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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.

Davis, Jefferson, 1808-1889 to Nahum Capen

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC05508.083 Author/Creator: Davis, Jefferson, 1808-1889 Place Written: Biloxi, Mississippi Type: Letter Date: 22 November [1880] Pagination: 3 p. : Height: 15.2 cm, Width: 29 cm Order a Copy

Written and signed by Varina Davis, for her husband. Discusses the founding and failure of the "first Confederacy" and the "dispersion of His chosen people." Davis argues that if their example had been followed, perhaps there would not have been a Civil War. He hopes that the Union can be returned to its founding principles but fears the nation has become "an example to be avoided not followed." Davis then questions the presidential candidacy of James A. Garfield, citing that he is charged with "an offence, an indictment for which could only be successfully answered by pleading the Statue of Limitations." Written at Davis's home, Beauvoir.

Davis, Jefferson, 1808-1889
Capen, Nahum, 1804-1886
Garfield, James A. (James Abram), 1831-1881

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