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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.

Smith, Gerrit, 1797-1874 The West Point mob.

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC04717.66 Author/Creator: Smith, Gerrit, 1797-1874 Place Written: Peterboro, New York Type: Printed document Date: 13 March 1871 Pagination: 1 p. : Height: 32.8 cm, Width: 20.5 cm Order a Copy

Smith discusses recent mob activity at West Point, New York: "Nothing else is so frightful as a mob- that many-headed monster, whose every head refuses to be controlled. Mobs and their dramshop inspiration threaten the ruin of our country. Ours is emphatically the country of mobs. Slavery made it such." Judging from Smith's text, West Point cadets kidnapped and threatened to tar and feather several African Americans.

Smith, Gerrit, 1797-1874

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