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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.

Knox, Henry, 1750-1806 to George Washington

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC02437.03031 Author/Creator: Knox, Henry, 1750-1806 Place Written: Dorchester, Massachusetts Type: Autograph letter signed Date: 26 July 1784 Pagination: 3 p. : docket ; Height: 29.3 cm, Width: 18.8 cm Order a Copy

Responds to a 2 June 1784 letter from Washington. Discusses a recent Congressional order requiring Frederick Haldimand, Governor of the Province of Quebec, to give the United States information as to when British troops will completely evacuate Western forts, and how cannon and stores from the forts can be exchanged. Knox is incensed, writing "I cannot say but that I am well satisfied to be excluded from any responsibility in arrangements that cannot be executed. The attempt to employ militia for twelve months in an arduous operation of conveying the stores and making permanent establishments in that difficult country..." Notes that William Hull has been sent to obtain the information from Haldimand, but that Haldimand will likely deliver the information at his own convenience, if at all. Notes that opposition to the Society of the Cincinnati in Massachusetts had died down. Written in Dorchester, a neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts.

Knox, Henry, 1750-1806
Washington, George, 1732-1799
Hull, William, 1753-1825
Haldimand, Frederick, Sir, 1718-1791
Lincoln, Benjamin, 1733-1810

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