Beschreibung:

LIVINGSTON, Robert R. Autograph letter signed ("Rob Livingston") TO JAMES DUANE, Mayor of New York, Manor Livingston, 13 February 1788. Folio, naturally aged, left-hand edge slightly stained , otherwise fine. MASSACHUSETTS VOTES TO ADOPT THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION WHILE NEW YORK WAITS Both Livingston and Duane were committed Federalists and would be elected, two months later, as delegates to the New York convention to debate ratification of the new Constitution. Livingston would be named chair of the convention; some fellow delegates included Alexander Hamilton, Philip Schuyler and John Jay. Livingston writes to his son-in-law to pass on news that the Constitution had been ratified by Massachusetts (on 6 February, the 6th state): "...We had acct. two days ago that Machasut's [sic] had agreed to the Convention only by 19 votes [the vote was 187 to 168] but whether this can be depended on know not; but I take it for granted by report that they will, & congratulate you & all real frinds [ sic ] of america on it as this will bring wavering States if any to close & joyn in it." Changing the subject he writes "on the affair of the Chancelors ericting mills on my waters, he has two [?] Stones in it & will I suppose have 2 more Shortly & so rob me of the greatest part of my Grist, for his Craveing disposition has no End, he is what we call mill mad." Livingston, (1746-1813) who had been one of the five appointed to draft the Declaration of Independence, and who administered the oath to President Washington in 1789, found the task of securing ratification in New York particularly difficult. It was not until April that the state finally elected delegates to the Convention; the ensuing debates were bitter and highly partisan. Both the Federalist and anti-Federalist coalitions were well-organized. The Federalists prolonged the debate in hopes that the ratifications in other state conventions would increase pressure to ratify. In the end Hamilton's eloquence in the convention and John Jay's diplomatic manoeuvering were able to salvage the Federalist cause, but it was not until July 26 that the state became the 11th to ratify, following Virginia, by a narrow vote of 30 yeas to 27 nays. And its ratification was conditional upon the addition of amendments drawn up by the anti-Federalists; these were later incorporated as the Bill of Rights. See Betsy L. Rosenblatt, "New York's Role in the Creation and Adoption of the Bill of Rights," in New York History , 72:4 (October 1991), pp.407-420.