The founders of our country understood that a fresh start under federal law is so essential to the fiscal health and economic vitality of our country; they included the right to file bankruptcy in Article 1, Section 8 of the United States Constitution.

John Jay John Jay (December 12, 1745 - May 17, 1829) was an American politician, statesman, revolutionary, diplomat, a Founding Father of the United States, President of the Continental Congress from 1778 to 1779 and, from 1789 to 1795, the first Chief Justice of the United States. During and after the American Revolution, he was a minister (ambassador) to Spain and France, helping to fashion United States foreign policy and to secure favorable peace terms from the British (the Jay Treaty) and French. Jay was Anglican, a denomination renamed the Protestant Episcopal Church in America after the American Revolution. Since 1785 Jay had been a warden of Trinity Church, New York. He co-wrote the Federalist Papers with Alexander Hamilton and James Madison.

Having established a reputation as a "reasonable moderate" in New York, Jay was elected to serve as delegate to the First and Second Continental Congresses which debated whether the colonies should declare independence. He attempted to reconcile the colonies with Britain, up until the Declaration of Independence. Jay's views became more radical as events unfolded; he became an ardent separatist and attempted to move New York towards that cause. Jay served as President of the Continental Congress from December 10, 1778, to September 28, 1779. The Continental Congress turned to John Jay, an adversary of the previous president Henry Laurens, only three days after Jay became a delegate and elected him President of the Continental Congress.

As leader of the new Federalist Party, Jay was Governor of New York from 1795 to 1801 and became the state's leading opponent of slavery. His first two attempts to pass emancipation legislation failed in 1777 and 1785, but the third succeeded in 1799. The new law he signed into existence eventually saw the emancipation of all New York slaves before his death.

Jay did not attend the Constitutional Convention but joined Hamilton and Madison in aggressively arguing in favor of the creation of a new and more powerful, centralized but balanced system of government. Writing under the shared pseudonym of "Publius," they articulated this vision in the Federalist Papers, a series of eighty-five articles written to persuade the citizenry to ratify the proposed Constitution of the United States. Jay wrote the second, third, fourth, fifth and sixty-fourth articles. All except the sixty-fourth concerned the "Dangers from Foreign Force and Influence."

This article was derived fully or in part from an article on Wikipedia.org - the free encyclopedia created and edited by online user community. The text was not checked or edited by anyone on our staff. Although the vast majority of the Wikipedia encyclopedia articles provide accurate and timely information please do not assume the accuracy of any particular article. This article is distributed under the terms of GNU Free Documentation License.

Contact us today to learn more about your options under the current bankruptcy laws. We're here to help. Have questions on filing for bankruptcy and need a Dallas bankruptcy attorney or a Fort Worth bankruptcy attorney? The Patrick D. West Law Firm, P.C. has been providing bankruptcy and debt solution legal counsel for over 20 years. The law office serves bankruptcy clients in these DFW area cities in both Dallas & Tarrant Counties: Dallas, Fort Worth, Arlington, Irving, Grapevine, Grand Prairie, Euless, Bedford, Hurst, Haltom City, Burleson, Colleyville, Mansfield, Keller, Saginaw, West Lake, Richland Hills, Coppell, Lewisville, and more