John Lansing Jr.

John Ten Eyck Lansing Jr. was born on January 30, 1754, in Albany, New York. 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. Through his brother Abraham, Lansing was the uncle of Gerrit Yates Lansing (1783–1862), a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, 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 Philip Schuyler. 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. 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 that strongly opposed Alexander Hamilton, James Wilson, and James Madison's notions of a strong centralized national government to replace the Articles. 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. == Disappearance ==

On the evening of December 12, 1829, Lansing left his Manhattan 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, 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 Richard Ray (often confused with Richard son's name and Cornelia's brother's name of Robert, even by some historians) 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: • 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. 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. ==See also==