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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.

Schuyler, Philip John, 1733-1804 to Charles Thomson

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC09242 Author/Creator: Schuyler, Philip John, 1733-1804 Place Written: s.l. Type: Autograph letter signed Date: 3 March 1785 Pagination: 2 p. : Order a Copy

Draft letter to Charles Thomson, Secretary of Congress, declining appointment [as one of three commissioners to lay out site for Federal capital] "Reduced to the painful necessity of a sedentary life by chronic disorders,… In this situation Congress will readily perceive that I could not accomplish their views." Major Gen. Schuyler had been one of the oldest officers serving in the Continental Army and in 1785 was serving his second term as senator in the New York Legislature.

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