III. DEBATE OVER CONSTITUTION

and Lansing were all members of the Albany Anti-Federal Committee, with Van Rensse-
laer also acting as chairman of that body.
5. On 3 July the Albany Gazette, owned by Charles R. Webster, printed a brief item
informing the public "It was last evening reported" that the Virginia Convention had
adopted the Constitution by six votes. On 7 July the Albany Journal, owned by Charles R.
Webster and George Webster, said that the news of Virginia's ratification of the Consti-
tution reached Albany at 4:30 P.M., on Thursday, 3 July. A copy of the Virginia Form of
Ratification undoubtedly accompanied that news. On 2 July printers in New York City
and Poughkeepsie had already struck off broadsides that included the Virginia Form.
(For the New York City and Poughkeepsie broadsides, see Evans 21559 and 45393 and
Mfm:Va. 286, 284.) Soon after receiving the Form of Ratification, it is possible that the
Webster brothers also struck off a handbill or broadside that contained the Virginia Form
of Ratification. They published this Form in the Albany Journal on 7 July in a double-
column format that suggested that they might have run off a broadside first.
6. Abraham Ten Broeck was first judge of the Albany County Court of Common Pleas
from 1781 to 1794.
7. New York Convention delegate Alexander Hamilton wrote James Madison on 8 July
that "We are informed, There has been a disturbance in the City of Albany on the 4th
of July which has occasioned bloodshed-The antifederalists were the aggressors & the
Federalists the Victors. Thus stand our accounts at present. We trust however the matter
has passed over & tranquillity been restored" (VI, below).
New York Daily Advertiser, 10 July 17881
Extract of a letter from Poughkeepsie, dated July 8.
"On Friday last the 4th inst. a very disagreeable fracas happened in
the city of Albany; all the particulars of which, as far as they have come
to my knowledge are:-That the Federalists having received the news
of the adoption of Virginia, last Thursday evening, proposed having a
procession the next day; but on the remonstrance of many of the An-
tifederalists that it would be disagreeable to them, they gave up the
idea. When the next day came, July 4, it was mortifying to the Feder-
alists to observe a party of about 50 Antifederalists marching in pro-
cession to a vacant lot in the skirts of the town,2 where, after firing
thirteen guns, they burnt the Constitution. The Federalists who were
then collected, determined immediately to have a procession; and hav-
ing arranged themselves, began a march through the principal streets
of the city; they met with no interruption till they came to a narrow
street in which a Mr. Dennison lives (I believe Green-street), when they
were ordered not to proceed, by a large party who had collected there
to oppose them; after a few words, a general battle took place, with
swords, bayonets, clubs, stones, &c. which lasted for some time, both
parties fighting with the greatest rage, and determined obstinacy, till at
length the Antifederalists being overpowered by numbers, gave way and
retreated, many into the house of a Mr. Hilton, where they made a

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