Our Collection

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.

Goldsborough, Louis Malesherbes, 1805-1877 to Captain A. Harwood

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC08302 Author/Creator: Goldsborough, Louis Malesherbes, 1805-1877 Place Written: s.l. Type: Autograph letter signed Date: 01 May 1861 Pagination: Order a Copy

On board USS Congress, Montevideo, Uruguay, re: on -board experiments with sponges and the ship's guns; attacking secession: "no country on earth can stand universal Suffrage and secession.... The idea, too, that with us, one owes a higher and holier allegiance to his state than to his country is enough to destroy nationality and patriotism, and to disqualify anyone from holding a Federal trust."

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