1Treasury Department Circular to the Collectors of the Customs, 21 March 1791 (Hamilton Papers)
[ Philadelphia, March 21, 1791. On July 1, 1791, Meletiah Jordan wrote to Hamilton : “Your Letter (Circular) of the 21st March, observes I should inform you what Post Office would be most convenient for me to get my Letters from.” Circular not found. ]
The Comptroller of the Treasury having happily recovered his health, and being consequently able to superintend as usual the business of his office, I am to request that you will in future make your applications to him on all questions or enquiries relative to the forms transmitted to you and to the mode of acting in cases arising under them. Such enquiries as you may have addressed to me...
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...
I am to request your attention to the in-closed Paper and that in the Columns opposite the described Article of Merchandise or Package (for containing them,) the rates of Freight which are paid from your Port to the Countries expressed in the Head Lines be inserted, and returned to me as early as the Inquiry will admit. With great consideration I am Sir Your obedient Servt. LS , to Jeremiah...
5Treasury 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...
7Treasury 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...
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...
9Treasury 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,...
10Treasury Department Circular to the Collectors of the Customs, 31 August 1792 (Hamilton Papers)
Agreeably to an order of the Senate of the United States, passed on the 7th of May last, a copy of which is herewith transmitted, I have to request that you will furnish me, immediately after the first of October next with the particular statements required by the said order. From these a general Abstract is to be formed at the Treasury; and as Uniformity in the mode of stating the receipts...
11Treasury 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...
12Treasury 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...
13Treasury 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...
14Treasury 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...
15Treasury 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...
16Treasury 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...
17Treasury Department Circular to the Collectors of the Customs, 27 August 1792 (Hamilton Papers)
It would be of use in regard to the Return of exports, which is transmitted quarterly to this Office by the Collectors, if the exported articles were uniformly arranged in alphabetic order. With a view to this, I enclose you a form of such an alphabetical arrangement, and request that for the future you will have the articles of exports inserted in the said Return, agreeably to that form;...
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, 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...
23Treasury 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...
24Treasury 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...
25Treasury 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...
26Treasury 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...
27Treasury Department Circular to the Collectors of the Customs, 23 May 1792 (Hamilton Papers)
I have to request, if in future you should have any particular communication to make to the Secretary of the Treasury, that you will designate Your Office upon the outside of your letters. I am, Sir, Your Obedt. Servant LS , The Turner Manuscript Collection at the Torrington Library, Torrington, Connecticut; LS , sold by Kingston Galleries, Inc., Lot 77, Catalogue No. 4; LS , Independence...
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...
31Treasury Department Circular to the Collectors of the Customs, 21 September 1791 (Hamilton Papers)
It being necessary to fix the rates at which the additional rations for the Officers of the Cutters are to be paid for, I have determined, on consideration, to instruct you to allow to the Captain & other Officers of the Cutter, under your Agency, the sum of nine Cents for every ration which they shall not draw, and for which they shall prefer to receive payment in money. It will also be...
32Treasury Department Circular to the Collectors of the Customs, 25 October 1792 (Hamilton Papers)
Pursuant to the discretion vested in me by the sixth section of the act, entitled, “An Act making alterations in the Treasury and War Departments,” I have concluded to commit the immediate superintendance of the Collection of the duties of impost and tonnage to the Comptroller of the Treasury. You will therefore henceforth correspond with that officer, relatively to all matters arising out of...
33Treasury Department Circular to the Collectors of the Customs, 1 October 1790 (Hamilton Papers)
It being intended that one of the Revenue Boats or Cutters shall be built in Connecticut I request that you will on receipt of this endeavor to agree with some proper persons for the building & fitting of a Vessel of a size suitable to the nature of the service. From my inquiries in the Port of New-York I find that a complete Vessel capable of keeping this Coast in the Winter season may be...
34Treasury Department Circular to the Collectors of the Customs, 1 October 1789 (Hamilton Papers)
The United States in Congress having by their Act of the 7th. of August last Ordained “That all expences for the necessary support and maintenance of Light-houses, Beacons, Buoys &ca. within any Port or Harbour of the United States, should after the 15th. of August last, be defrayed out of the Treasury of the United States”; You will be pleased to transmit forthwith to this Office, as...
35Treasury Department Circular to the Collectors of the Customs, 22 January 1793 (Hamilton Papers)
Enclosed is an act, entitled, “An act concerning the registering and recording of ships or vessels,” passed the 31st of December last. This act is to take effect after the last days of March next. The forms of the certificates of Registry therein prescribed, will be immediately prepared and transmitted by the Register of the Treasury. Copies of all certificates which shall be granted pursuant...
36Treasury Department Circular to the Collectors of the Customs, 13 May 1791 (Hamilton Papers)
I find instances that have occurred in some of the Custom-houses, of receiving the duties on goods by estimates formed upon the invoices, or the statements of the Masters and Owners of the vessels, and by other means than actual gauging, weighing, measuring, &c. This, it is manifest, is not conformable to law, and may lead to practices very injurious to the revenue. Neither is it necessary to...
37Treasury Department Circular to the Collectors of the Customs, 17 November 1791 (Hamilton Papers)
On considering several representations which have been made to me relative to the rations for the cutters, I have determined on the following mode of conducting the business. A price not exceeding twelve cents for each man per diem may be agreed for by you with the Captain or any other person, who will contract to supply the necessary articles. It is hoped that this will enable you to conduct...
38Treasury Department Circular to the Collectors of the Customs, 25 June 1793 (Hamilton Papers)
It appears that the summary of the amount of Duties on Imposts and Tonnage which accrued within your district during the first Quarter of the present Year has not yet come to hand. The importance of Punctuality in this particular, was strongly indicated by my Letter of the 12th of October 1792. The delay embarrasses me, and is a cause of regret. I hope for your exertions to avoid a similar...
39Treasury Department Circular to the Collectors of the Customs, 18 April 1794 (Hamilton Papers)
You will herewith receive for your Government a resolve of Congress of the second instant, relatively to the embargo. Another resolution has just passed for continuing the embargo to the 25th. day of May next, which is herewith transmitted. With great consideration I am Sir Your obedient Servant LS , RG 36, Collector of Customs at Boston, Letters from the Treasury and Others, 1794–1813,...
40Treasury Department Circular to the Collectors of the Customs, 13 June 1793 (Hamilton Papers)
I have to desire that you extend my Instructions, of the 2d of January, 1792, relatively to the Receipt of the Cash and Post Notes of the Bank of the United States, to the Notes of the several Branches of this Institution, the Offices of Discount and Deposit, at Boston, New-York, Baltimore, and Charleston. The Signatures of the Presidents of these Offices are, herewith, transmitted to you, to...
41Treasury Department Circular to the Collectors of the Customs, 23 September 1790 (Hamilton Papers)
Some very important objects in the business of the next sessions of the Legislature will render the early transmission of the several quarterly returns and accounts that will be due the 30th. instant indispensibly necessary. The early receipt of these papers is not only requisite for some extraordinary purposes of this Department, but information drawn from them will be particularly desired by...
42Treasury Department Circular to the Collectors of the Customs, 30 May 1793 (Hamilton Papers)
It being the opinion of the Executive, that there is no general law of the land, prohibiting the entry and sale of goods captured by foreign powers at war—and consequently that such entry and sale are lawful; except in cases where a prohibition is to be found in the treaties of the United States— It becomes the duty of this Department to make known to you, that the entry of vessels captured...
43Treasury Department Circular to the Collectors of the Customs, 23 June 1794 (Hamilton Papers)
It being highly expedient that the Marshall should be immediately charged on the Books of the Treasury with the monies which you might advance to him in pursuance of my letter to you of the 2nd of July 1793 I have to request that the receipts for all payments already made, or made by you hereafter to the said Marshall may be immediately transmitted to this Office. I am with consideration sir...
44Treasury Department Circular to the Collectors of the Customs, 3 October 1789 (Hamilton Papers)
Inclosed is the copy of an Act for amending the “Act for registering and Clearing Vessels, regulating the Coasting Trade, and for other purposes,” which I transmit you for your Government. I am Sir Your humble servt. LS , to Charles Lee, Charles Lee Papers, Library of Congress; LS , to John Scott, Harvard College Library; LS , to William Webb, Princeton University Library; L[S] , to Otho...
45Treasury Department Circular to the Collectors of the Customs, 3 March 1790 (Hamilton Papers)
You will receive herewith an Act of Congress of the 8th. of february last entitled “An Act for giving effect to the several Acts therein mentioned in respect to the State of North Carolina and other purposes.” which I transmit for your government. I am Sir Your Obedt Servt. LS , to Charles Lee, Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia; L[S] , to Benjamin Lincoln, RG 36, Collector of...
46Treasury Department Circular to the Collectors of the Customs, 18 December 1793 (Hamilton Papers)
It has been made a question whether by the sixth section of the Act entitled “An Act for raising a farther sum of money for the protection of the frontiers and for other purposes therein mentioned,” the allowance to one fishing vessel is still restricted to the sum of one hundred and seventy Dollars for one season, as prescribed by the preceding Act concerning fisheries of the United States...
47Treasury Department Circular to the Collectors of the Customs, 23 December 1789 (Hamilton Papers)
My opinion having been several times asked on the following points, I think it proper in order to produce uniformity of practice to convey it in a Circular Instruction. First—Whether the tonnage of foreign vessels ought to be taken from the Registers, or ascertained by admeasurement according to the principles of the third Section of the act for registering &c. I am of opinion that the latter...
48Treasury Department Circular to the Collectors of the Customs, 13 March 1793 (Hamilton Papers)
Proof has been filed in the office of the Collector of Newbury Port, agreeably to the 13th section of the act, entitled, “An act for registering and clearing Vessels, regulating the coasting Trade, &c.” of the loss of two Certificates of registry, of the following numbers and description, viz. No. 42, dated Newbury Port the 19th of April 1790, granted to Benjamin Joy, owner and master of the...
49Treasury Department Circular to the Collectors of the Customs, 27 July 1793 (Hamilton Papers)
It having been represented that the number of men heretofore allowed on board of the revenue Cutters has proved to be insufficient, the President of the united States has consented to the full complement of mariners, agreeably to the 7th Section of the act of the 2d of march last, entitled “An Act supplementary to the act intitled An Act to provide more effectually for the collection of the...
50Treasury Department Circular to the Collectors of the Customs, 6 October 1789 (Hamilton Papers)
I have reason to know, that some of the Collectors have conceived themselves authorised to make ye discount allowed by Law for prompt payment, after Bonds were given for securing the Duties. This is not in my opinion, the true construction of the Act. You will therefore under such circumstances avoid making the above discount. I am Sir Your Obedient Servant LS , to Jedediah Huntington, MS...