John Jay, et al. to [New York State Legislature] s.l., 11 May 1786. Document, 2 pages. 1786 [cut off] 11 of God, are held in Slavery by the Laws of this State, view with Pain and Regret the additional Miseries which those unhappy People experience from the practice of exporting them like Cattle, and other Articles of Commerce to the West Indies and the Southern States. – That in the course of this inhuman Commerce there have been frequent and very affecting Instances of Husbands being Torn from their wives. Wives from their Husbands; Parents from their Children; Children from their Parents. That there have also been Instances of manumitted Slaves and other Freemen, whose Colour exposed them such Outrages; being Kidnapped and carried to Market in distant Parts- -That it is well known that the condition of the Slaves in this State is far more tolerable and easy than in many other countries; and that Consideration alone, Independent of the many abuses attending it; pleads strongly for prohibiting a Commerce so repugnant to Humanity and so Inconsistent with the Liberality and justice which should distinguish a Free and Enlightened People— Your memorialists therefore humbly Pray that your honorable Body will be pleased to take the premises into your favorable Consideration; and pass an Act to prevent the further exportation of Negro Slaves from this State. And your memorialist shall ever pray— John Jay, Robert R. Livingston, James Duane, Nicholas Fish, Charles McKnight, Robert Harpur, John Lamb, John Alsop, John Daniel Gross, Benjamin Moor, John H. Livingston, John [2]1786, 5 mo. 11 John Gans, Samuel Welldo, Samuel Provost, John Rogers, John Mason, Abraham Beach, David Provost, Melancton Smith, Lewis Scott, John Cortlandt, Robert G. Livingston, Benjamin Kissam, Nicholas Romain, John Cochran, Walter Rutherford, John Bard, Peter Kettletas, James Nicholson, William [S.] Livingston, Robert Gilbert Livingston, William Constable, John Delafield, A. Gilchrist, - [illegible] James Giles, T. Wainwright, T. Atkinson, Comfort Sands, Walter Livingston, Robert Benson, [Balth], [illegible], Samuel Bard, Richard Varick, Andrew Hammersly, Anthony L. Bleecker, Thomas Lawrence, William W. Morris, Brockholst Livingston, Pascal N. Smith, David Gilson, Samuel Ogden, J. Waddington, M. Willet, George GLC76715 Bond, D. Brooks, John Broome, Henry Remsen, Abraham P. Lott, Benjamin Blagge, Ebenezer Crosby, Ebenezer Hazzard, Henry Rutgers, M. Treat, Jeremiah Wool, William B. Smith, Annanias Cooper, F. Chriptic, John Lawrence, William Nelson, William W. Gilbert, George Fisher, William Pitt Smith, G. Duyckinck Junr. John Thompson, James Beekman, Robert Johnston, Cornelius Roosevelt, G. Duyckinck, Richard C. Moore, Charles Duryee, Francis Panton, John Keefe, Daniel C. Verplanck, James, M. Hughes, Jacob Remsen, Cornelius J. Bogert, James Bleecker, Alexander Hamilton, Pierre Van Cortlandt John GLC76715 .