430 



LIGHTHOUSE ESTABLISHMENT, THE UNITED STATES. 



ulation as a means of safety, it will establish this sys- 

 tem and invest it with obligations that will insure it 

 complete success. 



LIGHTHOUSE ESTABLISHMENT, THE 

 UNITED STATES. The lighthouse system of 

 this country commenced with its commerce. 

 There is little doubt but that the early colonists 

 recognized the necessity for beacons with which 

 to guide their home-returning shallops to a safe 

 anchorage, and that they took effective means 

 to show the English and Dutch ships, which 

 should make their landfall at night, the safe 

 way to their harbor. But the first authentic 

 evidence of this being done at the public charge 

 is the record of the proceedings of the General 

 Court of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, 

 from which it appears that on March 9, 1673, 

 a petition came from the citizens of Nantasket, 

 Massachusetts (now Hull), for the lessening of 

 their taxes, because of the material and labor 

 they had expended, over and above their pro- 

 portion, in building the beacon on Point Aller- 

 ton, the most prominent headland near the 

 entrance to Boston Harbor. At that session 

 also it appears that bills from Nantasket were 

 paid for making and furnishing " fier-bales of 

 pitch and ocum for the beacon at Allerton 

 Point," which " fier-bales" were burned in an 

 iron grate or basket on the top of a beacon, for 

 the building of which Nantasket had furnished 

 400 boat-loads of stone. 



The first lighthouse on this continent was 

 built at the entrance to Boston Harbor, on Lit- 

 tle Brewster Island, in 1715-'16, at a cost of 

 2,385 17s. 8$d. It was erected by the order and 

 at the expense of the General Court of the 

 Province of Massachusetts Bay, and it was sup- 

 ported by light-dues of Id. per ton on all in- 

 coming and outgoing vessels, except coasters, 

 levied by the Collector of Imports at Boston. 

 The maritime colonies followed the example of 

 Massachusetts, and when the United States, by 

 the act of August 7, 1789, accepted the cession 

 of the title to, and joint jurisdiction over, the 

 lighthouses on the coasts, and agreed to main- 

 tain them thereafter, they were eight in num- 

 ber, and comprised the following lights, all of 

 which are still in existence, though so greatly 

 improved that they are the same only in pur- 

 pose and in site : 



Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Harbor Light; 

 Boston Light, on Little Brewster Island ; the 

 Gurnet Light, near Plymouth, Massachusetts ; 

 Brant Point Light, on Nantucket, Massachu- 

 setts; Beaver Tail Light, on Conanicut Island, 

 Rhode Island, in Long Island Sound ; Sandy 

 Hook Light, New Jersey, entrance to New 

 York Harbor; Cape Henlopen, Delaware, at 

 the entrance to Delaware Bay ; Charleston 

 Main Light, on Morris Island, entrance to the 

 harbor of Charleston, South Carolina. 



When the lights came into the possession of 

 the General ^ Government, they were placed 

 under the direction of the Secretary of the 

 Treasury, who seems to have given them his 

 personal attention, but to have taken no im- 



portant action without the direct approbation 

 of the President.* 



On May 8, 1792, the office of Commissioner 

 of the Revenue was established, and the superin- 

 tendence and control of the lights were devolved 

 upon him. On April 6, 1802, this office was 

 abolished, when the then Secretary of the Treas- 

 ury, Mr. Gallatin, resumed the control of the 

 lights. Their management remained in the 

 Secretary himself, who gave it much of his per- 

 sonal attention, until July 24, 1813, when, on 

 the reestablishment of the office of Commis- 

 sioner of the Revenue, the control of the lights 

 became again a part of his work. That office 

 was a second time abolished by the act of De- 

 cember 23, 1817, which went into operation 

 on July 1, 1820, when all its duties, including 

 those of superintending the lights, were de- 

 volved on the Fifth Auditor of the Treasury. 

 During these thirty years that had elapsed since 

 the lights had come under the control of the 

 General Government, the number had been in- 

 creased, under Congressional enactment, from 

 8 to 55 ; and each seems to have been built to 

 meet immediate and pressing local want, and 

 without reference to any general system. 



The Fifth Auditor, Mr. Stephen "Pleasanton, 

 who was popularly known as the General Su- 

 perintendent of Lights, accepted that duty in 

 1820, and continued in charge until 1852. Dur- 

 ing this time the establishment was increased 

 from 55 lighthouses and a few buoys to 325 

 lighthouses, 35 light-ships, with numerous 

 buoys, monuments, and other aids to navigation. 



The General Superintendent of Lights was 

 the officer who executed the orders of Congress, 

 but to whom was delegated a certain discretion- 

 ary power. Congress, in appropriating the 

 funds for a light, usually fixed its location, its 

 kind, and its order. He formulated the orders 

 of Congress by advertising for proposals to 

 build the kind of lighthouses desired, and 

 signed the contract on the part of the Govern- 

 ment. The collector of customs nearest to 

 the location of the proposed light was usually 

 made the local superintendent, and after he had 

 selected the exact site, was furnished with a 

 plan of the building, and was authorized to em- 

 ploy a suitable mechanic as overseer, who was 

 to make sure of the quality of the material and 

 labor used. Payments were made only on the 

 certificate of this overseer. The local superin- 

 tendent was expected to visit each lighthouse 

 in his district yearly, in June, if possible, and 

 to report to the General Superintendent in 

 Washington the condition of each, and this was 

 often done. 



* As an instance of this, the following letter, the original 

 of which hangs in the office of the Lighthouse Board, is here 

 given : 



MOUNT VERNON, October 12, 1790. 



SIR : I have received your letter of the 5th instant. The 

 public service requiring- the arrangement which you have 

 made relative to the lighthouses of Newport and Portland, 

 they are perfectly agreeable to uie, and receive my approba- 

 tion. 1 am, sir, your most obedient servant, 



GEORGE WASHINGTON. 

 To ALEXANDER HAMILTON, Esq., Secretary of the Treasury 



of the United States. 



