He was a prominent member of the Congress of 1774, and of that of 1775, and in 1776 assisted in framing the Government of New York. He was elected Chief Justice of that State in May, 1777, and resigned that office in 1779, when elected President of Congress. In September, 1779, he was appointed Minister to Spain ; was one of the signers to the definitive treaty of Peace at

a Frazee executed several busts of Jay from the model of Carracio for the Supreme Court, oue of which was ordered by Congress.

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Paris in September, 17S3; and returned to America in 1784, having been previously appointed Secretary of State for Foreign affairs. He became Chief Justice of the United States in 1789, and in 1794 was appointed Minister to England ; was Governor of the State of New York from 1795 to 1801, after which he retired from public life.""

A writer truthfully says, "He was one of the wisest statesmen and purest patriots of the days of the war of Independence, and our country has no purer name inscribed on the list of her worthies." The Supreme Court of the State being in session in New York, at the time of his death, the gentlemen of the bar held a meeting and adopted the following resolutions: "Resolved that the members of this bar are impressed with deep grief upon the decease of their illustrious brother John Jay. They find however, a consolation in the reflection, that his conduct through a long and useful life, has given a lustre to our profession, and to this bar; and that while his character for private virtues and public worth has justly endeared him to the nation, his patriotism, his great talents as a statesman, and his great acquirements as a jurist, his eminent purity as a Christian, and his probity as a man, all unite to present him to the public as an example whose radiance points to the attainment of excellence."