Scope and Content Note
The records of the United States Department of the Treasury span the years 1775-1890, with the bulk of the material concentrated between 1790 and 1850. The collection consists primarily of financial accounting records, but also includes circulars, correspondence, contracts, daybooks, digests of laws, indexes, letterbooks, newspapers, printed matter and reports. It is an assortment of largely unrelated records produced by various offices of the Treasury Department, and it represents only a partial reflection of the agency’s activities.
The collection contains numerous handwritten and printed circulars issued by Treasury Department officials from 1789 to 1890. The circulars generally promulgate routine procedures for local and field offices, but they also interpret congressional and judicial opinions that pertained to Treasury Department operations.
Included in the collection are account books of pay and military pensions granted to soldiers, sailors, and officers of the Continental Army and Navy during the Revolutionary War, particularly those from Massachusetts. The records generally show names of soldiers and sailors, the nature of their military service, the statutory authority for a pension, a log of financial disbursements, and receipts of payment. Some of the military account books are indexed.
Other records related to the Revolutionary War include claims for lodging of soldiers and settlements of property losses sustained by citizens on account of military activity. Particularly noteworthy is a 1790 report by Joseph Norse, register of the Treasury Department, certifying payment to Joseph Webb and Ashbell Riley for the hire of the brigantine Ranger by the Continental Navy.
Records concerning the War of 1812 include account books of pay and allowances of soldiers and officers. Also, letterbooks, of the Office of commissary General of Prisoners contain printed notices and outgoing letters, chiefly from John Mason, Stephen Pleasonton, and Richard Rush, that relate to the delivery and exchange of prisoners.
There is a letterbook containing copies of letters and other documents from Treasury Department officials that give detailed instructions to customs collectors of the ports of New York, Boston, and other cities. The letterbook also contains transcriptions of numerous Civil War era letters from Salmon P. Chase, secretary of the treasury, including one conveying orders from President Abraham Lincoln forbidding the export of munitions and ordering the blockade of southern ports. There are also transcriptions of letters from other Treasury secretaries, such as Hugh McCulloch, John A. Dix, and William P. Fessenden, and addresses include Chester A. Arthur as collector of the port of New York.
Registers of District of Columbia property assessments for the tax year 1834 are also included in the collection. The registers are arranged by ward, therein by residency status, and then alphabetically by name of property owner. Each register entry shows the property owner’s name, the location of the property, and the monetary value of the lot, improvements, and personal property.
There are records in the collection that pertain to claims made against the United States treasury for losses to Indian property and from hostilities with Spain in Florida. Other records include registers of warrants issued, digests of federal and state laws relating to the Treasury Department, correspondence with federal executive agencies, financial accounts of diplomatic agents to the Barbary Powers, a ledger of purchasers of a loan issued by Congress in 1790, a register of revenue from a direct tax levied on the states in 1798, and records of the Commissioner of Insolvency.
An addition consists of microfilm of U.S. Finance tabular abstracts of receipts and expenditures.