Treasury Department Circular to the Collectors of the Customs, 31 August 1792
Treasury Department Circular
to the Collectors of the Customs
Treasury Department,
August 31st, 1792.
Sir,
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,1 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 and disbursements will facilitate the business, a form is hereto annexed as a guide.2
It is my desire that the Collectors will obtain and transmit at the same time similar documents from the Inspectors, Gaugers, Measurers and Weighers, or other persons holding under the Collectors any office or employment from which salaries, fees or emoluments are derived.
I am, with consideration, Sir, your obedient Servant,
A Hamilton
LS, to Jeremiah Olney, Rhode Island Historical Society, Providence; LS, to Otho H. Williams, Office of the Secretary, United States Treasury Department; LS, United States Finance Miscellany, Treasury Circulars, Library of Congress; LS, MS Division, New York Public Library; LS, American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, Massachusetts; LS, sold at Sotheby & Company, London, November 2, 1964, Lot 315.
1. The Senate order reads as follows: “That the Secretary of the Treasury do lay before the Senate, at the next session of Congress, a statement of the salaries, fees, and emoluments, for one year, ending the first day of October next, to be stated quarterly, of every person holding any civil office or employment under the United States (except the judges,) together with the actual disbursements and expenses in the discharge of their respective offices and employments for the same period; and that he do report the name of every person who shall neglect or refuse to give satisfactory information touching his office or employment, or the emoluments or disbursements thereof” (, III, 138).
2. The enclosure consists of two columns entitled “A Statement of the Salary, Fees and Emoluments received by the of during one year, commencing on the 1st of October 1791, and ending on the 1st of October 1792” and “A Statement of the Monies actually disbursed and expended by the of in the discharge of his office and employments, for the period before mentioned.”