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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.

Pickens, Francis Wilkinson, 1805-1869 to the South Carolina Legislature

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC09206.01 Author/Creator: Pickens, Francis Wilkinson, 1805-1869 Place Written: s.l. Type: Autograph letter signed Date: circa December 1861 Pagination: 2 p. : Order a Copy

"The public mind has in some degree over-estimated the essential importance of our cotton to England & France - in supposing that if deprived of it they would be forced to interfere in this contest with our enemies. They will be governed solely by their interests.

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