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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stitution to prevent such suits. A threat of war between the United States and Great Britain arising, Jay, while still Chief Justice, was sent to London and the famous Jay treaty was the result. So unpopular and unsatisfac- tory was this treaty that there was a great outburst of public indignation and the Chief Justice was burned in effigy in several communities. But the young republic was unprepared for a foreign war and the treaty was reluc- tantly accepted by Washington and confirmed by the Senate as containing the best terms obtainable at the time. Upon his return from England, Jay found that he had been elected Governor of New ork and he then did something that seems odd to us in this day — he resigned as Chief Justice to become Governor of his State! He was a brother of Sir James Jay, an eminent physician, who was knighted by George III and who was suspected of disloyalty to the United States after the Revolution, being practically disowned by the Chief Justice. To succeed Jay President Washington selected a distinguished South Carolinian, John Rutledge (1739-1800), who had served as an Associate Justice from 1789 to 1791 and who resigned from the Court to become chief justice of his State. He was a brother of Edward Rutledge, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, and the father of John Rutledge, Jr., who represented a South Carolina district in Congress from 1797 to 1803. Rutledge assumed his duties as Chief Justice in 1795 and presided over the Court during the August term, but in the following December the Senate refused to confirm his nomination. I he position was next offered to Caleb Cushing, the senior Associate Justice, who declined the honor. Washington now turned to Connecticut and his third choice met with the approval of the Senate. Oliver Ellsworth was born in 1 745 the same year in which Jay was born. He was of English ancestry and was edu- cated for the ministry at Yale and Princeton. There has always been con- siderable mystery as to just why Ellsworth suddenly quit Yale in 1764. In