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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.

Hunter, R. M. T. (Robert Mercer Taliaferro) (1809-1887) Speech of Hon. Robert M. T. Hunter, of Virginia, on the resolutions of the Massachusetts legislature concerning the assault on Mr. Sumner.

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC00267.003 Author/Creator: Hunter, R. M. T. (Robert Mercer Taliaferro) (1809-1887) Place Written: Washington, D.C. Type: Pamphlet signed Date: 1856 Pagination: 12 p. ; 22.5 x 14.3 cm. Order a Copy

Signed by Hunter on a a piece of paper pasted to the title page. Delivered in the senate of the United States, 24 June 1856. Printed at the Congressional Globe Office, Washington, D.C. Hunter was a senator from Virginia.

Sumner was beaten on the Senate floor by South Carolina representative Preston Brooks after his "Crime Against Kansas," speech in which he argued Kansas should be admitted to the Union as a free state.

Hunter, Robert Mercer Taliaferro, 1809-1887

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