DS as president, one page, 8 x 10, Executive Mansion letterhead, May 12, 1897. President McKinley directs the Secretary of State to “cause the Seal of the United States to be affixed to my appointment of Ogden Mills, of New York, as Secretary and Attache to Whitelaw Reid, Ambassador Extraordinary of the United States on Special Mission to attend the ceremonies incident upon the Sixtieth Anniversary of the Accession of Queen Victoria to the Throne of Great Britain.” Signed beautifully at the conclusion by William McKinley. In very fine condition. Encapsulated and graded by PSA/DNA as "MINT 9."
On September 23, 1896, Queen Victoria surpassed her grandfather, George III, as the longest-reigning monarch in British history. The Queen requested that any special celebrations be delayed until 1897, to coincide with her Diamond Jubilee, which was officially celebrated on June 22, 1897, to mark the occasion of the 60th anniversary of Queen Victoria's accession. Queen Victoria was the first British monarch ever to celebrate a Diamond Jubilee.
Among the many diplomats in attendance was Whitelaw Reid, the former U.S. Minister to France, who was appointed a special envoy to represent the United States. He was appointed another special envoy five years later when he represented the U.S. for the Coronation of King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra in June 1902. Reids’ experience ultimately led to President Theodore Roosevelt appointing him as the United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom in 1905.
Ogden Mills (1856–1929) was a New York financier and Thoroughbred racehorse owner whose sister, Elisabeth Mills, married Whitelaw Reid. Mills’s son, Ogden Livingston Mills, served as the United States Secretary of the Treasury in President Herbert Hoover's cabinet.
