Background
Melancton was born on May 7, 1744 in Jamaica, Long Island, New York, United States, was the son of Samuel and Elizabeth (Bayles) Smith.
( There was intense debate on ratification during the per...)
There was intense debate on ratification during the period from the drafting and proposal of the federal Constitution in September 1787 to its ratification in 1789. The principal arguments in favor of ratification were documented by Madison, Hamilton, and Jay in The Federalist. The arguments against ratification appeared in various forms, by various authors, most of whom used a pseudonym. Collectively, these writings have become known as the Anti-Federalist papers. The Anti-Federalist Writings of the Melancton Smith Circle makes available for the first time a one-volume collection of Anti-Federalist writings that are commensurate in scope, significance, political brilliance, and depth with those in The Federalist. Included in this volume as an appendix is a computational and contextual analysis that addresses the question of the authorship of two of the most well-known pseudonymous Anti-Federalist writings, namely, Essays of a Federal Farmer and Essays of Brutus. Also included are the records of Smith’s important speeches at the New York Ratifying Convention, some shorter writings of Smith’s from the ratification debate, and a set of private letters Smith wrote on constitutional subjects at the time of the ratification struggle. Michael Zuckert is Nancy Reeves Dreux Professor and Chair of the Department of Political Science at the University of Notre Dame. Derek A. Webb received his Ph.D. from the University of Notre Dame and is currently a student at Georgetown Law School.
https://www.amazon.com/Anti-Federalist-Writings-Melancton-Smith-Circle/dp/0865977577?SubscriptionId=AKIAJRRWTH346WSPOAFQ&tag=prabook-20&linkCode=sp1&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=0865977577
lawyer merchant politician statesman
Melancton was born on May 7, 1744 in Jamaica, Long Island, New York, United States, was the son of Samuel and Elizabeth (Bayles) Smith.
His education was home training of a sort to reflect credit upon his obscure parents.
At an early age he was placed in a retail store at Poughkeepsie. He soon owned land in various parts of Dutchess County. In 1769 he helped organize the Washington Hollow Presbyterian Church and purchased one of the pews. In 1775 he was made a member of a committee in First Provincial Congress to raise a regiment of the line in Dutchess County. He also was appointed with the rank of major.
On February 11, 1777, he was made one of three members of a commission for "inquiring into, detecting and defeating all conspiracies against the liberties of America" (Journals, post, I, 803), under which broad phraseology he served almost daily for the next six months at twelve shillings per diem, administering oaths of allegiance, arresting suspects, informing upon and examining Loyalists. While wielding this powerful civil and military authority, he was also serving as high sheriff of Dutchess County, to which position he was elevated in 1777 and again in 1779.
As a merchant and as one enjoying the confidence of Gov. George Clinton, he naturally gravitated to the commissary department in the last years of the Revolution. In 1782 Washington appointed him to a commission to settle disputes between the army and contractors at West Point and elsewhere. Smith charged contractors with bad faith and in turn was charged with inducing soldiers to spend their pay in his store. He shared the indignation of other patriots over the decision in Rutgers vs. Waddington which in 1784 invalidated an act of the legislature proscribing Loyalists.
About 1785 he moved to New York City and entered upon extensive mercantile enterprises and a lucrative law practice, though it is not known where he secured his legal training. He served in the Continental Congress from 1785 to 1788. His most conspicuous public service was in the Poughkeepsie convention called in 1788 to consider ratification of the Federal Constitution. Basing his campaign on an anti-Loyalist issue, he was unable to secure election in Federalist New York County but represented Dutchess County in the convention as an Anti-Federalist. In the convention he bore the brunt of the Federalist attack and was successful in opposing even Hamilton. He held out for a Bill of Rights until Hamilton's eloquence and news of Virginia's ratification impelled him to announce his support of the Constitution, an action which broke the Anti-Federalist ranks and brought down Clinton's wrath upon his head.
He was elected to the legislature in 1791 and canvassed the state for Clinton in 1792. He was one of the first victims of the yellow fever epidemic in New York City in 1798.
( There was intense debate on ratification during the per...)
Although he was an Anti-Federalist, Smith continued in the Clintonian party and helped in 1789 to sponsor a movement for a second constitutional convention.
He had acquired a reputation for wide reading, honesty, and ability.
Quotes from others about the person
According to Hammond, Smith was "as pure a man as ever lived".
According to Alexander, post, he has been characterized as "one of the ablest debaters in the country".