Foreign Affairs and the Ratification of the Constitution in New York

Abstract

Foreign Affairs and the Ratification of the Constitution in New York Robert W. Smith (bio) No state considered the Constitution at greater length and depth than New York. It produced more literature than any other state and thus provides the best opportunity to examine the evolution of the foreign policy argument. The traditional narrative, best articulated by Frederick Marks in Independence on Trial, has the Federalists as nationalists making foreign policy a central point of their argument, with the Antifederalists as localists avoiding it as a losing issue. Marks describes the foreign policy interests of New York, but as the local details of a national argument. More recent studies assert the primacy of foreign affairs in the drafting of the Constitution. Max M. Edling argues that the Constitution was drafted to create a fiscal and military state capable of competing with similar states in Europe. David M. Golove and Daniel J. Hulsebosch contend that the Constitution was designed to gain entry into the European state system. Eliga H. Gould advances a similar claim, that the Constitution was intended to create a "treaty-worthy" nation, in recognition that the United States was part of the European state system. To Tom Cutterham, the Constitution was necessary to reconnect the United States to the trading networks of the Atlantic world. David C. Hendrickson considers the Constitution a "peace pact" among sovereign states. However, all these works treat foreign affairs as the province of nationalist-minded Federalists, with little attention given to local implications. Hendrickson differs somewhat by discussing local interests at the Constitutional Convention but does not address the ratification debates.1 In New York, most studies pit the agrarian and [End Page 327] localist majority party of Governor George Clinton against a mercantile and cosmopolitan minority.2 The traditional view, updated by recent scholarship, is partially true, but it is not the whole picture. New York Federalism included such nationalists as John Jay, Alexander Hamilton, and Robert R. Livingston. They initially made nationalist arguments based on the need for a stronger union, the decline of the American reputation abroad, defense, and the promotion of trade. However, New York best shows how the Federalists shifted the foreign policy argument to fit local circumstances. The nationalists realized that a purely national argument would not work, and they had to appeal to New York's interests. In the first phase of the debate, from the arrival of the Constitution to the beginning of 1788, the Federalists emphasized national themes. In the second phase, from the end of 1787 through the ratifying convention, they switched to a focus on local foreign policy interests, such as the eviction of the British from the northwestern forts, the defense of New York on its vulnerable frontiers, and the promotion of local trade. As the other states ratified, New York Federalists included relations with the other states as an aspect of New York's diplomatic interests. The Antifederalists did not disagree on the nature of New York's interests. Rather, they focused on the dangers the tools of foreign policy posed to domestic liberty. They believed the nation's problems were not caused by the Articles of Confederation and would not be solved by the Constitution. The Antifederalists never emphasized New York's interests. At the convention, much of the Federalist foreign policy case centered on the interests of New York and the dangers to those interests if New York did not ratify. The Federalists argued for a New York exceptionalism, that New York was either uniquely situated to prosper under the Constitution or uniquely vulnerable to disunion. It was, in the end, the Federalists' strongest case, made stronger once New Hampshire and Virginia ratified. Like other states, New York moved to secure its foreign policy interests after the war. The fur trade on the northern and western frontiers was worth some £200,000 per year. Great Britain ceded seven of the eight forts that controlled the trade to the United States in the Treaty of Paris. Of those seven, five—Niagara, Oswego, Oswegatchie, Point au Fer, and [End Page 328] Dutchman's Point—lay within New York. In March 1783 the legislature passed a resolution calling for New York...