Jay’s Pragmatic Gubernatorial Campaign (1792)

During the 1792 campaign for governor of New York, Republican supporters of Federalist candidate John Jay’s opponent, sitting Governor George Clinton, charged that Jay was a vigorous opponent of slavery who favored immediate emancipation and preferential treatment for the emancipated blacks. Warned by his friends that such statements would injure his candidacy, Jay wrote a widely publicized letter to John Dongan, emphasizing that he had resigned from the NYMS in 1789, unlike Clinton, who remained a member. He also stressed that he favored gradual not immediate emancipation, with compensation to slaveholders. At the same time, Jay strongly supported the African Free School, founded in 1787, which the NYMS subsidized. It offered a free basic education to enslaved and free blacks.