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.

Morris, Robert (1734-1806) to Benjamin Lincoln

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC02437.01542 Author/Creator: Morris, Robert (1734-1806) Place Written: s.l. Type: Manuscript letter Date: 27 August 1782 Pagination: 1 p. ; 23.1 x 20.9 cm. Order a Copy

Marked "copy." Written from the "Office of Finance." Addressee inferred because letter is addressed to "Secretary at War," a post occupied in 1782 by Benjamin Lincoln. Writes, "I have received your letter of the nineteenth of August, and would have answered it more speedily could I have answered it satisfactorily. I must now inform you that I cannot undertake to pay the sums you mention for the purchase of shells without diverting money from services which are indispensable. Many such services are now suffering." Written in the hand of William Jackson, Lincoln's assistant.

Signer of the U.S. Constitution.

Signer of the U.S. Constitution.

Morris, Robert, 1734-1806
Lincoln, Benjamin, 1733-1810

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