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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.

Sumner, Charles, 1811-1874 to Frederick Douglass

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC00470.01 Author/Creator: Sumner, Charles, 1811-1874 Place Written: Washington, District of Columbia Type: Autograph letter signed Date: December 1870 Pagination: 2 p. : Height: 20.8 cm, Width: 13.7 cm Order a Copy

Sumner, a Senator from Massachusetts tried the previous day to locate Douglass at his office, but was too late. Writes "I beg to talk with you about the Republican party & its perils to which I fear you are not sufficiently sensible... Pray don't drive the wedge to split us. Let us try to leave the colored people in their rights..." Dated "Sunday." Not in Douglass's or Sumner's Papers and apparently unpublished.

Sumner, Charles, 1811-1874
Douglass, Frederick, 1818-1895

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