Instructions to the Officers of the Revenue Cutters

This document is a circular letter from Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton to Boston Customs Collector Benjamin Lincoln, providing instructions to officers of the newly created United States Revenue Cutter Service (also known as the Revenue-Marine). The Revenue Cutter Service was established to “guard the revenue laws from all infractions” within the coastal waters of the United States. The Coast Guard Act of 1915, signed into law by President Woodrow Wilson on January 28, 1915, later combined the United States Revenue Cutter Service with the United States Life-Saving Service to form the new United States Coast Guard.

The National Archives at Boston holds nearly 5,000 cubic feet of maritime records split between two main record groups: Record Group 26, Records of the U.S. Coast Guard, and Record Group 36, Records of the U.S. Customs Service. These records, dating from 1789 through the 1990s, document imports and exports, lighthouses, vessel registrations and sales, reports of lifesaving stations and wrecks, crew arrivals and departures, and a number of other topics relating to maritime trade in New England. 

View and download the Circular from Alexander Hamilton to Benjamin Lincoln Regarding Instructions to the Officers of the Revenue Cutters on our online Catalog. This record is one example of the letters received to the Revenue Cutter Service in the National Archives at Boston, Massachusetts. You can explore more records held in the National Archives at Boston by visiting our online Catalog or by visiting the National Archives at Boston, Massachusetts. This record is located within Record Group 36: Records of the U.S. Customs Service, Series: Letters Received Relating to the Revenue Cutter Service. Many of the records in this collection have yet to be digitized. We encourage researchers to visit us onsite to explore these records and learn more about the archival collections held in the National Archives at Boston.