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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.

Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865 [Lincoln endorsement for release of Union prisoner of war]

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC02805 Author/Creator: Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865 Place Written: Washington, District of Columbia Type: Autograph endorsement signed Date: 15 June 1864 Pagination: 1, 3 p. : Height: 26 cm, Width: 20 cm Order a Copy

Written on verso of a 28 April 1864 autograph letter signed from Missouri Representative Austin King. King seeks release for E. M. Brashear of Lafayette County, Missouri. Writes " While I know but little of this youth, I know his relations to be among the most respectable of my district. … I ask of you Mr President the discharge of Brashear, and I have such confidence in his sense of honor, and of the same in his relatives & friends who wish his discharge, that I feel that I risk nothing in vouching for his future fidelity to the Government." Lincoln orders that this man be allowed to take the oath of 8 December 1863 and released.

Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865
King, Austin Augustus, 1802-1870
Brashear, E. M., fl. 1864

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