JAY 583 were the citizens or subjects of either to be allowed to accept commissions from such third nation, or to enlist in its service. The rest of the articles were similar to these, and were intend- ed to preserve neutrality upon the ocean, and its observance in the American ports, so that neither French nor British privateers should be exclusively favored or supplied. A provision was made for the mutual surrender of fugitives from justice charged with murder or forgery. Jay returned to New York May 28, 1795. The treaty was submitted to the senate on June 8, and on the 24th that body advised the presi- dent to ratify it, with the exception of the articles relating to the West India trade. It was published in Philadelphia on July 2, and caused a prodigious storm of popular excite- ment, clamor, and misrepresentation. It was denounced as a pusillanimous surrender of American rights, and a shameful breach of our obligations to France. Meetings were held against it in all the principal cities. Copies of it were publicly burned by mobs in New York, Philadelphia, Charleston, and other places. An attempt was made at Philadelphia to burn Jay in effigy on the 4th of July. Washington, though he considered the crisis the most im- portant and dangerous that had yet occurred in his administration, ratified the treaty on Aug. 14. This, however, did not quiet the agitation. Some of the Boston democrats paraded the streets of that town with an effigy of Jay, which they finally burned ; they also attacked the house of a federalist editor, but were fired on and repulsed. On the other hand, the treaty, Jay's treaty as it was familiarly called, was de- fended with energy by Hamilton and other federalists. Many public meetings also were held in support of the ratification of the treaty, and the Boston chamber of commerce passed a resolution in favor of it, with only one dissent- ing voice, while a memorial taking the same ground was numerously signed by the mer- chants of Philadelphia. In the house of repre- sentatives Fisher Ames made his greatest speech in defence of the treaty, and in favor of pass- ing the laws necessary to give it effect. After a long struggle the resolution that it was ex- pedient to pass the laws necessary for carrying the treaty into effect was agreed to by a vote of 58 to 51, only four New England members voting against it, and from the states south of the Potomac only four for it. Jay himself, amid aE this excitement and obloquy, relied upon the ultimate judgment of his countrymen. During his absence in Egland his friends had put him in nomination as candidate for governor of New York, without his knowledge. He was elected by a large majority, and the result was officially declared two days before he reached New York. His administration, by reelection, lasted six years, during which time he dismissed no one from office on account of his political opinions. In 1799 the legislature passed an act for the gradual abolition of slavery, a measure which Jay had strenu- ously urged in 1777 upon the convention which formed the constitution of the state. In 1785 he became the president of a society formed in New York " for promoting the manu- mission of slaves, and protecting such of them as have been or may be liberated." He contin- ued at the head of this society till he became chief justice of the United States, when, think- ing it possible that questions might be brought before him in which the society was interested, he deemed it proper to dissolve his official con- nection with it. In November, 1800, as the end of his second term approached, he was solicited to become a candidate for reelection, but declined. In December he was nominated by the president and confirmed by the senate to his former office of chief justice, made va- cant by the resignation of Oliver Ellsworth. He firmly declined the honor, and at the age of 55 bade adieu for ever to public life, and retired to his paternal estate at Bedford, West- chester co., where he lived for upward of 28 years. He was very regular and exact in all his habits, was a member of the Episco- pal church, and took great interest in the religious movements of his day, being pres- ident of several religious societies. In 1827 he was seized with a severe illness, and, after two years of weakness and suffering, was struck with palsy, May 14, 1829, and died three days afterward. In character Jay was eminent for the elevation and purity of his principles and conduct both in public and in private life. He had a high sense of justice and of humanity, and a profound feeling of religion. His mind was vigorous, exact, and logical, and character- ized rather by judgment and discrimination than by brilliancy. The Bible was his constant study, and Cicero his favorite author. His public reputation as a patriot and statesman of the revolution was second only to that of Washington. II. William, an American jurist and philanthropist, son of the preceding, born in New York, June 16, 1789, died at Bedford, N. Y., Oct. 14, 1858. He received his early education at Albany, and graduated at Yale college in 1807. He studied law at Albany, but having injured his eyes by intense study, relinquished the practice of the profession and retired to Bedford, where he assisted in the management of the large landed estate which descended to him on the death of his father in 1829. In 1815 he began his career of philan- thropic effort in the founding of the American Bible society, and was its recognized champion against the attacks of Bishop Hobart and other members of the Episcopal church, to which Jay himself belonged, during a controversy which lasted many years. As president of the Westchester Bible society he delivered a long series of annual addresses. He organized a society for temperance reform in 1816. He also took an active part in the tract, mission- ary, and educational movements of the day, and was frequently president of the Sunday school and agricultural societies of his county.
