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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.

Hamilton, Alexander, 1757-1804 to James McHenry re: election, Adams, political dispositions (signed "AH")

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC07280 Author/Creator: Hamilton, Alexander, 1757-1804 Place Written: New York, New York Type: Autograph letter signed Date: 1800/08/27 Pagination: 3 p. : docket ; 24.5 x 19.8 cm Order a Copy

He writes of the upcoming election: "We fight Adams on very unequal grounds-because we do not declare the motives of our dislike. The exposition of these is very important but how? I would make it & put my name to it, but I cannot do it without it being conclusively inferred that as to my material fails I must have derived my information from ... the Administration. Yet without this, we have the air of mere caballers & shall be complete run down in the public opinion." Signed with initials.

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