Customs Collectors are charged with collecting hospital duties and with the construction/acquisition of marine hospitals. QUARANTINE AND HEALTH ACT enables the President to use Customs Collectors to enforce quarantine and state health laws.Įstablishment of the MARINE HOSPITAL SERVICE. The NATURALIZATION ACT of 1795 changes residency requirements from two to three years and introduces the Declaration of Intention. Known as JAY’S TREATY, it provides for British evacuation of its Northwestern posts by June 1796, and allows settlers to decide if they become Americans or remain British citizens. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Jay signs the Amity, Commerce, and Navigation Treaty with Great Britain. After 1860, the agents reported directly to the Department of the Treasury.Īmerican statesman and U.S. From 1846-1860, agents submitted reports to the Treasury Department through the Collectors of Customs in the Customs district where they were employed. SPECIAL TREASURY AGENT position is created. Revenue Marine for the defense of the nation. Customs ensign and pennant, the Customs Revenue Cutter "Valiant" fires on British privateer "Dart" off Block Island, Rhode Island.Ĭongress authorizes the President to utilize the U.S.
Customs Collectors were tasked with the design, building and selection of crews and captains, and management of the U.S. revenue.Alexander Hamilton: first Secretary of the Treasury served 1789 - 1797.Ĭongress authorizes Treasury Secretary to undertake the building of 10 CUSTOMS REVENUE CUTTERS. This is the first non-revenue responsibility assigned to Collectors of Customs, which was tasked with the design, construction, staffing and management of lighthouses in their Customs districts.Cedar Point Lighthouse Nantucket Mass., built in 1818.ġ1th Act of the First Congress of the United States establishes the DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY Secretary of the Treasury is responsible for the management of all matters pertaining to the collection and protection of U.S. CUSTOMS SERVICE.ĩth Act of the First Congress establishes the LIGHTHOUSE SERVICE.
Ports of entry, under the jurisdiction of a Collector of Customs, are designated by the Act, and the organization would soon come to be known as the U.S.
In the early years of the nation, the port of Philadelphia was the largest in the nation.ĥth Act of the First Congress of the United States establishes 59 customs collection districts in the 11 states that had ratified the new Constitution. It was in this building that President Washington signed the Fifth Act of Congress, creating the Customs Service.Īfter the federal government moved to Philadelphia in 1790, Federal Hall became the Customhouse for the Customs Collection District of New York.First Federal Hall at Wall and Nassau Streets, Lower Manhattan, New YorkĢnd Act of the First Congress of the United States establishes a systems of tariffs on imported "goods and merchandises" in order to fund the new federal government.ģrd Act of the First Congress of the United States establishes a system of tariffs on the tonnage of ships."Arch Street Landing" in Philadelphia. George Washington was inaugurated as the first President of the United States on the balcony of the First Federal Hall in New York which served as the seat of the federal government until 1790, when the capital was moved to Philadelphia.