Lincoln, Abraham | The President orders the Seal of the United States to be affixed to the Treaty for the Extinguishment of the Scheldt Dues, 1864

Lincoln, Abraham

Engraved document signed (“Abraham Lincoln”) as sixteenth President, one page (255 x 202 mm) on a bifolium of blue wove paper, Washington, 5 March 1864, accomplished in a secretarial hand, being an order to the Secretary of State to affix the seal of the United States to the Treaty for the Extinguishment of the Scheldt Dues; browned at margins, mounting remnants on verso of integral blank, as well as a blotted signature of Secretary Seward.

Lincoln directs Secretary of State William H. Seward “to affix the Seal of the United States to the ratification of the original of the Treaty between the United States & His Majesty the King of the Belgians, concluded May 20^th 1863.”

The Scheldt is an important commercial waterway, flowing through northern France, western Belgium, and the southwestern part of the Netherlands, with its mouth at the North Sea. After Belgium had claimed its independence from the Netherlands in 1830, the treaty of the Scheldt determined that the river should remain accessible to ships heading for Belgian ports. Nevertheless, the Dutch government continued to collect a toll from passing vessels until 16 July 1863.

The Treaty for the Extinguishment of the Scheldt Dues was a set of agreements in 1863 that ended the Dutch tolls on shipping in the Scheldt River estuary. The primary treaty was signed between Belgium and the Netherlands, but the United States and other nations also signed separate but related conventions, with the U.S. paying its share to secure the free navigation of the river. This order officially sealed the ancillary treaty between the United States and King Leopold I of Belgium.