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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.

Lee, John F., 1813-1884 to Henry Jackson Hunt

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC02382.085 Author/Creator: Lee, John F., 1813-1884 Place Written: s.l. Type: Autograph letter signed Date: February 11, 1871 Pagination: 2 p. : Height: 20.4 cm, Width: 12.7 cm Order a Copy

Declares of courts and commissions organized by Edwin M. Stanton, Secretary of War 1862-1868, "Couldn't he organize courts & commissions to convict! They would have hung their own innocent mothers." Discussing Senator Charles Sumner, writes "Isn't Sumner a great man! the Master spirit of our age. How he drags along, or kicks up, his recalcitrant radicals... I dare say he is logical & right. I have thought profoundly on it this last week, & have grown wiser than any democrat. If nigger is to be an essential element in our population and government... then we had better mix + amalgamate & have it all homogeneous." Notes cryptically that he will keep the "intrigue of yours with the old virgin secret... It does look bad. I had no idea she would commit you." Relates he has been reading Swinton (possibly William Swinton), and refers to General George H. Thomas. Year inferred from content.

Hunt, Henry Jackson, 1819-1889
Lee, John F., 1813-1884
Stanton, Edwin M. (Edwin McMasters), 1814-1869
Sumner, Charles, 1811-1874
Swinton, William, 1833-1892
Thomas, George Henry, 1816-1870

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