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.

Wadsworth, Jeremiah (1743-1804) to Henry Knox

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC02437.04426 Author/Creator: Wadsworth, Jeremiah (1743-1804) Place Written: Hartford, Connecticut Type: Autograph letter signed Date: 6 December 1789 Pagination: 2 p. : docket ; 33.2 x 20.6 cm. Order a Copy

Returns warrants that Knox requested (refer to GLC02437.04422). Sends news that his family is recovering from influenza. Discusses the Marquis de Lafayette and the French Revolution: "Our friend the Marquis is indeed in a perilous situation, but he is in great spirits & I hope will succeed. Tho I fear they are [aiming] at more liberty than is consistent with good Government, I do not think France can for a great many years to come be governed by a very free Liberal system - but they were before wretched enough & it was time to make an experiment they could loose nothing but their Heads (the common people) & they could spare them well enough. if nobody had told them they were wretched I think they would not soon have found it out."

Knox, Henry, 1750-1806
Wadsworth, Jeremiah, 1743-1804
Lafayette, Marie Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert Du Motier, marquis de, 1757-1834

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