomas Jefferson in New Y ork. In Jay’s time neither the Supreme Court itself nor public opinion was prepared for the great work later performed by John Marshall. The Su- preme Court as “the sheet anchor of the Constitution” was a conception that came later. Jay ' s most important decision as Chief Justice was Chisolm v. Georgia, which held that a citizen of one State could sue another State and which resulted in the adoption of the Eleventh Amendment to the Con-

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