SERVICE, UNITED STATES MARINE HOSPITAL. 



781 



Doctor ThoB. Welsh has been particularly recom- 

 mended M a gentleman woll qualified for the appoint- 

 ment of Physician to the Hospital. I take the liberty 

 to mention his name and to request you to ascertain 

 the conditions upon which ho will borve, and to ar- 

 range the terms of compensation. 



I am, with consideration, sir, 



Your m obdt. Servant, 



OLIVER WOLCOTT. 



At this time Dr. Thomas Welsh had a con- 

 tract with the Secretary of War for attending 

 the sick of the troops on that island, and of the 

 recruits then raising in Boston. Dr. Welsh 

 had served with distinction in the Revolution- 

 ary war, and was appointed Physician to the 

 Marino Hospital in June, 1799. On the 21st 

 of February, 1800, Dr. Welsh submitted his 

 regulations, aud they were approved by the 

 President March 11, 1800. 



The purchase of the Washington Point Hos- 

 pital, Virginia, was completed in 1801, but the 

 building was not immediately repaired or occu- 

 pied. 



The following letter to the Collector at Al- 

 exandria shows how far the fund was from 

 being a general fund, and shows the applica- 

 tion of the rule that all money should be ex- 

 pended within the collection district where it 

 was collected : 



TREASURY DEPARTMENT, I 

 December 12, 1801. ) 

 CHARLES SIMMS, Esq., 



Collector of Alexandria. 



SIR : The President has directed that the Hospital 

 moneys collected in the Columbia District, since the 

 assumption of jurisdiction by Congress, may bo ex- 

 pended if necessary within the district. 



You may therefore apply any moneys received by 

 you on that account since the last day of March, 1801, 

 toward the relief of sick seamen in Alexandria : but 

 there being no other funds provided for that object, 

 you must be careful not to exceed that sum. 

 I have the honor to bo, very respectfully, Sir, 

 Your obedient Servant, 



ALBERT GALLATIN. 



The port of New Orleans, although at this 

 time under Spanish rule, had a large and in- 

 creasing traffic with the United States, which 

 resulted in the employment of a considerable 

 number of sailors. The following extract of a 

 letter from Evan Jones, Esq., and E. M. Bay, 

 Esq., of Charleston, to the Secretary of State, 

 describes the situation at that time : 



NEW ORLEANS, Avffugt 10, 1801. 



A great number of American citizens, especially sea- 

 men and boatmen from the Ohio, die here yearly, for 

 want of a hospital into which they might be put and 

 taken care of not that they are refused admittance 

 into the Spanisli Poor Hosp'ital, but that building is 

 by much too small for the purpose. No public house 

 ot'imv rqmtntion will take them in, and consequently 

 they Vic in their ships or boats, or get into wretched 

 cabins, in which they die miserably, after frequently 

 subjecting the humane among their countrymen to 

 much trouble and expense. 



Will not this be an object, Sir, worthy the attention 



officer at Castle William, and the Keeper of the 

 Llirht House, shall notify and direct tha masters of all vessels 

 oominir near them, wherein any Infectious sickness is, or hath 

 lately lieeti. at their coining in.'to come to anchor as near the 

 before-mentioned house as may be." (Drake's " Boston," p. 

 6<H.) Secretary Wolcott, being a physician and a native of 

 Now England, was doubtless aware of this circumstance. 



of the Government of the United States ? And might 

 not a fund be easily establi.-ln-d for the preserve 

 those poor people, by imposing a light tax upon every 

 vessel and ooat that comes in, aa well as upon every 

 seaman and boatman ? 



About two hundred vessels have entered here from 

 sea during a twelvemonth past, and allowing eight 

 men only to each, it makes 1,000. Perhap from 850 

 to 400 boats have come down from the Ohio, etc., dur- 

 ing the some time, and allowing four men to each, it 

 would make about an equal number of men. A small 

 sum from each, added to something from every vessel 

 and boat, would probably produce a capital equal to 

 the exigency. 



(''American State Papers," vol. vii., "Commerce 

 and Navigation," p. 498.) 



Extract of a letter from E. M. Bay, Esq., 

 to the Secretary of State, dated at Charleston, 

 November 4, 1802 : 



It will readily occur to you, Sir, that thousands of 

 pur fellow citizens must soon be employed in navigat- 

 ing the ships and boats which must ever be used as 

 the means of transporting these commodities [those of 

 the Western country] from one place to another. Now, 

 Sir, when we take into consideration the climate and 

 season of the year when this commerce must be carried 

 on, the risk to our citizens must be multiplied in a 

 high degree. It is well known that the Western riv- 

 ers can not be conveniently navigated into the Mis- 

 sissippi until the breaking up of the frost in the spring 

 of the year. It is then that that great river begins to 

 rise, and it generally remains up until July. The 

 great distance and unavoidable impediments naturally 

 in the way will always carry over these commercial 

 transactions to so late a period as to leave the great 

 bulk of those employed in them at or about New Or- 

 leans in the sickly season of the year ; which, in that 

 low, flat, unhealthy Southern climate, is fatal in the 

 extreme to the strong, robust constitutions of pur 

 Western brethren ; hence many of them fall victims 

 to climate and disease, leaving families and friends at 

 a great distance from them. 



The want of proper accommodations for poor and 

 infirm seamen and boatmen at New Orleans is another 

 very serious inconvenience our poorer class of fellow 

 citizens are much subjected to in that place. It is 

 really pitiable to see such numbers of distressed ob- 

 jects aa sometimes present themselves to view in the 

 sickly months, who have been left to shift for them- 

 selves, after their employers have made their markets. 

 Something like an hospital establishment, to be super- 

 intended oy American physicians, would go a great 

 way to alleviate the distresses of these useful men. I 

 mentioned American physicians because our people are 

 strongly prejudiced against those of the Spanish fac- 

 ulty ; ana generally not understanding the language, 

 they derive little or no benefit from them. 



(" American State Papers," vol. viL, " Commerce 

 and Navigation," p. 493.) 



The following general report was made by 

 Secretary Gallatin on the condition of the ser- 

 vice: 



TBBAsrmr DKPAXTMKKT, I 

 February 16, 1809. f 



.... The only ports where hospitals have been 

 established, or temporary relief afforded to the sea- 

 men, are : 



1st. Boston, Newport, Norfolk, and Charleston, 

 South Carolina^ where marine hospitals have been al- 

 together established under the laws of Congress, ex- 

 clusively appropriated to the use of seamen, and solely 

 supported put of the funds raised under the authority 

 of the United States. The hospital at Newport has 

 lately been discontinued. 



2d. Baltimore, where the hospital is in the same 

 situation as to its funds, but U placed under the con 

 trol of the Board of Health. 



3d. New York and Philadelphia, where sick seamen 



