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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 to David Hunter

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC04001 Author/Creator: Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865 Place Written: Washington, District of Columbia Type: Manuscript document signed Date: 10 February 1863 Pagination: 2 p. : Height: 25 cm, Width: 20.5 cm Order a Copy

To Major General Hunter, Commander of the Department of the South, Brigadier General Rufus Saxton, military governor of the region including South Carolina, A. C. Smith, W. E. Wording, and William Henry Brisbane. President Lincoln authorizes these men to "select for Government use, for War, Military, Naval, revenue, Charitable, Educational or police purposes such tracts, parcels or lots of land, within the State of South Carolina, from the lands which may have been or which may hereafter be offered for sale by the Direct Tax Commissioners in said State." Authorizes the men's action based on a 7 June 1862 Act of Congress, and states that Hunter and Saxton, as well as two of the three other men, may constitute a quorum when selecting the land. Contains a stain along the left side of both pages.

Brisbane, William Henry, 1806-1878
Hunter, David, 1802-1886
Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865
Saxton, Rufus, 1824-1908
Smith, A. C., fl. 1863
Wording, W. E., fl. 1863

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