From John Jay to Abraham Yates Jr., 16 May 1777
To Abraham Yates Jr.
16 May 17771
Dr Sir
From the Intimations Information you was pleased to give me before you left this place, of a Design that it was intended ^in your Count^ ^I wd be proposed in the County of Albany^ to hold me up as a Candidate for the Office of Govr., I think it necessary to be ^very^ explicit on that Subject being persuaded that Unanimity in all our measures is to be ought to be the ardent Wish of every Member of this State, & it would be happy if ^as^ the Suffrages of the People for that important office could
The [Grand?] [illegible] of the Publick That the Office of first Magistrate of this State [illegible] [considerable?] ^will^ [illegible] be more respectable as well as more lucrative ^& consequently more desirable^ than the Place I now fill, [illegible] ^is very^ apparent to But Sir! my Object in the Course of the present Great Contest neither has been nor will be, either Rank or Money. I am persuaded that I can be more useful to the State in a judicial ^the place office^ I now hold, than in the one alluded to—& therefore [I shall] think it my Duty to continue in it. You are well [illegible] ^are acquainted with^ [illegible] the Reasons which enduce me to be of this opinion—[illegible] and altho I shall [illegible] entertain a high Sense of the Honor which my Friends may be ^are^ disposed to confer upon me, I must request the Favor of yourselves ^them^ not to encourage my being named as a Candidate for that Office, but to endeavour to unite the Votes of the Electors in that County of Albany in favor of some other Gentn.2 I am Dear Sir Your most Obt. & hble Servt.
J. J.
DftS, NNC (EJ: 8580). Endorsed by JJ.
1. Yates was an Albany representative in the three provincial congresses and the New York Convention, 1775–77. In the convention he chaired the committee that drafted the state constitution. On 3 May, Yates and JJ were named to the fifteen-man Council of Safety, which was to hold “all the powers necessary for the safety and preservation of the State until a meeting of the Legislature,” and to act jointly with the governor as soon as he should be elected. The convention was dissolved on 13 May, and Yates sat on the council through 15 May. , 1: 910, 916, 934.
2. See also JJ to Leonard Gansevoort, 5 June 1777, below.