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Albert Gallatin on Providing Bills of Health to Outbound Ships to Prevent Spread of Contagious Diseases
Albert Gallatin on Providing Bills of Health to Outbound Ships to Prevent Spread of Contagious Diseases
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Gallatin Albert



Albert Gallatin on Providing Bills of Health to Outbound Ships to Prevent Spread of Contagious Diseases

Printed Letter Signed, as Secretary of the Treasury, Circular to Collectors of the Customs, July 15, 1801, Washington, D.C. This copy was sent to William Heth, the Collector at Petersburgh, Virginia. 2 pp., 7.875" x 12.75". Expected folds; some toning.

 

Excerpts

“The quarantine laws of some European nations have proven so oppressive to our commerce, that it has become necessary to adopt every measure which may induce a reasonable relaxation.”

 

“In order to produce that desirable effect, it seems requisite to impress a conviction that the most strict adherence to truth always characterises the certificates of health which may be granted to our ships; and to attach to those certificates the forms which are most usual in other countries, and such attestations as may give them the highest degree of authenticity.”

 

“The annexed form of a bill of health, in which are specified, the name of the vessel and captain, the number of persons composing the crew, and of passengers respectively, the species of merchandise of which the cargo does consist, and the destination of the vessel, and which applies also to the state of health of the port and of the adjoining country, seems, from information received, to be the most eligible, and it is recommended that the same should be uniformly adopted. If there is no prevailing sickness at the time of the vessel’s sailing, the blank between the words that and in, is to be filled up as follows: No plague or other contagious or dangerous disease at present exists. But if the contrary should be the case, the blank is then to be filled up in such way, as to clearly and unequivocally express the nature of the existing disorder.”

 

“Whenever it can be done, it will be useful to obtain a certification, of the facts, stated in the Bill of Health, by the consul or agent of the country to which the vessel may be bound, and from a late public notification, this caution seems particularly necessary in respect to vessels destined for Spain.”

 

“The President, by whose directions I have addressed you on this subject, entertains no doubt of your chearfulness in carrying into effect regulations, which may, in many instances, relieve our vessels from very injurious and useless detentions.”

 

Historical Background


During the French Revolutionary Wars of the 1790s, American trade increased dramatically, as the neutral United States traded with all European powers. After the United States reached agreement with Great Britain in the Jay Treaty of 1794, trade between Great Britain and the United States increased. However, French privateers began preying on American shipping, resulting in the undeclared Quasi-War with France from 1798 to 1800. The Convention of 1800 that ended the Quasi-War recognized American neutral rights.

 

Early in his Presidency, Thomas Jefferson was able to maintain good relations with both France and Great Britain. This circular regarding bills of health was part of that effort and reflected Jefferson’s commitment to the principle of freedom of navigation for neutral vessels. It also stemmed from a desire not to have American ships unnecessarily detained in foreign ports while port officials waited to see if the ship’s passengers or crew were infected with any contagious disease.

 

Bills of health were also important in helping to prevent the spread of poorly understood contagious diseases such as yellow fever, typhus, and plague. Infected ships often carried such diseases from one port to another, where they spread among the population. A bill of health from a U.S. Collector of Customs informed officials in the receiving port that the departure port did not have any such diseases or which diseases may have been common in the area.

 

 

Albert Gallatin (1761-1849) was born in Geneva, Switzerland, and immigrated to the United States in 1780. By 1782, he was teaching French at Harvard College. he purchased land in western Pennsylvania and moved there in 1784. In 1789, he was a member of the Pennsylvania state constitutional convention and served in the Pennsylvania General Assembly from 1790 to 1793, when he was elected to the U.S. Senate. However, the Federalist majority of the Senate refused him a seat because he had not been a citizen for the minimum nine years required. After he counseled moderation during the Whiskey Rebellion, he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, where he served from 1795 to 1801. He opposed the entire program of Alexander Hamilton in the 1790s, but when he served as Secretary of the Treasury under Thomas Jefferson and James Madison from 1801 to 1814, he kept all the main parts of Hamilton’s program and even supported the Bank of the United States, which other Jeffersonians opposed.  Gallatin helped plan the Lewis and Clark Expedition into the new Louisiana Purchase, and later resigned his position to head the United States delegation to negotiations that ended the War of 1812 through the Treaty of Ghent. From 1816 to1 823, he served as U.S. Minister to France. In 1825, John Quincy Adams offered him the position of Secretary of the Treasury, but he declined. After serving as U.S. Minister to Great Britain in 1826-1827, he settled in New York City, where he helped found New York University in 1831.

 

William Heth (1735-1808) served in General Montgomery’s regiment during the French and Indian War. In the American Revolution, he was commissioned colonel of the 3rd Virginia Regiment of the Continental Line in 1777 and remained in command of it until the end of the war. In 1791, President George Washington appointed Heth, who was a Federalist, as collector of customs at Bermuda Hundred / Petersburg, Virginia, where his fees and commission exceeded $8,000 in 1801. President Thomas Jefferson removed him from office in 1802.

 

 


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