Posted on 02/08/2010 12:37:57 AM PST by neverdem
Few could fathom why 55-year-old John Jay turned down President Adams’s nomination to rejoin the Supreme Court when his two terms as New York’s governor ended. What would lead him, in the hale prime of life, to retire instead to the plain yellow house he’d just built on a hilltop at the remote northern edge of Westchester County, two days’ ride from Manhattan, where visitors were few and the mail and newspapers came but once a week? After 27 years at the forge of the new nation’s founding, why would so lavishly talented a man give up his vital role on the world stage for the quiet life of a gentleman farmer?...
(Excerpt) Read more at city-journal.org ...
This is a gem, IMHO.
BUMP for later reading...
great article, thank you!!
I’d never known nearly so much about John Jay, beyond the main outline of his achievements and offices
A truly incredible member of our founding fathers
I had not at all realized how crucial a role he played in the treaty negotiations with France and in protecting US interests therin — that is often presented as a Franklin-dominated effort, but this certainly makes it seem that the new USA would have been greatly disadvantaged had Jay not engaged in such subtle and determined negotiations.
Thanks for posting...great read.
One thought which I’ve had many times before, but which this article impresses upon me even more strongly (because Jay is relatively neglected as one of the key “founders”) is that if one takes a list of the key members of that generation, each one individually and most certainly all of them together are greater, wiser, more moral, more admirable than virtually ANY political leaders ever produced in the Muslim world!
Really, where in the entire history of the Islamic world is there even one leader of such admirable qualities and ideas??? Sure one can point to “great” warriors and “great” tyrants in the Islamic world, but where has there ever been a “great” leader for freedom, constitutional government, and citizens’ rights?
Well, of course, those principles and achievements are virtually non-existent in the entire Islamic world, since “Sharia” law and Muslim beliefs, customs, etc are so much at odds with the principles of a free republic.
Thinking about John Jay, George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Ben Franklin et al.... and of course one can continue the list and also argue the relative merits and order of priority for each one..... truly an amazing generation for all of world history.... but Muslims cannot produce even ONE such figure, or else he/she would be quickly put to death!
oops, I would certainly include John Adams in any such list!!!
and, of course, the list can be considerably expanded with those who had at least one major achievement and/or contribution during that era.... John Paul Jones and quite a variety of early military leaders etc.
All American students should be required to take a biography course featuring the patriots of the American Revolution every year. Just reading the Founding Fathers’ quotations is quite illuminating of their thought processes, education and moral values.
What an incredibly impressive man! Thank you for posting this article, it is a real treat.
Even in the ‘70s at what was considered a good suburban public school, the level of education in US history was rather poor. I tried to read and study up a lot more on my own, out of interest and also out of a sense that citizens ought to know a lot more than what was being offered in my high school.
With all the rabid liberalism and political correctness since then, I’d guess that few students learn even what was typical in my high school of that era. Yet, even then it was a rather weak coverage of the founders and the whole revolutionary period.
later
Thank you for posting. Very interesting reading.
ping for later
“With all the rabid liberalism and political correctness since then, I’d guess that few students learn even what was typical in my high school of that era. “
This is the biggest danger to our Republic now. How can we have a good government elected by an ill-informed citizenry?
Your post filled in many blanks regarding this matter. Thanks.
bump for later...
bump for later
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