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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.

Fitch, Alvah (b. ca. 1828) Petition of inhabitants of Scipio and Venice to the Congress of the U. States

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC03860 Author/Creator: Fitch, Alvah (b. ca. 1828) Place Written: Venice, New York Type: Manuscript document Date: 23 January 1862 Pagination: 1 p. ; 32.2 x 20.3 cm. Order a Copy

Inhabitants of Cayuga County, New York, ask Congress to pass a law "reducing all the rebellious States to Territories declare all the slaves free and as soon as the rebels can be drove out of a State or subdued give each resident of the State without regard to color a certain number of acres of land and so of legal Persons who will become occupants from other parts arm the men declare every male inhabitant 21 years of age or over a legal voter and give the inhabitants a right to form a State upon free republican principles." Signed by Fitch and 22 other residents of Scipio and Venice.

Fitch, Alvah, 1828-?

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