Rare Book Monthly
Book Catalogue Reviews - April - 2005 Issue
American Treaties and Diplomacy from William Reese Co.
The first treaty between the U.S. and a foreign power (France, 1778).
That leaves one more purchase to go: Alaska. It was called "Seward's Folly" by those opposed to the purchase. Who would pay $7.2 million for a frozen wasteland? Fortunately for his country, Secretary of State William Seward would. Item 215 is ...A Treaty Between the United States and His Majesty the Emperor of All the Russias...from 1867. $500.
This completes the chronological expansion of the United States through wars and treaties, and yet something is left out. What is missing is the part that is least pleasant to recall. The aforementioned wars and treaties for territory involved foreign powers, primarily European ones with no justification for ruling these lands in the first place. However, there were others with prior and far more legitimate claims to the land than any European nation, the Native Americans or American Indians. There were numerous treaties with the various Indian tribes, but sadly, the American government frequently ignored these treaties as the nation's population expanded and moved west, hungry for more land. Ultimately, Indian treaties would be replaced with new treaties reducing their lands, forced down the throats of a shrinking native population lacking the firepower to hold back the tide. Only a tiny fraction of what once was ceded by treaty to the Indians remains in their hands. The Reese catalogue includes copies of many of these treaties. Item 236 is the most interesting Indian lot as it contains a collection of 125 treaties between the U.S. and the Indian tribes between the 1830s and 1870. There are few collections of such treaties of this size. $75,000.
The William Reese Company is located online at www.reeseco.com and can be reached by phone at 203-789-8081.
