terest of France, but not of England, to postpone the acknowledgment of independence to a general peace; 4. That a hope of dividing the fisheries with France would be futile, as America would not make peace without them; 5. That any attempt to deprive the United States of the navigation of the Mississippi, or of that river as a boundary, would irritate America; 6. That such an attempt, if successful, would sow the seeds of war in the very treaty of peace. The disclosure of the grave difference between the Americans and their allies on the terms of peace, with the opportunity it afforded to England, consistently with the pride, interest, and justice of Great Britain, and with the national jealousy of France, seems to have come to the cabinet with the force of a revelation, and its effect upon their policy was instantaneous and complete. A new commission in the form drafted by Jay, authorizing Oswald to treat with “the United States” of America, was at once ordered, and Lord Shelburne wrote to Oswald that they had said and done “everything which had been desired,” and that they had put the greatest confidence ever placed in man in the American commissioners. Vaughan returned “joyfully” with the new commission on 27 Sept., and on 5 Oct. Jay handed to Oswald the plan of a treaty including the clauses relating to independence, the boundaries, and the fisheries, and Oswald, in enclosing it to his government, wrote: “I look upon the treaty as now closed.” The great success of the English at Gibraltar, however, which determined the ministry to resist the demands of France and Spain, induced them to attempt some modification of the concessions to the Americans, even when they had been made by Oswald with the approval of the cabinet. Strachey and Fitzherbert were therefore ordered to assist Oswald, and on 25 Oct. John Adams arrived from Holland, where he had negotiated a treaty. He expressed to Franklin his entire approval of Jay's views and action, and Franklin, at their next meeting with Oswald, said to Jay: “I am of your opinion, and will go on with these gentlemen without consulting the court ”; and Jay, in writing to Livingston, spoke of their perfect unanimity, and specially acknowledged Mr. Adams's services on the eastern boundaries and Franklin's on the subject of the Tories. The provisional articles, signed 80 Nov., 1782, to take effect on a peace between France and England, were communicated to Vergennes, who wrote to Rayneval in England that the concessions of the English exceeded all that he had believed possible, and Rayneval replied: “The treaty seems to me like a dream.” A new loan from France to America marked the continuance of their good understanding, and Hamilton wrote to Jay that the terms of the treaty exceeded the anticipations of the most sanguine.
The violation of the instructions of congress displeased a part of that body. Mr. Madison, who had voted for the instruction, wrote: “In this business Jay has taken the lead, and proceeded to a length of which you can form little idea. Adams has followed with cordiality. Franklin has been dragged into it.” Mr. Sparks, in his “Life of Franklin,” contended that the violation of their instructions by the American commissioners, in concluding and signing their treaty without the concurrence of the French government, was “unjustifiable.” By some error still unexplained, he represented the correspondence of Vergennes in the French archives as disproving the suspicions, which it authoritatively confirms. A map of North America, given in the “Life of Shelburne,” showing “the boundaries of the United States, Canada, and the Spanish possessions, according to the proposals of the court of France,” shows that obedience by the American commissioners to the instruction to govern themselves by the opinion of Vergennes, would have shut out the United States from the Mississippi and the Gulf, and would have deprived them of nearly the whole of the states of Alabama and Mississippi, the greater part of Kentucky and Tennessee, the whole of Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, and part of Minnesota, and the navigation of the Mississippi.
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The definitive treaty, a simple embodiment of
the provisional articles, for nothing more could be
procured from the cabinet of Fox and North, was
signed 3 Sept., 1783, and Jay returned to New York
in July, 1784, having been elected by congress secretary
for foreign affairs, then the most important
post in the country, which he held until the
establishment of the Federal government in 1789. In
that work he had taken a deep interest, as is shown
by his correspondence with Washington and
Jefferson, and on the formation of the National
constitution he joined Hamilton and Madison in
contributing to the “Federalist,” and published an
address to the inhabitants of New York in favor of
the constitution. He was an active member of the
New York convention, which, after a long struggle,
adopted the constitution “in full confidence” that
certain amendments would be adopted, and Jay
was appointed to write the circular letter that
secured the unanimous assent of the convention. On
the organization of the Federal government, President
Washington asked Jay to accept whatever
place he might prefer, and Jay took the office of
chief justice of the supreme court, when he
resigned the post of president of the Abolition society.
In 1792 he consented to be a candidate for the
governorship of New York, but the canvassers declined
on technical grounds to count certain votes given
for Jay, which would have made a majority in his
favor, and Gov. Clinton was declared elected. In
1794 Jay was nominated by Washington as a special
envoy to Great Britain, with which our relations
were then strained, and he concluded with Lord
Grenville on 19 Nov., 1794, the convention known
in American history as “Jay's treaty,” which was
assailed with furious denunciations by the
Democratic party, whose tactics severely tested the firmness
of Washington's character and the strength of
his administration. The treaty and its ratification
against an unexampled opposition avoided a war
with Great Britain. An English opinion of the
treaty, which in America was denounced as a
complete surrender to England, was expressed by Lord
Sheffield when, on the occurrence of the rupture
with America, he wrote, “We have now a complete
opportunity of getting rid of that most impolitic
treaty of 1794, when Lord Grenville was so
perfectly duped by Jay.” Five days before his return
from England, Jay was elected governor of New
