Ulysses S. Grant Treaty of Washington Signed Document Collection.

[GRANT, Ulysses S.; Hamilton Fish; William Tecumseh Sherman; et al].

$20,000.00

Item Number: 143272

Rare collection of documents related to the 1871 Treaty of Washington including signatures of all of the key figures involved in its signing including President Ulysses S. Grant, his Secretary of State Hamilton Fish and the British delegation led by George Robinson, Earl de Grey and Ripon. The collection was assembled by Frederic Daustini Cremer who acted as secretary to de Grey and travelled with him and his son Viscount Goderich to Washington for the proceedings, where he also obtained letters by William Sherman amongst others for his collection and contains: 

Two lined folio pages containing the signatures of the British and American signatories of the Treaty of Washington, including: the British High Commissioners (George Robinson, the Earl de Grey and Ripon (chairman), Stafford Northcote, Edward Thornton, John Macdonald and Montague Bernard) and the American delegation (U.S. Secretary of State Hamilton Fish (chairman), Robert Schenck, Samuel Nelson, Ebenezer Hoar and George Williams), with seven other protagonists. 2 pages, folio, written on recto only on lined paper, watermark ‘Department of State/ US’, creased, page one affixed to an album leaf, page two loose, dated at head “May 8 1871 11am.”

A portrait photograph of President Ulysses S. Grant seated in an armchair, signed in ink on lower margin, “U.S. Grant.” Affixed to the reverse of the above album leaf.

An autograph note in the third person from General W. T. Sherman to Earl de Grey, accepting an invitation to dine, on US Army Headquarters notepaper. One page on a bifolium, lined paper, affixed to an album leaf, dated “28 February [18]71.”

Two autograph letters signed “U.S. Grant”, the first to Hamilton Fish, making arrangements to meet the Italian Minister on Executive Mansion notepaper, one page on a bifolium, creased, dated 13 May [18]70; the second to an unknown recipient, arranging to meet at Harrisburg, 3 pages on a bifolium, lined paper, torn along fold, creased, sent from Long Branch, N.J., 6 August 1870, both affixed to an album leaf with an accompanying letter to Frederic Daustini Cremer on Executive Mansion notepaper sending him “…an autograph letter of Gen Grant’s as a memento… it is one selected for the reason that it is entirely unofficial…” Three pages on a bifolium, sent from Washington, 5 May [18]71.

An autograph letter signed “Hamilton Fish” to Hon Ogden Hoffman of San Francisco, a letter of introduction for “…Lord Goderich and his friend Mr Cremer. The former is the son of the Earl de Grey & the latter is his Lordships Secretary…”, 2pp. on a bifolium, sent from Washington, 6 May 1871. With an accompanying autograph envelope; and two autograph letters from Charles Sumner, one to Mrs Fish regarding a book of Froissart illustrations and another in the third person to Earl de Grey accepting an invitation, 4 pages, 7 May [18]66 and 13 March [no date]; with autograph letter signed (“Schulyer Colfax”) to Hamilton Fish, reporting he has not yet received his copies of the Lincoln Memorial, on Vice President’s Chamber notepaper, one page on a bifolium, Washington, 9 July [18]70; with signature of J. G. Blaine, Speaker, dated 19 April 1871, one page, three items affixed to an album leaf, the others loose.

An autograph letter signed “de Grey” to Cremer written on the voyage back to England after the signing of the Treaty, sorry to leave Washington and regretting that the Senate would not ratify the Treaty before he left, talking of the Free Trade movement in the US and asking him to report back on the reaction to the treaty in Canada, 8pp., creased, remains of guard, 31 May 1871; with a manuscript fragment outlining two points of the treaty with regards to inshore fisheries, one page torn from a larger sheet.

In very good to near fine condition.

Provenance: The Rev. Frederic Daustini Cremer (1848-1927); thence by descent to the present owner.

The 1871 Treaty of Washington augmented permanent peaceful relations between the United States and Canada, and the United States and Britain by settling various disputes lingering from the civil war, navigation and fishing rights, and defining the rules for neutral governments during times of war, thereby establishing a precedent for future international arbitration.