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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.

Ramsey, Alexander, 1815-1903 to Dr. J.J. Wardlaw

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC09311 Author/Creator: Ramsey, Alexander, 1815-1903 Place Written: s.l. Type: Autograph letter signed Date: 3 January 1867 Pagination: 5 p. : Order a Copy

Former Alabama slave owner comments on Reconstruction: "There will be in this country great distress and destitution; hundreds of men who were in good circumstances before the war are completely ruined. Suing and being sued is the order of the day.…And what the Radicals will do, can only be judged of by their former acts, and propositions now in their Congress. I believe they intend to give us a Territorial government, and place the negro over us in point of privilege. I hope however the good Lord may intervene and thwart their designs."

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