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, Henry (1747-1809) to Henry Knox

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC02437.04644 Author/Creator: Jackson, Henry (1747-1809) Place Written: Boston, Massachusetts Type: Autograph letter signed Date: 4 July 1790 Pagination: 3 p. : docket ; 24.3 x 19.4 cm. Order a Copy

Writes, "The time taken up by Congress in fixing the permanent seat of Government, and the situation of the Funding business has caused a great uneasiness & clamour amongst the people, and of that Class that have been the firmest supporters of the government ... every mechanick & Tradesman conceives that their being out of employ is wholly owing to that circumstance - and the distress of that class of people in the several seaports in this State is very alarming - in this town it is melancholy to see the poverty and wretchedness of the inhabitants..." Reports that Captain Vose, managing affairs on Knox's lands in present-day Maine, informed him that the people who live there are behind in their payments. They will not make any payments until the Massachusetts General Court decides on a petition related to the land. Relates, "a Spanish War remains as it did..."

Jackson, Henry, 1747-1809
Knox, Henry, 1750-1806

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