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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.

Thomas, H.H., (fl. 1881) to Blanche Kelso Bruce

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC09400.129 Author/Creator: Thomas, H.H., (fl. 1881) Place Written: Santa Fe, New Mexico Type: Autograph letter signed Date: 26 April 1881 Pagination: 7 p. : docket ; 24.4 x 19.4 cm. Order a Copy

A personal letter to Senator Bruce, it starts by mentioning that Thomas used to own a barbershop in Kansas and had shaved the Senator when he was still teaching in Kansas. Thomas continues to talk about moving to New Mexico and the weather there, but then he mentions an event in the press involving a cadet Whitiker at West Point that the Senator defended, as a result of this defense Thomas decides to write the Senator rather than his own Senator. Thomas then outlines his thinking on the plight of African Americans right after they were freed from slavery. At the end of the letter Thomas mentions that he had heard Senator Bruce's name mentioned as a possible vice president. Each page was numbered on the top portion of the page and the Docket is located on the back of the third page

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
Thomas, H.H., fl. 1881

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