U. S. Grant Letter Signed

LS signed “U. S. Grant,” one page, 8.25 x 11, Mexico Southern Railroad Company letterhead, June 14, 1883. Letter to Lawrence Mendenhall of the Cincinnati Industrial Exhibition, in full: "Your letter of June 11th at hand, and in reply I will say that I certainly have no objections to comply with your request, but I am not aware of any ownership or control that I have over my portrait now in the Cabinet Club in Chicago. If you can get the consent of the Club of course you have mine." In fine condition, with light soiling.

The Mexican Southern Railroad was a passenger and freight railroad in Mexico connecting Oaxaca with Puebla. It was chartered in 1881 by a consortium of Mexican and American investors that included former President Ulysses S. Grant as its president. A member of the company’s Executive Committee was powerful financier Jay Gould, who along with Grant, were pivotal figures in the Black Friday gold panic of 1869. Unfortunately for Grant, the Mexican Southern Railroad Company would be one of several failed ventures in his post-presidency.