ALEXANDER HAMILTON. AUTOGRAPH MANUSCRIPT LEAF OF DRAFT OF NEW YORK LAND TAX LAW, CA. 9 FEBRUARY 1787

2 pages (12 x 8 3/8 in.; 305 x 312 mm) on a single leaf, with numerous autograph corrections and emendations, [New York, ca. March 1787]; a little bit of soiling, some short fold separations and repairs. Matted, framed, and glazed with Plexiglas.

2 pages (12 x 8 3/8 in.; 305 x 312 mm) on a single leaf, [New York, ca. March 1787]; a little bit of soiling, some short fold separations and repairs. Matted, framed, and glazed with Plexiglas.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Hamilton served a single term in the New York State Assembly, from 12 January to 21 April 1787. The seventy-member Assembly met in the Old Royal Exchange in New York City.  On 9 February, a committee introduced a proposal for a more fair system of taxation. “It was agreed on all hands,” the new York Daily Advertiser (21 February 1787) summarized Hamilton’s remarks, “that the system heretofore in use was full of defects; both in the view of equality among individuals and of revenue to the state. From the legislature to the assessors, all was conjecture and uncertainty.”  He explained that the present system left too much discretion to assessors and supervisors with their individual biases and inclinations.  “Equality and certainty are the two great objects to be aimed at in taxation,” Hamilton concluded, and although his system “does not pretend to reach absolute equality,” it would “approach much nearer to equality than the former system.”  He invited the committee, the Assembly, and the Legislature to improve it, but warned, “we could not fall upon a worse system than the present. Any change would be for the better.” Hamilton's manuscript begins, " Assessor shall leave with each possessor of land his or her bailiff Agent or servant or fix up upon some public place of the dwelling house of such possessor of land his or her bailiff agent or servant, if any there be on the premisses a memorandum in writing of the amount of this tax to the end that each person may be prepared in time to pay the same  And the said tax shall be payable in the several counties at the respective periods hereinbefore limited for the payment of the tax on inhabited dwelling houses, and in the same proportions, and shall be collected to all intents and purposes within the times and in the manner prescribed for the collection of the said tax on inhabited dwelling houses. And the collectors shall have the same powers and shall be chargeable and answerable in the same manner for any default or neglect in respect to the collection of the said tax on lands as in respect to the collection of the said tax on inhabited dwelling houses and shall account for the proceeds thereof to the respective county treasuries within the same times and in the same manner." The rest of Hamilton's draft is in the Hamilton Papers in the Library of Congress; this page was attached to an unrelated document decades ago, and descended in the Hamilton family until 2017.

Members of both the Assembly and the Senate offered amendments to Hamilton’s bill, and the “Act for raising monies by tax,” that passed on 11 April 1787, was substantially shorter and did not include this text.  Rather than imposing duties on specific possessions and implementing detailed reforms, the final act levied a quota on each county in the state to raise a total of £50,000, and made the assessors in each county responsible for determining taxable property and the rates of taxation.