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At the Institute’s core is the Gilder Lehrman Collection, one of the great archives in American history. More than 85,000 items cover five hundred years of American history, from Columbus’s 1493 letter describing the New World through the end of the twentieth century.

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1860/05/16

Vorhees, N.W., fl. 1860

Autograph note signed

Title: [Resolution of New Jersey Delegation]

One manuscript page (in the hand of N. W. Voorhees, Secretary) in which the New Jersey Delegation responds to the Massachusetts Delegation's communication with a resolution of their own, instructing and informing the Delegates from Massachusetts that "William L. Dayton is the first choice of New Jersey, and that they can carry the State with him; and that the Delegation are not prepared at this present time to state what their second and third choice of Candidates may be." Validated as "A true copy," also in Voorhees' hand.

GLC07863.02

1860/05/21

Keyes, John S., fl. 1860

Autograph manuscript signed

Title: [Draft of a resolution of thanks]

A communication from the Headquarters of the Massachusetts Delegation to the Republican Convention, Chicago (from the Secretary of that Delegation) thanking Governor Randall of Wisconsin "for the kind and liberal invitation to us to an execution over the North Western Railroad to Madison...and for his thoughtful care for our comfort and pleasure" during a recent trip to the city. Obviously a draft; heavily corrected throughout.

GLC07863.03

1769-1792

Lee, Arthur, 1740-1792

Header Record

Title: 9 letters to William Petty, first Marquis of Lansdown, 1 to William Jones [Decimalized .01- .11]

GLC07865

1787/08/13

Gerry, Elbridge, 1744-1814

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Hon. [?] Warren re: newly proposed Constitution

GLC07870

1829/04/14

Madison, James, 1751-1836

Autograph letter signed

Title: to B[enjamin] Romaine, Esq.

Expressing his views on impending Constitutional reforms. In part: "On the subject that of Constitutional Reforms....it will be well for the States who are latest in performing the task, not to lose sight of the advantage which that circumstance gives them. There is a pretty general concurrence here as to the chief defects in the Constitution which is about to be revised. I wish there may be an equal one in the proper remedies. I hope, at least, that everything tending to undermine the General Constitution will be avoided with the same care which guards against encroachments on the…

GLC07873

1790/02/19

Rush, Benjamin, 1746-1813

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Mr. Fitssimons

Regarding funding act of 1790 (supported by Mr. Fitssimons, opposed by Rush). Speaking of "future acts of injustice," Rush remarks that: "Your funding System is to be one of them, and however much it may be gilded by the splendid and imposing names of honourable policy, it will rank hereafter with the murder of the innocent inhabitants of South America by the Spaniards-with the Slavery of the Africans by our Southern States, and with the ravages committed by Great Britain upon prosperty & life in America during the War....They all have left a stain upon our Country & upon human…

GLC07874

1829/05/18

Mitchell, Samuel L., fl. 1829

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Benjamin Romaine, Esq.

Regarding friction in the early 19th century America and the rise of various secession movements. In part: "That a few mad or unfortunate persons of the old federal party might have thought of dissolving the confederacy, is despicable enough; but I never thought they could have carried the population of the New England States with them in such a treasonable and suicidal measure."

GLC07875

1860/10/30

Scott, Winfield, 1786-1866

Autograph letter signed

Title: to [John B. Floyd]

Comments on an untitled essay he wrote which dealt with the topics of succession and the tensions between the Northern and Southern states. In part: "Gen. Scott is all solicitude for the safety of the Union. He is, however, not without hope that all dangers & difficulties will pass away without leaving a scar or a painful recollection behind..."

GLC07876.01

1860/10/29

Scott, Winfield, 1786-1866

Manuscript document signed

Title: Views suggested by the imminent danger of a disruption of the Union by...

GLC07876.02

1787/09/28

United States. Congress.

Broadside

Title: Resolution of Congress forwarding Constitution to the states for ratification

GLC07877

1788

Hamilton, Alexander, 1757-1804

Book signed

Title: An Essay on the Learning of Devises...

GLC07880

11 July 1804

Church, Angelica, 1756-1814

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Philip Schuyler

Writes from Greenwich Village, New York about the duel between Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr. "I have the painful task to inform you that General Hamilton was this morning wouned [sic] by that Wretch Burr but we have every reason to hope that he will recover."

GLC07882

1777-1778

Austin, Jonathan Loring, 1748-1826

Autograph manuscript

Title: Journal kept while serving in France as secret intermediary for Franklin

GLC07883

1862/04/04

Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865

Document signed

Title: Authority to affix the seal...to treat...on...suppression of African slave trade

GLC07751

1882/08/20

Douglass, Frederick, 1818-1895

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Sarah Pillsbury re: death of his wife Anna Douglass

Douglass writes "Thanks for your kind letter. Mrs Douglass was all you say of her and more. She was the post in the centre of my house. Different we were in many things. She was conservative and I radical, she was for the old I for the new, She did not care to learn to read - and was thus measurably that out from the things the interested me. but in all the duties of mother and wife, she deserves all you have said of her. Two people could not well live together forty and four years as we have done, without the death of either being a shock and a calamity."

GLC07752.01

6 February 1843

Lee, Robert E., 1807-1870

Autograph letter signed

Title: to John MacKay

Comments on MacKay's improving health and gives additional advice. Discusses congressional appropriations, reductions in budgets and appointments, and politics in Washington, D.C. at length. Mentions that the Oregon Bill, which expansionist President James K. Polk supported in his campaign, passed the Senate but had a doubtful fate in the House. Lee was then the Superintending Engineer for Fort Hamilton in New York Harbor. Delays and changes in congressional appropriations threatened his improvement projects. MacKay was Lee's closest friend during his days at West Point. He served in the…

GLC07755

1869/12/15

Wilson, Henry, 1812-1875

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Editor of theTribune re: Cuban independence

GLC07759

1845/09/27

Polk, James K. (James Knox), 1795-1849

Document signed

Title: Authority to affix the seal attesting to Alabama Act

GLC07761

13 July 1889

Douglass, Frederick, 1818-1895

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Mr. Clapp

One letter from Frederick Douglass to Mr. Clapp Dated July 13, 1889. The letter is regarding Douglass's work in Haiti. "The work before me in hayti is not very inviting. Neither the Diplomatic nor the Sanitary conditions are what I should like; but as Daniel Webster once said any man can do all agreeable duty not every man can do a disagreeable duty."

GLC07764