Facsimile of a Letter Book of Colonel Sharp Delany First Collector Philadelphia, Pennsylvania August 7, 1789 to December 20, 1790

C3a. Very Good. Hardcover. Hardcover. 8vo. Department of the Treasury, United States Customs Service, Washington, DC, 1987. 95 unnumbered pages. Bound in cloth boards with titles present to the spine and front board. Boards have light shelf-wear present to the extremities. No ownership marks present. Text is clean and free of marks. Binding tight and solid. Colonel Sharp Delany was the first collector of Customs appointed by President George Washington for the port of Philadelphia. Colonel Delany’s letterbook for the period of August 7, 1789 to December 20, 1790 contains facsimile reproductions of his letters in his original hand. These letters were significant because they portray some of the problems of a Customs Service trying to emerge from a succession of administration under the British Crown, under the individual States, and finally as a Federal entity seeking to protect the revenue of the United States. Included is Delany’s October 31, 1789 letter to Alexander Hamilton, the first Secretary of the Treasury, that advocated regular boat patrols of the coast. This letter was instrumental in establishing the Revenue Cutter Service, which joined with the Life-Saving Service to become the US Coast Guard in 1915. Other letters discuss seizures, purchase and operation of vessels, and customs duties. Extremely scarce, essential for research on the subject. EB; 8vo 8" - 9" tall .