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[Eugene Volokh, January 6, 2009 at 2:36pm] Trackbacks
Late 1700s Chalk Graffiti:

John Jay -- coauthor of The Federalist and the first Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court -- was widely reviled by many in the U.S. for the treaty he negotiated with England. Here's one response, reported by George Pellew, John Jay 282 (1898), quoting John Jay, Second Letter on Dawson's Federalist 19 (1864):

James Savage, once president of the Massachusetts Historical Society, told his grandson that he remembered seeing these words chalked in large white letters around the inclosure of Mr. Robert Treat Paine [a signer of the Declaration of Independence, Massachusetts state supreme court justice, and apparently a "staunch Federalist]"]:

Damn John Jay! Damn every one that won't damn John Jay!! Damn every one that won't put lights in his windows and sit up all night damning John Jay!!!

Reminds me of delinking.

cd (mail):
This reminds me of the old urban legend about how there is no J Street in Washington, D.C., because L'Enfant had some sort of beef with John Jay and hid a little snub in the street grid.

The obvious reason that there is no J street is that I and J looked too similar in 18th century type, but Occam's razor can't always be sharp.
1.6.2009 2:40pm
Steve:
I believe this is what the Founders would have called JDS.
1.6.2009 3:01pm
Eugene Volokh (www):
Steve: Very funny!
1.6.2009 3:19pm
Bruce:
Catchy. I especially like that last bit. But a little long.
1.6.2009 3:20pm
Oren:
I prefer the quip about being able to travel from Boston to Richmond by the light of his own effigies.
1.6.2009 4:06pm
MarkField (mail):
I thought that was Stephen Douglas, who said it about traveling from Washington to Chicago.
1.6.2009 4:32pm
PersonFromPorlock:
A good curse, right up there with Judge Melville B. Gerry's legendary (and, unfortunately, mythical) sentencing of Alfred Packer for cannibalism:

"You voracious man-eating son of a bitch, there was seven Democrats in Hinsdale County and you ate five of them. God damn you! I sentence you to be hanged by the neck until you are dead, Dead, DEAD, as a warning against reducing the Democratic population of Hinsdale County. Packer, you Republican cannibal, I would sentence you to Hell but the statutes forbid it."
1.6.2009 4:35pm
Eugene Volokh (www):
MarkField: The sentiment is attributed both to John Jay and Stephen Douglas. Quite possibly both said it, and Douglas borrowed it from Jay.
1.6.2009 4:42pm
MarkField (mail):
I suspect there are many who could have used it since.
1.6.2009 6:21pm
Oren:
Burning effigies is so out of style.
1.6.2009 6:48pm
Lawnchair Reactionary:
Ha! I remember this from my 5th or 6th grade history book.
1.7.2009 6:38am
JB:
So what did John Jay do to make so many enemies?
1.8.2009 1:36pm
Sara:
On thing Jay Jay did was negotiate the "Jay Treaty" with Great Britain in 1795, which is viewed as a pretty good deal today but was unpopular in its time. The Treaty sought to rap up issues left form the Treaty of Paris which ended the revolution and was popularly viewed, at the time, as a capitultion to the British laviathan. With hindsight, historians generally see the Treaty as picking the right historical horse in the struggles between Great Britain and France.
1.9.2009 8:45pm

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