Mr. Arthur’s Acceptance of the Dedication.
New York, April 7, 1887.
William E. Curtis, Esquire, Washington:
Dear Sir,—In compliance with your request, I enclose an unsigned draft of a letter dictated by Mr. Arthur last November. It was submitted to him a few days before he died, and as he desired to make no further changes in the text, I was to have a clean copy made for his signature; but he was fatally stricken before that was done.
Very respectfully yours,
James C. Reed.
November 13, 1886.
My dear Curtis,—The graceful terms in which you propose to dedicate your book to me add still another obligation that I may not be able to repay.
I appointed you Secretary of the South American Commission without your solicitation, because I knew your ability, energy, and industry would be felt as they have been in the effort to bring our Spanish-American neighbors into closer commercial and political relations with us.
I had given much consideration to the subject, and realized what is made so clear in the Reports of the South American Commission, that the future commercial prosperity of the United States required something to be done to extend our trade with the continent southward. The Commission, of which you were Secretary and subsequently became a member, was intended as an initiatory step in that direction.
In my judgment, it is not only the duty of the United States to encourage and assist our merchants and manufacturers in the expansion of their foreign trade, by seeking new markets and furnishing facilities for reaching them, but there is a higher achievement in promoting the welfare of our sister republics through the consistent exercise of every friendly office tending to secure their peaceable development and national prosperity.
I am sure your “The Capitals of Spanish America” will furnish our own people with trustworthy and late news about our neighbors to the southward, and that your graphic pen will make the book as interesting as it is instructive. I shall await its publication with very deep interest.
If my strength permits, it will give me great pleasure to act upon your suggestion,[A] but just now I am hardly equal to the demands of my private correspondence. With cordial regard,
I am faithfully yours,
—————
To William E. Curtis,
Washington, D. C.
