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Letter from the first Treasurer of the United States Samuel Meredith (1741-1817) to Sharp Delany (c.1739-1799), appointed by George Washington as Collector of Customs for Philadelphia, and acknowledged as the founder of the U.S. Coast Guard. The letter is quite detailed, and lays out various procedures, as the new nation was refining governmental operations. "...The business is chiefly conducted by drafts upon them, & not by warrants on the payments of the drafts... The Sec. of the Treasury a few days since told me there was a sum of money in your hands which he desired me to draw from. I told him it would be much more convenient to have all the money paid into the Bank of North America, which he promised he would order to be done..." Accompanied by an autograph promissory note signed by Meredith, "Pay B. or bearer Five Dollars," dated July 20, 1814.