I have already communicated to you some general instructions to govern you in the execution of your duty as the Commander of the revenue cutter for the [Massachusetts] Station. I have now to inform you that your vessel will be under the management of the Collector of [Boston] as to supplies of provisions, stores, and occasional repairs, and I shall write him to that effect this day. You will...
2Treasury Department Circular to the Captains of the Revenue Cutters, 3 February 1792 (Hamilton Papers)
I have this day written to the Collector of Boston informing him, that in addition to his duty as agent for the cutter under your command, she is henceforward committed to his general direction, subject only to the instructions which shall be from time to time received from this department. You will therefore receive and execute his orders, and you will make your communications to him,...
As you are speedily to enter upon the Duties of your Station, it becomes proper briefly to point them out to you. Accordingly I send you a copy of the Act under which you have been appointed & in which are contained your powers, & the objects to which you are to attend & I shall add such observations as appear to me requisite to guide you in fulfilling the intent of that Act. It may be...
4Treasury Department Circular to the Collectors and Surveyors of the State of Virginia, 18 May 1790 (Hamilton Papers)
I am informed through one of the representatives of the State of virginia, that some co-operation with the executive of that State on the part of the Officers of the Customs is necessary to the perfect execution of the Tobacco inspection Law. That acts directs, that the Tobacco inspectors Shall by every boat or other craft loaded with Tobacco, Send a List of the marks weights &ca of every...
In my Circular letter of the 31st. of October last I directed you to claim the duties which had arisen on Imports since the first day of August last, and prior to the organisation of the Customhouses in the respective districts, and if the same was controverted by the parties liable thereto to prosecute this claim to a legal determination. As the decision in one case will probably form a rule...
You will have perceived by the Act of the last session, entitled an Act making further provision for the payment of the debts of the United States, that after the end of the present month the duties on distilled spirits are regulated according to certain classes of proof, to be determined by Dycas’s Hydrometer. Doubting whether it might be convenient to the several officers of the Customs to...
7Treasury Department Circular to the Collectors of the Customs, 16 April 1790 (Hamilton Papers)
I herewith enclose for your government an Act entitled “an Act to prevent the exportation of goods not duly inspected, according to the laws of the several States.” I observe that the 27th. and 28th. sections of the coasting act have by some of the Collecters of the Customs been so construed as to require, that all licensed vessels of the burthen of twenty tons and upwards bound to any port...
As one of the periods for the payment of Bonds taken for Duties is arrived, it is proper that the respective Collectors should be apprised of my expectation with regard to the conduct to be observed by them. It is, that if the Bonds are not paid, as they fall due they be immediately put in Suit. On this point, the most exact punctuality will be considered as indispensable . And accordingly it...
9Treasury Department Circular to the Collectors of the Customs, 30 March 1790 (Hamilton Papers)
Having observed that the several Collectors have hitherto differed in the mode of transmitting to this office, the drafts of the Treasurer of the United States which have been drawn on them and paid: I now desire that those drafts with a receipt endorsed on them, may be transmitted, as soon as they are paid, to my Office , when they shall be covered by a regular Warrant, and your account...
10Treasury Department Circular to the Collectors of the Customs, 31 October 1789 (Hamilton Papers)
A question has been submitted to me by the Collectors of certain ports, which being of a general nature, I have thought fit to make the subject of a circular instruction. It is this, whether the duties are demandable on importations after the first of August, and prior to the organisation of the Custom houses in the respective districts. After mature reflection on this point, I am of opinion...
11Treasury Department Circular to the Collectors of the Customs, 13 May 1790 (Hamilton Papers)
The second moiety of one years pensio⟨n⟩ will be payable to the Invalids on the fifth day of June next: The sum to be paid in your State is estimated to be Eight thousand two hundr⟨ed⟩ and fifty three dollars, which you will retain in your hands out of the Monies received by you for duties on Imports and Tonnage and pay the same upon such evidences as the Secretary at War shall direct,...
12Treasury Department Circular to the Collectors of the Customs, 10 February 1794 (Hamilton Papers)
A Provisory arrangement has been agreed upon with the Ambassador of Great Britain contained in a letter from the Secretary of State to him dated the 26th December last, to ascertain the losses by detention, waste, or spoliation, sustained by such vessels the property of subjects of Great Britain, as have been or shall be captured by French Privateers armed and equipped in the Ports of the...
13Treasury Department Circular to the Collectors of the Customs, 17 May 1790 (Hamilton Papers)
It appears probable that the public interests would be promoted by my receiving the earliest information when breaches of the Revenue Laws take place. I therefore request; that whenever a seizure shall be made within the sphere of your duty, you will transmit me by the first opportunity an account of the transaction, containing such particulars as will enable me fully to understand the case. I...
14Treasury Department Circular to the Collectors of the Customs, 1 December 1789 (Hamilton Papers)
The Comptroller of the Treasury will forward to you by this or the ensuing post the whole of the forms necessary for making your Returns to this Office, and rendering your Accounts at the Treasury. You will observe that in these general forms it is not required that you should make a Monthly Return of the Duties on Imports, and that in the Weekly return the Cash receipts and Disbursements (and...
15Treasury Department Circular to the Collectors of the Customs, 1 June 1791 (Hamilton Papers)
I have this day written to the Captain of the revenue cutter building for the [Pennsya.] station and I enclose you the letter unsealed which you will deliver to him open after you have caused a copy of it to be made and kept for your own information. It will also be proper that you retain a copy of my circular instructions to him, which are likewise transmitted unsealed. You will perceive that...
16Treasury Department Circular to the Collectors of the Customs, 2 February 1792 (Hamilton Papers)
In a former letter you were constituted the Agent for the Cutter destined for the Station off Maryland. I have now to inform you that the authority of directing its movements is henceforward committed to you, subject to the instructions which shall be transmitted from this Department. I shall communicate this arrangement to the Captain of the Cutter on the Maryland Station. I am Sir Your...
17Treasury Department Circular to the Collectors of the Customs, 27 January 1790 (Hamilton Papers)
The adoption of the Constitution of the United States by the state of North Carolina, having raised a question concerning the operation of the 39th. Section of the Collection bill and the 3d. Section of the Act for suspending part of that Act and for other purposes; it is incumbent upon me to give my opinion upon the subject; which is, that they were virtually repealed by that adoption . Among...
18Treasury Department Circular to the Collectors of the Customs, 26 May 1791 (Hamilton Papers)
Inclosed you will find for your information, generally, and Government, in certain particulars, certain explanations & instructions concerning the two Acts, severally entitled “An Act repealing after the last day of June next, the duties heretofore laid upon distilled spirits imported from abroad, and laying others in their stead; and also upon spirits distilled within the United States and...
19Treasury Department Circular to the Collectors of the Customs, 23 April 1793 (Hamilton Papers)
You will find enclosed the copy of a proclamation lately issued by the President of the United States, respecting the war at present existing between certain Powers of Europe therein named. The preservation of the peace of the country is so very important to its interests, and that must depend so materially upon the conformity of the conduct of our citizens to the spirit which is manifested by...
20Treasury Department Circular to the Collectors of the Customs, 17 February 1790 (Hamilton Papers)
I find that the process marked out in my letter of the 30th. of November for calculating the allowance of 10 ⅌ Cent for prompt payment has by some of the Officers been misapprehended in one particular which is with regard to the first proviso of the 19th. Section of the Collection bill confining the discount to the excess of the Amount of the duties above 50 Dollars. As the same...
21Treasury Department Circular to the Collectors of the Customs, 8 July 1791 (Hamilton Papers)
I have already written to you in regard to the disbursements of the Revenue Cutter on your station, except the pay of the officers and men, and have now to request that you will duly attend to that business also, so as to have in your hands the entire agency. A form will be transmitted to you, in which you will make your quarterly returns at the same periods (though distinctly) as in the...
22Treasury Department Circular to the Collectors of the Customs, 20 October 1789 (Hamilton Papers)
On Reflection, I have concluded to substitute the Form herewith transmitted for the Monthly returns required in mine of the 2d. Oct. instant, as less troublesome than the one there proposed; but I still mean that the Quarterly Returns should be conformable to the Model already furnished. I shall expect as soon as may be a Return of all the past according to that Model up to the last of...
23Treasury Department Circular to the Collectors of the Customs, 11 November 1791 (Hamilton Papers)
An order having been transmitted to me from the honorable House of Representatives, to make certain returns, relative to the exports, imports and tonnage of the United States, I find it necessary to press your immediate transmission of all such documents as are to come from your Office, to the 30th of September last. A case, which has been represented to me, renders it necessary to intimate to...
24Treasury Department Circular to the Collectors of the Customs, 30 September 1790 (Hamilton Papers)
I request you to furnish me as soon as may be with the Forms of reports entries Oaths Bonds Certificates and other Documents & papers that shall have been adopted by you in the execution of the several laws which concern your Office. This will of course not include those papers or proceedings for which forms have been sent from this Department. Any papers of the nature above described...
25Treasury Department Circular to the Collectors of the Customs, 23 April 1794 (Hamilton Papers)
It is understood that by virtue of the seventeenth article of our Treaty with Sweden, vessels of that nation are exempted from the operation of the embargo, now in force, in the ports of the United States, pursuant to the resolutions of Congress of the 26th of March and 18th instant. You will therefore upon application grant clearances, as usual, to such Swedish vessels as may happen to be in...
26Treasury Department Circular to the Collectors of the Customs, 20 September 1791 (Hamilton Papers)
It has been suggested to me that the Grocers in one of the Seaport Towns of the United States have received applications from Persons concerned in foreign trade for the purchase of their Casks marked “Old Stock.” It will be quickly perceived that such a measure affords the strongest reason to suspect, that illicit practices, evasive of both the Revenue and impost are intended. To prevent the...
27Treasury Department Circular to the Collectors of the Customs, 5 March 1791 (Hamilton Papers)
The arrangements towards the payment of the ensuing Quarters interest to the public Creditors within your state require that the Commissioner of Loans for your state should be advised by every opportunity of the monies in your hands. This you will not fail to do by every post, & even by every private opportunity which shall present. I shall count on your punctuality. You will also pay to the...
28Treasury Department Circular to the Collectors of the Customs, 9 December 1793 (Hamilton Papers)
From your weekly statement of Cash I calculate that you will have sufficient funds in your hands to discharge the allowances to fishing vessels, which will become due in your District on the 31st instant. You will therefore pay those allowances agreeably to the instructions heretofore given for that purpose. I request however that you will furnish me with an estimate of the sum which will be...
29Treasury Department Circular to the Collectors of the Customs, 22 February [5–March] 1793 (Hamilton Papers)
I have made the following arrangement with the Bank of the united States for the accommodation of the merchants whose bonds for duties shall become payable between this date and the last day of the ensuing march. The Bank will discount during the period mentioned, the notes of such merchants as are endebted to the Custom house, for 30 days, for the respective sums that shall become payable....
30Treasury Department Circular to the Collectors of the Customs, 6 February 1792 (Hamilton Papers)
It is my wish that you transmit to this office a return of the public property, exclusive of cash and bonds, in the hands of all the officers of the customs in your district, that is to say, the scales, weights, boats, &c. which may be in the hands or charge of any officer of the customs, from the Collector to the Inspector or Inspectors. This return it will be fit that you also transmit with...