How the first 



cutter fleet was launched 



The history of the Coast Guard goes 

 back more than a century and a half to 

 the beginnings of the United States. The 

 Nation dates from the Declaration of In- 

 dependence, July 4, 1776, but the consti- 

 tutional government we know today did 

 not start until 1789. That was the year 

 George Washington was inaugurated as 

 first President and that the first Congress 

 convened in New York, the first capital. 

 The very next year, on August 4, 1790, 

 Congress passed and Washington signed 

 a bill authorizing the construction of "ten 

 boats" for guarding the coast against 

 smugglers. 



This was the beginning of the Coast 

 Guard. It was known in those first days, 

 however, as the Revenue Marine. Later 

 it was called the Revenue Cutter Service. 

 Not till 1915 was it given its present 

 famous name. But despite name changes 

 it has kept its identity as an organization, 

 and in point of continuous service the 

 Coast Guard is considered the oldest of 

 the Nation's seagoing armed forces. 



The father of the Coast Guard was 

 Alexander Hamilton, the first Secretary of 

 the Treasury. It was he who asked Con- 

 gress to provide a fleet of armed cutters 

 to insure the collection of tonnage dues 

 and import duties from vessels entering 

 United States waters. 



Smuggling, you must remember, had 

 been a popular activity during the struggle 

 to throw off British "taxation without 

 representation." Colonials had considered 

 evasion of duties imposed by the Parlia- 

 ment overseas an act of patriotism — such 

 as the Boston Tea Party. Patriots had been 

 smugglers; smugglers had been patriots. 

 And respectable citizens like John Han- 

 cock and Samuel Adams, both signers of 

 the Declaration, engaged in smuggling. 



By the time the Revolution was over, 

 smuggling was a habit, and it was Hamil- 

 ton's job to stop it, if the young nation 

 wasn't to go bankrupt. It was easy enough 

 to show people that the customs duties in- 

 stituted by Congress were taxation ivith 

 representation, but it was not easy to make 

 people see smuggling as a crime and smug- 

 glers as criminals. Faced with public 

 apathy, if not outright sympathy, toward 

 smuggling, Hamilton decided to resort to 

 a fleet to enforce the customs laws. 



Hamilton asked "that there be ten boats, 

 two for the coasts of Massachusetts and 

 New Hampshire; one for Long Island 

 Sound; one for New York; one for the 

 Bay of Delaware; two for the Chesapeake 

 (these of course to ply along the neigh- 

 boring coasts) ; one for North Carolina; 

 one for South Carolina; and one for 

 Georgia." 



