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GEORGE WASHINGTON and THOMAS JEFFERSON, Signed 1792

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Autographs

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Rare George Washington and Thomas Jefferson Signed Presidential "Master of a Revenue Cutter" Appointment of "David Porter" - The Second Revenue Service Commander of the First United States Revenue Cutter "Active" Commissioned on April 9, 1791
David Porter was the Head of What is Arguably America's Most Famous Naval Family

GEORGE WASHINGTON and THOMAS JEFFERSON.
July 1, 1792-Dated, Partially-Printed Document, Signed "G. Washington," by George Washington, as President and also Signed "Th. Jefferson," by Thomas Jefferson, as Secretary of State, Fine. This original document being the official Appointment of "...David Porter of Maryland - I Do Appoint him Master of a Cutter in the Service of the United States, for the Protection of the Revenue...". This historic and exceedingly rare Revenue Service, Naval and Master related Appointment measures 9.5" x 14.5" (sight) and is professionally matted and nicely framed to overall size of 18" x 22". This document has a nice appearance, being very well printed on heavy, period laid paper that is clean and even in appearance. It has been folded with some heavier wear with minor splits along the vertical centerfold. The full 3" wide in diameter, white paper Official Seal of the United States, with its embossed central Heraldic Eagle design, is fully intact having a nice, sharply detailed appearance. The large, 3.75" long, signature of George Washington is very clear, having a trivial disturbance just above the midpoint of the last name, from what appears to be a fine, nearly invisible surface thin. The large, 2.25" long signature of Thomas Jefferson is nice and clear, being well written on clean flat paper allowing for its choice appearance.
This Captain David Porter, the Elder (1754-1843), is the father of the famous American Admiral of Civil War fame, David Dixon Porter, Jr. (1813-1891), his second son was William David Porter (1808-1864) who was a flag officer of the United States Navy, and his other adopted son, David Glasgow Farragut (1801-1870), is most remembered in popular culture for his order at the Battle of Mobile Bay, usually paraphrased: "Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!" went on to become one of the most famous of all historic American Naval Commanders.
Of special note, in an extraordinary twist of fate, the first Master of the USRC Active, Captain Simon Gross (Master 1791- June 1792) much later in life served along with David Poster Junior, both being Lieutenants, aboard a Navy Ship commanded by Captain Thomas Truxton. Gross picked a fight with, of all people, David Porter, Junior having made some rather "insulting" remarks about Porter's father, who, it will be remembered, was Gross's first mate on the Active! After a fistfight, Gross was dismissed from the service. For more
We have never offered this exceedingly rare form, being signed by both George Washington and Thomas Jefferson and for the Master of a U.S. Revenue Cutter previously. This document is housed in a lovely quality custom frame that would be excellent for presentation and display.

For more historic information, please read our extensive story about the United States Revenue Service Cutter Active, her crew and history, as documented on Wikipedia.

Operational history:
Active almost never made it into the water. Apparently no shipbuilder in the Baltimore area was willing to build a cutter for the price offered by the government. Eventually, after an exasperated Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton offered to increase the payment by no more than 10 percent and then threatened to have the Maryland cutter built in Virginia, David Stodder, of Baltimore, agreed to build the revenue cutter for the government's asking price. She was laid down in January 1791 and her keel entered the water on 9 April of that same year. When she was sold out of government service in 1798, she was described as having a "square stern, a square tuck, no galleries and no figurehead." She was a two-masted topsail schooner with a single deck. It is also known how she was initially outfitted and equipped thanks to the survival of a letter from her first master, Simon Gross, to Alexander Hamilton.


Personnel problems:
Active seemed to have been plagued with problems from the start. For the first few months of her existence she remained tied up in port. Gross, a man of known intemperance, had trouble hiring a crew at the wages the government offered. The pay in the merchant service proved to be much more lucrative. Gross also did not get along with his first mate. These problems manifested themselves, despite the name of the cutter, in a decided lack of activity. Baltimore's Collector of Customs complained that merchant vessel manifests, supplied to the Active by incoming ships, did not reach his desk for weeks, if at all. Relative incompetence amongst the officers and difficulty obtaining a full crew continually troubled the revenue cutter throughout its service life. Indeed, the collector wrote Hamilton in disgust that the cutter was "of no more advantage to the United States and perhaps much less, than if she had been built and manned on the lake Erie."

Gross and Porter both saw fit to leave the cutter under the command of the second mate on numerous occasions, thereby adding to the frustration of the collector and the Secretary of the Treasury as well. Gross submitted his resignation in the summer of 1792 and Porter, with the recommendation of President George Washington, assumed command of the lackluster Active. Even the President seemed satisfied that Gross was leaving government service. He noted in a letter that "...the service would sustain no loss by the resignation of the Master of the Maryland Revenue Cutter."

Little seemed to change under the command of Porter although he did complain that his third mate, Forbes, had difficulty staying away from the bottle, as apparently did some of the other crewmen. Many of the crew were also unhappy with the daily ration allowance and poor pay and as such Porter, as did Gross, had trouble finding crewmen. He wrote to Hamilton asking for an increase, and Hamilton promptly raised the daily ration allowance from nine cents to 12. It is not certain if this solved Porter's problems but Porter once again asked for a greater increase in both the pay and ration allowances. This, however, was not the way to endear him to the parsimonious Secretary of the Treasury. But one wonders if Porter really cared at all. Despite his apparent concern for the welfare of his men and attention to duty, Hamilton was perplexed at the obvious inaction of the cutter, its commanding officer, and even his collector of customs.

According to Kern, for the next few years Porter rarely sailed on Active, rather, he let the first mate handle command of the cutter--if she sailed on patrol at all. He did sail to the West Indies with his son, twice in 1796, but not on board his cutter. He sailed on board a merchant vessel in which he had a monetary stake. Whether he had permission to leave his duty post and what occurred on board the cutter while he was way is unknown. Unfortunately her journals have not survived the ravages of the British Army, which burned Washington, D.C. in 1814, and the later fire at the Treasury Department in 1833, so there is little documentation regarding her accomplishments or conversely, explaining her inaction. But Hamilton's letters have survived and he was not overly pleased with his Baltimore based cutter. Indeed, when ordered to sell the Active in 1798, Porter could not locate her! He eventually found her grounded in the mud of the riverbank outside of Baltimore Harbor. She was sold at auction for $750.00 and her new owners sailed her to the West Indies and promptly sold her once again. Interestingly, Porter stayed on the federal payroll for another year after his cutter had been sold.

The cast of characters who paraded on, around, and nowhere near her decks continued to lead rather interesting lives. Porter went back into the merchant trade after failing to secure a commission in the Navy and ran into trouble in the courts under suspicion of barratry and fraud. He was apparently not convicted and he eventually received a naval commission as the sailing master of gunboat based at New Orleans in 1807--under the overall command of his son! It seems that David Junior joined the Navy as a midshipman at the age of nineteen and went on to have a distinguished career. Indeed, he became one of the Navy's most celebrated heroes, as did his two sons and his adopted son, David Glasgow Farragut. Not so the first master of the Active, Simon Gross. Gross had secured a commission as a first lieutenant in the Navy after leaving the Active, only to earn the wrath of another famous naval personage, Captain Thomas Truxton, who admonished him that "every drunkard is a Nuisance and no drunkard ought to be employ'd and if employ'd Shall ever remain an officer with me." He later picked a fight with, of all people, David Porter, Junior, when they were both lieutenants. Gross made some rather "insulting" remarks about Porter's father, who, it will be remembered, was Gross's first mate on the Active! After a fistfight, Gross was dismissed from the service and he then enlisted as a seaman in the Navy. The last anyone heard of him he was an oarsman on an officer's barge.

Commanding Officers:
Captain Simon Gross, Master; 1791-1792

Captain David Porter, Master; 1792-1798

Original Crew:

David Porter, First Mate William Thomas, Second Mate James Forbes, Third Mate; replaced by William Dunton when Forbes moved to second mate in 1792.



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