THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW

Oblong printed folio broadside, completed in neat ink manuscript, 10-1/4" x 15-1/2." Signed in ink at the lower right by Governor Yates. Blank corner wear from prior mounting. Docketed on verso. Very Good. Joseph Yates [1768-1837] was the 7th Governor of New York, 1823-1824, succeeded by De Witt Clinton. "Joseph Yates became governor of New York State in 1822. The new constitution, adopted the year before, caused him great difficulty in the appointment of a great many officers whose tenure of office had become changed by the law. The city of Albany was thronged with these place-hunters and their appointments were a serious trouble to the new governor. As a result of this and for other reasons, among them his view of the proposal to change the electoral law of the state, Governor Yates fell into disfavor and at the expiration of his term of office retired to private life and again made his home in Schenectady" [online article on Yates at Schenectadyhistory.org]. "Wreckmasters" were kept in business in Queens by a large number of coastal shipwrecks. Being a wreckmaster was a New York State government job, requiring removal and of the wrecked vessels. It was a patronage plum for the Governor, although the work was difficult and hazardous.