William Paterson (1745-1780) was a renowned figure in the history of New York state politics. He presented a government plan to the Convention that was later referred to as the “New Jersey Plan”. This plan proposed a unicameral legislature (one chamber) with the same number of votes from the states and an executive elected by a national legislature. James Madison commented on Paterson's plan in his diary, which he kept during the process.
Madison's notes, which he revised every night, have become the most important contemporary record of the Convention debates. The multiple annotations of Alexander Hamilton (1757-1780) from New York demonstrate the hard work that remained for the delegates. The determined Madison had for several years studied history and political theory in search of a solution to the political and economic dilemmas he saw plaguing the United States. On July 23, Governor Morris of New York suggested that each state have three senators, but George Mason of Virginia and others were concerned that, as new states entered the union, this would lead to an oversized Senate. The Delaware Senate and the Pennsylvania unicameral council were divided into three classes based on a one-year electoral rotation, while the upper houses of Virginia and New York had four classes and annual elections. Kahn, president of the Rule of Law Working Group, associate judge of the New York Appeals Division, First Department (retired), Anil Kalhan, professor of law, Thomas R.
With Henry's absence, with figures as prominent as Jefferson and Adams abroad on missions abroad, and with John Jay in New York at the Department of Foreign Affairs, the convention did not have some of the country's top political leaders. Samuel Powel (1739—1779), a political leader from Philadelphia, reflects initial optimism about the rapid acceptance of the new federal Constitution. In New York, members of the legislature and judiciary were part of an impeachment court, while in New Jersey, the upper house could remove some officials if the lower house removed them. On July 2, 1788, the Congress of the Confederation, meeting in New York, received news that a ratifying convention in New Hampshire had approved the Constitution. In order to promote its adoption across all states, James Madison collaborated with Alexander Hamilton and John Jay of New York to write a masterful dissection and analysis of the system of government presented in the Constitution. This document was published in New York newspapers as arguments directed at that state's anti-federal forces.
Hamilton thought that most people in New York actually opposed the Constitution. In response to this opposition, Madison and a young lawyer from New York named Alexander Hamilton published a report on their meeting in Annapolis. This report asked Congress to convene delegates from all states to review the Articles of Confederation. In two months' time, thanks largely to Madison and Hamilton's efforts in their own states, Virginia and New York ratified and added their own amendments. He also presided over the first hearing on the Equal Rights Amendment in 36 years and guided its reactivation through the Judiciary Committee of the House of Representatives. In 1796, when it was under custody of the State Department along with Declaration of Independence, it traveled with federal government from New York to Philadelphia and then to Washington.
