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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.

Harvey, Geo. N., (fl. 1875) to Blanche Kelso Bruce

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC09400.181 Author/Creator: Harvey, Geo. N., (fl. 1875) Place Written: Burnsville, Mississippi Type: Autograph letter signed Date: 8 December 1875 Pagination: 2 p. : docket ; 24.5 x 19.8 cm. Order a Copy

Harvey is asking Senator Bruce for help in securing a position in the Post Office of Iuka Mississippi. He says the position is held by a woman who is thinking of giving it up and recommending someone who has never worked in a post office, and has no loyalty to the Republican Party. he asks the Senator for help in getting this position claiming that he has always been a great defender of the Republicans, and that this letter was "written under the pains of wounds received from a gang of Democratic banditts who attempted to murder me on account of the action I took in the last campaign in this state".

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
Harvey, Geo. N., (fl. 1875)

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