1852 Andrews Map of Florida, Cuba and the Gulf of Mexico

This is a rare large format coastal chart depicting the full coast of the Gulf of Mexico, Florida, the Bahamas, The Isthmus of Tehuantepec, Yucatan, Cuba and Jamaica. It was issued in 1852 to accompany Israel D. Andrews' report to the Senate. Depicts coastal cities and ports, offshore shoals, knolls, reefs, banks and other nautical hazards and some inland details, especially in the important overland crossing from Atlantic to Pacific of Tehuantepec, Mexico. Contemporary hand color. Andrews was the Consul of the United States for Canada and Trade and Commerce.

Cartographer

Israel de Wolfe Andrews (1813 - February 17, 1871) was an American consul, special agent, lobbyist, and sometime smuggler. He served as Consul of the United States for Canada and New Brunswick from 1851 to 1854. Little is known of his youth, but from the earliest, his life straddled the border between the United States and British Canada. His birthplace is contested: either he was born in Eastport, Maine, or he was born in New Brunswick, and later naturalized as a United States citizen. He maintained family ties in New Brunswick, however, and these led to an early career as a smuggler. His history appears to have forged in him a strong conviction: that the geographical opportunities afforded by the Mississippi and the St. Lawrence and their reach into the west had been unjustly impeded by the historical accidents that had placed these two arteries in the hands of separate governments, and that these impediments ought to be bypassed (by smuggling) or removed (by political cooperation, ideally by the political unification of the United States and British Canada). His past was shady; he spent time in debtors' prison on more than one occasion. Andrews' appointment as a consul in Saint John in 1843 seems abrupt, unless his role as a smuggler was itself seen as a credential for research on the problems associated with illicit trade across the United States' northern and maritime borders. Almost right away, his regular demands for budget increases as consul and special agent attracted accusations of fraud, until his discovery of a confidential letter concerning British fishing concessions earned him favor with then-Secretary of State and future president James Buchanan. His hand appears everywhere in the eventual creation of the Reciprocity Treaty of 1854. He defined the treaty's content, assisted in its negotiation, and lobbied for its ratification. The American demands of the treaty had been formulated by Andrews as early as 1848, in a letter addressed to Buchanan. He was on hand for drafting the treaty in 1853. Andrews' two reports, in his capacity as a special agent to the Treasury Department,  were intended to rally support in Congress. He caused favorable articles on reciprocity to be published in the press and lobbied executive branch members personally. He also was able to bring pressure to bear on influential people in the British Maritime provinces, including Moses Henry Perley (whose son, Henry F. Perley, produced the map accompanying his 1853 report to Congress). Andrews spent lavishly (lobbying or bribes) to encourage the treaty, between fifty and sixty thousand dollars for the American Government, and forty thousand for the Canadians, which has led contemporaries and historians alike to condemn him as a grifter. The ratification of the treaty led to Andrews' 1855 appointment as American Consul General to the British North American provinces, an office created by the treaty. He would hold the post until his resignation in 1857, thereafter continuing to lobby for the treaty against efforts to terminate it and to promote North American unification. He received an honorary MA from Yale in 1858. He died February 17, 1871, in Boston, reputedly due to alcoholism.   Further Details...

Condition

Very Good condition. Two joined sheets. Professionally cleaned, flattened, and backed with archival linen. Minor discolorations on original fold-lines. Blank on verso. Contemporary color. Wide margins.