To George Washington from Alexander Hamilton, 15 January 1793
From Alexander Hamilton
Treasury Departmt January 15th 179[3].1
The Secretary of the Treasury has the honor to submit to the President of the United States the enclosed Letter from the Commissioner of the Revenue respecting the Lighthouse on Tybee Island.2 The arrangement which he proposes appears to the Secretary an adviseable one. If it shall be approved by the President, measures will be immediately taken for carrying it into execution.3
A. Hamilton
LB, DLC:GW.
1. The manuscript is mistakenly dated “1792.”
2. Tench Coxe’s letter to Hamilton of 4 Jan. 1793, communicating a “plan of repairs of the light House on Tybee Island at the Mouth of the Savannah River,” suggests replacing the wooden “lantern by one made of Iron,” erecting a “balcony or gallery without and around the lantern for the purpose of keeping the glass in as clean and transparent a condition as possible,” and reducing “the unprecedented height of this light House” by 23 feet (DNA: RG 58, Letters Sent by the Commissioner of the Revenue and the Revenue Office, 1792–1807). The Tybee lighthouse had been severely damaged by fire the previous November (see National Gazette [Philadelphia], 5 Dec. 1792).
3. On 16 Jan., Tobias Lear wrote Hamilton: “By the President’s command T. Lear has the honor to return to the Secretary of the Treasury the letter from the Commissioner of the Revenue respecting the Light House on Tybee Island; and to inform the Secretary that the President approves of the arrangements therein suggested by the Commissioner for the rebuilding or repairing said Light House” (DNA: RG 26, Inventory NC–31, entry 17J, Records Relating to the DLC Exhibit, “Papers Signed by Tobias Lear, 1789–93”).