**RARE** William R Day SIGNED Cabinet Card 1880s - Supreme Court Justice (PSA) For Sale

VERY RARE!Offered is an original Antique 1880s Cabinet CardPhotograph featuring William R. Day (1849-1923), who was a United States Diplomat and Supreme Court Justice. Day hand signed the front of the Cabinet Card in black fountain pen ink.

Fully authenticated and encapsulated by PSA/DNA.

Photographer: Eug. Pirou, 5 Bard St, Paris

Card Size: 5.25" x 7.25". The Cabinet Card was a style of photograph which was widely used for photographic portraiture after 1870. It consisted of a thin photograph mounted on a card.

Card Condition: EX+, with minor surface wear andhand marking on verso.

Background Info:William Rufus Day (April 17, 1849 – July 9, 1923) was anAmerican diplomat and jurist who served as an associate justice of the SupremeCourt of the United States from 1903 to 1922. Prior to his service on theSupreme Court, Day served as United States Secretary of State during theadministration of President William McKinley. He also served as a United Statescircuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit and theUnited States Circuit Courts for the Sixth Circuit.

William Rufus Day was born on April 17, 1849, in Ravenna,Ohio, one of the children of Emily (née Spaulding) and Judge Luther Day of theOhio Supreme Court. His maternal grandfather Rufus P. Spalding was also a judgeof the Ohio Supreme Court. He graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree fromthe University of Michigan in 1870, spent a year studying law with attorney andJudge George F. Robinson, and then a year at the University of Michigan LawSchool. He was admitted to the bar on July 5, 1872, and settled in Canton,Ohio, where he began practicing law in partnership with William A. Lynch. Fortwenty-five years, Day worked as a criminal defense and corporate lawyer in thegrowing industrial town while participating in Republican politics.

During these years, Day became a good friend of WilliamMcKinley. Day became McKinley's legal and political adviser during McKinley'scandidacies for the Congress, the Governorship of Ohio, and the Presidency ofthe United States. After he won the Presidency, McKinley appointed Day to beAssistant Secretary of State under Secretary of State John Sherman. Sherman wasconsidered to be ineffective because of declining health and failing memory,and in 1898, President McKinley replaced Sherman with Day.

Five months later, Day vacated his cabinet position to helmthe United States Peace Commission formed to negotiate an end to theSpanish–American War with Spain. After the Spanish–American War was declared,Day had argued that the Spanish colonies, other than Cuba, should be returnedto Spain, contrary to McKinley's decision that the United States should takeover from Spain control of the Philippines, Puerto Rico, and Guam. Day,however, negotiated peace with Spain on McKinley's harsher terms. Day was worriedthe terms McKinley was insisting on would be "humiliating" to Spain,and for that reason Spain would not agree to them. Ultimately Spain did submitto McKinley's "painfully harsh" terms. His final diplomatic effortwas to lead the United States Peace Commission to Paris and sign the treatyending the war.

Day retired from the court on November 13, 1922, and brieflyserved as an Umpire of the Mixed Claims Commission to Adjudicate War Claimsagainst Germany. He died on July 9, 1923.

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