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.

Jackson, Andrew (1767-1845) to Moses Dawson

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC01736 Author/Creator: Jackson, Andrew (1767-1845) Place Written: Washington, D. C. Type: Autograph letter signed Date: March 4, 1834 Pagination: 1 p. ; 20 x 15 cm + 1 engraving ; b&w ; 27.4 x 19 cm Order a Copy

Writes as President concerning the subsiding economic panic of 1834 caused by the calling in of loans by the second Bank of the United States. Informs that the panic will leave the country in a better condition "... by giving us, in time, a metalic currency to meet the wants of the labouring class of the community by putting down the circulation of notes under five dollars ... " Jackson made a decision to prohibit all bank notes worth less than five dollars. Ends by stating, "The tyrant [the Second Bank of the United States] is chained & must expire at the end of its charter." Marked "private & for your own eye." One bust engraving of Jackson included as collateral.

Dawson was editor of the Cincinnati Advertiser.

private & for your own eye
Washington March 4th. 1834
My Dr Sir,
I hasten to enclose you Genl Voness' note this moment received. it will I trust, shield you from the fangs of the monster.
The panic is fast subsiding and like other panics must end in leaving society in a more pure state, the cowards fly, and the corrupt & infected portion of our country will fail, and leave our country in a more healthy condition, by giving us, in time, a metalic currency to meet the
wants of the labouring class of the community by putting down the circulation of notes under [inserted: five dollars] and in time, under twenty dollars - fear or faint not, in well doing, the tyrant is chained & must expire at the end of its charter -
your friend
Andrew Jackson
Mr Moses Dawson -

Jackson, Andrew, 1767-1845
Dawson, Moses, 1768-1844

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