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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.

Biddle, Nicholas (1786-1844) to William Appleton re: instructions on bank funds as Jackson dismantles bank

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC01994.02 Author/Creator: Biddle, Nicholas (1786-1844) Place Written: s.l. Type: Autograph letter signed Date: 1833/01/24 Pagination: 1 p. + docket + note + etching Order a Copy

Written as president of the Bank of the United States to Appleton, President of the Office of Discount and Deposit, Boston. Biddle explains that "the loans in the remoter offices, particularly in the South and West, are gradually diminishing, and the fund[s] transferred into the more manageable form of domestic bills of exchange." Biddle explains that this policy will provide more funds for circulation in the Atlantic offices, where more money was needed. This was the very policy that angered President Jackson, who felt money should be kept in the originating region.

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