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.

Gorham, Nathaniel (1738-1796) to Henry Knox

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC02437.03802 Author/Creator: Gorham, Nathaniel (1738-1796) Place Written: Charlestown, Massachusetts Type: Autograph letter signed Date: 17 February 1788 Pagination: 1 p. : address : docket ; 29.6 x 16.7 cm. Order a Copy

Notes that Mr. [Rufus] King will inform Knox of "everything," that is, events that recently transpired at the Massachusetts State ratifying convention. Writes, "The [sic] was a necessity in the Convention of mentioning Rhode Island as having prohibited the attendance of their members in Congress- an advertizm has appeared in order to give a false colour to that business- and a use is intended to be made of it at the meeting of the Legislature- I have therefore written in the inclosed Letter to Mr K requesting him to get me copies of every thing relative to that affair & to forward it through you by the first Post..."

Signer of the U.S. Constitution.

Gorham was a delegate to the Massachusetts state convention, which ratified the Federal Constitution in February 1788. Rhode Island declined attending the Philadelphia Convention that ratified the Federal Constitution; as a state, Rhode Island was last to ratify the Constitution, doing so in May 1790.

Gorham, Nathaniel, 1738-1796
Knox, Henry, 1750-1806
Ludlow, Israel, 1765-1804

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