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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.

Johnson, Andrew, 1808-1875 To: Samuel Milligan

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC07995 Author/Creator: Johnson, Andrew, 1808-1875 Place Written: Washington, District of Columbia Type: Autograph letter signed Date: January 13, 1861 Pagination: 8 p. 23 cm x 14.7 cm Order a Copy

"I look upon secession as being the prolific mother of anarchy which is the next step to despotism. It is political heresy..." (Johnson wrote 1860 by mistake)

Milligan, Samuel, fl. 1861
Johnson, Andrew, 1808-1875

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