Melancton

In 1788, when contenders referred, like Lansing, to protecting rights, they included, often at the top of their lists, the right to be taxed only with the consent of representatives who, as Melancton Smith explained and Hamilton came close to conceding, knew the circumstances of the people and their capacities to pay.

Ratification Pauline Maier 2010

Pierce estimated that Lansing was “about thirty-two years of age,” which was a couple of years off: He was born in 1754, ten years after Melancton Smith, with whom he worked closely in the opening stages of the Poughkeepsie convention.

Ratification Pauline Maier 2010

The political careers of both Gilbert Livingston and Melancton Smith peaked at the New York ratifying convention.

Ratification Pauline Maier 2010

Address to the People of the State of New-York, by “A Plebeian” Melancton Smith?

Ratification Pauline Maier 2010

Melancton Smith also criticized Article VII, which said ratification of the Constitution by nine states would be sufficient to establish the Constitution for the states “so ratifying the same.”

Ratification Pauline Maier 2010

The probable author of the “Plebeian” pamphlet, Melancton Smith, would be a leader of the Antifederal/Republican convention delegates.

Ratification Pauline Maier 2010

See also the amendments Melancton Smith wrote, which were more elaborate than those actually introduced, at 2097–98.

Ratification Pauline Maier 2010

Smith, Melancton: and Confederation Congress-New York relations, 324–25

Ratification Pauline Maier 2010

Some of its members, including John Lamb and Melancton Smith, tried to reorganize the group in the fall of 1788 “for the purpose of procuring a general convention to revise the Constitution,” but attendance at its meetings declined and by the end of the year the organization disappeared.

Ratification Pauline Maier 2010

Melancton Smith, the lawyer, merchant, congressman, and pamphleteer who represented Dutchess County, and the Albany lawyer John Lansing, Jr., one of the two New York delegates who had left the federal Convention early, were the lead speakers for the majority.

Ratification Pauline Maier 2010