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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.

Toombs, Robert Augustus (1810-1885) to Alfred Edmund Burr

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC02925.20 Author/Creator: Toombs, Robert Augustus (1810-1885) Place Written: Washington, D. C. Type: Autograph letter signed Date: 13 March 1860 Pagination: 1 p. : docket ; 24.75 x 19.8 cm. Order a Copy

Toombs, a United States Senator from Georgia, regretfully declines an invitation from Burr, Chairman of the Connecticut Democratic State Central Committee, to speak at a canvass preceding the 1860 presidential election. States "I consider your approaching election of the utmost importance to the Country. Your opponents are the enemies of the Constitution & when the Constitution perishes the Union will & ought to perish with it." Toombs was a U.S. congressman (1845-1852) and senator (1853-1860) from Georgia. During the Civil War he served as Confederate secretary of state and brigadier general in the Confederate army.

Toombs served as Representative from Georgia 1845-1852 and as Senator 1853-1860. Burr founded The Hartford Times, a Connecticut newspaper.

Burr, Alfred Edmund, 1815-1900
Toombs, Robert Augustus, 1810-1885

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