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.

Knox, Henry (1750-1806) to Henry Jackson

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC05663 Author/Creator: Knox, Henry (1750-1806) Place Written: Boston, Massachusetts Type: Autograph letter signed Date: 29 August 1774 Pagination: 3 p. : address : docket ; 36.7 x 22.3 cm. Order a Copy

Comments on the "disagreeable" current events. Indicates that General Thomas Gage, then the commander-in-chief and governor of Massachusetts, "must recede," otherwise "carnage & bloodshed seem inevitable - there never was anything like the flame the last 2 Acts has produced...erect a standard and believe in a fortnight there would be ten thousnad country people flock to it." Earlier that year, Parliament had passed the intolerable acts--the Boston Port Act, the Massachusetts Bay Regulating Act, the Administration of Justice Act, and the second Quartering Act--in response to the Boston Tea Party and civil unrest in Massachusetts. The two cited by Knox were the Quartering Act (passed 2 June 1774) and either the Massachusetts Bay Regulating Act or the Administration of Justice Act (both passed 20 May 1774). Discusses his marriage to Lucy Flucker on 23 June 1774, the ceremony, and Lucy's parents' opposition. Also gives Jackson some news about his family.

Knox, Henry, 1750-1806
Jackson, Henry, 1747-1809
Gage, Thomas, 1718-1787

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