Kaaterskill Books

Congressman Samuel Sullivan "Sunset" Cox on trade, politics, and storms

Cox, Samuel S.

[ALS] Samuel "Sunset" Cox is Adjusting to Life In Paris While on His Trade Mission.

Paris: 1885. [4] pp. Bifolium. 5 x 8 inches. Very good, folded, minor ink staining and soiling, moderate toning to third page, contents clean otherwise. Item #44866

July 20th, 1885, originally on printed stationary from London’s “Hotel Metropole”, which had been crossed out, and replaced by "Paris". Samuel Cox updates Stiltson on the status of his mission in Paris, one that he shares with Ministers from Vermont, Michigan, and Maryland, who Cox describes as "...first class men with first class missions; we have met & had a good time." Cox later offers deeper insights into his experience overseas. "You can guess why I went. No one could have stood the pressure from N.Y. – without some help from the Admn. N.Y. gets nothing, at least none of my kind, I presume & never would. We had a long two days of peril & anxiety on the ill-starred ‘Gallia’. After the storm was over, & the fog & icebergs & Banks were left, we sailed along 4 knots under convoy of a little tug. It reminded me of a small Chairman of the Committee of the whole pulling a tempestuous House through an ugly bill. You see I still have the flavor of the old shop, you see I am off for the Chambre de Deputees now. They are men, unlike us, in their parliamentary proceedings. In fact, they talk a different language..."

Samuel S. Cox (1824-1889) was a Congressman representing both Ohio and New York for over thirty years in the House of Representatives. Cox also served as United States Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire. He was known as "Sunset Cox", because of beautiful article he had written in 1853, titled a "A Great Old Sunset". he advocated tariff and Civil Service reform: "Although Cox once publicly declared that his most satisfying contribution to public service was championing the Life Saving Service—founded in the 1840s to patrol the coasts and save imperiled boaters during bad weather, the group was absorbed into the Coast Guard in 1915... [a statue of him] was sponsored by U.S. Postal Service workers because of Cox’s support for their quality-of-life issues. Known as the “letter-carriers’ friend,” Cox spearheaded legislation that led to paid benefits and a 40-hour workweek for postal employees. Mail carriers from the 188 cities named on the monument contributed $10,000 for the statue in a campaign that began soon after Cox’s death.

Price: $275.00