Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-vfjqv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-28T13:23:00.638Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

6 - John Jay: The First Chief Justice

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 June 2019

Daniel L. Dreisbach
Affiliation:
American University, Washington DC
Mark David Hall
Affiliation:
George Fox University
Get access

Summary

John Jay (1745–1829) was the first chief justice of the United States Supreme Court, and shortly before that coauthored The Federalist with Alexander Hamilton and James Madison. Earlier, he had been the critical negotiator of the Treaty of Paris that ended the American Revolution on favorable terms, and in 1794 he was the negotiator of the Jay Treaty that averted a new war with Britain. His religious faith has been described by political and legal historians as being a new light “Christian enthusiast” and falling among “the most orthodox Christians.” Jay’s own statements about his faith are consistent with those descriptions. The impact of Jay’s faith on his public service and policy positions generally has not been mentioned, other than his belief in a “great plan of Providence.” However, that impact was express in his antislavery, pro-Native American, peacemaking, just war, natural law, religious freedom, and other beliefs and actions.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2019

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×