Our first presidential administration was so small that the cabinet met in the living
room of a house George Washington rented in Germantown, Pennsylvania, just north of the capital, Philadelphia. George
Washington had time to sign every lighthouse keeper’s appointment. Of course, our population was also small as well.
Do you know how to find out what the population was in 1790?
Why do you think the Treasury Department was in charge of our first lighthouses?
How many departments does our government have today?
Do you know how many departments there were in George Washington’s government?
Only three: Department of Treasury, Department of War, and Department of State. There was also an Attorney General to supervise
the courts and a Postmaster General to supervise post offices. If you had to assign lighthouses to one of the three departments,
which would you choose? The Department of State dealt with foreign affairs; Department of War with military affairs. So only
the Department of Treasury was left.
Collector [of Customs] Benjamin Lincoln
is mentioned here. Customs collectors were officials of the Treasury Department. They were already located in the main ports,
so the customs collectors were given the additional duty of superintending lighthouses.
