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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.

[Extract of a letter of support for the Constitution from a Virginian to a friend in Portsmouth, New Hampshire]

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC06537 Author/Creator: Place Written: s.l. Type: Letter Date: 1788/05/12 Pagination: 1 p. : Height: 31.6 cm, Width: 20 cm Order a Copy

Recognizes that human political institutions are not perfect, and describes the proposed Constitution as "the result of mutual concession and accommodation" that does not "come fully up to the views of any one." He praises the Constitution as "admirably calculated to promote and secure the felicity of mankind in a State of civil society." He expects it to be ratified in Virginia and was disappointed that New Hampshire did not immediately adopt it, but hopes it will in the future.

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