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Partly-printed DS as president, one page, 8 x 10, September 12, 1893. President Cleveland authorizes and directs the Secretary of State to cause the Seal of the United States to be affixed to “my letter to His Majesty the King of the Samoan Islands, naming Mr. Henry C. Ide for appointment as Chief Justice of Samoa.” Signed neatly at the conclusion by Grover Cleveland. In fine condition, with small stains near the bottom edge.
Henry Clay Ide (1844–1921) was a U.S. judge, colonial commissioner, ambassador, and Governor-General of the Philippines. In 1891, President Benjamin Harrison appointed Ide as American Land Commissioner in Samoa under the Treaty of Berlin (1889), making him one of three representatives (alongside Germany and Great Britain) responsible for adjudicating foreign land claims. He arrived in Apia on May 16, 1891, but resigned after six months due to a family illness, departing on November 12.
Ide returned to Samoa in 1893 as Chief Justice, another Treaty of Berlin post. He presided over cases involving both Samoans and foreign nationals and held the authority to recommend criminal and taxation legislation. Although he resigned in 1896, he remained in office until 1897 while awaiting his successor. At his departure, the Samoa Weekly Herald editorialized that Ide had been a just and able judge. Similarly, King Malietoa told Ide, ‘You will not be forgotten in Samoa, you will be remembered as the good Chief Justice who knew our ways and laws and customs and who was kind to us.’
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