The Day Before Hearing the First Oral Arguments Ever Before the Court, Chief Justice John Jay Writes That He Expects to Be Done With This First Case, West v. Barnes, and Return to New York, and Requests the Deposit of His Salary

Our gratitude to the Papers of John Jay at Columbia University for their research assistance

John Jay was a New Yorker who served as President of the Continental Congress, and then as diplomat, helping negotiate the Treaty of Paris that ended the Revolutionary War. Before the U.S. Constitution came into effect, Jay was appointed Secretary of Foreign Affairs by the Congress. After the Constitution was ratified, he became the first Chief Justice of the United State Supreme Court, serving from September 26, 1789 until June 1795. Henry Remsen, Jr. was a financier and bank executive from New York City. When Jay was Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Remsen was his Under Secretary. When the State Department was formed under the Constitution, Thomas Jefferson became Secretary of State and Remsen soon became its Chief Clerk. From January 1 to September 1, 1790, Remsen left government service and was taken as a partner in his family firm, Henry Remsen & Son. Sometime between his return to the Chief Clerk’s post on September 1 1790, and March 1792, when he left office, Remsen also served as chief clerk of the first patent board and recorded the first rules for the examination of patents. In 1793 Remsen became an officer of The United States Bank. Later he was private secretary to Jefferson during his presidency.

West v. Barnes was the first United States Supreme Court decision and the earliest case calling for oral argument. West was argued on August 2, 1791 and decided on August 3, 1791.

A rare handwritten letter as Chief Justice. Autograph letter signed, Philadelphia, August 1, 1790, to Henry Remsen, Jr. “Be so obliging as to take the measures necessary to the payment of the enclosed account. I expect to return on Friday next.” Jay notes the date and his location: “1 Augt. 1791- Spruce Street No. 41 Mrs./Gibbons-“. Jay and other statesmen often lodged at the Gibbons boardinghouse, so much so in fact that this establishment served as an informal post-office/coffeehouse. Our research indicates that Remsen was handling the deposit of Jay’s salary and this letter almost certainly relates to that.

Remsen’s docket reads the date as 1790, but as Jay was in New York at that time in 1790, Jay’s date is almost certainly correct.

A search of public sale records over the past thirty years shows that not one Jay ALS as Chief Justice of any date reached that marketplace.