Auction 739 April.

Uncommon archive of 20 partly-printed DSs as president, signed "R. B. Hayes," all one page, 8 x 10, dated from March 14, 1877, to January 21, 1881. Includes warrants for pardons, proclamations of significant treaties, and the sending of diplomatic correspondence to fellow heads of state. In overall fine condition.

Complete list:

1. DS as President, July 7, 1877 - Warrant for affixing the seal of the United States to an envelope containing a letter to Marshal MacMahon, President of the French Republic.

2. DS as President, August 11, 1877 - Warrant for the conditional pardon of Leopold Eith.

3. DS as President, August 14, 1877 - Warrant for the pardon of Cornelius J. Kelley.

4. DS as President, February 4, 1878 - Warrant for the pardon of Henry C. Chappell.

5. DS as President, February 6, 1878 - Warrant authorizing Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Alderson to receive into custody Martin Bergin, a fugitive from justice.

6. DS as President, February 12, 1878 - Warrant for the ratification and proclamation of the Treaty of January 17, 1878, between the United States and the Government of the Samoan Islands.

7. DS as President, May 28, 1878 - Warrant for the ratification of the Metrical Convention concluded in May, 1875.

8. DS as President, July 30, 1878 - Warrant for affixing the seal of the United States to a letter to Muhammad Essadek, Basha Bey, of Tunis.

9. DS as President, September 25, 1878 - Warrant for the proclamation of the consular convention between the United States and Italy, signed May 8, 1878.

10. DS as President, May 10, 1879 - Warrant for the pardon of Isetta Hemmons.

11. DS as President, May 17, 1879 - Warrant for the pardon of Dempsey Jaco.

12. DS as President, June 17, 1879 - Warrant for a proclamation of the declaration concerning trademarks between the United States and Brazil, signed September 24, 1878.

13. DS as President, July 22, 1879 - Warrant for affixing the seal of the United States to an envelope containing a letter of recall addressed to "Her Majesty the Queen of Great Britain and Ireland," Queen Victoria.

14. DS as President, May 6, 1880 - Warrant for affixing the seal of the United States to an envelope containing a ceremonial letter to President Guzman Blanco of Venezuela.

15. DS as President, June 8, 1880 - Warrant for affixing the seal of the United States to an envelope containing a ceremonial letter to His Highness Abdul Mumin, Sultan of Borneo.

16. DS as President, June 9, 1880 - Warrant for affixing the seal of the United States to an envelope containing a letter to the King of the Belgians accrediting James O. Putnam as Minister Resident.

17. DS as President, August 27, 1880 - Warrant for the extradition of L. Charles Zink from Canada upon a charge of forgery committed in Ohio.

18. DS as President, November 9, 1880 - Warrant for the pardon of Oscar Snow, John McConnell, Charles Busk, and John McDonald.

19. DS as President, November 13, 1880 - Warrant for the pardon of Frederick Holt.

20. DS as President, March 2, 1881 - Warrant for a power given to Eugene Schuyler, chargé d'affaires in Bucharest, to negotiate and sign conventions of commerce.

Partly-printed DS as president, signed “R. B. Hayes,” one page, 20.75 x 16, May 31, 1880. President Hayes appoints “W. H. Parkhurst of Providence, Rhode Island…to be Agent for the Indians of the Lower Brulé Agency in Dakota," for a term of four years.” Signed at the conclusion by Rutherford B. Hayes as president, and countersigned by the Secretary of the Interior, Carl Schurz. The lower left corner is embossed with the Department of the Interior seal.
In very good to fine condition, with intersecting folds, three file holes, edge toning, and a slice near the bottom edge, none of which affect the signature.

The Lower Brulé Agency on the Missouri River in present-day South Dakota administered one of the bands of the Lakota Sioux. The appointment falls at a charged moment: the Great Sioux War had ended in 1877 with the confinement of the Lakota to the Great Sioux Reservation following the Little Bighorn and Crazy Horse's surrender and death. The Grant-era Peace Policy — placing Indian agents under the supervision of religious denominations — was then being dismantled, and Hayes's administration was returning agents to presidential appointment.

Carl Schurz, the German-born reform politician who served as Hayes's Secretary of the Interior from 1877 to 1881, was one of the more serious advocates for Indian welfare in the period, opposing the worst abuses of the reservation system while stopping well short of recognizing tribal sovereignty. Schurz's countersignature on a Dakota Territory Indian agency appointment is itself a document of the reformist wing of Gilded Age Indian policy. Within a decade, the Great Sioux Reservation would be broken up by the Dawes Act and the Sioux land cessions of 1889.

Partly-printed DS as president, signed “R. B. Hayes,” one page, 7.75 x 9.75, May 28, 1878. President Hayes authorizes and directs the Secretary of State to cause the Seal of the United States to be affixed to "my ratification of the Metric Convention between the United States and certain other countries, signed at Paris, May 20, 1875." Signed at the conclusion by President Rutherford B. Hayes. In fine condition.

The 1875 'Treaty of the Metre' was an international agreement signed in Paris on May 20, 1875, by representatives of 17 countries to unify and standardize measurements worldwide. It established the International Bureau of Weights and Measures (BIPM), along with its governing bodies—the General Conference on Weights and Measures (CGPM) and the International Committee for Weights and Measures (CIPM)—to coordinate international metrology and maintain consistent measurement standards, beginning with length and mass and later expanding to all physical quantities. This treaty created a permanent organizational structure for nations to collaborate on measurement systems, laying the foundation for what would evolve into the modern International System of Units (SI).

Partly-printed DS as president, signed “R. B. Hayes,” one page, 18.5 x 14.5, February 20, 1878. President Hayes appoints John T. Collins as "Collector of Customs for the district of Brunswick, in the State of Georgia." Signed at the conclusion in ink by President Rutherford B. Hayes and countersigned by Secretary of the Treasury John Sherman. Double-matted and framed to an overall size of 25 x 21. In very good to fine condition, with light creasing and scattered dampstaining.