John Jay (379)
Election date: 1780
John Jay (12 December 1745–17 May 1829) was a lawyer, politician, and a member of the American Philosophical Society, elected in 1780. Born in New York to affluent parents, John Jay was tutored privately before earning a B.A. at King’s College in 1764. He studied law in a local office before opening his own practice in 1768. Given his affluence and connections, he wanted little to do with radical revolutionary politics, however he opposed absolute British control of America. In 1774 he served in the First Continental Congress and New York’s Committee of Correspondence. He continued into the Second Continental Congress, and joined New York’s revolutionary convention, writing part of the constitution adopted by New York state in 1777. Jay was chief justice of New York before becoming the President of the Continental Congress, before it elected him minister to Madrid. The Spanish were dismissive of American independence, yet Jay was able to negotiate a loan. Upon the imminent defeat of the British in 1782, he joined Benjamin Franklin and John Adams in negotiating a peace treaty in Paris. Returning to Congress two years later, he found he had been elected Secretary for Foreign Affairs. He utilized his negotiation skills to prevent America’s newfound independence from worsening diplomatic ties. At this time, he also began taking up the federalist cause: he contributed to The Federalist (1787) alongside Alexander Hamilton and James Madison, and he strongly advocated for the cause at New York’s ratifying convention the following year. In 1789, President George Washington appointed Jay as First Chief Justice. Jay advised the president, presided over high-profile trials, drafted President Washington’s proclamation of American neutrality regarding the current war between Britain and France in 1793, and went to London to negotiate a treaty with the British. Despite substantive popular disdain for the so-called Jay Treaty (1794), he won New York’s gubernatorial election before he had even returned (1795). Notably, Jay was a strong opponent to slavery: he freed any enslaved people whom he inherited, he helped found the New York Manumission Society, and signed into law a bill that called for gradual emancipation in New York. He left public life not long after, spent decades in peaceful retirement, then died from a ‘palsy’. (DNB)
One edition.
One edition.
One edition.
Seven editions. Six editions in 1779: two in Philadelphia, one in Boston, one in New London, CT, one in Poughkeepsie, NY, and one in Paris; one edition in 1795 in Paris.
One edition. Per ESTC, "Attributed jointly to Hamilton, Rufus King and John Jay in: Adams, Charles Francis. The works of John Adams .., Boston, 1856, v. 1, p. 485-486."
One edition.
One edition.
At least twenty-one editions: one in 1788 (New York), one in 1792 (Paris), one in 1799 (New York), one in 1802 (New York), one in 1810 (New York), one in 1817 (Philadelphia), two in 1818 (Philadelphia, City of Washington, D.C.), two in 1826 (Hallowell [ME], Philadelphia), two in 1831 (Hollowell [ME], Washington, D.C.), one in 1837 (Hallowell [ME]), one in 1840 (Rio de Janeiro), one in 1842 (Hallowell [ME]), one in 1845 (Washington [D.C.]), one in 1847 (Philadelphia), one in 1857 (Hallowell [ME]), one in 1810 (New York), one in 1864 (Philadelphia), one in 1898 (New York).
This imprint was, per Evans via ESTC, "the first complete edition in book form. 'It was printed in two states--a few copies on superfine royal writing paper, besides the ordinary paper--and the second volume is printed on paper somewhat larger than the first volume.'--Evans."