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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.

Jones, Thomas Ap Catesby, 1790-1858 to John B. Marchand

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC02680.03 Author/Creator: Jones, Thomas Ap Catesby, 1790-1858 Place Written: San Francisco, California Type: Letter signed Date: 10 October 1849 Pagination: 2 p. : docket ; Height: 31.5 cm, Width: 19.9 cm Order a Copy

Denying Marchand's request to be relieved of his post and return home. "I can see nothing in your situation oppressive or even unusual in the naval service...It is a great innovation upon usage, and the obligations of Commissioned officers to their country to suppose, that they, like enlisted persons engage for a limited term and at the expiration thereof have a right to go home, no such right exists while their services are required abroad." Written on board "Flag Ship 'Savannah.'"

Marchand, John Bonnett, 1808-1875
Jones, Thomas Ap Catesby, 1790-1858

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