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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 Lucy Knox

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC02437.05539 Author/Creator: Knox, Henry, 1750-1806 Place Written: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Type: Autograph letter signed Date: 15 July 1792 Pagination: 4 p. : docket ; Height: 32 cm, Width: 20.5 cm Order a Copy

Writes that he was recently sick with the fever but has "surmounted the cursed disorder." Discusses his misgivings about whether William Duer will be able to pay the sums stipulated in their agreement. Expresses his dissatisfaction with his present duties and dismay at the situation in France. "Were I to leave this and any part of the public business be neglected I should receive no mercy at the public bar - What a humiliating picture of human nature do the affairs of france exhibit all mad stark mad - ... The spirit of turbulence, envy and malice which are excited in other climes have also assailed our political fabric and although persons seem to be the object, yet it is measures which are really so."

Knox, Henry, 1750-1806
Knox, Lucy Flucker, 1756-1824
Duer, William, 1747-1799

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