Printed circular letter issued to customs collectors during the Lincoln administration, one page, 8 x 10, November 28, 1863. The circular features messages from Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P. Chase and Secretary of State William H. Seward, in which the Lincoln administration sought to enforce the Monroe Doctrine to prevent engagement in the Dominican Restoration War in the Caribbean. In Chase's portion, he makes a brief statement transmitting Seward's letter and asks that "in accordance with the instructions of the President, thus communicated to me, you will use all vigilance to seek out and arrest any and every movement in your district against the neutrality laws of the United States."
Seward's section, he reports: "It has been represented to the Department by his Excellency, Mr. Gabriel G. Tassara, Minister Plenipotentiary of Her Catholic Majesty, that the Spanish Government have reason to apprehend that expeditions have departed or may depart from the United States to engage or mingle in the war which is raging in a portion of the Island of San Domingo. The representation, however, is supported by no direct evidence, and is so general in its terms as to afford no guide for inquiries by the Government; nevertheless, upon its being submitted to the President, he has thought it proper to maintain not only the fact but also the manifestation of non-interference…I have therefore, in obedience to the President's directions, to ask you to give instructions to the Collectors, and other officers in your Department, to be vigilant in executing the neutrality laws, and in preventing or averting any proceedings in violation of those laws to the injury of either of the belligerents in the Island of San Domingo." In fine condition, with small binding holes along the left edge.
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