Concerning the legal arguments of William Jay
Genius of Temperance, Philanthropist and People’s Advocate 1833-10-16, v. 4, n.15
Unionist content
Transcription
The Unionist contains a letter of Rev. S.J. May, enclosing a communication from Hon. Wm. Jay, of Bedford forwarding some documents, which, had they arrived sooner, would have been presented at the trial of Miss Crandall.—The decision of Judge Daggett, it will be borne in mind, was made on the ground that free colored persons are not citizens. In opposition to this doctrine, Judge Jay quotes, from the Reports of proceedings and debates of the Convention of 1821, for amending the Constitution of N. York, extracts of Speeches of Peter A. Jay, R. Clark Chancellor Kent, and Rufus King, in which the contrary doctrine is maintained.—A letter of Dewitt Clinton, Governor of N. York, to President Adams, in 1826, is also given, in which the Governor demands of the President, the release of Gilbert Horton, a colored citizen of this State, unlawfully imprisoned in the District of Columbia.
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William Goodell confirms that Jay's legal opinions could have made a difference at the second trial.
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See Full Metadata Hide Full MetadataCrayon drawing of William Jay
Above: William Jay (1789-1858) was a noted legal thinker, the son of the first Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court, John Jay. His letter to Samuel J. May concerning the constitutional questions of Black citizenship presaged his important 1835 treatise, An Inquiry into the Character and Tendency of the American Colonization and American Anti-Slavery Societies