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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.

Douglass, Frederick (1818-1895) to Charles T. Congdon

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC09238 Author/Creator: Douglass, Frederick (1818-1895) Place Written: s.l. Type: Autograph letter signed Date: 2 March 1880 Pagination: 2 p. Order a Copy

To Charles T. Congdon of the New York Tribune. Douglass thanks Congdon for his recently published reminiscences of Charles Sumner. "It was not merely the seed time of a great harvest, but the hard time when old and knarly oaks were to be hewed down ... and the land prepared for growths of more value.… I am touched by your reference to poor Henry Clapp.... you have, with a few light touches given a perfect portrait of Charles Sumner. Those who knew him best will best understand the truth of your picture of that splendid man. He was vain, but his vanity was that of a sweet minded child pleased with a pocket in his trousers or a pair of new boots. This was the small side of him. Mentally and morally he was a giant."

Douglass, Frederick, 1818-1895

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