iform dignity,
calmness, faith in the people, in the cause, and in the result, made a
deep and salutary impression, enhanced by the courage exhibited in his
charge to the grand jury. In order to serve as delegate to the Congress
over which he soon presided, Jay resigned the chief justiceship on the
tenth of November, 1778; and signalized his advent by a logical,
seasonable, and cheering address to the people on the condition of
affairs.

Jay's mind was essentially judicial: he had the temperament and taste as
well as the reasoning powers desirable for legal investigation, and the
probity and decision of character essential to an administrator of law.
With strong domestic proclivities and rural taste--the conflicts,
excitement, and responsibilities of a political career were alien to his
nature; but the functions of the higher magistracy found in him a
congenial representative. Accordingly, it is evident from his
correspondence and the concurrent testimony of his kindred and friends,
that while as chief justice his sphere of duty was, however laborious,
full of interest to his mind--the vocation of a diplomatist was
oppressive: he undertook it, as he had other temporary public offices,
from conscientious patriotism; the same qualities which gave him
influence and authority on the bench commended him specially to his
fellow citizens as a negotiator in the difficult and dangerous
exigencies produced in our foreign relations by the war with Great
Britain. Tact, sagacity, courage--the ability to command respect and to
advocate truth and maintain right--dignity of manner, benignity of
temper--devotion to his country--all the requisites seemed to combine in
the character of Jay, on the one hand to enforce just claims, and, on
the other, to propitiate good will. To raise a loan and secure an
alliance in Spain seemed a hopeless task: Jay undertook it, much to his
personal inconvenience and with extreme reluctance. The history of his
mission, as revealed by his correspondence and official documents, is a
history of vexations, mortifications, and patient, isolated struggles
with difficulties, such as few men would have encountered voluntarily or
endured with equanimity. The Spanish Government shrank from a decisive
course, feared self-committal, promised aid, and to concede, on certain
terms, the right of the United States to navigate the Mississippi. Jay
took council of Franklin, who advised him not to accede to the terms
propos