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Slavery
In ''[[Hayburn's Case]]'', the Jay Court ruled that courts could not comply with a federal statute that required the courts to decide whether individual petitioning [[American Revolution]] veterans qualified for pensions. The Jay Court ruled that determining whether petitioners qualified was an "act ... not of a judicial nature".<ref name="hayburnopinion">{{cite web|work=Justia and Oyez|language=English|title=HAYBURN'S CASE, 2 U. S. 409 (1792)|url=http://supreme.justia.com/us/2/409/case.html|accessdate=2008-08-22}}</ref> and that because the statute allowed the [[United States Congress|legislature]] and the [[Executive Branch]] to revise the courts ruling, the statute violated the [[separation of powers]] as dictated by the [[United States Constitution]].<ref name="hayburnopinion"/><ref>{{cite web|author=Robert J Pushaw Jr|work=Georgetown Law Journal|publisher=Bnet|language=English|url=Georgetown Law Journal|title=Why the Supreme Court never gets any "Dear John" letters: Advisory opinions in historical perspective|accessdate=2008-08-22}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|work=Novelguide.com|url=http://www.novelguide.com/a/discover/dah_04/dah_04_01862.html|title=HAYBURN'S CASE|language=English|accessdate=2008-08-22}}</ref>
In ''[[Hayburn's Case]]'', the Jay Court ruled that courts could not comply with a federal statute that required the courts to decide whether individual petitioning [[American Revolution]] veterans qualified for pensions. The Jay Court ruled that determining whether petitioners qualified was an "act ... not of a judicial nature".<ref name="hayburnopinion">{{cite web|work=Justia and Oyez|language=English|title=HAYBURN'S CASE, 2 U. S. 409 (1792)|url=http://supreme.justia.com/us/2/409/case.html|accessdate=2008-08-22}}</ref> and that because the statute allowed the [[United States Congress|legislature]] and the [[Executive Branch]] to revise the courts ruling, the statute violated the [[separation of powers]] as dictated by the [[United States Constitution]].<ref name="hayburnopinion"/><ref>{{cite web|author=Robert J Pushaw Jr|work=Georgetown Law Journal|publisher=Bnet|language=English|url=Georgetown Law Journal|title=Why the Supreme Court never gets any "Dear John" letters: Advisory opinions in historical perspective|accessdate=2008-08-22}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|work=Novelguide.com|url=http://www.novelguide.com/a/discover/dah_04/dah_04_01862.html|title=HAYBURN'S CASE|language=English|accessdate=2008-08-22}}</ref>
==Slavery==
John Jay was a slave owner, like many other prominent figures in his day. However, Jay realized the evils of the practice and treated many of his african slaves in the same manner as white slaves (or indentured servants) were treated: once their debt was paid, which usually consisted primarily of costs associated with the trip overseas, Jay would set the slaves free.
Jay noted that early on, the culture of society was unquestioning in regards to slavery. He wrote:
<blockquote>Prior to the great revolution, the great majority or rather the great body of our people had been so long accustomed to the practice and convenience of having slaves, that very few among them even doubted the propriety and rectitude of it.<ref>[http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/documents/v1ch15s39.html John Jay to the President of the [English] Society for Promoting the Manumission of Slaves]</ref></blockquote>
It was not until after America had gained her freedom from the bondage of the British Monarch that freedom for slaves could be considered. Jay continued:
<blockquote>We have good reason to hope and to believe that if the natural operations of truth are constantly watched and assisted, but not forced and precipitated, that end we all aim at will finally be attained in this country.
<p>The Convention which formed and recommended the new Constitution had an arduous task to perform, especially as local interests, and in some measure local prejudices, were to be accommodated. Several of the States conceived that restraints on slavery might be too rapid to consist with their particular circumstances; and the importance of union rendered it necessary that their wishes on that head should, in some degree, be gratified.</blockquote>
Not only did Independence make abolitionism possible(Since the King was one of the primary supporters of it), but the Constitution additionally made the task even easier by not acknowledging it. Unfortunately, the makers of the Constitution, fearful of continued aggression from the King, had to focus on the unity of the colonies over all else.
==Death and legacy==
==Death and legacy==