On April 30, 2018 John Jay revisited Federal Hall with Reenactor Phil Webster. This was the 229th Anniversary of George Washington's First Inauguration. John Jay at that time was the first Secretary of State. Thomas Jefferson did not get back to the United States until March 1790. Jay had served as Secretary of Foreign Affairs under the Confederation Congress and stayed until Jefferson came back from France. During that time Jay and his office wrote 100 reports and 500 letters concerning matters of other countries. He did his work from Fraunces Tavern on Pearl Street in New York City (Lower Manhattan). Please go and tell Fraunces Tavern that you appreciate Mr. Jay's work.
John Jay was at Federal Hall for the Inauguration on April 30, 1789
John Jay explained his life from 1774 to 1789 as a New Yorker at Federal Hall. John met Sally Livingston at a dance at Fraunces Tavern in December 1772 and they got married the same week as the New York Tea Party. Many people think of the Founding Fathers as always being old (that is because they did not have photography and it was quite costly to have your portrait painted. Most of the Founders had the money to spend on portraits when they were older). John was 28 and Sally was 17 when they got married (with the permission of Mr. and Mrs. William Livingston of Elizabethtown, New Jersey.
It is quite Providential that there was a young man who came from a Caribbean island called St. Croix that boarded with the Livingston family at the same time John Jay was courting Sally Livingston. His name is Alexander Hamilton. As John and Sally got married, Alexander was essentially a part of the family and very probably attended their wedding.
If you would like to see the video of John Jay describing the struggle of New York during the American Revolution up until it was the nation's capital and how the movement for the Constitution started in New York with Hamilton, Madison and John Jay when JOhn and Sally had Alexander and James over for dinner in October 1787.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQ9PNGabBbs
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