Robert+Yates+(Brutus)+-+SP09

=Robert Yates = **Anti-Federalist New York Occupation:** Lawyer Had a law practice in Albany, New York, and also served in the Committee of Safety. He helped write the first constitution for New York. He was a justice of the New York State Supreme Court in 1777 and was later Chief Justice in 1790. He was not extremely wealthy, but respected among his peers.

He was at the Constitutional Convention with John Lansing and Alexander Hamilton, the other New York delegates. Yates attended believing that the delegates would revise the existing articles, saying "Our powers were explicit and confined to the sole and express purpose of revising the Articles of Confederation." When it became clear that this was for much more than that, he opposed and tried to state his arguments. They were trying to overstep their initial purpose of working out the problems in the Articles. When he could see that his efforts wouldn't make a difference, he left early with Lansing. During the convention he fought with Hamilton within the New York delegation, and was said to derail his influence. He refused to sign the finalized Constitution.

Yates was a member of New York's ratifying convention in 1788, and he unsuccessfully fought ratification of the Constitution. Once the Constitution was ratified, however, he accepted defeat, saying "supporting was a matter of patriotic duty." However, he continued to attack the Constitution under the pseudonym "Brutus," given after the Roman Republican who assassinated Julius Caesar to prevent him from overthrowing the Roman Republic **Arguments against ratification:** -strongly opposed giving new powers to the national government; centralizing the national government -addressed letters to the citizens of the state of New York  -"a free republic cannot succeed over a country of such immense extent, containing such a number of inhabitants... as that of the whole United States"- from letters -size and diversity of US- national government would not be able to lead without sacrificing personal liberties -if it means everyone must come together to decide things, how could they do that when the country is so large? -elect representatives- impossible to have everyone's opinion represented -"a republic must be small and uniform to survive" -all the state's laws are too different to effectively combine them so everyone is happy -New York legislature specifically forbade them from doing more than proposing revisions to the Articles- lacked authority to even change them -later wrote a letter to George Clinton apologizing for leaving early and stated reasons for opposition -establishing a general government is impractical -pervades every part of the US -lacked bill of rights -just fought a war to guarantee rights, now government trying to take them away -strong central government could do what ever they wanted without guaranteeing any rights to the citizens -Americans distrusted central government -failed to balance power of state and national government (too much to national) -will be dominated by "tyrannical" central government

George Clinton Thomas Jefferson Melancton Smith Richard Henry Lee Alexander Hamilton John Adams
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 * Foes:**

Bielinski, Stefan. "Robert Yates." New York State Museum. 11 Feb. 2009 . "Brutus." __New York Journal__ 18 Oct. 1787. "The Founding Fathers: Robert Yates, New York." __The American Revolution__. Americans.net. 11 Feb. 2009 
 * Works Cited**
 * Elliot, Jonathan. "The Debates in the Several State Conventions on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution, etc." Philadelphia. 1861.