John Jay
• Chief Justice of New York Supreme Court
• Delegate to Continental Congress
• President of Continental Congress
• Founder of New York Manumission Society
• Minister to Spain
• Co-author of the Federalist Papers
• Secretary of Foreign Affairs
• First Supreme Court Chief Justice
• Brokered the Jay Treaty
• Governor of New York
• Jay, New York, Jay, Vermont, Jay County, Indiana, and the John Jay College of Criminal Justice at the City University of New York are named in his honor
Henry Knox
• Sons of Liberty member
• Continental Army artillery chief
• Veteran of Bunker Hill, Trenton, Princeton, Brandywine, Germantown, Monmouth and Yorktown
• Senior Officer of the U.S. Army
• First U.S. Secretary of War (under Articles of Confederation and Washington Administration)
• A Fort Knox in Kentucky and Maine, as well as Knoxville, Tennessee, and nine states’ Knox Counties, are named in his honor
John Jay (1745-1829) of New York was a president of the Continental Congress, co-author of the Federalist Papers, the first Supreme Court chief justice, governor of New York, drafter of the Jay Treaty and president of a New York abolitionist society.
A Columbia graduate, Jay hoped Britain and America would reconcile hostilities, but he would join the Patriot cause. He served as a delegate to the First and Second Continental Congress but did not attend the debate over the Declaration of Independence, instead staying in New York to serve in the provincial government, draft the state’s constitution and work with the state’s committee of correspondence. In April 1777, he became the first chief justice of the state supreme court, holding that office for 20 months. Jay was chosen president of the Continental Congress when he returned in December 1778. In September 1779, he was appointed minister to Spain as part of the American peace delegation and signed the Treaty of Paris, which ended the war in 1783.
When he returned to America, Jay was named Secretary of Foreign Affairs under the Articles of Confederation in 1784 and worked hard to stabilize the nation’s finances, pay off the war debt and seek American recognition by European countries. He founded the New York Society for Promoting the Manumission of Slaves in 1785. With the help of Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr, the society boycotted merchants and newspapers which employed, invested in or advertised the slave trade.
Jay did not attend the Constitutional Convention, but he co-authored the Federalist Papers starting in 1787 with Hamilton and James Madison to convince reluctant states, especially Hamilton and Jay’s own New York, to ratify the Constitution. Jay mostly discussed foreign policy. He wrote in Federalist No. 4: "But the safety of the People of America against dangers from foreign force, depends not only on their forbearing to give just causes of war to other nations, but also on their placing and continuing themselves in such a situation as not to invite hostility or insult; for it need not be observed, that there are pretended as well as just causes of war."
President George Washington appointed Jay the first chief justice of the Supreme Court in 1789. The most notable case in his six-year tenure was Chisholm v. Georgia in 1793, which diminished state sovereignty and led to the adoption of the Eleventh Amendment, prohibiting federal courts from authority in lawsuits by citizens against a state.
In 1794, Washington dispatched Jay as a peace delegate to Britain to resolve territorial and naval disputes and avert war. The subsequent Jay Treaty favored Britain and despite its unpopularity, Washington and leading Federalists fought for his ratification. Jay was elected governor of New York in 1795, leaving the Supreme Court, and would sign a bill outlawing slavery in the state by 1799. When his term ended in 1801, he was re-nominated to the Supreme Court and the governorship but had retired from public life.
Jay, New York, Jay, Vermont, Jay County, Indiana, and the John Jay College of Criminal Justice at the City University of New York are named in his honor.
Henry Knox (1750-1806) of Massachusetts was the Continental Army’s chief artillery officer and the United States’ first Secretary of War. He participated in every major battle in the Northern Theater of the war.
He was a self-educated bookstore owner and learned everything he knew about artillery through reading. Knox was a member of the radical Sons of Liberty and a witness to the Boston Massacre in 1770. After joining the Boston Grenadier Corps in 1772, he experienced his first taste of warfare at the Battle of Bunker Hill (Breeds Hill) three years later. It was during the subsequent siege of Boston that Knox and Gen. George Washington became good friends.
To drive the British from Boston, Knox — just 25 years old — led an epic two-month-long expedition in winter 1775-1776 to bring dozens of artillery pieces from the captured Fort Ticonderoga in upstate New York across mountains, frigid terrain, blizzards and frozen lakes to Dorchester Heights in southern Boston Harbor. "It appeared to me almost a miracle that people with heavy loads should be able to get up and down such hills," Knox wrote. "It is not easy to conceive the difficulties we have had." However, Knox anticipated snowfall and used it to his advantage by having the artillery pulled with sleds. With the artillery in place, the British fleet was forced to evacuate a few weeks later on March 17. Washington promoted Knox to Colonel of Artillery and later wrote about him that he "has deservedly acquired the character of one of the most valuable officers in the service ..." Yet, Knox’s wife, Lucy, would remain essentially homeless throughout the Revolution after her Loyalist parents fled Boston to England.
Knox was with the Continental Army during the defeat at New York in late 1776 but helped lead the army to victory at Trenton and Princeton that winter, being promoted to brigadier-general. "... the bulk of the officers of the army are a parcel of ignorant, stupid men," Knox said about the losses at New York, and he declared that new military academies should be established to "teach the art of war and every other encouragement possible to draw persons into the army that may give luster to our arms." He then fought at Brandywine and Germantown a year later and at Monmouth after enduring the winter encampment at Valley Forge in 1778, but he did take a brief furlough to see his family. Knox’s artillery was a vital key to victory at Yorktown in 1781, and he ended his stint in the war at the rank of major general, stationed at West Point.
After the war, Knox was selected Secretary of War by the Continental Congress under the Articles of Confederation in 1785. On Sept. 12, 1789, he assumed duties as Secretary of War in the Washington Administration. As secretary, he urged and presided over the formation of a standing navy and the short-lived Legion of the United States to protect the frontier from Indians. Knox resigned his post and retired from public life in 1794 to help care for his family.
A Fort Knox in Kentucky and Maine, as well as Knoxville, Tennessee, and nine states’ Knox Counties, are named in his honor.
FORGOTTEN FOUNDING FATHERS TOURNAMENT BRACKET
Final Four
#1 George Mason 40%
#1 Nathanael Greene 60%
#3 Henry Knox
#1 John Jay
FFFs and match-ups are determined by my interpretation of who I believe were the 32 greatest FFFs. Personal politics, favoritism and reader response was NOT a factor in selection or seeding. As for the tournament itself: each match-up will be conducted every 24 hours with a synopsis written by yours truly and readers can determine using the poll function who the winner should be for that match-up; there is no #1 overall seed; FFFs retain their seeds throughout; the winner of the Washington bracket will face the winner of the Jefferson bracket, and the winner of the Madison bracket will face the winner of the Franklin bracket; after having the first tie, I've decided the higher seed will win ties. I am not voting nor will I pick sides in discussion. I wish I could somehow do a more rigid time duration period for each round but there’s no guarantee I’ll be on a computer or awake at that time so I’m gonna say polling lasts until I post the next match-up, or roughly 24 hours later. Readers may choose whichever FFF contestant they wish, but the point of the tournament is to select the greatest Forgotten Founding Father — the most influential, most important, most impactful, who contributed the most to the Revolution and/or seeds of American liberty. Please read the original diaries in addition to the information provided above so you have all the information before voting. Have fun!