Alexander Hamilton

2 pages (10 1/4 x 8 3/8 in.; 261 x 213 mm) on a single sheet, with many autograph revisions, deletions, and interlineations; soiled, faded, some marginal chipping, top quarter of leaf torn away and restored.

See The Papers of Alexander Hamilton, ed. Syrett, 3:132–143, for the full text of the recipient's copy, now in the Hamilton Papers, Library of Congress

2 pages (10 1/4 x 8 3/8 in.; 261 x 213 mm) on a single sheet; soiled, faded, some marginal chipping, top quarter of leaf torn away and restored.
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A previously unrecorded partial draft of Hamilton's famous letter to Superintendent of Finance Robert Morris on the "situation and temper" of New York State. The portions of the present draft include Hamilton's thoughts on New York's disadvantageous trade with neighboring states: "From Massachusettes and other parts of New England we purchase to the amount of about £50.000, principally in salt; of which we consume near 40.000 bushels. … The immense land transportation of which the chief part is carried on by the subjects of other states is a vast incumbrance upon our trade. …  the best information I can obtain; and if near the truth, prove that the general ballance of trade is against us; a plain symptom of which is an extreme and universal scarcity of money."

Hamilton also discusses the state's plan of taxation, which was intended to be based on a fair assessment of her citizens' circumstances and abilities: "The ostensible reason for adopting this vague basis was a desire of equality: It was pretended, that this could not be obtained so well by any fixed tariff of taxable property, as by leaving it to the discretion of persons chosen by the people themselves, to determine the ability of each citizen. But perhaps the true reason was a desire to discriminate between the whigs and tories. … This chimerical attempt at perfect equality has resulted in total inequality; or rather this narrow disposition to overburthen a particular class of citizens (living under the protection of the government) has been retorted upon the contrivers or their friends, wherever that class has been numerous enough to preponderate in the election of the officers who were to execute the law. The exterior figure a man makes, the decency or meaness of his manner of living, the personal friendships, or dislikes of the assessors have much more share in determineing what individuals shall pay, than the proportion of property."