John Lansing Jr.

John Ten Eyck Lansing Jr. (January 30, 1754 – vanished December 12, 1829) was an American lawyer and politician.

Early life
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. 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, he 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, New York, 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. Afterwards he was a member of the New York State Assembly 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, he was appointed Mayor of Albany. He represented New York as one of three representatives at the Constitutional Convention in 1787. His intentions at the convention were to follow the wishes of the New York Legislature which had elected him to attend. He was authorized only to amend the existing Articles of Confederation. As the convention progressed, Lansing became disillusioned because he believed it was exceeding its instructions. Lansing believed the delegates had gathered together simply to amend the Articles of Confederation and was dismayed at the movement to write an entirely new constitution. His desire was to see the Articles strengthened 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.

He, Luther Martin of Maryland, George Mason of Virginia, and Robert Yates also of New York strongly opposed the newly proposed United States Constitution because they thought it was fundamentally flawed and should be rejected because it infringed on the sovereignty of the independent States and did not do enough to guarantee individual liberty. Both he and Robert Yates walked out after 6 weeks and explained their departure in a joint letter to New York Governor George Clinton. Lansing and Yates never signed the constitution. At the New York Ratifying Convention that followed, he 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 15 February 1798 he was elevated to the post Chief Justice. In 1801, he also became the second Chancellor of New York, succeeding Robert R. Livingston. In 1814 he became a regent of the University of New York.

Personal life
In 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.

His widow died in January 1834 and is buried at Albany Rural Cemetery.

Disappearance
On the evening of December 12, 1829, he left his Manhattan hotel to mail a letter at a dock in New York City, never to be seen again. Lansing was 75 years old and was presumed drowned or perhaps murdered, his body never recovered.

His fate was a major mystery in New York State at the time, rivaled only by the disappearance of William Morgan, the anti-Mason writer, in 1826 in upstate New York. In the last century it has become less publicized since the disappearance of New York State Justice Joseph Force Crater in 1930. Only one major clue to Lansing's disappearance has appeared since his death. In 1882 the memoirs of Thurlow Weed, former 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.

Weed's 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 did not wish to harm their respected family reputations, and upon advice of two friends he decided not to reveal the truth. This was the last hypothesis proffered to resolve the mystery.

Legacy
The town of Lansing in New York was named after John Lansing. Lansing, Michigan, was named by settlers who came from Lansing, New York.