John Lamb (general)

For other people named John Lamb, see John Lamb (disambiguation).

John Lamb (1735-1800) was an American solider, politician, and Anti-Federalist organizer.

Career

He was born January 1, 1735 in New York City the son of Anthony Lamb. His father was a convicted burglar who was transported to the colonies in the 1720s. John was initially trained as an optician and instrument maker in New York City and became a prosperous wine merchant.

Prior to the Revolutionary War, Lamb was a leading member of the Sons of Liberty. He wrote articles in the and published anonymous handbills. When the news of the Battle of Lexington was received he and his men seized the military stores at Turtle Bay.

He was commissioned a captain of an artillery company and served under Richard Montgomery and Benedict Arnold in the attack on Quebec. He was wounded and captured at the assault on Quebec city and was released on parole a few months later. He was appointed major of artillery on January 9, 1776. In January 1777 he was appointed colonel of the 2nd Continental Artillery. He commanded the artillery at West Point in 1779 and 1780. He was breveted a brigadier general in 1783.

In 1784 he became Collector of Customs in New York, a post which he retained under the Washington administration after 1787. He resigned his post in 1797 after his deputy was accused of defrauding the government of tax revenues.

Anti-Federalism

During the 1787-1788 debates over the ratification of the proposed United States Constitution, Lamb was a prominent Anti-Federalist. He served as chairman of the Federal Republican Committee of New York, which operated to distribute Anti-Federalist writing and coordinate opposition to the Constitution with Anti-Federalists in other states. Between the fall of 1787 and June 1788 Lamb spread Anti-Federalist pamphlets through New York and New England and as far away as South Carolina; his correspondents included Aedanus Burke, Patrick Henry, Richard Henry Lee, and other prominent Anti-Federalists.

He died in poverty May 31, 1800.

References

• Fish, Carl Russell. The Civil Service and the Patronage. New York: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1905.
• Main, Jackson Turner. The Antifederalists: Critics of the Constitution, 1781-1788. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press. 1961.
• Wood, Gordon S. "The Authorship of the Letters from the Federal Farmer." The William and Mary Quarterly, 3rd series, 31 (1974): 299-308.

Further reading

• Leake, Isaac Q. Memoir of the Life and Times of General John Lamb. Albany, 1857.