Essays and Speeches. With Extracts from the Journal of Rufus Fearing Dawes and an Address Upon the Army of the Potomac By General (and future Vice President) Charles R. R. Dawes.

First edition, first printing, presentation copy, inscribed by the author on the initial binder's blank, "For my dear friend of many years William J. Calhoun from Charles G. Dawes", in a presentation binding by the publisher. The recipient was the author's close friend, the diplomat William J. Calhoun (1848-1916). Calhoun wrote a report for President William McKinley advising war with Spain, which had a major influence on persuading McKinley to enter the Spanish-American War. He afterward served as commissioner of the Interstate Commerce Commission and from 1909 to 1913 as Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to China. Present in China during the 1911 Revolution, he arranged for President William Howard Taft to send marines to protect the legation. Dawes likewise worked for McKinley. He later held the roles of Vice President and Ambassador to the United Kingdom. He is most famed for the Dawes Plan, which temporarily resolved the issue of German reparations following the First World War. This collection of essays and speeches focus on questions of banking and trust reform, which at this stage of his career was his principal interest, and for which he had garnered a national reputation. It also includes extracts from the journal and speeches of his forebears. Octavo (213 x 141 mm). Photogravure frontispiece and 2 similar plates with tissue-guards. Original presentation binding of black half morocco by The Riverside Press, spine lettered in gilt, marbled sides and endpapers, top edge gilt, others untrimmed. A fine copy.…