The Selected Papers of John Jay

Volume 6 opens with John Jay aboard the Ohio, bound for London in May 1794, to begin what will prove to be the most controversial mission of his career: the negotiation of the treaty that now bears his name. The volume documents the series of proposals and drafts that culminated in the treaty, as well as the mounting criticism against the treaty from the time of its reception on American shores to its ratification in the Senate. Soon after his return to New York in May 1795, Jay took up a new public office as recently elected governor of that state. The volume covers the policies formulated and implemented by Jay’s administration—including those related to Indian affairs, outbreaks of infectious disease, judicial and penal reform, and the state’s inadequate military defenses—and looks ahead to his second term.