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
Nathanael Greene
• Continental Army quartermaster
• George Washington’s second-in-command
• Commander of Southern Army (victories at Cowpens, Guilford Court House, Hobkirk’s Hill and Eutaw Springs)
• Three U.S. Navy ships and many cities named Greensboro and Greenville are named in his honor, as well as 15 state’s Green(e) Counties. Statues of Greene have been erected in Savannah, Georgia, Greensboro, North Carolina, and at the U.S. Capitol
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.
Nathanael Greene (1742-1786) of Rhode Island was a Continental Army quartermaster who became Gen. George Washington’s second-in-command. He was in command of the Southern army when it achieved victories at Cowpens and Guilford Court House, and inflicted heavy British losses at Hobkirk’s Hill and Eutaw Springs.
Born a Quaker, Greene managed the family foundry before the Revolution and served in the Rhode Island legislature in the early 1770s. In August 1774, he formed a local militia and would help revise militia laws. He was expelled from the Quakers for his military services. Greene entered the Revolution as a private but was promoted to brigadier general for the siege of Boston, becoming commander of the city when the British evacuated in March 1776. Like artillery chief Henry Knox, Greene learned all he knew about the military from books. Now a brigadier, Greene was ill for most of the New York campaign except for the surrender of Forts Lee and Washington in fall. Greene once wrote, "We fight, get beat, rise, and fight again."
He was worried these defeats would result in losing field command but his loyalty to George Washington was rewarded with loyalty, and the commander-in-chief said that if anything happened to him, Greene should succeed him. After taking part at the battles of Trenton, Brandywine and Germantown, Greene reluctantly became quartermaster during the Valley Forge encampment in Pennsylvania in March 1778. He bitterly argued with Congress for much-needed food and supplies but was able to scavenge provisions from as far away as Maryland and Virginia. If the chief officers were killed, the army decimated or supplies lost, Greene warned Congress, "I would not be answerable for the consequences that such a stroke might produce in American politics." That August, Greene commanded troops at the Battle of Rhode Island, a failed Continental attempt to capture Narragansett Bay, and the victory at Battle of Springfield (New Jersey) in 1780, which prevented the British from seizing the colony. Greene also became good friends in the Army with Thomas Paine, who he called "Common Sense" in correspondence.
That December, Greene assumed command of the Southern Army, which was reeling from a humiliating defeat at Camden. Rather than confronting Gen. Lord Cornwallis’ Southern British command head-on, Greene split his force between him and Gen. Daniel Morgan to lure the British into the Carolina wilderness — unfamiliar territory far from reinforcements and re-supply for the British — and use guerilla tactics to confound the enemy. Morgan won huge victories at Cowpens and Guilford Court House a few months later. Costly British victories at Hobkirk’s Hill on April 25 and Eutaw Springs on Sept. 8 forced Cornwallis to remain in coastal Southern cities. Cornwallis surrendered his command after the Battle of Yorktown on Oct. 19, effectively ending the war.
Greene retired from public life after the war, twice refusing to become Secretary of War.
Three U.S. Navy ships and many cities named Greensboro and Greenville are named in his honor, as well as 15 state’s Green(e) Counties. Statues of Greene have been erected in Savannah, Georgia, Greensboro, North Carolina, and at the U.S. Capitol.