The country’s oldest continuous seagoing service, sails onto the scene with “cool and temperate perseverance” as today’s #stampoftheday. A 3-cent stamp issued in 1945, it honors the U.S. Coast Guard, which was established on August 4, 1790.

The Coast Guard came into being because the then-new US government needed money. Alexander Hamilton, who, as you may have heard, was the first secretary of the treasury, determined the much of the needed revenue would come from tariffs on imports. But, he realized, that funding system would only work if there was an entity that would deter smugglers looking to avoid those duties.

At Hamilton’s urging, in 1790—and in just the 57th law passed since the Constitution was ratified – the first U.S. Congress created the U.S. Revenue-Marine and provided funding to build 10 cutters, small ships with a shallow draught that were built for speed. Two were to be assigned to “the coasts of Massachusetts and New Hampshire; one for Long Island Sound; one for New York; one for the Bay of Delaware; two for the Chesapeake one for North Carolina; and one for Georgia.” The same legislation stated that each vessel would have a master who would be paid $30 per month; three mates at $20, $16, and $14 a month, respectively; four mariners, who would each receive $8 a month; and two boys, who would both get $4 a month. However, each cutter master was answerable to and received his sailing orders directly from the Collector of Customs of the port to which his ship was assigned. In addition, all crew pay, requests for supplies, arrangements for repairs to the cutter, and mission-specific tasking came directly from tariffs paid to their port’s Customs House.

Somewhat wonderfully, the legislation also had two hallmarks that have characterized many military-related bills in the centuries since it passed. First, Hamilton agreed that each cutter would be constructed where it was to be assigned which made the bill more appealing to members of Congress who wanted work for local shipbuilders, a practice that continues to this day. Second, while the legislation explicitly limited the cost of the cutters to $1,000, there were cost overruns on three of the cutters, most notably on the Massachusetts (naturally), which cost just over twice what was budgeted.

Standing orders for individual cutters were stated in general terms. Cutter masters had far-reaching authority “to seize vessels and goods in the cases in which they are liable to seizure for breaches of the Revenue laws” and to send inspection parties aboard vessels already in port. Yet despite this considerable authority, Hamilton, in his first letter of instruction to the masters, specifically directed that they should “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.”

Because the U.S. Navy had been disbanded at the end of the Revolutionary War in 1785, the Revenue-Marine cutters were the country’s only naval force between 1790 and 1798 (when the Navy was reestablished). Consequently, they took on many other responsibilities. After the Slave Trade Act of 1794 was enacted, they began intercepting slave ships illegally importing slaves into the United States. They also were responsible for combating piracy, rescuing mariners in distress, ferrying government officials, and even carrying mail. In later years, Revenue-Marine cutters served in combat alongside the Navy in the War of 1812, the Mexican War, and the Civil War.

In the late 19th century, the service was reorganized and renamed the U.S. Revenue Cutter Service. The modern Coast Guard was created in 1915, when the Revenue Cutter Service merged with the U.S. Life-Saving Service. The Lighthouse Service and the Bureau of Marine Inspection and Navigation were absorbed by the Coast Guard 1939 and 1942 respectively. During both World War I and World War II, the Coast Guard was put under the command of the U.S. Navy. In 1967, the Coast Guard moved from the Department of the Treasury to the newly formed Department of Transportation, an arrangement that lasted until it was placed under the Department of Homeland Security in 2003.

And although the Coast Guard is smaller than the U.S. Army, Navy, Marines or Air Force, it’s still pretty big. As of a few years ago, it 40,992 active duty personnel, 7,000 reservists, and 8,577 full-time civilian employees, and 31,000 auxiliary members. And its fleet included 243 coastal and ocean-going patrol ships, tenders, tugs, icebreakers, 1,650 smaller boats, and 201 helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft. For what it’s worth, this means that the Coast Guard is the world’s 12th largest naval force.

Since it’s such a large organization, I expect that its leaders include some who are terrific, some who are awful, and many who are somewhere in between. Nevertheless, I hope that its current leaders pay heed to the advice that Hamilton gave in his first orders, when he told the first ten cutter masters that they should “endeavor to overcome difficulties, if any are experienced, by a cool and temperate perseverance in their duty – by address and moderation, rather than by vehemence or violence.” This, it seems to me, is good advice, not only for those who command Coast Guard ships but for many others as well.

Be well, stay safe, “endeavor to overcome difficulties…by a cool and temperate perseverance,” fight for justice, and work for peace.