{"value"=>"<p>Yates' political and historical writings, 1783-1796?, comprise bound collected essays, loose essays, and essay segments, on contemporary political topics of local and national interest; and two draft histories of Albany, with their related source notes. Many of his political writings incorporate his historical research. These are autograph draft manuscripts in varying states of completion; some political drafts are signed with a pseudonym. Materials are arranged in chronological order.</p> <p>The most comprehensive political collection is the bound \"Rough Hewer\" manuscript, containing forty-two essays expressing his positions on national and local events, written from 1783 up to the year of his death in 1796, including text from two pamphlets published in 1786. Other writings from the 1780s are a collection of Fourteen political essays, 1786, warning against increasing the powers of Congress regarding the Imposts of 1781 and 1783, and other topics. His Response to an oration before the Society of the Cincinnati of the State of New York on July 4, 1787, circa 1787, addresses his fear that conservative elites would create an order of American nobility. Three political essays, circa 1787-circa 1790, date from the post-Convention period to the ratification of the Bill of Rights by New York State. Also present is a group of loose essay segments, previously described as part of an intended history of the movement for a federal constitution, circa 1787-circa 1789.</p> <p>Writings pertinent to his time as a state senator and as mayor of Albany, aside from materials in the \"Rough Hewer\" manuscript, are: Observations on toll of Water Vliet, circa 1786-1787, on Albany tolls and property rights; finished and incomplete essays on State canal legislation concerning the Northern and Western Inland Lock Navigation Companies and constitutional issues of eminent domain, circa 1793-circa 1794; and five collected essays contesting a trespass warning on common lands within the Manor of Rensselaerswyck, 1794?-1795.</p> <p>The collection contains two draft histories of Albany. The first, covering Albany's settlement to 1711, is an early draft of a more comprehensive history up to 1776, including his personal observations on contemporary events. Both drafts refer to events occurring after the chapter titles' end date. A separate manuscript of source notes keyed to the first history often supports the later draft. Typically, however, Yates wrote brief source citations on the same page as his text.</p> <p>Among the many contemporary and early sources cited are John Adams, Jeremy Belknap, James Burgh, Adrian van der Donck, William Douglass, Hugo Grotius, David Hume, Thomas Hutchinson, Peter Kalm, Joannes de Laet, Gabriel Bonnot de Mably (Abbé de Mably), Edward Wortley Montagu, Montesquieu, Richard Price, David Ramsay, William Robertson, Charles Rollin, Algernon Sidney, William Smith Jr., and David Pietersz. de Vries, as well as the Bible, and Addison and Steele's <span class=\"title\">The Spectator</span>.</p>"}
{"id"=>"aspace_66d213545e467bf2649eeb7f80e788f0", "value"=>"<p>Published works cited with Evans numbers were accessed in the Readex AllSearch database, <span class=\"title\">America's Historical Imprints, Series I: Evans, 1639-1800</span> via NYPL Articles & Databases at https://www.nypl.org/research. Additional published works may be found in <span class=\"title\">The Documentary History of the Ratification of the Constitution Digital Edition</span>, ed. John P. Kaminski, Gaspare J. Saladino, Richard Leffler, Charles H. Schoenleber and Margaret A. Hogan. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2009 (via the UVA Press Rotunda platform); Print Edition, Wisconsin Historical Society Press, also via University of Wisconsin Digital Collections. See also <span class=\"title\">The Complete Anti-Federalist</span>, ed. Herbert J. Storing with the assistance of Murray Dry, Vol. 6, <span class=\"title\">New York and Conclusion</span> (Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1981) for works by \"Sidney,\" mentioning Abraham Yates, Jr. as possible author.</p> <p>Please note that collection materials have not been comprehensively reviewed for publication; details are provided as found. Abraham Yates Jr.'s source citations were checked only as needed to help identify certain undated materials.</p>"}
{"value"=>"Yates had various methods for ordering his work. He often used alpha-numeric patterns of foliation and pagination to order his writings; he usually wrote on both sides of a page even if only the leaf itself was numbered. It appears that he may have avoided using the letter \"J\" in alphabetical sequences. The patterns may offer connecting clues within his papers, as seen in the Albany history source notes. Because Yates wrote these notations at very edge of the page, some have been lost to time. Yates' writings for publication may bear the number of their publishing sequence, and may open or close by referring to the connecting topic. He consistently used catchwords and catchphrases. Additionally, a numeric or alpha-numeric code is found on some writings (e.g., \"A 18\"), either in the hand of Yates or his son-in-law Abraham G. Lansing. Unfortunately, a listing is not found. With the exception of Numbered items in Series I, quotations from Yates' text transcribe his wording and spelling as written, but not necessarily his punctuation or capitalization."}