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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.

Van Buren, Martin (1782-1862) [Orders for transport of the Amistad captives]

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC05636.01 Author/Creator: Van Buren, Martin (1782-1862) Place Written: Washington, D.C. Type: Document signed Date: 7 January 1840 Pagination: 1 p. : docket ; 33 x 20.3 cm. Order a Copy

Countersigned by John Forsyth as Secretary of State. President Van Buren writes to Norris Wilcox, Marshal of the District of Connecticut. States: "The Marshal of the United States for the District of Connecticut will deliver over to Lieutenant John S. Paine, of the United States Navy, and aid in conveying on board the schooner Grampus, under his command all the negroes late of the Spanish schooner Amistad, in his custody under process now pending before the District Court of the United States for the District of Connecticut. For so doing this order will be his warrant."

Van Buren, Martin, 1782-1862
Forsyth, John, 1780-1841
Wilcox, Norris, fl. 1840-1846

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