Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1892, volume 3).djvu/445

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JAY
JAY
413

the plenipotentiaries of France, Austria, Great Britain, Prussia, Russia, Sardinia, and Turkey. These governments declared their wish that the states between which any serious misunderstanding might arise should, before appealing to arms, have recourse, as far as circumstances might allow, to the good offices of a friendly power. The honor of its introduction in the congress belongs to Lord Clarendon, whose services had been solicited by Joseph Sturge and Henry Richard, and it was supported by all of his colleagues in the congress. It was subsequently referred to by Lord Derby as worthy of immortal honor. Lord Malmsbury pronounced it an act “important to civilization and to the security of the peace of Europe,” and it was somewhat later approved by all the other powers to whom it was referred, more than forty in number. Among Judge Jay's other writings on this subject are his letter on the “Kossuth Excitement” (1852); an address before the American peace society at Boston (1845), and a petition from the society to the U. S. senate in behalf of stipulated arbitration (1853). Perhaps under this head should be included his historic and searching “Causes and Consequences of the Mexican War” (Boston, 1849). In 1846 Judge Jay republished, with an elaborate preface, the concluding chapter of Bishop Wilberforce's “History of the Church in America,” which had been announced by two American publishers who relinquished the design when it was found to contain a reproof of the American church for its course on slavery. This was followed by a letter on the same subject to Bishop Ives, of North Carolina. “The Calvary Pastoral, a Tract for the Times,” rebuked the attempt to convert the Episcopal church into a popish church without a pope. In 1849 appeared “An Address to the Non-Slaveholders of the South, on the Social and Political Evils of Slavery.” This was in part embodied in an Address to the people of California, which was effectively circulated on the Pacific coast in English and Spanish. In 1850 Judge Jay addressed a letter to William Nelson, on Clay's compromise measures; and this was followed by a review of Mr. Webster's declaration that slavery was excluded from California and New Mexico by the law of physical geography. Subsequent letters and addresses included one to Samuel A. Elliott, in reply to his apology for the fugitive-slave bill, an address to the anti-slavery Christians of the United States, and in 1853 several letters and reviews of the conduct of the American tract society in the interest of slavery. The same year a volume of Judge Jay's miscellaneous writings on slavery was published in Boston. In 1854 he had the satisfaction of seeing the Republican party founded on the anti-slavery principles that he had early advocated. Of his anti-slavery labors Horace Greeley said: “As to Chief-Justice Jay, the father, may be attributed, more than to any other man, the abolition of negro bondage in this state [New York], so to Judge William Jay, the son, the future will give the credit of having been one of the earliest advocates of the modern anti-slavery movements, which at this moment influence so radically the religion and the philanthropy of the country, and of having guided by his writings, in a large measure, the direction which a cause so important and so conservative of the best and most precious rights of the people should take.” He left in manuscript a commentary on the Bible. — Peter Augustus's son, John Clarkson, physician, b. in New York city, 11 Sept., 1808, was graduated at Columbia in 1827, and at the College of physicians and surgeons in 1831. In addition to his practice of medicine he made a specialty of conchology, and acquired the most complete and valuable collection of shells in the United States. This and his costly library on this branch of science were purchased by Catherine Wolfe and presented, in memory of her father, to the American museum of natural history, where it is known as the Jay collection. In 1832 he became a member of the Lyceum of natural history (now New York academy of sciences), and was its treasurer in 1836-'43. He took an active part in the efforts that were made during that time to obtain subscriptions for the new building, and bore the principal burden in planning and superintending its construction. He was one of the founders of the New York yacht-club, and for some time its secretary. From 1859 till 1880 he was a trustee of Columbia college. The shells collected by the expedition of Com. Matthew C. Perry to Japan were submitted to him for examination, and he wrote the article on that subject in the government reports. Dr. Jay was the author of “Catalogue of Recent Shells” (New York, 1835); “Description of New and Rare Shells” (1836); and later editions of his catalogue, in which he enumerates about 11,000 well-marked varieties, and at least 7,000 well-established species. — William's son,

John, diplomatist, b. in New York city, 23 June, 1817, was graduated at Dr. William A. Muhlenberg's institute in 1832, and at Columbia in 1836. After his admission to the bar in 1839 he became well known by his active opposition to slavery and his advocacy of St. Philip's colored church, which was admitted to the Protestant Episcopal convention after a nine years' contest. He was secretary of the Irish relief committee of 1847, and was counsel for many fugitive slaves, including George Kirk, two Brazilian slaves that were landed in New York, Henry Long, and the Lemmons. (See Arthur, Chester Alan.) In 1854 he organized the meetings at the Broadway tabernacle, that resulted in the state convention at Saratoga on 10 Aug., and in the dissolution of the Whig and the formation of the Republican party at Syracuse, 27 Sept., 1855. During the civil war he acted with the Union league club, of which he was president in 1866, and again in 1877. In 1868, as state commissioner for the Antietam cemetery, he reported to Gov. Reuben E. Fenton on the chartered right of the Confederate dead of that campaign to burial, a right questioned by Gov. John W. Geary, of Pennsylvania, and Hon. John Covode. In 1869 he was sent as minister to Austria, where his diplomatic work included a naturalization treaty, the establishment of a convention on trademarks, and the supervision of the U. S. commission to the world's fair of 1873. He resigned and returned to the United States in 1875, and has since resided in New York city. In 1877 he was appointed by Sec. Sherman chairman of the Jay commission to investigate the system of the New York custom-house, and in 1883 was appointed by Gov. Cleveland as the Republican member of the State civil service commission, of which he is still (1887) president. Mr. Jay was active in the early history of the American geographical and statistical so-