ED 345 999 SO 022 150 AUTHOR Schechter, Stephen L., Ed. TITLE The Reluctant Pillars New York and the Adoption of the Federal Constitution. INSTITUTION Russell Sage Coll., Troy, NY. SPONS AGENCY National Endowment for the Humanities (NFAH). Washington, D.C. REPORT NO ISBN-0-930309-00-6 PUB DATE 85 NOTE 272p. AVAILABLE FROMCouncil for Citizenship Education, Russell Sage College, Troy, NY 12180 ($8). PUB TYPE Books (010) -- Collected Works - General (020) EDRS PRICE MF01 Plus Postage. PC Not Available from EDRS. DESCRIPTORS *Constitutional History; *Constitutional Law; Educational Resources; Political Science; Politics; *State History; United States History IDENTIFIERS *New York; *United States Constitution ABSTRACT This collection of essays is intended for both the general reader and the specialist and is designed to provide the basic elements needed for an introductory survey and a reference aid to the role of New York State in the adoption of the federal Constitution. The collection is organized into five sections: theory, history, materials, people and places, and chronologies. The essays includes "The U.S. Constitution and the American Tradition of Constitution-Naking" (Daniel J. Elazar); "The Ends of Federalism" (Martin Diamond). "The Constitution of the United States: The End of the Revolution" (Richard Leffler); "New York: The Reluctant Pillar" (John P. Kaminski); "A Guide to Sources for Studying the Ratification of the Constitution by New York State" (Gaspare J. Saladino); "Fiction--Another Source" (Jack VanDerhoof); "A Biographical Gazetteer of New York Federalists and Antifederalists" (Stephen L. Schechter); "A Preliminary Inventory of the Homes of New York Federalists and Antifederaliste (Stephen L. Schechter); and "A Guide to Historic Sites of the Ratification Debate in New 'fork" (Stephen L. Schechter). The volume concludes with two chronologies, entitled respectively: "A Chronology of Constitutional Events during the American Revolutionary Era, 1774-1792"; and "A Chronology of New York Events, 1777-1788." (DB) *********************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. *********************************************************************** **PERMISSION TO REPRODUCETHIS ONSIRRTNINT OP MOM= MATERIAL IN MICROFICHEONLY OMNI 1:4 Educational Nonalet and Imenwenwolt HAS BEEN GRANTEDBY EDUCATKINAS. Rgsffit.ffitcos INFORVAVON CENTER (ERIC) doctiment two been reproduged as ej-tS41 YI:Peved boo the person at amazon:* anoinsbne ft c tvri. Maw cnongeor hem beim made to "Wore roproductio quaNy TO THE EDUCATIONALRESOURCES Points& wawa *Demons NOW In ohm ace- (ERIC)." mom clo oat necussity Mammal ofTmIN INFORMATION CENTER CIERT median or policy COPY AY 2 New York State, 1788 Courten of the University of North Carolina Press and KTO THE RELUCTANT PILLAR New York and the Adoptionof the Federal Constitution ,Im STEPHEN L. SCHECHTER Editor Russell Sage College Troy, New York 4 11 The Reluctant Pillar: NMI York and the Adoptionof the Federal Constitution This publication was madepossible, in part, by grants from the National Endowmentfor the Humanities and the Center for the Studyof Federalism, Russell Sage College, Troy, NY12180 Copyright 49 1985 by RussellSage College All rights reserved. Publishedin 1985 Printed in the United Statesof America Map of New York State,1788, adapted from Boyd,Stephen R., the Constitution. The Politics of Opposition:Antifederalists and the Acceptance of Millwood, New York: KTO Press,1979. Reproduced with permission ofthe publisher. and courtesy University ofNorth Carolina Press. Library of Congress Catalogingin Publication Data Main entry under title: The reluctant pillar. Includes index. 1. New York (State)Politicsand government 1775-1865 Addresses, essays. lectures. 2.United StatesConstitutionalhistory Addresses, essays, lectures. I. Schechter, Stephen L.,1945- JK161.N7R45 1985 974.1'03 84-22266 ISBN 0-950309-00-6 Contents Editor's Introduction vii THEORY The U.S. Constitutionand the American Tradition 3 of Constitution-Making by Daniel I Elazar The Ends of Federalism 16 by Martin Diamond HISTORY The Constitution of theUnited States: 24 The End of the Revolution by Richard Leffler 48 New York: The ReluctantPillar by John P. Kaminski MATERIALS A Guide to Sources forStudying the Ratification 118 of the Constitution by NewYork State by Gaspare J. Saladino FictionAnother Source 148 fry Jack VanDerhoof i) PEOPLE AND PLACES A Biographical Gazetteer of New York Federalists 157 and Antifederalists by Stephen L. Schechter A Preliminary Inventory of the Homes of 207 New York Federalists and Antifederalists by Stephen L. Schechter A Guide to Historic Sites of the Ratification Debate 216 in New York by Stephen L. Schechter CHRONOLOGIES A Chronology of Constitutional Events during the 232 American Revolutionary Era, 1774-1792 A Chronology of New York Events, 240 1777-1788 Index 245 Contributors 257 Map: New York in 1788 Frontispiece Introduction New York wasthe eleventh state to ratify the federalConstitution; hardly a memorabledistinaion bring the new Con- in a process thatrequired only nine states to stitution into effect. Whatdistinguishes the role of NewYork in ratified but the debate over theConstitution is not when the state why it waited so long. The most straightforwardexplanation of New York's re- luctance is that both sideshad an interest in the strategyof delay. As the state's minority party,Federalists were in favor oflate elections and a lateconvention in the hopes ofswaying the elec- torate or thedelegates to their side; and,if those efforts failed, there would be no earlynegative vote by New York toembarrass or thwart theirefforts elsewhere. Antifederalistshad their own reasons fordelay, as John P. Kaminskiexplains in his essay. Though astute observers wereplacing their bets on anAntifederalist ma- jority, no good politician(and Governor GeorgeClinton was among the best) feels sanguineabout a sure bet in theworld of politics. Clinton's forces needed time to assesstheir statewide strengthand to organize thediversity of interestsrequired to form a majority in a state like NewYork. There was also thehope that, with time, Antifederalists could build aninterstate movement for asecond to be- constitutional conventionand wait for another large state come the first to say no. ln its barest form,then, New York was areluctant pillar risk an early because its leaders onboth sides were unwilling to decision. Delay was apurely political yet perfectlyhonorable choice and so too were the tacticsof vocal debate and quietorganization. Alexander Hamilton wasneither moralizing norimprovising when have he wrote: "It has beenfrequently remarked, that it seems to been reserved to the peopleof this country, by theirconduct and viii THE RELUCTANT PILLAR example, to decide the important question, whether societies of men are really capable or not, of establishing good government from reflection and choice, or whether they are forever destined to depend, for their political constitutions, on accident and force." This was the opening salvo of The Federalist No. I, published on 27 October 1787, and its message to the voters of New York was an appeal for time, cast in the language of republican enlighten- ment. About this Publication This collection of essays is intended for both the general reader and the specialist. The collection is organized into five sections: theory; history; materials; people and places; and events. Each section is designed to pave the way for the one that follows, with the overall aim of providing the reader with the basic elements needed for an introductory survey and reference aid to the role of New York in the adoption of the federal Constitution. With the exception of Martin Diamond's essay, all of the contributions were prepared for this collection. In his introductory essay in the first section, Daniel J. Elazar sets out the traditions of American constitution-making and ex- plains how those traditions helped shape the federal Constitution and the process of ratification. Elazar begins with a discussion of constitution-making as an eminently political act and proceeds to unravel the dimensions of modern constitutions, the features of American constitution-making, arts the contributions of the fed- eral Constitution to the modern principle of representation. Draw- ing on The Federalist No. 1, he then identifies three models of f-:onstitution-making and distinguishes the American model and its compact-covenant traditions of choice and consent. Martin Diamond's contribution, reprinted from one of his earlier works, offers a perspective of political thought often m;ss- ing from standard histories of the ratification debate. He believes that the most important difference between Federalists and Anti- federalists concerns their expectations of what ends a republic should serve and how those ends could best be achieved. In the elegant prose of a philosopher, Diamond argues that Antifeder- alists operated on the basis of a classic "small republic" conception of society, in which citizen virtue and freedom from despotic rule were maintained by the very smallness of the country and pro- Introduction ix tected by a federal alliancemuch like that envisioned in the Ar- ticles of Confederation. By contrast,Federalists sought an ex- tended and compound republic asthe best safeguard of republican freedom and virtue, and, in breakingwith the past, they forever changed the meaning of federalism(then understood