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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.

Hancock, John, 1737-1793 to William Smallwood

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC06502 Author/Creator: Hancock, John, 1737-1793 Place Written: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Type: Letter signed Date: February 1, 1777 Pagination: 2 p. : address ; Height: 32.3 cm, Width: 20.5 cm Order a Copy

Communicates to General Smallwood a resolution by the Continental Congress in response to a petition from citizens in Somerset and Worcester counties in Maryland. The resolution orders Smallwood to help "suppress the Tories in the counties of Somerset and Worcester, and to seize and secure the persons mentioned in a list to be transmitted." The loyalists would then be required to submit to a loyalty oath and some would be put on trial. Signed as President of Congress. Written "In Congress."

Hancock, John, 1737-1797
Smallwood, William, 1732-1792

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