eemed willing to become the candidate of any
party, under any conditions, at any time, if only he could step into
the official shoes of George Clinton. He was excusable in 1789,
perhaps, when the way opened up a fair chance of success, but in 1795
his ambition subjected him to ridicule as well as to humiliation. It
was said derisively that he was defeated, although every freeholder in
the State had voted for him.

The Federalists were far from unanimous in their choice of John Jay.
He had not yet returned from England, whither Washington had sent him
in the preceding year to negotiate a treaty to recover, among other
things, compensation for negroes who followed English troops across
the Atlantic at the close of the war; to obtain a surrender of the
Western military posts not yet evacuated; and to secure an article
against impressments. It was believed that a storm of disapproval
would greet his work, and the timid ones seriously questioned the
expediency of his nomination. The submission of the treaty had already
precipitated a crisis in the United States Senate, and while it might
not be ratified and officially promulgated before election, grave
danger existed of its clandestine publication by the press. Hamilton,
however, insisted, and Jay became the nominee. "It had been so decreed
from the beginning," wrote Egbert Benson.

The campaign that followed was featureless. Chief Justice Yates
aroused no interest, and Chief Justice Jay was in England. From the
outset, Jay's election was conceded; and a canvass of the votes showed
that he had swept the State by a large majority. In 1789 Clinton
received a majority of 489; in 1792 the canvassers gave him 108; but
in 1795 Jay had 1589.[71]

[Footnote 71: John Jay, 13,481; Robert Yates, 11,892. _Civil List,
State of New York_ (1887), p. 166.]

What would have happened had the treaty been published before
election, fills one with interested conjecture. Its disclosure on July
2, the day after Jay's inauguration, turned the applause of that
joyous occasion into the most exasperating abuse. Such a sudden and
tempestuous change in the popularity of a public official is
unprecedented in the history of American politics. In a night the
whole State was thrown into a ferment of intense excitement, the storm
of vituperation seeming to centre in New York city. Jay was burned in
effigy; Hamilton was struck in the face with a stone while defending
Jay's work; a copy of the treaty was