constitution or fundamental law had existed in Christendom. The Bill of Rights, the charters of some of the Colonies, and particularly those established in one or two of the proprietary governments, such, for example, as the "Concessions of the proprietors of New Jersey with the people who might settle or plant there," approximated this idea of a written Constitution, but did not wholly realize it. The Bill of Rights was in the nature of a compact between king and people; the Colonial charters were royal grants, not resting upon, but independent of the popular sovereignty; the proprietary governments were what they claimed to be, concessions to the people, not original and elementary popular rights. It remained for the Colonists to put in successful operation this new political experiment, in the formation and organization of the State sovereignties—an experiment, destined, a few years later, to be crowned with complete success in the adoption of the Federal Constitution.

The first Constitution of the State of New York was mainly the work of John Jay. It was reported on the 6th of March, 1777, and adopted the 20th of April of the same year, at the village of Kingston, to which place the Convention had removed. This Constitution, which contained for nearly half a century the fundamental law of the State, is a monument to the memory of its illustrious author more lasting than a monument of brass or marble. I do not mean to assert that the Constitution was all that it might have been— that it was a perfect production—that it contained no imperfections and no errors. On the contrary, experience demonstrated the necessity of amendment; a trial of forty-five years proved that it was susceptible of material alterations; the progress of the age and the march of liberal ideas opened the door to improvement; but it is not too much to say that in the circumstances under which this Constitution was promulgated, and in view of the habits, customs, and ideas of the age, it was an original and vigorous, as well as a successful innovation, and it stamped its author as a bold and radical but judicious reformer.

All the guarantees of English liberty secured in the Bill of Rights were carefully preserved in this Constitution,-the trial by jury, the habeas corpus, and the privilege of the accused to defend by counsel. All political power was declared to be derived from the people. In

addition to this, the free exercise and enjoyment of religious worship was established,* and the right of the people to bear arms in their own defence recognized and secured. Ten years afterwards, in the Federal Convention, Hamilton proposed, and sustained, in a speech of surpassing power, the project of appointing an executive and Senate, to hold for life or during good behavior. But Jay, even at this early day, comprehended the more correct idea of popular government. The New York Constitution provided for the election of an executive to hold office for three years, a Senate for four years, and an annual Assembly. The voting by ballot was not definitely estab lished; it was left to be determined by the Legislature, a provision which may be regarded as the effect of excessive caution and prudence, if not of timidity, but one which the state of the times and the novelty of the experiment at that day might justify. So too in regard to the property qualification attached to the elective franchise, and the qualifications for office, the provisions of the Constitution fell far short of what we now regard as the correct and legitimate rule of political action, but at that day, when the colonists were just emancipated from British tutelage, and aristocratic customs and notions of hereditary right still prevailed, this section of the Constitution was a sensible reform, if not a radical revolution. The provision that " a wise and discreet freeholder of this State shall be, by ballot, elected Governor, by the freeholders of this State, qualified as before described, to elect Senators "-that is possessing a freehold of forty pounds, or renting a tenement of the yearly value of forty shillings,-was but a step from asserting the great principle of UNIVERSAL SUFFrage, which was established by the Constitution of 1821 as the basis of representative democracy.

As to the social institutions of the State, the Constitution left

* In regard to this clause, Mr. Jay, in his celebrated charge to the Grand Jury, at Kingston, uses these noble and dignified expressions. "Every man is permitted to consider, to adore, and to worship his Creator in the manner most agreeable to his conscience. No opinions are dictated, no rules of faith prescribed, no preference given to one sect to the prejudice of others." "In a word, the

Convention by whom that Constitution was formed, were of opinion that the Gospel of Christ, like the ark of God, would not fall, though unsupported by the arm of flesh; and happy would it be for mankind if that opinion prevailed more generally."

them very nearly in the position it found them. The revolution was purely political. The Convention did not undertake to meddle with the laws of property, the domestic relations, or indeed in any other respect with the judicial polity of the State. Accordingly, the Constitution re-enacted and established as the law of the State, the COMMON LAW of England, and such parts of prior statutes, both acts of Parliament, and acts of the Colonial Legislature, as were applicable and not repugnant to the Constitution, with the restriction, that all such parts thereof as might be construed "to establish or maintain any particular denomination of Christians or their ministers, or concern allegiance heretofore yielded to," &c., be abrogated and rejected.

Such were the main features of the Constitution of 1777. It may be remarked that Jay himself was not entirely satisfied with it. The vote on its final passage was taken during his temporary absence from the Convention, and some additional sections had been added which he disapproved; what these sections were, does not clearly appear. He intended also, he says, to have moved several amendments, one for the support of literature, one against the continuance of slavery in the State, and one requiring all persons taking office to swear allegiance to the government, and renounce all allegiance to foreign kings, princes and states in all matters, ecclesiastical as well as civil.

Approving, however, the main features of the new Constitution, Mr. Jay devoted his best efforts to the task of setting it practically in operation. In the organization of the courts under it, the Convention tendered him the place of Chief-Justice of the Supreme Court, which he at once accepted, Livingston being at the same. time appointed Chancellor. The Convention then adjourned, after appointing a "Council of Safety," of which Jay was a member, in whose hands was vested the absolute sovereignty of the State during the interim between the adjournment and the organization of the new government. This Committee was armed with plenary and unlimited power. It was indeed an arbitrary dictatorship. The crisis was such as seemed to demand it, for the darkest hour of the revolution had come. That power was exercised vigorously, but wisely and discreetly. It was wielded with tremendous effect, but not

abused. It was the power which in a similar case was lodged by the French Convention in the hands of the Committee of Public Welfare, but it was used for wiser and better ends, for there were no Couthons and Robespierres upon the New York Council of Safety. The measures adopted against the royalists were such as the exigency of the times demanded. They were vigorous, stringent, severe. The jails and churches were filled with prisoners. Banishment and confiscation became the order of the day. But these measures, though harsh and rigorous were tempered with as much mildness as the nature of the case would admit. No member of that Committee, and least of all John Jay, is liable to the charge of wielding political power for the purposes of individual oppression.

One of the finest traits in the character of Jay was the warmth of his social feelings, and the constancy of his friendships. Adversity never separated him from his early associates, nor did political differences cause him to forget the attachments of other days. It was during the administration of the Council of Safety that the formidable invasion of Burgoyne threatened the safety of New York. General Philip Schuyler at that time had command of the army of the north. Jay was the friend of Schuyler; he knew and appreciated the worth, the patriotism, the chivalric honor, of that brave officer and gallant gentleman. In a moment of weakness, Congress, yielding either to false and malicious representations, or a timid policy, recalled Schuyler at the very moment when victory was within his grasp, and placed Gates in command. Schuyler felt the indignity, but with the generous magnanimity of his character, sacrificing every personal feeling to the cause of his country, cheerfully co-operated with the plan of the campaign, and aided Gen. Gates to reap the laurels which justly belonged to himself. Among the friends who adhered through good report and through evil report to Schuyler, and who never failed to vindicate his reputation, none was truer or more faithful than Jay. Sharing the same ancestral blood, the blood of the early Dutch settlers of the colony, and satisfied with the entire correctness of Schuyler's conduct, as well as the purity of his motives, Jay did not conceal his indignation at this act of injustice. In a letter to Mr. Duane, then in Congress, he expresses what he conceives to be the true reason. "General Schuy

ler is recalled," he says, " to humor the eastern people, who declare that their militia will not fight under his command." The warmth of his friendship, and the delicacy of his sympathy, are beautifully expressed in two or three letters to Schuyler himself about this period. In one of these, written some months after the victory of Saratoga, and while the laurels were yet fresh and green upon the brow of the commanding general, Jay, with his accustomed delicacy of expression, ventures to predict what the future has fully realized, and posterity cordially admits. "Justice will yet take place, and I do not despair of seeing the time when it will be confessed that the foundation of our success in the northern department was laid by the present commander's predecessor."

Not only to political associates, but even to political opponents, did Jay evince the kindliness of a generous nature; and he never failed to respond to the recollections of early attachments. Few among the revolutionary leaders originated, advocated, and carried out more stringent and effective measures against the royalists and the disaffected, and yet he was never deaf to the voice of private friendship, and never disregarded the appeal of one to whom he had been kindly attached in other days. To his old classmate at King's College, Peter Van Schaack, who had from conscientious motives declined taking a part with the colonists, he writes with a feeling of the liveliest interest; and the cordial intercourse is renewed when one is the honored representative of his country, and the other an exile in a foreign land. To Col. De Lancey, who had taken arms in the royal cause, and who was a prisoner on parole, he writes during the troubles of 1778: "The friendship which subsisted between us is not forgotten; nor will the good offices formerly done by yourself and family cease to excite my gratitude. How far you may be comfortable and easy I know not. It is my wish, and shall be my endeavor, that it be as much so as may be consistent with the interest of that great cause to which I have devoted every thing I hold dear in this world."

John Jay was a revolutionist, but no terrorist. He was resolute, stern, and inflexible, but not proscriptive. His was the uncompromising action based upon principle, not prompted by personal enmity. He had not a grain of bitterness in him, not a drop of