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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.

Washington, George (1732-1799) to Henry Knox

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC02437.09420 Author/Creator: Washington, George (1732-1799) Place Written: Mount Vernon, Virginia Type: Autograph letter signed Date: 10 April 1789 Pagination: 1 p. : address : docket ; 23.3 x 18.5 cm. Order a Copy

Thanks Knox for recently sending cloth and buttons. Notes that his coat requires six more buttons for trim, and asks Knox to procure and hold these until Washington arrives in New York. Mentions an article of impost, and laments "the stupor, or listlessness with which our public measures seem to be pervaded." In a post script, predicts a quorum in both Houses of Congress.

Signer of the U.S. Constitution.

Mount Vernon April 10th. 1789
My dear Sir,
The cloth and Buttons which accompanied your favor of the 30th. Ult, came safe by Colo. Hanson; and really do credit to the manufactures of this Country.- As it requires Six more of the large (engraved) button to trim the Coat in the manner I wish it to be, I would thank you, my good Sir, for procuring that number and retaining them in your hands until my arrival at New York. -
Not to contemplate (though it is a serious object) the loss which you say the General Government will sustain in the article of Impost, the stupor, or listlessness with which our public measures seem to be pervaded, is, to me, matter of deep regret.- Indeed it has so strange an appearance that I cannot but wonder how men who sollicit public confidence or who are even prevailed upon to accept of it can reconcile such conduct with their own feelings of propriety. -The delay is inauspicious to say the best of it- and the World must contemn it. - With sentiments of the sincerest friendship,- I am
Yr. Affectionate
Go: Washington
PS. The advices by the Mail of this Evening will, surely, inform us of a Quorum in both Houses of Congress. -

[docket]
Mount Vernon 10th of April. 1789

[address]
The Honble Majr. Genl Knox New- York.

Knox, Henry, 1750-1806
Washington, George, 1732-1799

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