Last week we covered the ratification of the Constitution by the largest state, Virginia, bringing the total to 10 states. The other really critical state remaining was New York.
New York is Reluctant
The empire state was skeptical of the new constitution before it was even written. Governor George Clinton had dominated New York politics for years. He had served as governor since 1777, when the position was first established. Before that he has served in the New York’s General Assembly, the Continental Congress, and as a general in the Continental Army. He was extremely popular, and was even elected both governor and lieutenant governor in 1777.
 |
| NYC Celebrates Ratification |
When Hamilton introduced a motion to send five delegates to the Constitutional Convention in 1787, Clinton was skeptical. The governor had his supporters in the legislature reduce the number of delegates to three, and sent Hamilton along with two strong ideological opponents of a stronger federal government, State Senator Abraham Yates, Mayor of Albany John Lansing. These two delegates assured that New York would oppose Hamilton’s vision of a much more powerful federal government. Both of these men left the Convention early to inform Clinton about what was happening. Their absence meant that New York could not vote on anything else at the convention since it required at least two votes. Hamilton would be the only NY delegate to sign the Constitution.
Clinton found his base of political power in the small yeoman farmers of New York. These were opposed to the merchants in the city, and the large land owning aristocratic leaders like Phillip Schuyler. Clinton also acted as a moderate. Keeping in mind his political base, he still tried to put forward moderate policies that would benefit everyone. New York had avoided much of the strife and economic difficulties that New England experienced in the post war era. This had allowed him to continue serving as a popular four term governor by 1788.
Doctors Riot
New York still had its issues. In 1786, Clinton had called out the militia to help suppress some spillover from Shays’ Rebellion. In 1788, while in the middle of the debate over ratification, Clinton had to call out the militia again. This time for the doctor’s riot in New York City. The doctor’s riot had nothing to do with the Constitution or national politics, but it is an interesting story, that happened at this time, so I suppose I should give it a quick mention.
There is some question about the story that sparked the riot. While it seems to have some basis in fact, parts of it may have been made up or exaggerated. In any event, I’ll give you the story and you can decide.
In April of 1788, a group of boys were playing near a lab at New York Hospital and saw a medical student dissecting a woman. The boys wondered who the woman was, the student responded in a particularly “New York” way, and told them the body was “your mother”. By coincidence, one of the boys had recently lost his mother. He went home to tell his father. His father then picked up a shovel and dug up his wife’s grave. It was empty. There is no evidence that the body the med student was working on was actually this same person. Medical students had, for years, been digging up fresh graves for dissection. More accurately, they would often pay grave robbers for bringing them fresh bodies, no questions asked.
Typically robbers would take bodies from the Negro Burial Ground, or the potter’s field for poor people, which did not raise much fuss, at least not among people who had the power to do anything about it. But in February, 1788, a newspaper reported that a white woman’s body had been stolen from Trinity Churchyard. So when this event happened in April, New Yorkers were already primed for action.
A mob quickly formed and stormed the hospital, causing doctors and medical students to flee. The mob found three bodies, one boiling in a kettle to remove flesh from the bones, and two others cut up, with parts hanging around the room. The mob destroyed the rooms, and took much of the specimens into the street, where they were burned in a large fire. There was some effort to throw a couple of medical students who had been captured into the fire as well. But the sheriff arrived and removed them to jail for their own protection.
After discussing the matter further that evening, probably in taverns, many memes of the public decided that more action was needed. A mob of hundreds of people surrounded Columbia College. Alexander Hamilton appeared and tried to calm the mob. They pushed him aside and entered the areas where they thought they might find bodies or body parts. The staff had removed them the night before. Still unhappy, the mob, which grew to about 5000, broke into the houses of several doctors, searching for bodies.
They finally ended up at the jail, demanding access to the medical students who had been arrested the day before. The prisoners had to fend off attacks with rocks and bricks. When one of the rioters got inside the jail, the guards killed him, which only angered the rioters even more. Several more prominent leaders tried to quell the violence. John Jay was hit in the head with a rock. The former general Baron von Steuben, was hit with a brick. Hundreds of militia rushed to the jail. Clinton had sent them with strict orders not to fire on the mob. However, when the mob attack the militia, they fired in self defense. At least three rioters and three militiamen were killed in the fight, although some observers put the death count at twenty.
In the following days, many doctors published ads proclaiming that they had never taken a body from anywhere in the city. This, of course ignored the fact that potter’s field and the Negro Burying ground were outside the city limits. Vigilantes formed “Dead Guard Men” armed groups that patrolled the cemeteries night and day to prevent grave robbing. A grand jury investigated the riots, but never resulted in any convictions.
The issue seemed to subside after that, and there is no evidence that this had any impact on the debates over ratification, although the riots took place only a week or two before the elections of delegates to New York’s ratifying convention.
Antifederalist Arguments
Despite the occasional riot, New York was doing pretty well and things were pretty stable, especially when compared to New England. Even so, New York had a divide similar to those in other states. The merchant class, particularly in New York City, favored the new constitution, which they believed would improve trade and establish more economic stability across the continent.
At the same time farmers throughout the state opposed the constitution. One reason New York was doing well was because of the massive revenues from tariffs collected in New York City. This allowed the state to keep other taxes lower, meaning small farmers were not hit as hard with state taxes. The new constitution would give those tariff revenues to the federal government, meaning the state would likely have to increase property taxes, hitting hard on struggling farmers. New York had also confiscated a large amount of land from loyalists. The new constitution was seen as a way for these loyalists to sue for the return of their property, pursuant to the peace treaty of 1783. Patriot farmers who may have obtained this land a decade ago, might find themselves thrown off of their farms.
Governor Clinton’s political base rested with these farmers who opposed the new constitution. He was in no hurry to get behind it. He also did not come out forcefully against it. In the fall of 1787 the state assembly was not in session, and Governor Clinton saw no reason to call a special session to consider the constitution.
The two New York delegates who had opposed Hamilton at the Constitutional Convention, Yates, and Lansing, began writing articles and essays in opposition to the Constitution, arguing that it would destroy New York’s sovereignty. We see many of the arguments made in other states: the Convention in Philadelphia had exceeded its authority, there was no bill of rights, and so on. One very local objection was giving up the revenue from the Port of New York. Opponents also seized on the Senate in particular as being an aristocratic body.
Federalist Papers
Of course, the federalists fought for ratification in the state. Leading that fight was Alexander Hamilton. As early as July of 1787, two months before the convention in Philadelphia even ended, Hamilton had published an anonymous article criticizing the governor’s lack of support for the convention. He argued the governor was more concerned about protecting his own power than the national good.
Beginning in late October, about a month after the Philadelphia Convention had ended, Hamilton published his first essay in favor of ratification and extolling the virtues of the new Constitution.
Hamilton hoped to recruit others to help write a series of articles explaining the benefits of the Constitution and encouraging New Yorkers to support its ratification. The first man he sought for help was fellow New Yorker John Jay.
Hamilton also reached out to William Duer, another New York finance guy. Duer wrote one or two essays. Hamilton, however, did not consider his work up to the task, and removed him from the project. Hamilton also reached out to Gouverneur Morris. Morris had been a Pennsylvania delegate to the Convention, but had lived most of his life in New York, and had recently purchased a new home in the state. Morris, however, was too busy to get involved in the project. Hamilton then turned out of state, to James Madison of Virginia.
Hamilton, Jay, and Madison worked out a plan to divide the essays into their areas of expertise. Jay, who had served as a diplomat in Europe and who had negotiated several treaties, focused on foreign relations. Madison had long studied the history of ancient republics. Many of his essays focused on historical reasons for why the Constitution had certain features. The author of the Virginia plan also focused on the many checks and balances in the new government, and how they would prevent factions that were prevalent in many state governments from being able to take control of federal power. Hamilton focused more on the executive branch, the judiciary, as well as taxation and the military.
It was common practice for both advocates and opponents to publish their essays under pseudonyms, usually drawn from ancient Rome. Antifederalists in New York commonly published under the name Brutus or Cato. Some historians suspect that Governor Clinton himself was Cato. Initially, Hamilton had begun publishing simply as “Citizen of New York”. However, once Madison joined the team from Virginia, that would no longer work. The team chose to publish under the pseudonym “Publius” after Publius Valerius Poplicola. He was one of the leaders of the effort to overthrow the Roman monarchy and helped form the Roman Republic around 500 BC.
Jay only ended up writing only a few essays. He wrote four of the first five, but then fell sick in early December and could not really contribute over the next few critical months. Some authors say that Jay was absent because he was injured in the Doctors Riot. In truth, Jay had a flare up of rheumatism that prevented more activity. He did write one more essay toward the end of the series.
Hamilton wrote the majority of the papers, with 51 credited to his pen, and 29 to Madison. Another 16 essays are in dispute, with many scholars arguing they were jointly written by both Madison and Hamilton. Since all were published anonymously, there is no clear record on the point. They were published first as individual essays in New York papers.
A first volume of essays was published in March of 1788 containing the first 36. A second volume at the end of May included the later essays, 37-77, with essays 78-85 published for the first time in that volume. These were influential in explaining the benefits of the new Constitution and have been used by Constitutional scholars ever since, but it’s not clear how much of an impact they had on New York voters.
Ratifying Convention
Governor Clinton did not call for a special session in the fall of 1787. Instead, he waited until the regular opening of the new session in January of 1788. He sent the legislature, not only the constitution, but the letters he had received from Yates and Lansing explaining why they had left the convention early and including all of their criticisms. Clinton did not say anything for or against the Constitution at that time, but simply handed it to the legislature.
For several weeks, advocates were concerned that the legislature might not even call a convention at all. There were several close votes on how to characterize the convention. But in the end, the legislators agreed overwhelmingly that this was a decision for the people and that it would be an abuse of their power not to call a convention at all. They voted in February to hold elections two months later, in late April and early May. This was the same time that legislative elections were held. They also opened the elections to all adult free white males, eliminating the property requirement that existed for electing legislators. The convention would take place in Poughkeepsie beginning on June 17.
New York had two pretty well-organized political parties, even if they did not really have names. They centered around politicians, with one faction backing Governor Clinton, and the other centered around Schuyler and Hamilton. Those in favor were called federalists. Those opposed sometimes called themselves antifederalists, but also went by the name republicans.
There were twelve newspapers in New York state, all of which were run by federalists. Only one newspaper printed a substantial number of anti-federalist articles. The anti-federalists published their own pamphlets which they distributed statewide.
Because of the highly partisan nature of the debate, when the delegate votes were released in late may, there were 46 antifederalist delegates and only 19 federalists. All of the federalist delegates came from New York City and the surrounding counties. The rest of the state voted overwhelmingly anti-federalist.
The federalists then put their hopes in the fact that other states were likely to bring the Constitution into effect without New York. That would mean the question would turn from keeping the Confederation or the new federal government to New York could choose to join the new union or not. The confederation would be dead.
The federalists hoped to draw out convention debate in order to buy time for news from other states to arrive. This seemed to work.
When the Convention began, there were still only eight states which had ratified. On June 24, the Convention learned that New Hampshire became the 9th state to ratify, thus bringing the Constitution into effect. A week later, on July 2, delegates learned of Virginia’s ratification.
Albany Riot
News of Virginia’s ratification just before Independence Day had varied reactions. The Anti-federalists saw the new Constitution as a threat to their liberty and independence. On July 4, a group of anti-federalists in Albany held a public burning of the Constitution. In response, the federalists held a parade celebrating the Constitution that evening.
The Anti-federalists formed a mob, armed with clubs stones, and bayonets, to stop the parade. These were not just local thugs. Yates and Lansing were among those in the anti-federalist mob. Both sides had been drinking heavily. The federalists outnumbered the anti-federalists who retreated into a nearby house. The federalists then besieged the house for some time before the defenders surrendered and were arrested.
The riots resulted in about 18 seriously injured and one man killed by a bayonet. Despite the violence, work at the convention continued.
Ratification
Word of Virginia’s ratification began to divide the anti-federalist majority at the Convention. As we saw in Virginia, the debate at the convention turned from yes or no to the Constitution to one of either voting for ratification, or voting for an alternative with lots of amendments to make the new government more acceptable. New York did not want to be outside the Union, especially with a hostile British Army on its northern border in Quebec. New Yorkers recognized the continued need for participation in the Union.
There was also the issue of whether New York would remain the seat for the new federal government. Obviously if New York refused to join, Congress would move to another state.
The Convention came up with a whole range of amendments to the Constitution. They also voted to send a circular letter to the other states calling for a second convention to consider amendments. Like other states we’ve discussed, New York wanted a bill of rights, as well as a whole range of other more substantive changes.
Then the debate turned to whether ratification would be unconditional or conditional on these amendments. Lansing proposed a vote on conditional ratification. Federalists argued that without an unconditional ratification, New York would have no say in writing any amendments since it would not join the Union until after they were passed. It would be much better to have New York participate in the amendment process as part of the Union. Federalists also raised the argument that if the convention refused to ratify, that New York City and its surrounding counties might secede from the state of New York and join the United States on their own.
One July 23, the delegates broke the fighting when several anti-federalists agreed to change their proposal to vote for ratification “on express condition” of the adoption of amendments to “in full confidence” that the amendments would be adopted. This made the vote for ratification unconditional and allowed New York to join the new government. On July 23, the convention voted 31 to 29 in favor of the new wording, despite the opposition of Governor Clinton and other anti-federalist leaders like Yates and Lansing. Three days later, the delegates voted 30 to 27 to finalize ratification.
New York would become the 11th state to join the union.
Next week, the Confederation Congress begins the process of establishing the new federal government.
Next Episode 357 First Elections
Previous Episode 355 Virginia Ratification
 |
| Click here to donate |
 |
| Click here to see my Patreon Page |
An alternative to Patreon is SubscribeStar. For anyone who has problems with Patreon, you can get the same benefits by subscribing at SubscribeStar.
| Help Support this podcast on "BuyMeACoffee.com" |
Signup for the AmRev Podcast Mail List
Further Reading
Websites
Lovejoy, Bess “The Gory New York City Riot that Shaped American Medicine” Smithsonian Magazine, June 17, 2014: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/gory-new-york-city-riot-shaped-american-medicine-180951766
Anatomy of a Riot, 1788: https://www.sciencehistory.org/stories/magazine/the-anatomy-riot-of-1788
New York & Ratification of the Federal Constitution https://history.nycourts.gov/about_period/federal-constitution
Brawl between Federalists and anti-Federalists, July 4, 1788 https://www.gilderlehrman.org/sites/default/files/00259_SPS.pdf
Violence and the Ratification of the U.S. Constitution in New York City https://www.gothamcenter.org/blog/violence-and-the-ratification-of-the-us-constitution-in-new-york-city
Ratification Riots: https://csac.history.wisc.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/281/2020/11/Violence-in-the-Ratification-Debate_Essay.pdf
New York Ratifies the Constitution, 26 July 1788 https://archive.csac.history.wisc.edu/ny_ratifies_the_constitution.pdf
VIDEO: The Struggle for Ratification: New York’s Role in Shaping the U.S. Constitution https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOTfjhwcz6o
Free eBooks
(from archive.org unless noted)
Documentary History of the Constitution of the United States of America, Vol 2, Washington: Dept. of State, 1894.
This Constitution: From Ratification to the Bill of Rights, Washington, DC: Congressional Quarterly, Inc. 1988 (borrow only).
New York Circular letter, 1788.
Brant, Irving James Madison: Father of the Constitution, 1787-1800. Bobbs-Merrill Co. 1950 (borrow only).
Ford, Paul L. Pamphlets on the Constitution of the United States, Brooklyn, NY: 1888.
Headly, J.T. The Great Riots of New York, 1712 to 1873, New York: E.B. Treat, 1873.
Kaminski, John, et. al (eds) The Documentary History of the Ratification of the Constitution: Virginia (Vol 18-23) 2003-2009.
Jay, John Address to the people of the state of New-York on the subject of the Constitution, New York: Samuel Loudon, 1788.
Madison, James, Alexander Hamilton & John Jay The Federalist, New York: Random House Modern Library, 1937.
Rutland, Robert A. The Ordeal of the Constitution: The Antifederalists and the Ratification Struggle of 1787-1788, Northeastern University Press, 1983 (borrow only).
Books Worth Buying
(links to Amazon.com unless otherwise noted)*
Bailyn, Bernard (ed) The Debate on the Constitution : Federalist and Antifederalist Speeches, Articles, and Letters During the Struggle Over Ratification, Part One, Library of America, 1984 (borrow on archive.org).
Bradford, M.E. Original Intentions: on the Making and Ratification of the United States Constitution, Univ. of GA Press, 1993 (borrow on archive.org).
Conley, Patrick T & John P. Kaminski The Constitution and the States: The Role of the Original Thirteen in the Framing and Adoption of the Federal Constitution, Madison House, 1988 (borrow on archive.org).
De Pauw, Linda Grant The Eleventh Pillar: New York State and the Federal Constitution, Cornell Univ. Press, 1966 (borrow on archive.org).
Faber, Michael J. An Anti-Federalist Constitution: The Development of Dissent in the Ratification Debates, Univ. Press of Kansas, 2019.
Kaminski, John P George Clinton: Yeoman Politician of the New Republic, Madison House, 1993 (borrow on archive.org)
Maier, Pauline Ratification: The People Debate the Constitution, 1787-1788. Simon & Schuster, 2010.
Morris, Richard B. Witnesses at the Creation: Hamilton, Madison, Jay and the Constitution, Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1985.
Rossiter, Clinton Alexander Hamilton and the Constitution, Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc. 1964 (borrow on archive.org).
Smith, Craig R To Form a More Perfect Union: The Ratification of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, 1787-1791, University Press of America, 1993 (borrow on archive.org)
Storing, Herbert J. What the Anti-Federalists Were For: The Political Thought of the Opponents of the Constitution, Univ of Chicago Press, 1981.
Van Doren, Carl The Great Rehearsal: The story of the making and ratifying of the Constitution of the United States, Viking Press, 1948. (borrow on archive.org)
