To Alexander Hamilton from Tench Coxe, 1 March 1793
From Tench Coxe
Treasury Department
Revenue Office March 1st. 1793
Sir,
I have the honor to transmit to you a general state of Revenue on domestic distilled spirits exhibiting as far as returns have been received at the Treasury, the several objects contemplated by the House of Representatives in their order of the 8th of May last.1 The Supervisors of those Districts, wherein the distillation is principally from domestic materials in the Country, were in many instances unable to establish Collectors by reason of the smallness of the compensations under the first act,2 and you will remember that from that and other causes, the detailed information was necessary to enable the President to make the final distributions of the funds assigned for compensations and expences could not be collected so as to complete that business ’till the end of October.
The appointments have since been generally made; and consequently this Revenue will now take a more orderly course.
I have the honor to be With great respect, Sir, Your most obedient Servant.
Tench Coxe,
Commissioner of the Revenue.
The Honble
The Secretary of the Treasury.
Copy, RG 233, Reports of the Secretary of the Treasury, 1784–1795, Vol. IV, National Archives. This letter was enclosed in H’s “Report on Stills and Spirits Distilled Within the United States,” March 2, 1793.
2. Section 58 of “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 for appropriating the same” provided “That the aggregate amount of the allowances to all the said supervisors, inspectors and other officers, shall not exceed seven per cent. of the whole product of the duties arising from the spirits distilled within the United States: And provided also, That such allowance shall not exceed the annual amount of forty-five thousand dollars, until the same shall be further ascertained by law” ( 213 [March 3, 1791]). The compensation was changed by Section 16 of “An Act concerning the Duties on Spirits distilled within the United States,” which authorized the President “to make such allowances for their respective services to the supervisors, inspectors and other officers of inspection, as he shall deem reasonable and proper, so as the said allowances, together with the incidental expenses of collecting the duties on spirits distilled within the United States, shall not exceed seven and an half per centum of the total product of the duties on distilled spirits, for the period to which the said allowances shall relate, computing from the time the act, intituled ‘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 in the United States, and for appropriating the same,’ took effect: And provided also, That such allowance shall not exceed the annual amount of seventy thousand dollars, until the same shall be further ascertained by law” ( 270–71 [May 8, 1792]).
On October 31, 1792, Coxe had written to the supervisors of the revenue transmitting the order of May 8, 1792, of the House of Representatives and requesting them to send information on distilled spirits in their districts (LC, RG 58, Letters of Commissioner of Revenue, 1792–1793, National Archives).