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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.

Hayes, Rutherford Birchard (1822-1893) [Order to Secretary of State to accredit James Longstreet as Minister to Ottoman Empire]

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC03843 Author/Creator: Hayes, Rutherford Birchard (1822-1893) Place Written: Washington, D.C. Type: Document signed Date: 24 June 1880 Pagination: 1 p. : docket ; 25.2 x 20 cm Order a Copy

President Hayes orders Secretary of State William M. Evarts "to cause the Seal of the United States to be affixed to envelope containing letter accrediting James Longstreet as Minister President to the Ottoman Empire." Longstreet, a prominent Confederate General and military advisor to Robert E. Lee, became a Republican after the war, angering the populace of the mostly Democratic South. His allegiance to the Republican Party earned him choice positions of patronage, including the ambassadorship to the Ottoman Empire. He only served for one year in Turkey before returning to America to take up the post of federal marshall of Georgia.

Rutherford B. Hayes

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