RISING
TO THE DEFENSE OF HIS MINISTER TO MEXICO
JOHN TYLER. Autograph Letter Signed as President to
Secretary of the Treasury John C. Spencer, Washington, DC, 12 October
1843. 1 page, 10" x 8".
A letter from the President to a member of his Cabinet relating
to Mexican affairs.
Although the status of Texas dominated relations between the U.S. and
Mexico in this era, another concern was the money Mexico owed American
citizens for damages they had suffered during times of political turmoil
in that country. Several claims conventions and commissions required
Mexico to pay over two million dollars to U.S. nationals, and the President
writes here about the method of Mexican compensation. Tyler addresses
John C. Spencer, a New York Whig who became Secretary of the Treasury
in March 1843 after several years service as Secretary of War.
"I perceive that the newspapers are assailing Mr. Thompson
our minister to Mexico relative to the Mexican indemnity,"
Tyler notes. "Now the orders relating to the mode of its remittance
I think emanated from yourself, the arrangements having been made by
you through the mercantile house in N. York. Is it not due to Mr. Thompson
that a proper explanation should appear in the Madisonian.... Will you
prepare a short article." He has signed, "Yrs Truly,
J Tyler."
"Mr. Thompson" was Waddy Thompson, a South Carolina
lawyer and Whig politician who served as the U.S. minister to Mexico
from 1842 to 1844. The Madisonian was the newspaper
that served as the official mouthpiece of the Tyler administration.
Just four days after this letter, the Tyler administration sent word
to Texas officials that the U.S. was ready to open negotiations to annex
the republic, which had established its independence from Mexico in
1836. Although the Mexican government had made it clear that it opposed
annexation, Tyler pressed ahead, and in retaliation, Mexico halted all
payments of compensation to American citizens late in 1843. The U.S.
formally annexed Texas early in 1844, just before Tyler’s Presidency
ended.
The letter is in very good condition, darkly penned, and has excellent
associations. $2500.00
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