Our Collection

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.

Monroe, James (1758-1831) to Charles F. Mercer

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC01192 Author/Creator: Monroe, James (1758-1831) Place Written: Oak Hill, Virginia Type: Autograph letter signed Date: 19 May 1826 Pagination: 4 p. : docket ; 24.5 x 19.8 cm. Order a Copy

Acknowledges letter from Mercer by Mr. Hawkins. States he is satisfied with the work of the Committee of Claims in the House of Representatives on his refund requests from his time overseas. Discusses possible publication of the documents pertaining to his claims. In the postscript he qualifies his desperate financial state: "In fact I have been plac'd in a situation, fraught with so many difficulties & delicacies, that I have not known how to act in it." Recipient inferred from handwriting of docket, which is the same as a docket on GLC 1134, a letter from Monroe to Mercer. Written two days before Congress approved a payment of $29,513 to Monroe.

Mercer, Charles Fenton, 1778-1858
Monroe, James, 1758-1831

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