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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 #: GLC00470.02 Author/Creator: Sumner, Charles, 1811-1874 Place Written: Nahant, Massachusetts Type: Autograph letter signed Date: circa December 1870 Pagination: 2 p. : Height: 17.8 cm, Width: 22 cm Order a Copy

Dated "Thursday." Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (who had a home in Nahant) informed Sumner that false words about Douglass had been attributed to Sumner. Sumner clarifies that he stated that whatever Douglass may think of the "Presidential indignity" every one had a right to express their opinion "in as much as it concerned race."

Sumner, Charles, 1811-1874
Douglass, Frederick, 1818-1895
Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth, 1807-1882

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