What is the Coast Guard?

Revenue Cutter Service  In 1790 Alexander Hamilton, the first secretary of the Treasury, formed the Revenue Cutter Service. Hamilton's plan proposed customs duties and tonnage taxes that discriminated against foreign goods and ships. This Tariff would need to be enforced due to smuggling and to ensure proper duties and taxes were paid. Hamilton also realized these vessels needed to reach ports safely and proposed to take responsibility of all aids to navigation. Congress agreed and placed lighthouses under the Treasury Department. 

When Alexander Hamilton promulgated the first "regulations" for the Revenue Cutter Service in the form of a historic letter to his officers regarding the rights and freedoms guaranteed all Americans, he was especially conscious of the heavy handed form of justice meted out by the British prior to the revolution. Hamilton charged each Officer as follows: "while I recommend in the strongest terms to the respective officers...activity, vigilance, and firmness... I feel no less solicitude that their deportment may be marked with prudence...moderation...and good temper...they will always keep in mind that their countrymen are freemen...and, as such are impatient of everything that bears the least mark of a domineering spirit. They will refrain, therefore, with the most guarded circumspection, from whatever has the semblance of haughtiness, rudeness, or insult. If obstacles occur... they will remember that they are under the particular protection of the laws and that they can meet with nothing disagreeable in the execution of their duty."

Early efforts at environmental protection were placed with the Revenue Cutter Service when they were charged in 1822 with preventing unauthorized cutting of live-oak  After the Alaska purchase, they were responsible for preventing the extinction of fur seals.  Protection has ranged from sponges in the Gulf of Mexico to "food fish" and water pollution nationwide.

The U. S. Navy  Following the War of Independence (1776-83), the Continental Navy was disbanded.  From 1790 until 1798, when the U.S. Navy was created, the revenue cutters were the only national maritime service. The Acts establishing the Navy also empowered the President to use the revenue cutters to supplement the fleet when needed. Laws later clarified the relationship between the Coast Guard and the Navy.

U. S. Lifesaving Service  In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries large sections of the United States’ eastern seaboard were sparsely populated. The crew of any ship running aground could expect very little, if any, help. As maritime trade increased, so did the demand for assistance for those wrecked near the shore. The concept of assistance to shipwrecked mariners from shore based stations began with volunteer lifesaving services, spearheaded by the Massachusetts Humane Society. In 1848 the federal government entered the shore based lifesaving business.

The U. S. Coast Guard  In 1915, the Revenue Cutter Service and the Lifesaving Service were merged to form the Coast Guard under its modern name.  Over time additional agencies were also merged into the Coast Guard.  All these agencies, the Revenue Cutter Service, the Lighthouse Service, the Steamboat Inspection Service, the Bureau of Navigation, and the Lifesaving Service, were originally independent, but had overlapping authorities and were shuffled around the government. 

The Coast Guard is the oldest continuous seagoing service and has fought in almost every war since the Constitution became the law of the land in 1789.  The Coast Guard is the only one of the U. S. military services that is also a law enforcement service.  

Today's responsibilities include:

• Maintaining aids to navigation, ranging from lighthouses to buoys.
• Law enforcement to ensure that tariffs are not avoided,  to protect shipping from pirates and, to intercept contraband. 
• Military readiness to augment the Navy with men and cutters and to undertake special missions, for which peacetime experiences have prepared the Service with unique skills.
• Environmental protection of wildlife and clean water including oil-spill combat forces deployed worldwide.
• Search and rescue to render assistance to distressed navigators.
• Preventive safety for waterways management, port safety and security, and vessel safety inspection and certification.