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.

Dickson, Moses, 1824-1901 to Blanche Kelso Bruce

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC09400.068 Author/Creator: Dickson, Moses, 1824-1901 Place Written: St. Joseph, Missouri Type: Autograph letter signed Date: 8 March 1877 Pagination: 2 p. ; 27.6 x 21.1 cm. Order a Copy

Moses Dickson is writing to Senator Bruce for his opinion on what needs to be done to keep African American support for the Republican Party. He mentions that those African Americans that are in office in 1877 have become less effective and he wishes to know what can be done to change this. There is a tear in the upper portion of the letter, as well as some paper folding over along the bottom edge of the paper.

Blanche Kelso Bruce was born into slavery near Farmville, Prince Edward County, Va. on March 1 1841. He was tutored by his master's son, but left his master at the beginning of the civil war and taught school in Hannibal Mo. After the civil war Bruce became a planter in Mississippi, and a member of the Mississippi Levee Board, and Sheriff and Tax Collector for Bolivar County from 1872-1875. Bruce was then elected as a Republican to the United States Senate, where he served from March 4 1875 - March 3 1881. Bruce was the first African American to serve a full term in the U.S. Senate. In 1881 Bruce was appointed by President James Garfield as the Register of the Treasury. Bruce then went on to serve as the Recorder of Deeds for the District of Colombia from 1891-1893, returning to the office of Register of the Treasury from 1897 until his death on March 17, 1898.

Bruce, Blanche Kelso, 1841-1898
Dickson, Moses, 1824-1901

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