Robert Yates Letter Analysis

Robert Yates wrote a letter to the federal congress concerning the freedom of people’s rights being stifled by the relatively small amount of representatives that are elected. He believed this form of organization would eventually lead to a tyrannical or monarchal government. Robert Yates was born January 17,1738 in Schenectady, New York and became a figure who was known for his views on the rights of the people. He studied law in New York with William Livingston and became admitted to the New York Bar in 1760. In the pre-revolution years Yates was apart of the Radical Whigs, who were against corruption. They became strong advocates for protecting the liberties of the colonies. During the revolution, he served four years on the Albany Committee …show more content…
In such a vast majority and rising population, he sees a concern between the relationship of the representatives and the people. How can the people have a strong support system in their representatives when most will never actually get the chance to meet them or know them personally. The eventual catalyst is that this problem will bring uneasiness and distrust between the majority and their country stating throughout his letter, “…it is impossible the people of the United States should have sufficient knowledge of their representatives…a great part of them will, probably, not know the characters of their own members”. How can a country be unified if we are all strangers to each other. Yates sees this as being a big problem in the long run of the country. The representatives will begin to be seen as “… a body distinct from them, and having separate interests to pursue…” he gives the example that if a man is employed by a stranger, he is less likely to be trusting of him because he does not know his character or ambitions and will “trust him with caution, and be suspicious of all his conduct.” Hypothesizing of all the uneasiness and distrust in the government, the conclusion shows it will become extremely lethal, mainly because if the United States needed to ban together the notion of so many diverse and …show more content…
Organizing smaller groups in view for a large majority causes mistrust and uneasiness to develop from not knowing the representatives. Eventual decline will effect the voting of the majority and those political issues. In some way he is exactly right. A multitude of American Citizens do not trust their representatives for the reason that they do not know who they are. The people separated from the government slowly by infiltration occurring from the seclusiveness that the political issues appear to hold. America is not as strong in mutual unification of freedom but rather more, every man for himself, which is a predecessor of what Yates predicted. In a way his want of more representatives, is excellently disprove by Madison and Hamilton showing that you need less representatives because with more there is udder chaos, and no real solution can be achieved with so many people and opinions. Altogether, Yates’s letter proved very eye opening and insightful for eventually problems needing better solutions and conclusions in order to protect the rights of the