John Ten Eyck Lansing Jr. (January 30, 1754 – vanished December 12, 1829), a

Founding Father of the United States The Founding Fathers of the United States, often simply referred to as the Founding Fathers or the Founders, were a group of late-18th-century American Revolution, American revolutionary leaders who United Colonies, united the Thirteen Colon ...

, was an attorney,

jurist A jurist is a person with expert knowledge of law; someone who analyzes and comments on law. This person is usually a specialist legal scholar, mostly (but not always) with a formal education in law (a law degree) and often a Lawyer, legal prac ...

, and politician. Born and raised in

Albany, New York Albany ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. It is located on the west bank of the Hudson River, about south of its confluence with the Mohawk River. Albany is the oldes ...

, Lansing was trained as a lawyer, and was long involved in politics and government. During the

American Revolution The American Revolution (1765–1783) was a colonial rebellion and war of independence in which the Thirteen Colonies broke from British America, British rule to form the United States of America. The revolution culminated in the American ...

he was military secretary to General

Philip Schuyler Philip John Schuyler (; November 20, 1733 - November 18, 1804) was an American general in the American Revolutionary War, Revolutionary War and a United States Senate, United States Senator from New York (state), New York. He is usually known as ...

. Lansing served in the

New York State Assembly The New York State Assembly is the lower house of the New York State Legislature, with the New York State Senate being the upper house. There are 150 seats in the Assembly. Assembly members serve two-year terms without term limits. The Ass ...

from 1781 to 1784, in 1786, and in 1789; served as Speaker of the Assembly in 1786 and 1789; served as a member of the

Congress of the Confederation The Congress of the Confederation, or the Confederation Congress, formally referred to as the United States in Congress Assembled, was the governing body of the United States from March 1, 1781, until March 3, 1789, during the Confederation ...

in 1785; and served as mayor of Albany from 1786 to 1790. He was a delegate to the federal Constitutional Convention in 1787, but withdrew from the body in July because he opposed the proposed

United States Constitution The Constitution of the United States is the Supremacy Clause, supreme law of the United States, United States of America. It superseded the Articles of Confederation, the nation's first constitution, on March 4, 1789. Originally includi ...

as infringing on state and individual rights. He was a delegate to the New York ratification convention in June 1788, but was unable to prevent the Constitution from being approved. In 1790, Lansing was a member of the commission that settled the New York-

Vermont Vermont () is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, New York (state), New York to the west, and the Provinces and territories of Ca ...

boundary as part of Vermont's admission to the Union as the fourteenth state in 1791. He was a justice of the

New York Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the State of New York is the superior court in the Judiciary of New York. It is vested with unlimited civil and criminal jurisdiction, although in many counties outside New York City it acts primarily as a court of civil ju ...

from 1790 to 1798, and chief justice from 1798 to 1801. He was also Chancellor of New York from 1801 to 1814, and in 1817 was a special commissioner to resolve New York City and New York County claims to land in Vermont. From 1817 until his death, he was regent of the

University of the State of New York The University of the State of New York (USNY, ) is the state governmental umbrella organization that oversees all educational institutions, including schools, libraries, and museums in New York State. It is governed by the Board of Regents. D ...

. Lansing disappeared in December 1829, after leaving his New York City hotel room to mail a letter. No trace was ever found, and what happened to Lansing remains unknown.

Early life

John Ten Eyck Lansing Jr. was born on January 30, 1754, in

. He was the son of Gerrit Jacob Lansing (b. 1711) and Jannetje "Jane" (née Waters) Lansing (1728–1810). His younger brother was Abraham Gerritse Lansing (1756–1834), New York State Treasurer who married Susanna Yates, the daughter of Abraham Yates. Another brother, Sanders G. Lansing (1766–1850), married Catherine Ten Eyck (1769–1850), daughter of Abraham Ten Eyck (1744–1824) and Annatje (née Lansing) Ten Eyck (1746–1823). Through his brother Abraham, Lansing was the uncle of Gerrit Yates Lansing (1783–1862), a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, and Susan Yates Lansing (1804–1874), who was the second wife of Peter Gansevoort (1788–1876), son of Gen. Peter Gansevoort. Through his brother Sanders, he was the uncle of Robert Lansing (1799–1878), a New York State Senator and the grandfather of U.S. Secretary of State Robert Lansing.

Career

Lansing studied law with Robert Yates in Albany, and was admitted to practice in 1775. From 1776 until 1777 during the Revolutionary War, Lansing served as a military secretary to General

. Afterwards he was a member of the

from 1780 to 1784, in 1785–86, and 1788–89, being its Speaker during the latter two terms. He served New York as a member of the Confederation Congress in 1785. In 1786, Lansing was appointed Mayor of Albany. He represented New York as one of three representatives at the Constitutional Convention in 1787, where he intended to follow the wishes of the New York Legislature and only amend the existing

Articles of Confederation The Articles of Confederation, officially the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union, was an agreement and early body of law in the Thirteen Colonies, which served as the nation's first Constitution, frame of government during the Ameri ...

. However, as the convention progressed he became dismayed that the convention was, in his view, exceeding of its mandate by writing an entirely new constitution. Lansing's desire was to see the Articles strengthened by giving it a source of revenue, the power to regulate commerce, and to enforce treaties. He joined other prominent

Anti-Federalists The Anti-Federalists were a late-18th-century political movement that opposed the creation of a stronger U.S. federal government and which later opposed History of the United States Constitution#1788 ratification, the ratification of the 1787 Uni ...

that strongly opposed

Alexander Hamilton Alexander Hamilton (January 11, 1755 or 1757July 12, 1804) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father who served as the first U.S. secretary of the treasury from 1789 to 1795 dur ...

, James Wilson, and

James Madison James Madison (June 28, 1836) was an American statesman, diplomat, and Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father who served as the fourth president of the United States from 1809 to 1817. Madison was popularly acclaimed as the ...

's notions of a strong centralized national government to replace the Articles. Lansing, along with fellow New York delegate Yates, as well as Luther Martin of

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It borders the states of Virginia to its south, West Virginia to its west, Pennsylvania to its north, and Delaware to its east ...

and George Mason of

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...

, strongly opposed the newly proposed

because they thought it was fundamentally flawed and it infringed on the sovereignty of the independent States while not doing enough to guarantee individual liberty. Both Lansing and Yates walked out of the convention after six weeks and explained their departure in a joint letter to New York Governor George Clinton. Neither man signed the constitution. At the New York Ratifying Convention that followed, Lansing, along with Melancton Smith, took the lead in the debates as the leaders of the Anti-Federalist majority. Their attempts to prevent ratification ultimately failed by a narrow vote of 30 to 27. Lansing was appointed a justice of the New York State Supreme Court in 1790, and on February 15, 1798, he was elevated to the post of chief justice. In 1801, he also became the second Chancellor of New York, succeeding Robert R. Livingston. In 1814 Lansing became a Regent of the

Disappearance

On the evening of December 12, 1829, Lansing left his

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

hotel to mail a letter at a dock in New York City, never to be seen again. He was 75 years old and was presumed drowned or perhaps murdered. Lansing's fate was a major mystery in New York State at the time, rivaled only by the 1826 disappearance of William Morgan, the anti-Masonic writer. Only one major clue to Lansing's disappearance appeared after his death. In 1882, the memoirs of

Thurlow Weed Edward Thurlow Weed (November 15, 1797 – November 22, 1882) was an American printer, newspaper publisher, and Whig Party (United States), Whig and Republican Party (United States), Republican politician. He was the principal political advisor t ...

, former Whig and Republican political leader in New York State, were published by Weed's grandson T. W. Barnes. Weed wrote that Lansing was murdered by several prominent political and social figures who found he was in the way of their projects. According to Weed, his unnamed source showed him papers to prove it, but begged Weed not to publish them until all the individuals had died. Weed said they were all dead by 1870, but he did not wish to harm their respected family reputations, so upon advice of two friends he decided not to reveal what he had been told.

Personal life

On April 8, 1781, Lansing was married to Cornelia Ray (1757–1834), daughter of Robert Ray and Sarah (née Bogart) Ray of New York City. Together, they were the parents of ten children, five of whom died young. Their children included: * Jane Lansing (1785–1871), who married Rensselaer Westerlo (1776–1851) in 1805. He was the son of Eilardus Westerlo and Catherine Livingston, herself the daughter of Philip Livingston and the widow of Stephen Van Rensselaer II. * Frances Lansing (1791–1855), who married Jacob Livingston Sutherland (1788–1845) in 1811. * Cornelia Lansing (1795–1877) * Sarah Ray Lansing (1797–1848), who married Edward Livingston (1796–1840) in 1819. Lansing's widow died in January 1834 and is buried at Albany Rural Cemetery.

Legacy

The Town of Lansing, New York was named for John Lansing. Lansing Charter Township, Michigan, originally simply "Lansing Township", was named by early settlers who came from the Town of Lansing, New York. The name of the capital city of Michigan, " Lansing", is derived from the name of the same Lansing Charter Township, out of whose original territory it was created and which it has almost completely annexed to itself. Thus both the capital of Michigan and the township which it has nearly replaced originally were and remain named, albeit indirectly, for John Lansing.

References

Sources

*
Several Bios
* Edmund Pearson ''Instigation of the Devil'' (New York, London: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1930), Chapter XXIII: ''A Rather Mysterious Chancellor'', p. 277–287, 355. * Pauline Maier, ''Ratification, The People Debate the Constitution 1787–1788'', (New York, London, Toronto, Sydney:

Simon & Schuster Simon & Schuster LLC (, ) is an American publishing house owned by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts since 2023. It was founded in New York City in 1924, by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. Along with Penguin Random House, Hachette Book Group US ...

, 2010) p. 35, 47, 90–93, 325–326, 367, 375, 396, 398. {{DEFAULTSORT:Lansing, John Jr. 1754 births 1820s missing person cases 18th-century American lawyers 18th-century mayors of places in New York (state) American people of Dutch descent Chancellors of New York (state) Continental Congressmen from New York (state) Lansing family Lawyers from Albany, New York Members of the New York State Assembly Missing person cases in New York City New York Supreme Court justices People from colonial New York Mayors of Albany, New York Speakers of the New York State Assembly Year of death unknown Founding Fathers of the United States 19th-century members of the New York State Legislature 18th-century members of the New York State Legislature