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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.

Mercer, John F. (1759-1821) to George Weedon and William Fitzhugh

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC06491.02 Author/Creator: Mercer, John F. (1759-1821) Place Written: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Type: Autograph letter signed Date: 18 March 1783 Pagination: 1 p. : address : docket : free frank ; 23.5 x 19 cm. Order a Copy

Relays information related to the negotiation of the Treaty of Paris, ending the American Revolution. Discusses a dispatch from Henry Laurens, one the American delegates working on the treaty, that
"conveys...the design of the court of London...to disconnect belligerent Powers" and that "the spirit of the Nation is high for the prosecution of the War agt. France." Laurens recommends that the United States "adhere religiously to our engagements with France." Also encloses (not included) and discusses newspapers with pertinent information.

John F. Mercer was a lawyer in Fredericksburg, Virginia, a member of the Virginia House of Delegates, later a Maryland congressman and governor.
George Weedon was a brigadier general in the Continental Army from Fredericksburg, Virginia.
William Fitzhugh was a Maryland merchant.

Mercer, John Francis, 1759-1821
Weedon, George, 1734-1793
Fitzhugh, William, 1721-1798
Meuse, John

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