McKinley, William | Presentation from President to Secretary of the Interior

From the Library of Clayre and Jay Michael Haft

McKinley, William

Speeches and Addresses of William McKinley from March 1, 1897 to May 30, 1900. New York: Doubleday & McClure Co., 1900

8vo (210 x 132 mm). Engraved frontispiece portrait of McKinley on india paper mounted, half-title. Publisher's three-quarters brown morocco gilt over marbled boards, endpapers marbled en suite, top edge gilt, others uncut; a bit rubbed at extremities.

Presentation copy, inscribed and signed as twenty-fifth President to his Secretary of the Interior on a front blank: "For Hon E A Hitchcock with sincere regards William McKinley."

Ethan Allen Hitchcock made a fortune as a partner in a commission house in China, retiring from business before he turned forty. Twenty-five years after his return to the United States, President McKinley appointed him Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to Russia in 1897 and in February 1898 Ambassador Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary, the first Ambassador accredited from the United States to the court of Russia. Hitchcock was recalled in 1898 to serve as Secretary of the Interior in McKinley's cabinet, a position he retained when Theodore Roosevelt succeeded to the White House. Hitchcock is credited with reorganizing the administration of Native American affairs and focusing on the conservation of natural resources.