780 



SERVICE, UNITED STATES MARINE HOSPITAL. 



min Lincoln, Collector at Boston, David Aus- 

 tin, New Haven, and Allen McLane, Wilming- 

 ton, Del., under date of July 20, 1799, as fol- 

 lows : 



SIB : Having received no returns for the quarter end- 

 ing 31st March last of the hospital money collected in 

 your district, for the use of sick and disabled seamen 

 as indicated by law, I will thank you to immediately 

 forward to this office returns of the moneys collected 

 by you during that period for the purpose aforesaid. 

 I will also thank you to conform to the instructions 

 of the Comptroller of the Treasury on that head, by 

 transmitting quarterly returns for the time to come. 

 I am with consideration, Sir, 



Your obedient Servant, 

 OLIVEK WOLCOTT. 



The instructions to which he refers were as 

 follows: 



TREASURY DEPARTMENT, May 24</i, 1T99. 

 BENJAMIN LINCOLN, Esq., Collector of Boston. 



SIB : I herewith transmit a Copy of an Act of Con- 

 gress passed on the second of March last entitled " An 

 Act in addition to an Act for the relief of sick and dis- 

 abled seamen." 



It was hoped that an arrangement could have been 

 formed before this time for the establishment of per- 

 manent Hospitals. 



It appears, however, that this subject has been placed 

 by the Act of the last session " to regulate the Medical 

 Establishment" under the immediate superintendence 

 of the Physician General ; the object of this communi- 

 cation is therefore confined to a provision for the tem- 

 porary relief and support of sick and disabled seamen 

 in public and private service. 



For the present, and until experience shall have 

 shown the expediency of a different arrangement, the 

 moneys collected in the State of Massachusetts will be 

 expended under your directions at or near Boston, and 

 accordingly the sums collected at the outports of the 

 State will from time to time be placed in your hands 

 in pursuance of special directions, of which you will 

 be advised. 



The persons entitled to relief from the fund are Offi- 

 cers, Seamen, and Marines of the Navy of the United 

 States, and Masters, Marines, and Seamen employed 

 in private or Merchant Vessels. I think proper to 

 mention, that there may be some danger of a diver- 

 sion of the fund for the maintenance of persons who 

 ought to be relieved as paupers under municipal regu- 

 lations. As abuses of this kind, if practised to any 

 considerable extent, will defeat the humane inten- 

 tions of Congress in the establishment of permanent 

 Hospitals for the support of disabled seamen, they 

 ought to be carefully prevented. 



It is, however, the object of the Law that the expen- 

 ditures of the fund for temporary relief should be 

 made at the Hospital or other proper institutions now 

 established in the Ports of the United States. You 

 will of course endeavor to fix by precise agreements 

 the conditions upon which sick and disabled seamen 

 shall be received and supplied with whatever their ne- 

 cessities may require, and will transmit the Copies of 

 the Contracts which may be formed to this Office. In 

 cases where arrangements can not be made you will 

 pursue established usages respecting similar expendi- 

 turesj observing all possible economy. 



It is not expected that you should personally su- 

 perintend the details of expenditure ; an agreement 

 therefore with some individual or corporation, that 

 the fund shall be properly applied, appears to be in- 

 dispensable. The accounts must be rendered to you 

 at least quarterly, supported by such vouchers as are 

 usual, and as circumstances will admit of being taken, 

 which after examination will be paid out of the moneys 

 in your hands. 



You will be pleased to keep all your accounts of re- 

 ceipts and expenditures for this Fund distinct from 

 your other accounts. The quarterly abstracts of the 



Fund are to be rendered agreeably to the form pre- 

 scribed by the letter of the Comptroller of the Trea- 

 sury dated the 19th of September, 1798. The quarterly 

 accounts of expenditure are to be rendered agreeably 

 to the subjoined form, and the whole regularly intro- 

 duced into an account current which is to be transmit- 

 ted every quarter. 



I am with respect, Sir, 



Your obdt Servant, 

 (Signed) OLIVEK WOLCOTT. 



Abstract of moneys paid for the relief of sick and disabled 



seamen by , Collector of the Customs 



for the District of , in the State 



of. ,from to 



A similar letter was written to John Davis, 

 Collector of New Berne, N. C., and George 

 Latimer, Esq., Collector, Philadelphia. 



A letter was written to General Benjamin 

 Lincoln, October 4, 1799, stating that, in order 

 to condense the moneys collected in neighbor- 

 ing districts, collectors will be notified to send 

 the same to him ; * also stating : " The collection 

 of the duty on seamen's wages will be attended 

 with some trouble, for which no compensation 

 is established by the existing law. The object 

 being humane and benevolent will, I presume, 

 interest your attention. If a commission shall 

 be hereafter allowed, I will authorize deduc- 

 tions from the future returns." (Similar letter 

 of same date to Collector at New Berne, N. 0.) 



(FOBM.) 



I hereby acknowledge to have received of , Col- 

 lector of the Customs for the District of , the sum 



of , being the amount of moneys collected by him 



for the support of the Marine Hospitals of the United 



States from until , agreeably to a letter of 



advice from the Secretary of the Treasury, dated , 



for which I have signed duplicate receipts. 



A few days later a letter was written to Gen- 

 eral Benjamin Lincoln, regarding the establish- 

 ment of the hospital : 



TREASURY DEPARTMENT, May 29, 1799. 

 BENJAMIN LINCOLN, Esq., Collector of Boston. 



SIB : You will receive by this mail a letter on the 

 subject of a marine hospital for sick and disabled sea- 

 men. "Without meaning to decide absolutely upon the 

 point. I think proper to point your attention to Castle 

 Island as being a proper place for the establishment. 

 If on reflection you think any other place preferable, 

 you will be pleased to mention it.f 



* Letters similar to the above were written to the following 

 Collectors: William Tuck, Gloucester; Dudley A. Tyng, 

 Newburyport; Joseph Helder, Salem; Samuel E. Gerry, 

 Marblehead; William Watson, Plymouth ; Joseph Otis. Barn- 

 stable; Stephen Hussey, Nantucket; John Pears, Edgar- 

 town; Edward Pope, New Bedford; H. Bayliss, Dighton,' 

 Asa Adams, Ipswich. 



t Castle Island had formerly been used as a quarantine 

 station. " The General Court enacted in 1738 that the com- . 



