Our Collection

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.

Pugh, George Ellis, 1822-1876 to Alfred Edmund Burr

Order a pdf of this item here.

Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC02925.16 Author/Creator: Pugh, George Ellis, 1822-1876 Place Written: Washington, District of Columbia Type: Autograph letter signed Date: 10 March 1860 Pagination: 2 p. : docket ; Height: 24.6 cm, Width: 19.7 cm Order a Copy

Declines an invitation from Burr, Chairman of the Connecticut Democratic State Central Committee, to speak at a canvass preceding the 1860 presidential election. States "I fervently hope that our Democratic friends in Connecticut may be so earnest, and zealous, and withal so fortunate as to break the back of Abolitionism at the approaching election. Their victory (if victory it shall be) will decide the Presidential contest ...It is a source of regret to me that I cannot wear the harness in a battle so glorious, and full of such weighty consequences." Pugh served as a U.S. senator from Ohio from 1855-1860.

Burr, Alfred Edmund, 1815-1900
Pugh, George Ellis, 1822-1876

Citation Guidelines for Online Resources