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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 James Bowdoin

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC02437.03380 Author/Creator: Knox, Henry, 1750-1806 Place Written: New York, New York Type: Autograph letter Date: 15 December 1786 Pagination: 2 p. : docket ; Height: 31.6 cm, Width: 19.6 cm Order a Copy

Writes, "Major [Winthrop] Sargent will have the honor to deliver your Excellency this letter. Although his dispositions are military, yet he finds himself constrained on consideration of his former rank to decline the appointment to a company of Artillery with which your Excellency lately favored him. But as it is possible that the commotions which now exist in Massachusetts may demand the services of every friend of good governt he will with great zeal render every service in his power to check the progress of rebellion." Recommends him as an excellent officer.

Knox, Henry, 1750-1806
Bowdoin, James, 1726-1790
Sargent, Winthrop, 1753-1820

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