784 



SERVICE, UNITED STATES MARINE HOSPITAL. 



a rule for your government, not to afford relief from 

 the Marine Hospital fund to any person claiming to 

 be a seaman, who shall not, at the time of application 

 for assistance, belong to some vessel or boat then ac- 

 tually in port. This rule, together with the limita- 

 tion of the sum of five thousand dollars, including the 

 salary of the Physician of the Hospital, beyond which 

 the whole annual expenditure must not be permitted 

 to extend, is all that can be prescribed in a general 

 way as to the mode of granting relief or the extent to 

 which it may be carried. Dr. William Barnwell of 

 Philadelphia has been appointed by the President 

 Physician to the Hospital, with a salary of one thou- 

 sand dollars per annum, which sum you will pay to 

 him in quarterly payments, at the expiration ot each 

 quarter, from the time when he shall leave Philadel- 

 phia for New Orleans, which will be shortly, and of 

 which you will be advised. Until he shall arrive you 

 will please provide such medical attendance for the 

 sick seamen as shall appear proper. 



The sick seamen have been provided for heretofore 

 under the direction of Mr. Clark, in the " Hospital of 

 Charity," they being charged by the managers of 

 that institution with the bread, meat, etc., consumed 

 by them and their attendants, and a proportionable 

 part of the general expenses of the Hospital. This 

 mode may be still pursued if it shall be deemed the 

 most economical and best calculated for the conve- 

 nience and comfort of the sick, or they may be attend- 

 ed in any other public building fit for the purpose 

 which the governor may assign or which can be ob- 

 tained with ms permission ; or if it shall be more ad- 

 visable, the sick may be placed out and attended in 

 private houses, as is practiced in some of the ports of 

 the United States ; though, from my present view of 

 the subject, this appears to be the least eligible mode. 



A quarterly account of the payments made by you 

 for this object, supported with, the proper vouchers, 

 is to be rendered to the Comptroller of the Treasury, 

 in which you are authorized (by the Act of May 3d, 

 1802) to charge a commission of one per cent, on 

 your expenditures. You will be regularly advised by 

 the Comptroller of the settlement of this account, 

 which after such advice you will charge in your gen- 

 eral account current as a debit to the United States, 

 and which will be so admitted on your transmitting 

 a receipt of the form and in the manner which will be 

 prescribed by the Comptroller. 



I am very respectfully, Sir, 

 Your obedient Servant, 

 ALBERT GALLATIN. 



An editorial in the "Medical Repository," 

 vol. vi., New York, 1803, says of the establish- 

 ment of the hospital at New Orleans : 



On account of the increasing transportation of prod- 

 uce on the Mississippi, an additional number of Amer- 

 ican seamen and boatmen find a rendezvous at New 

 Orleans. Many of these from the Ohio and upper 

 country, as well as from the Atlantic ports and the 

 ocean, have died annually in the most forlorn condi- 

 tion at that place. These considerations moved the 

 Government, by a wise and humane proposition, to 

 adopt measures for the support of a hospital in that 

 city for their relief, and to ask permission of the Span- 

 ish Government to establish the same. 



On March 5, 1804, a memorial was presented 

 in the House from citizens and mariners of Bal- 

 timore, protesting against the ruling of the De- 

 partment that seamen should be excluded from 

 relief who were not actually employed on board 

 a vessel at the time of their application ; de- 

 claring also that the passage of the law cre- 

 ating a general fund was a public misfortune, 

 and that this alone prevented the accumulation 

 in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Balti- 

 more of a handsome surplus which might be 



devoted to provide a " fund for the permanent 

 relief of decrepit or superannuated seamen ex- 

 hausted in the service, though not proper ob- 

 jects of a sick infirmary." (" American State 

 Papers," vol. vii., p. 572.) 



In this year a committee was appointed " to 

 inquire into the expediency of exempting 

 pilots from paying hospital money for their ap- 

 prentices." The committee, considering that 

 the apprentices "receive in professional skill 

 an equivalent for wages, and that they are in 

 fact seamen, it would seem to be a liberal con- 

 struction of the statute to make it include those 

 persons, and thereby extend the advantages to 

 them " ; and the committee submit their opin- 

 ion that it is inexpedient for Congress to make 

 any declaration concerning the payment of 

 hospital money by pilots for their apprentices. 

 ("American State Papers," vol. iii., "Com- 

 merce and Navigation," p. 571.) 



Dr. Barnwell was directed, May 3, 1804, to 

 purchase in Philadelphia the necessary medi- 

 cines for the equipment of the New Orleans 

 hospital, and the Collector, Peter Muhlenberg, 

 Esq., to pay the bills therefor and advance one 

 quarter's salary. On June 18, 1804, the Presi- 

 dent directed that the " temporary provision " 

 for sick seamen should extend to New Haven, 

 Conn., "Wilmington, Del., and Providence, R. I. 



On August 30, 1805, the ruling of the De- 

 partment was defined regarding fishing vessels 

 as follows : 



TEEASCTET DEPARTMENT, ) 

 30th August, 1805. f 

 DANIEL COFFIN, Esq., 



Collector, Nantucket. 



SIR : Your letter of the 17th inst. was duly received. 

 Seamen employed in fisheries are not expressly ex- 

 cepted from the payment of hospital money ; but that 

 payment is confined to vessels licensed for the coasting 

 trade, and to vessels arriving from foreign ports. It 

 results that a vessel exclusively employed in the fish- 

 eries, and which has not been during her voyage in a 

 foreign [port] , is exempted, but she is not so exempted 

 as a fishing vessel ; but merely as being neither a coast- 

 ing vessel, nor arrived from a foreign port. 



It follows that every vessel arriving from a foreign 

 port is equally liable to pay the hospital money, 

 and must pay it on the principle fixed by the words of 

 the law, viz. : for the tune which has expired since 

 the vessel was last entered at any port in the United 

 States. No exemption is made in favor of vessels 

 which may have been during a part of that period em- 

 ployed in fisheries, nor can any deduction be made on 

 that account by the Collector. " 



I have the honor to be respectfully. Sir, 



Your obedient Servant. 



ALBEET GALLATIN. 



The expenses at Philadelphia having largely 

 exceeded the receipts, the Collector at that port 

 was requested to devise a plan for the exclu- 

 sion of certain beneficiaries ; which he did, but 

 at the same time transmitted a communication 

 from a magistrate of that city, which was re- 

 sented by the President, as the following letter 

 indicates : 



TREASURY DEPARTMENT, (^ 

 December 20tft, 1806. ) 

 PETER MUHLENBERG, Esq., 



Collector, Philadelphia. 



SIR : Your letter of the llth instant respecting the 

 Marine Hospital was laid before the President of the 



