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.

Madison, James (1751-1836) [Appointment of Levett Harris to secretary to legation at St. Petersburg, Russia]

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC02322 Author/Creator: Madison, James (1751-1836) Place Written: Washington, D.C. Type: Manuscript document signed Date: 19 July 1813 Pagination: 1 p. : docket ; 41 x 26 cm. Order a Copy

Signed by Madison as President, countersigned by Monroe as Secretary of State. The official appointment was as "Secretary of the Mission Extraordinary of the United States" and the diplomatic mission was for the purpose of "entering into negotiations at St. Petersburg, with Great Britain, of and concerning a Treaty of Peace and of Commerce." The Treaty of Ghent was negotiated and ended the war of 1812 in late 1814.

Signer of the U.S. Constitution.

Madison, James, 1751-1836
Monroe, James, 1758-1831
Harris, Levett, fl. 1780-1839

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