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33 of 35 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Unrecognized Glory, October 5, 2005
This review is from: John Jay: Founding Father (Hardcover)
While one cannot seriously dent the opinion of the public on who contributed the most to the founding of our republic: and thus the auras of Washington, Adams, Hamilton, and Jefferson reign supreme, one cannot seriously dismiss John Jay. Jay served in all but one of the branches of our early federal government and secured the final treaty which ended the Revolutionary War. Tne boundary issue with English owned Canada was also settled through his diplomacy. Tne borders of Maine and Minnesota being points of contention.
Jay was a statesman and a great writer. His contributions to the Federalist Papers, albeit they are limited, served as a guidance to future government. He served at the state level as governor of New York and helped to create political parties, although he struggled with his aversion to factionalism. As a member of the Constitutional Congress, Jay maintained vital relationships with friends in England whom he needed to make the American experiment work.
During his era, the right to navigate the Mississippi was an important issue in America and especially to the commerce driven economy created by Hamilton. Like Jefferson, Jay envisioned a larger America. He wanted us to expand and evolve. Therefore he wasted no effort in taking the Mississippi away from Spain, France, and England. Jay clearly viewed the United States in terms of an opportunity for expansion.
As a man, Jay was a committed Christian. He founded many churches and lived out his life in Christian fellowship. His wife was clearly the greatest of the founding mothers. The letters between Jay and his wife were full of love and undying admiration, but also full of ideas. Unlike Abigail Adams, she was not a prude, a story-teller or a whiner. She worked very hard to see her vision of America come true. Alas she died early at age 45. There should be statues put up for her!
Jay was simply the best America can produce. His mind was better than Washington's, his vision equal to Jefferson, and his love for his country unequalled. Stahr captured all of this in an easily readable book. I look forward to his next project and hope he may tackle some lesser lights in our nation's founding. What a wonderful opportunity for all of us to learn about someone deserving of much applause, but who biographers seem to have passed by. If you get a chance, please get to New York and do a tour of his home.
I truly loved this one and if you want to know who did the tough work on our founding here he is in all of his glory. A great man and a great book.
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17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A fantastic book about a truly under-appreciated founding father, June 25, 2005
This review is from: John Jay: Founding Father (Hardcover)
Stahr's book on John Jay is absolutely first-rate. Surprisingly, Stahr mentions that it has been almost 70 years since someone has done a full biography on Jay. This makes the book all that more appreciated.
In short, although Jay was not as important and revered and talked about as Washington, Jefferson, and Hamilton, he clearly played a major part in launching this nation for over 25 years, so much so, that one wonders how he slipped under the radar screen. Here goes....He was a member of the Continental Congress in 1774 and 1775, and was President of it in 1779. He lead the peace negotiation in 1782-3 at Paris which resulted in a very favorable treay for the US. From 1784 till 1790 he was Secretary of Foreign Affairs for the Confederacy, but more importantly, during this most fragile period in our history when most of the members failed to attend and rotated out after one year, he gave continuity and competency to the new national government. He was the most important figure in getting a very reluctant New York State to approve the new Constitution. He was the nation's first Supreme Court Chief Justice. He was governor of New York State for two terms. There's more.
Furthermore, everyone in his times and now agrees that he handled all these tasks with competency to a fault, being admired by friends and opponents alike. Like Hamilton, he was a person who got things done, but, unlike Hamilton, he seemed to get along with everyone.
The writing and research are great. One gets not only a feeling for who Jay was as a person, but also what his place in history is. It's not a profound book or a book that comes to new conclusions and insights, but a book that exposes Jay's life for what he did and what he was worth. It brings together Jay's lifelong multitude of accomplishments. From the cover jacket, the author appears to be a lawyer/novice at writing books. Great first effort!
I'd have to say that this is probably a book for people who already know something about the beginnings of the United States and are looking to fill in the gaps. Jay was clearly a team player, and this book focuses on Jay and not the overall picture.
Lastly, several years ago I visited the Jay homestead in Rye, New York. It's a beautiful piece of land by the water. Apparently the building itself just barely escaped the wrecking ball, hard to believe. I'd recommend a visit.
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19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Conscientious, scholarly, and accessible., April 2, 2006
This review is from: John Jay: Founding Father (Hardcover)
John Jay [1745-1829] has long deserved a full-length scholarly biography and here he receives one that does honor to subject and author alike. First-time author Walter Stahr, a practicing attorney specializing in international law, has done prodigious work in the original sources and the scholarly literature and presents his findings capably and responsibly. He blends rigorous scholarship with clear and direct prose. His work deserves a wide and grateful audience. I have one caveat. Having worked on John Jay myself, I respectfully dissent from Mr. Stahr's argument that historians have neglected Jay because of his religious and political conservatism. I think, rather, that there are three major reasons for the previous neglect of Jay. First, until the great body of his papers found a home at Columbia University, thanks to the labors of Richard B. Morris, the sources needed for a fuller understanding of Jay and his career were not readily available, and the availability of sources often shapes the kinds and varieties of scholarship that historians and biographers can undertake. Second, by one of those unfortunate historical accidents, Jay was not a signer of either the Declaration of Independence [indeed, he was a reluctant revolutionary until 4 July 1776] or the Constitution of the United States. Signers and Framers tend to get more attention from later writers than those who were neither signers nor framers. Third, not only Jay but all members of the early [pre-1801] Supreme Court have been eclipsed by the titanic figure of John Marshall. In any event, Stahr's biography should spark a reconsideration of Jay's life and career and a re-evaluation of his place in the establishment of the United States.
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