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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.

Page, Benjamin Price, 1818-1904 to John B. Marchand

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC02680.07 Author/Creator: Page, Benjamin Price, 1818-1904 Place Written: Washington, District of Columbia Type: Autograph letter signed Date: December 1, 1858 Pagination: 2 p. : docket ; Height: 20 cm, Width: 12.3 cm Order a Copy

Thanks Marchand for agreeing to deliver her letters to her husband, Thomas J. Page. Worries because "I have seen in the papers most discouraging accounts of the Steamers intended for the Paraguay expedition," but hopes everything goes well. The expedition was a United States Naval operation which sought indemnity for an attack years earlier by Paraguain forces on an American vessel. The showing of superior naval power also allowed the U. S. to secure an advantageous trade treaty with Paraguay. Page captained the U.S.S. Water Witch on a voyage to survey rivers in South America in 1855. During that journey, the Water Witch was fired upon, and it was in response to this event that the Paraguay expedition was sent. Page later become a Commodore in the Confederate Navy.

Marchand, John Bonnett, 1808-1875
Page, Benjamina Price, 1818-1904
Page, Thomas Jefferson, 1808-1899

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