Our Collection

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.

Conkling, Roscoe, 1829-1888 to C.G. Burke

Order a pdf of this item here.

Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC01596.06 Author/Creator: Conkling, Roscoe, 1829-1888 Place Written: Washington, District of Columbia Type: Autograph letter signed Date: 5 February 1861 Pagination: 4 p. ; 25 x 20 cm. Order a Copy

Discusses their friendship and his "political fate." Mentions a speech that Burke said was "passionately condemned" which related to the Civil War: "the preservation or partition of a great empire, the fate of a nation the greatest in the future, the world has ever seen." Notes a "sinister purpose" Burke and others have warned him of. Marked "In Confidence." Conkling was then a Republican U.S. representative from New York.

Conkling, Roscoe, 1829-1888
Burke, C.G., fl. 1861

Citation Guidelines for Online Resources