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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.

Jefferson, Thomas, 1743-1826 to William Henry Harrison

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC07156 Author/Creator: Jefferson, Thomas, 1743-1826 Place Written: Washington, District of Columbia Type: Letter signed Date: 31 December 1808 Pagination: 1 p. : docket Height: 24.5 cm, Width: 19.8 cm Order a Copy

Asks Harrison, then governor of the Indiana Territory, to help pass laws prohibiting the sale of alcohol to Indians, in hopes that it will remove a "great obstacle to their acquiring industrious habits." Also notes that the general government policy towards the Indians was "to endeavor to render them friends, and, in time, perhaps, useful members of the nation."

Jefferson, Thomas, 1743-1826
Harrison, William Henry, 1773-1841

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