That fine demonstration in Jay’s honor was in great part to overwhelm and stamp out the undertone of growl and snarl that filled the air.  Many said that peace had been gained at awful cost, that Jay had deferred to royalty and trifled with the wishes of the people in making terms.

And now Jay had got home, back to his family and farm, back to quiet and rest.  The long, hard fight had been won and America was free.  For eight years had he toiled and striven and planned:  much had been accomplished—­not all he hoped, but much.

He had done his best for his country, his own affairs were in bad shape, Congress had paid him meagerly, and now he would turn public life over to others and live his own life.

All through life men reach these places where they say, “Here will we build three tabernacles”; but out of the silence comes the imperative Voice, “Arise, and get thee hence, for this is not thy rest.”

And now the war was over, peace was concluded; but war leaves a country in chaos.  The long, slow work of reconstruction and of binding up a nation’s wounds must follow.  America was independent, but she had yet to win from the civilized world the recognition that she must have in order to endure.

Jay was importuned by Washington to take the position of Secretary of Foreign Affairs, one of the most important offices to be filled.

He accepted, and discharged the exacting duties of the place for five years.

Then came the adoption of the Federal Constitution, and the election of Washington as President of the United States.

Washington wrote to Jay:  “There must be a Court, perpetual and Supreme, to which all questions of internal dispute between States or people be referred.  This Court must be greater than the Executive, greater than any individual State, separated and apart from any political party.  You must be the first official head of the Executive.”

And Jay, as every schoolboy knows, was the first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.  By his sagacity, his dignity, his knowledge of men, and love of order and uprightness, he gave it that high place which it yet holds, and which it must hold; for when the decisions of the Supreme Court are questioned by a State or people, the fabric of our government is but a spider’s web through which anarchy and unreason will stalk.

In Seventeen Hundred Ninety-four, came serious complications with Great Britain, growing out of the construction of terms of peace made in Paris eleven years before.

Some one must go to Great Britain and make a new treaty in order to preserve our honor and save us from another war.

Franklin was dead; Adams as Vice-President could not be spared; Hamilton’s fiery temper was dangerous—­no one could accomplish the delicate mission so well as Jay.

Jay, self-centered and calm, said little; but in compliance with Washington’s wish resigned his office, and set sail with full powers to use his own judgment in everything, and the assurance that any treaty he made would be ratified.