To Alexander Hamilton from Tench Coxe, 9 December 1794
From Tench Coxe
Treasury Department, Revenue Office, December 9, 1794. “Mr. Coxe has the honor to enclose to the Secretary of the Treasy. several petitions adverse to the building of a Light House on Seguin Island. It is authorized by law to be built on that Island and appropriation of money has been made, but no contract has been effected.”1
LC, RG 26, Lighthouse Letters, Vol. I, National Archives.
1. “An Act for erecting a Lighthouse on the Island of Sequin in the district of Maine, and for erecting a beacon and placing three buoys at the entrance of Saint Mary’s river, in the state of Georgia” had appropriated “a sum not exceeding five thousand dollars” for building a lighthouse on Seguin Island ( 368–69 [May 19, 1794]). On June 3, 1794, Coxe wrote to Benjamin Lincoln, collector of customs at Boston, requesting that Lincoln go to Seguin Island and “fix upon the most eligible spot for the actual site” of the lighthouse after conferring with “the collectors of the Customs, Merchants, & others” (LC, RG 26, Lighthouse Letters, Vol. I, National Archives). On August 6, 1794, Lincoln sent Coxe a letter containing the information on the lighthouse which Coxe had requested as well as letters from residents of Maine objecting to the lighthouse on Seguin Island (LC, Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston).