At Length my good Friend I am arrived at the Land of my nativity, and I bless God that it is also the Land of Light Liberty & Plenty. My Emotions on the occasion can not be described—”.1 So wrote John Jay after almost five years abroad in the diplomatic service of his country, on returning to his native city on 24 July 1784, with his wife, his two daughters born abroad, and his nephew Peter Jay Munro. The transatlantic crossing on the Edward, Captain Henry Coupar, took seven weeks and two days. Jay’s first action taken was to forward to President of Congress Thomas Mifflin a copy of the British ratification of the Definitive Treaty. Ratifications had been exchanged by Franklin and Jay with Hartley at Passy on 12 May, a few days before the Jays left Paris.2 With this communication, Jay spelled finis to his role as peace negotiator.

The City of New York still bore many of the scars of the great fire of 1776 and of the British military occupation, which ended in late November 1783. Owning no residence in the city or elsewhere, the Jays, during their brief periods in town during the summer and fall of 1784, stayed with JJ’s brother Frederick, who had established himself there as an merchant and auctioneer.3 Impatient to see their relatives, the Jays visited the Jay family at the Rye homestead and the Livingston family at Elizabethtown. There they were at long last reunited with their eight-year-old son Peter Augustus, who, during the years of his parents’ absence in Europe, had been in the care of Governor William Livingston and his family at Elizabethtown and of the Frederick Jays at Fishkill.

One reunion was, however, to be postponed. Despite the importunities of Robert R. Livingston for the Jays to visit his Clermont estate and for Jay’s counsel in a Livingston lawsuit,4 and Jay’s cordial responses, the busy Jays deferred a visit, while Sarah Livingston Jay in turn expressed annoyance when Livingston failed to pay the Jay family a visit when traveling to Congress.5 If this coolness meant that Jay had neither forgotten nor forgiven Livingston for his criticism of Jay’s role in the peace negotiations, no direct evidence to that effect has been found.6

The cordial welcome everywhere accorded Jay was capped by the City of New York’s presentation to him of the freedom of the city on 4 October. His remarks on that occasion,7 along with observations written to friends abroad, indicated that he was so delighted to be home again that he was prepared to put the best possible face on conditions prevailing in America and to discover a growing acceptance of “foederal ideas.”8 He was, of course, hearing more sobering news about the state of the nation from Congress’s perennial secretary, Charles Thomson.9 Indeed, from Jay’s own actions, as contrasted with his discreet comments to America’s well-wishers, it is clear that he was troubled about economic conditions as well as about the vindictive stand that the New York legislature had adopted toward the Loyalists.10 Jay had consistently sought to distinguish between moderate Tories who had acted out of conscience and the more violent breed.11 His efforts on behalf of Peter Van Schaack, his friend since college, who in 1784 was engaged in securing a legacy left the Jays in England,12 disclosed that he could be counted on the moderate side of this troublesome and divisive issue, along with men like the mayor of New York James Duane and Alexander Hamilton, who were determined to see that the provisions of the treaty with Great Britain regarding the Loyalists were carried out.13

Jay had been contemplating resuming the private practice of the law even before his embarkation for America, but the decision as to his future career was to be made for him by his countrymen. He returned home to learn that Congress had elected him the secretary for foreign affairs,14 and although he delayed acceptance for months pending clarification of his powers and the location of his office, it seemed inevitable that he should assume the post. In addition, his own state made levies on his time. On 26 October he was elected a New York delegate to the Continental Congress for a one-year term,15 and on 12 November he was named an agent for New York in defending its rights to lands in the western part of the state against claims pressed by Massachusetts.16 Jay’s interlude from public involvements was brief, and he was not to be free of them for another seventeen years.

The Congress to which Jay had been elected did not inspire great enthusiasm on the part of the states. It was not until 30 November that Congress, convened at Trenton, managed to reach a quorum by obtaining delegates from eight states in attendance and to proceed with the election of Richard Henry Lee as President.17 A week later Jay took his seat.18 With his outstanding experience in foreign affairs, Jay was immediately drafted by Congress to advise on current foreign policy matters, including Congress’s dealings with foreign officials. His first and doubtless most pleasurable duty was to serve on a committee that recommended the presentation of an appropriate testimonial to the Marquis de Lafayette on his leave-taking from America.19 By resolve of Congress, Jay drafted the resolution providing that a standard captured at the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown be presented to the Marquis “as a mark of the high opinion which they entertain of his Military Merit,”20 along with a letter to King Louis XVI attesting to Lafayette’s service in promoting “the interests of both countries.”21 Fittingly, Jay was chosen as chairman of a committee consisting of a member from each state to receive and take leave of the marquis, an event Jay duly recorded, along with Lafayette’s acknowledgment, which the latter subsequently edited.22

Turning to more serious business, it was on Jay’s motion that America’s minister to France was ordered to defer, pending further instructions, the signing of the consular convention with that nation, a pact in the reshaping of which Jay was to play a significant role.23 Jay also served on a committee to consider a communication from Francisco Rendón, the agent of the Court of Madrid, forwarding an extract of a letter from José de Gálvez, the minister for the Indies, warning Congress that American vessels would be subject “to process and confiscation” should they seek to navigate the Mississippi and denying the rights of the United States and England to that river as set forth in the Peace Treaty of 1783.24 Rendón’s communication indubitably stiffened Congress’s resolution to dispatch a minister to represent the United States at Madrid who would be instructed to adjust the claims of the United States to the Mississippi. Jay voted in favor of both proposals,25 and served on the committee that drew up the necessary instructions.26

Other less central matters claimed Jay’s attention as well. On 16 December he wrote the report of a committee named to consider a memorandum from the French chargé d’affaires, Barbé-Marbois, complaining of “delays and difficulties” confronting French agents in settling their accounts. The report urged the “different states” to enact such “remedial laws on the subject as their respective constitutions may permit.”27 The same committee also examined Barbé-Marbois’s complaint respecting the claims of the heirs of three French officers who had died in the American service. Jay’s report politely suggested that under the pressure of major business Congress could not at that time decide on the propriety of the claims, and referred them to the Paymaster General.28 Similarly, his committee recommended that the bill for money advanced by France for refitting the American frigate Confederacy,29 the ship on which the Jays had embarked on their storm-tossed journey to Spain five years earlier,30 be referred to the commissioners for settling claims in the Marine Department.

While Congress was considering long-range plans to erect a “fœderal town” as the nation’s capital,31 Jay was pressing his colleagues for the selection of New York City as the temporary capital. He seconded the motion of Charles Pinckney that any plans for an alternate temporary residence of Congress at Trenton be dropped,32 and moved to postpone a motion which would have named a place “near the falls of Trenton” for such a temporary capital. He had also made it clear he would not accept the post of secretary for foreign affairs unless Congress stayed in one place, preferably New York City.33

On 21 December 1784 (for which see below), on taking the oath, he assumed his duties as secretary for foreign affairs. Promptly he wrote to the French chargé and the Dutch minister in the United States from the “Office of foreign Affairs, Trenton”, notifying them of his acceptance of the secretaryship and of Congress’s adjournment and upcoming removal to New York City.34 In addition, on the 24th, the last day of the session, Jay along with four New York colleagues— Egbert Benson and James Duane, and Robert R. and Walter Livingston—signed an agreement with Massachusetts agents concerning the appointment of “a federal court” for the settlement of the western lands dispute between New York and Massachusetts (on which see the editorial note “John Jay’s Role in the New York-Massachusetts Western Lands Dispute,” pp. 631–34, and documents below).35