The Revenue Cutter Service began with the 1790 tariff legislation backed by Alexander Hamilton. Its ten cutters collected revenue, enforced customs rules, fought piracy, and rescued mariners during the eight years when the United States had no reconstituted navy. The cutter Massachusetts was described as a 60-foot, 70-ton, two-masted square-stern schooner with an Indian-head figurehead. Between 1794 and 1865, the service captured approximately 500 slave ships, and it later took on conservation duties under the 1822 Timber Act. Revenue collection and practical maritime enforcement gave the institution both political purpose and financial durability.
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The Revenue Cutter Service as an American naval foundation
The Coast Guard's origins show how tariff enforcement, rather than combat alone, gave the early United States a useful maritime force.