Ordered not to communicate the activities, discussions and votes of the Constitutional Convention of 1787, many of the convention delegates did maintain a record of the conversations and debates in personal notations and daily diaries.
Most of the information about the creation of the U.S. Constitution comes from the edited notes of James Madison. Other important details come from the notebooks of Judge John Lansing, Jr.
Lansing was a delegate from New York. His notes contain a number or interesting and revealing historic details.
Edmund Randolph, a Virginian, was an opponent to writing a new constitution. He insisted, according to Lansing’s notes, that “the sentiments of the people should be consulted first.” If this occurred, it is likely that the constitution as known for more than 200 years never would have been written or ratified.
Randolph also wanted the country separated into three divisions, with one executive chosen from each to create a tri-entity.
Gunning Bedford of Delaware, as noted by Lansing, attacked the “ambition and avarice” of the large states that were pushing for proportional representation. Meanwhile, Alexander Hamilton warned that the individual states were too weak to survive without a union. He remarked, again according to Lansing, that it was a miracle that they had gotten as far as a convention. Hamilton also said that he was ready to become a martyr to free government but expressed grave doubts as to whether or not they would be able to avoid either “the violence of Democracy” or the “Tyranny of a Despot.”
A bicameral legislature was proposed. Edward Rutledge of South Carolina remarked that the lower house might be honest but would probably lack ability to legislate. He added that the upper house would monopolize ability.
Lansing’s Disappearance
Lansing’s notebooks became part of his estate after he disappeared. On the evening of December 12, 1829, when he was 75 years of age, Lansing walked from his New York City hotel to a dock on Cortlandt Street in lower Manhattan to deliver several letters for an Albany bound packet boat. He never returned to the hotel.
At the time, most people presumed that he had fallen off the dock and drowned. His body never was found. Many years later, the memoirs of Thurlow Weed, the powerful newspaper publisher and politician, claimed that Judge Lansing had been murdered by prominent men whom he opposed politically.
The Lansing notebooks recently were purchased by Roger Hertog, chairman of the New-York Historical Society, who indicated that they would be donated to the society’s library. The society plans to digitize the notebooks and make them available for research.
Sources
- New-York Historical Society
- The New York Revolutionary War Round Table
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