August 4, 1790

 Congress establishes the U. S. Coast Guard as part of a new revenue law.

In March 1976, Proceedings published a special issue about the U.S. Coast Guard, which included an article by Commander Roger P. Vance, U. S. Coast Guard Reserve, about the origin of the Coast Guard.  Vance’s article describes how, under the newly-formed Constitution, the need for a revenue system that would discourage smuggling resulted in the creation of a small fleet of cutters responsible for enforcing the revenue laws of the new American government:

        We now know our Constitution to be sound and durable.  But in early 1789, it was only an ambitious, untested plan.  As members of the new government gathered in New York City that year, they would have to breathe life into the new instrument.  And they would have to do so under the burden of debt inherited from the Continental Congress.  They faced no problem quite so immediate and serious as that of finance. Read the rest of this entry »

August 4, 1790

Creation of U. S. Revenue Marine

        In March 1976, Proceedings published a brief article by Truman R. Strobridge and Bernard C. Nalty about the discovery of correspondence between Alexander Hamilton, credited with the creation of the Revenue Marine, and Colonel Sharp Delaney, a Customs collector at the time.  This correspondence, regarding the use of ships to enforce the new Customs laws of the Constitution, suggests that Hamilton may not have been solely responsible for the conception of the service that is today known as the U. S. Coast Guard.  As Strobridge and Nalty write:

        No one denies that today’s Coast Guard is descended from Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton’s U. S. Revenue Marine, but letters discovered in 1962 at the Philadelphia Customs House raise questions about other aspects of the story.  Did the Revenue Marine originate at Philadelphia or at Newburyport, Massachusetts, where the first revenue cutter was built?  Was its founder Alexander Hamilton or Colonel Sharp Delany, an Irish-born veteran of the Revolution who in 1789 became the first Collector of Customs at the Pennsylvania city?

        About two months after Delany took office, but while he was absent because of illness, a circular letter arrived from Secretary Hamilton.  The question of revenue cutters was already on the cabinet officer’s mind, for he asked “to have your ideas of the expediency of employing them in your quarter, and (if any appear to you necessary) of the number and kind you deem requisite, their armament and probable expense.”  If any cutters “have been in use under State Regulations,”  Hamilton continued, “I desire they may be continued and that I may be advised with accuracy of the nature of their establishment.” Read the rest of this entry »