1. DEBATE OVER CONSTITUTION

1. Typescript, Law Library, DLC. Another transcription of this letter is in the Bodley
Book Shop Catalogue No. 18, General Literature . . . (New York, c. 1941), Kent Family
Papers, Columbia University Libraries, Rare Book and Manuscript Library. The typescript,
which is transcribed literally, seems to be defective in several cases. The Bodley transcrip-
tion, while also defective in a few instances and modernized, seems to be a more accurate
transcription of the words. Whenever the Bodley transcription seems to be more accurate,
we have inserted it here within angle brackets, with a footnote to describe the transcrip-
tion in the typescript.
2. Antifederalist Gilbert Livingston was Kent's law partner.
3. Captain North was master of a Hudson River sloop.
4. In the typescript this phrase is: "along & several letters."
5. In the typescript this word is "expressly."
6. In the typescript this phrase is "fire our friendly our affectionate."
7. In the typescript this word is "case."
8. In the typescript this word is "Lawyer."
Constitutional Convention Delegates Robert Yates and John Lansing
to Governor George Clinton, Albany, 21 December 1787
Robert Yates and John Lansing, Jr., along with Alexander Hamilton, were
New York's delegates to the Constitutional Convention which was called to
revise the Articles of Confederation. The New York legislature had appointed
the state's delegates on 6 March 1787, instructing them to meet in May "for
the sole and express purpose of revising the Articles of Confederation, and
reporting to Congress and the several legislatures such alterations and provi-
sions therein, as shall, when agreed to in Congress and confirmed by the sev-
eral states, render the federal constitution adequate to the exigencies of gov-
ernment and the preservation of the Union" (Appendix II, below). The
language of this resolution was borrowed from the congressional resolution of
21 February 1787 calling for the Convention (CDR, 187; CC:1).
In the Constitutional Convention, Yates and Lansing opposed the Virginia
Resolutions which called for a total abandonment of the Articles and the es-
tablishment of a strong central government. Instead, Yates and Lansing favored
a revision of the Articles of Confederation, as exemplified by the New Jersey
Amendments to the Articles (CDR, 250-53). On 19 June the Convention re-
jected the New Jersey Amendments and approved the Amended Virginia Res-
olutions (CDR, 247-50), thereby committing itself to the creation of a strong
central government. Increasingly disenchanted, Yates and Lansing left the Con-
vention on 10 July, more than two months before the Convention adjourned.
They never returned. (Alexander Hamilton had already left the Convention.
He returned and attended from time to time, eventually signing the Consti-
tution for New York on 17 September. See "Introduction," above.)
Various reasons were given for Yates and Lansing's early departure and their
refusal to return. Virginia Convention delegate George Mason noted that they
left because "the season for courts came on" (Farrand, III, 367). The New
York Supreme Court met in Albany from 31 July until 8 August and the circuit
courts through the end of September. Yates was a Supreme Court justice, while
Lansing practiced before it. On 26 August Abraham G. Lansing, John Lansing's
brother, reported that both men attended the circuit court in Montgomery

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