John Jay (June 23, 1817 – May 5, 1894) was an American lawyer and diplomat to Austria-Hungary, serving from 1869 to 1875. He was the son of William Jay and a grandson of John Jay, a former Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court. Jay was active in the anti-slavery movement, elected president of the New York Young Men's Antislavery Society while still in college. He published several speeches and pamphlets on slavery and history, and was elected in 1889 as president of the American Historical Association. Jay defended numerous fugitive slaves in court and helped several gain freedom. In 1852, Jay led a team of attorneys in New York City in Lemmon v. New York, gaining the freedom of eight Virginia slaves brought to New York by their owners in transit to Texas. The ruling survived appeals through the state courts. In 1854, Jay was among the founders of the Republican Party in the United States. In 1883, he was appointed as the Republican member of the New York Civil Service Commission, founded to reduce patronage and corruption in government, and later was selected as its president. Early life John Jay was born in 1817 in New York City to William Jay, an attorney later appointed as judge in Westchester County, and his wife Augusta McVickar Jay. The young Jay was prepared at Dr. William A. Muhlenberg's highly respected Institute at Flushing, Long Island (Class of 1832). Muhlenberg's pupils often entered higher education as third-year students then distinguished themselves further. Jay completed his degree at Columbia College in 1836, and was admitted to the bar three years later after reading the law. Career He early became intensely interested in the anti-slavery movement, much like his father and namesake grandfather. In 1834, while Jay was still attending college, he became president of the New York Young Men's Antislavery Society. Jay was also active in the Free Soil Party movement, presided at several of its conventions, and was once its candidate for Attorney General of New York. As an attorney in private practice in New York City, Jay represented a number of fugitive slaves in freedom suits, including George Kirk, three Brazilians, and Henry Long. He gained the freedom of Kirk and the Brazilians (who were aided in escaping by the Underground Railroad before a judge decided in their favor), but Long was returned to Virginia and slavery in 1851.