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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.

Sullivan, Matt, (fl. 1876) to Blanche Kelso Bruce

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC09400.122 Author/Creator: Sullivan, Matt, (fl. 1876) Place Written: Jackson, Mississippi Type: Autograph letter Date: 14 April 1876 Pagination: 1 p. : docket ; 24.1 x 15.1 cm. Order a Copy

This is what seems to be the first page of a letter from Sullivan to Senator Bruce concerning a note that Sullivan received after a 6 page letter was sent to the Senator. The page ends in the middle of a sentence and there is no second page with it. The docket gives the letter this description "Highly indigent"

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
Sullivan, Matt, fl. 1876

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