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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.

Ford, Gerald R. (1913-2006) Granting pardon to Richard Nixon: A Proclamation

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC00045.45 Author/Creator: Ford, Gerald R. (1913-2006) Place Written: Washington, D.C. Type: Typed document signed Date: 8 September 1974 Pagination: 2 p. ; 33 x 22 cm. Order a Copy

Signed by Ford in 1974 in black felt-tip pen. Explains that a trial against Nixon could not begin for a year or more and that, "the tranquility to which this nation has been restored by the events of recent weeks could be irreparably lost by the prospects of bringing to trial a former President of the United States....exposing to further punishment and degradation a man who has already paid the unprecedented penalty of relinquishing the highest elective office of the United States." This copy is a souvenir copy of Congressman Seymour Halpern. Numbered 4311 by hand in lower right corner of second page.

This document matches the style, format and type of the original in the National Archives.

Ford, Gerald R., 1913-2006
Nixon, Richard M. (Richard Milhous), 1913-1994

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