Smith, Melancton

Together, 3 autograph manuscripts totaling 25 pages: Smith's speech, 14 pages on 4 bifolia (7 1/2 x 6 1/4 in.; 190 x 161 mm), quired and secured with two heavy straight-pins; Hamilton's discussion, 3 pages on a bifolium (8 1/4 x 6 1/2 in.; 210 x 165 mm); discussion involving Duane and Jay, 8 pages on 2 bifolia.

See “Debates in the Convention of the State of New York on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution” in Elliot’s Debates in the Several State Conventions on the Adoption of Federal Constitution, vol. 2

Together, 3 autograph manuscripts totaling 25 pages: Smith's speech, 14 pages on 4 bifolia (7 1/2 x 6 1/4 in.; 190 x 161 mm), quired and secured with two heavy straight-pins; Hamilton's discussion, 3 pages on a bifolium (8 1/4 x 6 1/2 in.; 210 x 165 mm); discussion involving Duane and Jay, 8 pages on 2 bifolia.
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Melancton Smith was a prominent New York merchant, lawyer, and politician who served in New York’s first Provincial Congress as well as in the Confederation Congress. But “Smith played his most significant historical role as a participant in debates over ratification of the Constitution of 1787” (James Banner in American National Biography). Smith was likely the author of Letters from the Federalist Farmer, which Alexander Hamilton acknowledged in Federalist Essay 68 as the “most plausible” arguments against the proposed Constitution.

When the New York State Ratifying Convention first at Poughkeepsie on 17 June 1788, Smith was one of the leaders of the Antifederalist delegates, who outnumbered the Federalist delegates by a wide margin, despite the latter counting Hamilton, John Jay, and Chancellor Robert Livingston among their number. While the New York Convention continued, on 21 June New Hampshire became the ninth state to ratify the Constitution, officially establishing it as the official frame of government of the United States; Virginia ratified four days after New Hampshire.

Fearing New York’s isolation, Smith began to work for the state’s adoption of the Constitution despite his continuing to believe that the charter was flawed. He argued against a conditional approval pending the adoption of certain amendments and brought enough other Antifederalists to his new perspective that New York ratified the Constitution on 26 July by the narrow vote of 30 to 27. “In changing his position, Smith cast what was arguably the nation’s most weighty vote in favor of ratification of the Constitution of 1787” (Banner).

This trove of Smith’s autograph notes—which are focused on the addresses and comments of four of the key delegates: himself, Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Duane—provide a glimpse of the convention floor as New York debated the ratification of the United States Constitution.