CHIEF JUSTICE CHARLES E HUGHES - TYPED LETTER SIGNED 02/04/1924 - HFSID 16039
Price: $1,000.00
CHARLES EVANS HUGHES
Hughes signed this typed letter to President Calvin Coolidge. The letter references
reparations for the United States Navy's 1914 bombardment and occupation of
Veracruz, Mexico. According to this letter, the reparations hadn't been paid, and
Hughes urged Coolidge to re-submit the matter to Congress.
Typed letter signed "Charles E. Hughes". With pencil notations in upper right corner of page 1
in unknown hand. 3 pages, 8x12 ¼, 2 sheets folded, front and verso, with the Great Seal of the
United States embossed in upper left corner of page 1. Washington, Feb. 4, 1924. Addressed
to "The President", probably President Calvin Coolidge. Hughes sent this letter to Coolidge
regarding the American occupation of Veracruz (here "Vera Cruz"), Mexico in 1914.
According to this letter, the 67th Congress had sent a recommendation on Sept. 14, 1922 to
Coolidge's predecessor, Warren G. Harding, to pay $45,518.69 in reparations and damages
stemming from the attack and occupation - $34,214.89 to Valentin Perez for indemnity and to
cover the value of liquor destroyed under military orders, and $11,303.80, approved by the
Secretary of War, to Vera Cruz Terminal Company (Ltd.). Hughes claimed that no action had
been taken on Congress' recommendation, and he urged that Coolidge submit it again to
Congress. The United States Navy bombarded and occupied Veracruz, Mexico, on
April 21, 1914 after the arrest of nine American sailors. This battle resulted in about 500
casualties, most of them Mexican, and the American occupation of Veracruz until Nov. 23.
Hughes (1862-1948, born in Glen Falls, New York) was Governor of New York
(1907-1910) when President Taft appointed him Associate Justice. In 1916, Hughes resigned
from the Supreme Court having received the Republican nomination for President; he lost to
Wilson. President Harding appointed him Secretary of State in 1921, and he remained
in that office when Coolidge became President in 1923, staying until 1925. When Chief
Justice Taft retired in 1930 because of ill health, President Hoover appointed Hughes as
Chief Justice, only the second man reappointed to the Supreme Court (the first was John
Rutledge). The Hughes court approved many exercises of federal power, but struck down
a number of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal programs. Hughes served until he
retired in 1941. Lightly toned, stained and creased. Rust stains and paper clip impressions at
top edge of pages. Spines of folded sheets are torn. Otherwise in fine condition.
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