JOHN SHERMAN
Letter to the newly appointed Second Secretary of the US Legation in Mexico
Typed Letter signed: "John Sherman" as Secretary of State, 1 page. 7¾x10. Department of State, Washington, D.C., 1897 May 7. On official letterhead to William Heimke, Appointed Special Secretary of the U.S. Legation in Mexico City. In full: "The President having appointed you Second Secretary of the Legation of the United States at Mexico City, Mexico, and the Department having received your oath of office duly executed I enclose your Commission in that capacity. Your compensation will be at the rate of two thousand dollars per annum, beginning from the date of your oath of office. For your salary as it falls due quarterly, you will draw upon the Secretary of State, being careful not to exceed in the sum drawn for, the amount to which you may be entitled at the date of your draft. Your account for the period occupied in receiving instructions, not to exceed thirty days, should be made out and settled at the Department before you leave for your post. Should you have occasion at any time to perform the duties of First Secretary, you will consult the instructions to that officer on file in the Legation, and be governed thereby. Respectfully yours ". Republican John Sherman (1823-1900) served as Ohio Congressman from 1855 to 1861 and U.S. Senator from 1861 to1877, when he became Secretary of the Treasury under President Hayes (1877-1881). Returning to the US Senate to replace James A. Garfield, who had been elected President, he served again in that body from 1881 to 1897. Sherman was McKinley's Secretary of State from 1897 to 1898, resigning because of ill health the day Congress declared war on Spain. His name will forever be remembered as the author of the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890, the first major federal action to curb the power of the giant business monopolies. He was the younger brother of Union General William Tecumseh Sherman. Multiple mailing folds. Lightly toned at edges. Otherwise, fine condition.