Premier John Jay: The Most Important Man in America

John Kaminski’s talk, "Premier John Jay: The Most Important Man in America," delivered at the celebration of the publication of the Selected Papers of John Jay, volume 1, on March 25, 2010, is now available at Columbia University Library’s Academic Commons. "When John Jay returned from France in 1784, the Confederation Congress asked him to […]

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The Fourth of July

The Jays celebrated the Fourth of July, 1783, at Passy, outside Paris, in the company of Benjamin Franklin and various American and French friends. Franklin began this practice in 1778. The following is an excerpt of a letter from Sarah Livingston Jay to her sister, Kitty Livingston, of 16 July 1783, describing her feelings on […]

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