Books and Manuscripts

Chester A. Arthur empowers his Secretary of State to investigate claims made against the Mexican government by deceptive American Bankers

Washington, (D.C.), February 8, 1882. One sheet, 13 x 9 1/2 in. (330 x 241 mm). Manuscript document, in a secretarial hand, signed by Chester A. Arthur, as President of the United States, empowering Secretary of State, Frederick Theodore Frelinghuysen, the "power and authority, for and in the name of the United States...to agree, treat, consult and negotiate of and concerning the opening and retrying of the cases of Benjamin Weil and the (La) Abra Silver Mining Company against Mexico, and to conclude and sign a Convention or Conventions touching the premises..."; counter-signed by Frelinghuysen; original white paper seal intact. Creasing from original folds. Mounted at top corners with tape, and handsomely framed with a portrait of Arthur and a presidential medallion, 23 x 34 in. (584 x 864 mm).

The La Abra Silver Mining Company was a doomed mining venture established in 1865 in the San Dimas mining district in western Durango, Mexico. Persuaded with tales of riches by unscrupulous American speculators, northern bankers invested heavily in abandoned gold and silver mines, hoping that the use of advanced American machinery would revive them and uncover vast wealth. Their dreams were quickly dashed when the mine's costly operations and small returns proved unsustainable, so operations quickly ceased. In 1868, as a result of a new arbitration treaty established between the American and Mexican governments, the executives of La Abra sued the Mexican government for losses, fraudulently claiming that they were at fault for the venture's failure. As historian George E. Paulsen writes, the legal arbitration between La Abra and the Mexican government "mushroomed into a dispute of international notoriety," and dragged on for close to 30 years, and through ten American presidential administrations. By the time of Arthur's presidency, the case had become a thorn in American and Mexican efforts to improve trade relations, and an agreement was made between them to look into the matter more closely in hopes of finally resolving it on agreeable terms. Arthur empowered his Secretary of State, Frederick Theodore Frelinghuysen, to investigate the matter, with the hope of finally settling it once and for all. While the American government initially sided in favor of La Abra, La Abra's claims were later proved fraudulent, and the case was settled in favor of the Mexican government in 1902 during Theodore Roosevelt's first term.