34. [BORDERLANDS]. UNITED STATES. PRESIDENT
(Ulysses S. Grant). Claims on the Part of Citizens of
the United States and Mexico under the Convention of July
4, 1868. Washington: SED3, 1877. 103 [1, blank] pp.
[Bound with]: Statement of Appropriations and
Expenditures, Civil and Miscellaneous, of the Department of
State, from March 4, 1789, to June 30, 1876.
Washington: SED38, 1877. 2 vols. in one, 4to,
contemporary buckram, red, tan, and black leather labels
(chipped). Ex-Library of Congress, with LC bookplate and
deaccession ink stamp on front pastedown, small perforated
LC stamp on title, and other occasional discreet library
markings. Lower blank margin of first leaf chipped, small
repairs to margins of first two leaves. Uncommon.
First
edition. The first report consists of the preliminary
report of J. Hubley Ashton (U.S. agent for the joint
U.S.-Mexico commission) followed by a detailed schedule of
about 2,000 claims, mostly along the border from California
to Texas and as far north as Kansas and San Francisco and
Downieville in the California gold fields (lynching of the
wife of José Maria Loaiza) and beyond. The claims
were generated under the June 4, 1868, convention between
the United Sates and Mexico. Of the 167 cases in which
awards were made against the U.S., many belonged to the
Piedras Negras case involving the burning of that town by
Captains Callahan and Henry. Awards to U.S. citizens
totaled $3,975,123.79, and among the claimants were Richard
King and Mifflin Kennedy ("robbery of cattle from ranch by
armed bands from Mexico"), Hamilton Bee, Charles Stillman,
Parker H. French ("depredation on ranch on Rio Grande by
Mexican and American robbers, and false imprisonment"),
William McGarrahan (claim of $10,000,000 "injury in respect
to the Panoche Grande Rancho"), the Governor of Sonora
("files documents, and reports in reference to Indian
depredations"), and a host of others (from the high and
mighty to the lowly). Set out are claim number, nature of
claim (many for rustled and seized cattle, or Indian
depredations), when, where, amount claimed, when decided,
by whom decided, nature of decision, and amount of award
(in U.S. currency, U.S. gold, or Mexican gold). The second
report has a few references to Texas (boundary between U.S.
and Texas, claims of the Republic of Texas, depredations on
the frontier of Texas, etc.).
($250-500)