At an early period of the Revolution he was appointed Minister to Spain,
where he struggled with more persistance than success to induce a timid
and dilatory government to render some substantial aid to his country.
He was afterwards one of the commissioners who negotiated the treaty
with Great Britain, in which the independence of the United States was
acknowledged, and its boundaries settled. Soon after his return home
Congress appointed him Secretary for Foreign Affairs, which was the most
important office in their gift, and in which he displayed great ability
in the dispatch of business.
Like all the great men of that day--like Washington, Jefferson,
Franklin, Hamilton, Patrick Henry, John Randolph, and all others of
similar grade--John Jay was an ardent abolitionist. He brought home with
him from abroad one negro slave, to whom he gave his freedom when he had
served long enough to repay him the expense incurred in bringing him to
America.
Mr. Jay, upon the division of the country into Republicans and
Federalists, became a decided Federalist, and took a leading part in the
direction of that great party. President Washington appointed him Chief-
Justice of the Supreme Court, an office which he soon resigned.
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