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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.

Jackson, William, 1759-1828 to Henry Knox

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC02437.05115 Author/Creator: Jackson, William, 1759-1828 Place Written: s.l. Type: Autograph letter signed Date: 12 August 1791 Pagination: 1 p. : Height: 24 cm, Width: 19.9 cm Order a Copy

Signed in text in the third person by President George Washington's secretary William Jackson. Says he is writing by the President's command to transmit a letter (see GLC02437.04963)
addressed to the President from Behague, Governor of the French Windward Islands. Behague was soliciting a diploma for himself from the Society of the Cincinnati. The letter also asks for a diploma for Fressinaux. Reports that the President wants "General Knox to make such answer to M. Behague's letter [if] he may think proper, and the circumstances the case will authorise."

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