Description:

Gallatin Albert

Sec. of the Treasury Albert Gallatin Notifies Collectors of Customs That an Act of Congress “concerning the registering and recording of ships and vessels” Has “full force and effect” in the Territories Ceded to the U.S. by the Louisiana Purchase



Signed Letter & Signed Free Frank! Circular Letter Signed “Albert Gallatin” as Jefferson’s Secretary of the Treasury, 1p, 8” x 10”. Treasury Department [Washington, D.C.], January 31, 1805. Integral leaf is franked “Albert Gallatin,” reddish brown postmarked “WASHN CITY FEB 12” and stamped “FREE.” Clerically addressed from “Treasury Department” to “Jeremiah Nicholls Esquire / Collector of Customs / Chester / Maryland.” Light toning at folds. Fine condition.



In full, “It being found by experience that the rule which has heretofore governed the collectors in the issuing of sea-letters, in pursuance of the instructions from this department, of May 13th, 1793, has become liable to abuse; I am directed by the President of the United States, to request, that no sea-letters be granted in future, to any ships or vessels, which being owned in whole or in part by naturalized citizens residing abroad, are precluded from the benefit of registers, under the first section of an act of Congress to amend the ‘Act concerning the registering and recording of ships and vessels,’ passed on the 27th of March, 1804.” This printed, personally signed, circular letter was sent to all Collectors of Customs.



On May 13, 1793, Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton, in a circular letter, told each Collector of Customs, in part, “You will be pleased particularly to observe, that these sea-letters are to be issued to all vessels, bound to foreign ports, which are, really and bona fide, wholly the property of one or more citizens of the United States … No vessel in which any foreigner is interested wholly, or even in part, directly, or indirectly, either by holding the legal title to her, or by any trust, or other device, is entitled to the benefit of one ofthese documents; and you will take the most especial care to prevent deceptions and collusions in that respect…”


Evidently, these 1793 instructions had “become liable to abuse” and resulted in a request by President Jefferson in the letter here offered.



“An act giving effect to the laws of the United States within the territories ceded to the United States by the treaty of the 30th of April, 1803, between the United States and the French Republic, and for other purposes” signed by President Jefferson on March 27, 1804, stated, in part, that “An act concerning the registering and recording of ships and vessels … shall extend to and have full force and effect in the above mentioned territories,” the land acquired by the Louisiana Purchase.



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