Search | Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History

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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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Place written

Year

Sub-era

1864/02/23

Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865

Letter signed

Title: To: Anson Burlingame.

Authorizing Anson Burlingame to negotiate with Chinese to modify treaty article.

GLC07924

1871 ca.

Douglass, Frederick, 1818-1895

Autograph quotation signed

Title: "We are sometimes asked in the name of patriotism..."

Quotation in full: "We are sometimes asked in the name of patriotism to forget the merits of this fearful conflict and to remember with equal admiration those who struck at the nation's life and those who struck to save it--those who fought for slavery and those who fought against it..."

GLC07926.01

1851/11/06

Buchanan, James, 1791-1868

Autograph letter signed

Title: To: James M.H. Beale.

Forney, a pro-slavery candidate, was "in favor of the maintenance and faithful execution of the fugitive slave laws...and of the suppression of all further agitation of the slavery question."

GLC07927

1776/11/15

Phillips, William, 1731-1781

Letter

Title: To: John Schank.

Phillips' reaction to a truce at Fort Ticonderoga

GLC07928

1815/02/13

Broadside

Title: Treaty of Ghent

Announcing the Treaty of Ghent. This broadside contains the news from both New York and London that peace between the United States and Great Britain had been signed..

GLC07929

1801/05/15

Ellery, Elmund, fl. 1801

Manuscript document signed

Title: Rhode Island issued warrant for seizure of the Schooner "Orange"

Schooner seized for trafficking slaves.

GLC07930

1833/08/28

Jackson, Andrew, 1767-1845

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Tilghman Ashurst Howard

Constitution, slavery, banking, methods of electing the President: "If I can...only succeed in banishing...corrupting influences...on the Constitution and [attempts] to make the government an engine of oppression to the people instead of the agent of their will..."

GLC07931

1843/05/08

Story, Joseph, 1779-1845

Autograph letter signed

Title: To: John McDonogh.

Discusses "the rights of master and the interests of the slave" in reference to the idea of African colonization.

GLC07932

1776/05/27

Schuyler, Philip John, 1733-1804

Autograph letter signed

Title: To: Col. Dayton.

Schuyler, in response to Caldwell's suggestion that Highlanders who didn't flee be allowed to stay on their land, says that this can only be done with restrictions, since the Highlanders trust Americans as much as "papists trust Protestants."

GLC07933

1861/04/08

Davis, Jefferson, 1808-1889

Autograph letter signed

Title: To: George W. Hughes.

Hoping that "Maryland again will make us confreres" by joining the Confederacy.

GLC07935

1794/12/26

Jefferson, Thomas, 1743-1826

Autograph letter signed

Title: The hiring of four slaves

"Having occasion to hire for the ensuing year four very able intelligent negro-men, I hereby authorize Mr. Peter Derieux to act for me therein, and oblige myself to pay whatever hire he may stipulate for me..."

GLC07936

1828/01/18

Harrison, William Henry, 1773-1841

Autograph letter signed

Title: To: J[ames] Heaton, Esq.

William Henry Harrison's desire for the Vice Presidential nomination in the upcoming election.

GLC07941

1869/12/30

Lincoln, Mary Todd, 1818-1882

Autograph letter

Title: To: Unknown recipient.

Her health, President Grant.

GLC07944

1785/02/24

Adams, John, 1735-1826

Autograph document signed

Title: To: King George III.

Establishing diplomatic ties with England. Letter of credentials. A true copy in Adams' hand, with clerical copies of Adams' appointment and William Smith's appointment.

GLC07946

1814/11/18

Adams, John, 1735-1826

Autograph letter signed

Title: To: Charles F. Adams.

"You have reason to exult, that you are a 'freeborn American' and I wish you may never be ashamed to boast of it. In all cases remember, that birth, without wisdom, is reproach and disgrace."

GLC07947