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.

Parker, Theodore (1810-1860) to Nathaniel P. Banks

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC02509.10 Author/Creator: Parker, Theodore (1810-1860) Place Written: St. Albans, Vt. Type: Autograph letter signed Date: 16 February 1856 Pagination: 1 p. 23x14 cm Order a Copy

Congratulates him on his "success in helping achieve the first victory which the North has won over the South since 1808, when the slave trade with Africa was abolished. I might better say, the first victory of freedom over Slavery since the Declaration of Independence -- for there was no fight in 1808." Banks was a member of Congress from Massachusetts. In 1856 he declined the presidential nomination of the American party.

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