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Schooner Seizure Letter

An inventory of the item at Syracuse University


Finding aid created by: MRC
Date: 10 Apr 2017

Biographical History

Pultneyville is a hamlet in Wayne County, New York, on the southern shore of Lake Ontario; it is approximately thirty miles from Rochester, where the Genesee River flows into the lake. Nathan Sage, signer of this letter, was Collector for the Port of Oswego. Smuggling was rife in the Great Lakes area, due to its proximity to Canada; a later letter from Sage laments that "several acts of smuggling [have been] committed by some of the most respectable men in this and a neighboring district...I have long been satisfied that they were daily accumulating large fortunes by their constant and successful violation of the revenue laws." ["Extract from a letter of Nathan Sage, Esq., Collector for the District of Oswego, dated April 22, 1824," in Volume V ("On Finance") of Documents, Legislative and Executive, of the Congress of the United States from the First Session of the Eighteenth Congress to the First Session of the Twentieth Congress (1859), p. 224.]

Scope and Contents of the Collection

The Schooner Seizure Letter contains a single letter from Nathan Sage, Collector for the District of Oswego, to Roger Skinner, District Attorney of the United States for the Northern District of New York. The letter concerns the seizure of the schooner Laura of Genesee at Pultneyville for "breach of the Revenue Laws." Sage is urging a speedy trial so that the vessel can be confiscated, since he believes she could be sold for "a neat and handsome sum."

Arrangement of the Collection

Single item.

Restrictions

Access Restrictions:

The majority of our archival and manuscript collections are housed offsite and require advanced notice for retrieval. Researchers are encouraged to contact us in advance concerning the collection material they wish to access for their research.

Use Restrictions:

Written permission must be obtained from SCRC and all relevant rights holders before publishing quotations, excerpts or images from any materials in this collection.

Subject Headings

Persons

Sage, Nathan.
Skinner, Roger, 1773-1825.

Corporate Bodies

Port of Oswego Authority.

Subjects

Seizure of vessels and cargoes -- United States.
Smuggling -- New York (State)
Tax collection -- New York (State)

Places

Genesee River (Pa. and N.Y.)

Genres and Forms

Correspondence.

Administrative Information

Preferred Citation

Preferred citation for this material is as follows:

Schooner Seizure Letter,
Special Collections Research Center,
Syracuse University Libraries

Acquisition Information

Unknown.

Table of Contents

Correspondence

Inventory