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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.

Jackson, Andrew, 1767-1845 to George Pessenger and William P. Varian

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC06204 Author/Creator: Jackson, Andrew, 1767-1845 Place Written: Washington, District of Columbia Type: Autograph letter signed Date: 1835/04/15 Pagination: 2 p. : Height: 25.4 cm, Width: 20.1 cm Order a Copy

Thanking Pessenger and William P. Varian as representatives of the Democratic Electors of New York's Eleventh Ward for a side of beef, which Jackson says gives him as great if not greater pleasure than many fancier gifts. Pessenger and William P. Varian were butchers. "It has been the aim of my life to secure the happiness and thus to gain the affections of the cottagers of my country. To this end, I have toiled, and that labor might be safe in its earnings a thing impossible when the government is not under the control of the workingmen...." The letter was reprinted in a number of newspapers, notably the Nashville Union 20 May 1835.

Jackson, Andrew, 1767-1845
Pessenger, George, fl. 1835
Varian, William P., fl. 1835

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