The New York Circular Letter was a solution reached in a controversy between Federalists and Anti-Federalists over ratification of the United States Constitution.
Smith proposed that the States call for a Convention under Article V as a condition of New York's ratification, but Jay and Hamilton altered the proposal to ratification unconditionally, but with the understanding that the Article V Convention procedure would be used.
The response in other states varied from outright rejection to consideration only after giving Congress a chance to propose the amendments first.
James Madison opposed the idea of early amendments, advocating a few years of seeing how the Constitution would run first.
Madison, a member of the first United States House of Representatives, proposed the Bill of Rights partially in response to the Convention effort.