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DS as president, one page, 7.75 x 10, April 16, 1891. President McKinley directs the Secretary of State to cause the Seal of the United States to be affixed to "my full power authorizing John W. Foster, of Indiana, as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States, on Special Mission, to conduct all necessary correspondence, and to negotiate, conclude and sign an agreement or treaty with Great Britain, Russia or other interested Power, for the protection of the fur-seal in Behring Sea and the North Pacific Ocean.” Signed at the conclusion by William McKinley. In fine condition. John Watson Foster was an American diplomat and Union military officer (1836–1917) who served as U.S. Secretary of State under President Benjamin Harrison. Before this, Foster served as an envoy to both Mexico and Russia before President Chester A. Arthur appointed him as the ambassador to Spain.
This document pertains to Proclamation 297—Prohibiting the Hunting of Fur-Bearing Animals in Alaska and Bering Sea, an act designed to drastically limit the hunting of fur seals by both the United States and Great Britain in and around the Bering Sea. While the U.S. sought to employ a more sustainable seal-harvesting method that was akin to the Russians before them, seal vessels from Great Britain and Ireland opposed and/or ignored these measures, which resulted in the United States Revenue Cutter Service, today known as the United States Coast Guard, capturing several Canadian sealer vessels throughout the conflict. This led to The Bering Sea Arbitration of 1893, and, for a little while, a potential war between the United States and Great Britain was in the balance.
The North Pacific Fur Seal Convention of 1911 did much to curtail the seal industry. Signed on July 7, 1911, the treaty was designed to manage the commercial harvest of fur-bearing mammals (such as Northern fur seals and sea otters) in the Pribilof Islands of the Bering Sea. The treaty, signed by the United States, Great Britain (also representing Canada), Japan, and Russia, outlawed open-water seal hunting and acknowledged the United States' jurisdiction in managing the on-shore hunting of seals for commercial purposes. It was the first international treaty to address wildlife preservation issues.
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