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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.

Calhoun, John C. (John Caldwell) (1782-1850) to William McPherson

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC03019 Author/Creator: Calhoun, John C. (John Caldwell) (1782-1850) Place Written: Washington, D.C. Type: Letter signed Date: 2 July 1844 Pagination: 2 p. 33 x 21 cm Order a Copy

Secretary of State Calhoun asks U.S. Attorney for the District of Missouri McPherson that execution of convicted murderers John McDaniel and Joseph Brown be stayed. He adds "It is not... designed, by this interference, to create any hope of the ultimate pardon of these men, but merely that time may be allowed to examine into the credibility of [Orrin P.] Rockwell," a new witness who claimed to have received a confession from William Mason.

Calhoun, John Caldwell, 1782-1850
McPherson, William, fl. 1844
McDaniel, John, fl. 1844
Brown, Joseph, fl. 1844
Rockwell, Orrin P., fl. 1844

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