Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1921-current, 1921-06-12

JONI Jay WIS OlCCICu SCSICioAy VI ~
elm affairs five years before the
adoption of the federal constitution.
Again, it is an office which has been
held by a line of men whose names are
more impressive, from the purely in
tellectual standpoint, than the list ev-
en- of the presidents.
True, we find no Washington, Lin
coin or Roosevelt on the roll of the
secretaries of state, but we do find
there Jay and Marshall. Webster and
Clay, Seward and Marcy. Evarts and
Blaine. Olney and Hay, Root and Knox.
All this without counting the secre-
taries of state who later became pres
ident, and there were six of these
Jefferson, Madison, Monroe. John
Quincy Adams, Van Burn and Buchan-
an.
30 when the great lawyer who al
ready has had the honor Of being gov
ernor of New York and Republican
candidate for president took his place
as the organ Of the government in in
ternational affairs he joined group
the eminence of whose members is
excellent testimony to the high char
acter of American craftsmanship.
John jays Legal Powers.
The first secretary of state. John
Jay, was one of the great legal and
diplomatic minds that formed the re-
public. He was delegate to the first
congress and one of the authors of
the celebrated address to the People
of Great Britain" In 1777, when he
was only 80 years old, he drew the
first constitution of the state of New
York and was the first chief justice
of the state. In 1879 he went to Spain
as minister. After the war he Joined
Benjamin Franklin and John Adams as
commissioner to negotiate peace with
Britain. Before jays return to Amer
lea, in 1884, congress elected him sec
rotary of foreign affairs. then the
country. This place he held until the
formation of the federal government
in 1850. When General Washington
became president he offered to Jay any
place he might wish, and Jay became
chief justice of the supreme court. AS
Jefferson, who was appointed to sue
seed Jay in the control of state affairs,
had not returned from France, Jay
acted as secretary of state until JEFF
ferson's arrival. In 1894 Washington
sent Jay as a special envoy to England.
There he framed the celebrated Jays
Treaty" which provided for the sur
render to the United States of the
northwestern military posts and the
airy. From 1895 to 1901 Jay was
that office he declined his former
place as chief justice and spent the |
remainder of his life on his estate at |
Bedford, in Westchester county.
Thomas jefferson breathed the true
spirit of the American statesman when |
Washington offered him the state port |
folio. a task which he did not desire:
1T is not for an individual to choose
his post. You are to marshal us as
may be best for the public good" JEFF
ferson had then achieved everything |
short of the presidency, that a man
could ask. Indeed. the drafting of the
Declaration Of Independence gave him
fame eternal. Yet he had also been a |
member of the congress, governor of !
Virginia, and Frankiln's successor as
plenipotentiary to France. While JEFF
ferson's performances as secretary of |
state were most creditabIe. he found
himself i'll at ease in cabinet which |
included his political opposite. Alex
ander Hamilton. Their disagreements
led to Jefferson's resignation. but it
is noteworthy that after Hamilton left !
the cabinet Washington asked Jeffer-
son to return to his former position
When he became president in 1901 !
Jefferson formed a cabinet in which
there was little dissension and kept it
intact for two terms. 1t was not as
secretary of state that Jefferson |
shone most brightly. History knows
him better as the author of the Dec
laration of Independence. the far Wis
toned president who acquired the Lou
,L<
took pains to abolish every official
usage that savored Of royalty.
The Great Jurist Marshall.
When John Marshall took the office
of secretary Of state under President
Adams he had not yet gained fully that |
the head Of all our judges. But his
record as public men had been SUI
perb. A soldier of the Revolution. the
greatest lawyer in Virginia, the defend
er of the constitution. the supporter
of Washington and the profound stu
dent of international law-such he had
been when President Adams sent him.
with Charles c. Pinckney and Ell
bridge Gerry, as joint ENJOYS to
France. where their friendly advances
were met with nothing better than
AAlleyTdnQ attempt 10 Dlacklnhli Tnem
and the United States. Yet Marshall
handled this unfortunate situation so
well that his return to this country
was triumph. Upon the removal of
Pickering from the office of secretary
of state, in 1893, Marshall accepted
the post and served with distinction
to the end of John Adams administra-
ton. He was still secretary of state
when he took his place as chief justice
Of the supreme court of the United
States, a position which he held for
30 years, and which he adorned SO
magnificently that in the history of
law his name stands beside those of
Sir Matthew Hale and Lord Mansfield
OF all the men who have been at the
head Of the state department Marshall
and Webster rank highest in purely
intellectual power.
Madison's Career In Cabinet.
James Madison, who was Jefferson's
secretary of state was the possessor
Of one. of the finest lawmaking intel
ects of the time which, in the nations
beginnings, called for talent of that
nature. His experience in legislative
work began early, in his native Vir-
yinia, which at the age Of Is he helped {
70 draft state constitution. His y
craftsmanship soon had broader {
.ield as a delegate to the continental