Partly-printed DS as president, one page, 8 x 10, May 12, 1894. President Cleveland directs the Secretary of State to “cause the Seal of the United States to be affixed to my Proclamation of the Agreement for a modus vivendi between the United States and Russia, concluded on May 4, 1894.” Signed neatly at the conclusion by Grover Cleveland. In fine condition.
One of the most lucrative 19th-century industries was the fur trade. In 1867 the United States purchased from Russia all of her territorial rights in Alaska and the adjacent islands, which included the Pribilof Islands, the principal breeding grounds of the fur seals in those seas. The islands to the west remained Russian territory. Congress regulated the killing of seals on the Pribilof Islands, which resulted in conflicts with Britain and Canada on the one hand, and Russia on the other. In 1887 the U. S. claimed exclusive jurisdiction over the sealing industry in the entire Bering Sea, a concept Britain and Russia did not accept. The Russians were particularly unhappy that American fishers were taking large numbers of seals from off Russian lands, taking no conservation precautions, and unduly depleting the seal population. The questions of who could catch seals, and where, resulted in a flurry of diplomatic activity to resolve the issues.
In April 1894 the U. S. and Russia entered into an agreement (a modus vivendi) in which the U.S. agreed to make it unlawful for its citizens to take seals within 10 miles of the Russian coast and within 30 miles of certain named Russian islands. It provided that American vessels ignoring this prohibition could be seized and detained by Russia, and then turned over to the U. S. for prosecution. The U. S. would try violators in court. The Russians imposed a 30,000 limit on the number of seals that could be taken for 1894, and the U.S. agreed. An exceedingly early conservation-related presidential document.
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