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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.

Adams, John Quincy, 1767-1848 to Gerrit Smith

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC06315 Author/Creator: Adams, John Quincy, 1767-1848 Place Written: Washington, District of Columbia Type: Autograph letter signed Date: 1837/04/05 Pagination: 4 p. : Height: 25 cm, Width: 20.3 cm Order a Copy

Political situation, Gag Rule, opposition to slavery. "The condition of the African race in this Union has ever been to me subject of deep concern... I have felt an anxious wish that slavery might be abolished... throughout the Union and throughout the world... [but] the people of the free states are spell-bound by the talisman of ambition to sustain the slavery of the south."

Adams, John Quincy, 1767-1848
Smith, Gerrit, 1797-1874

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