HE MODERN ERA (1927-__)

sie
Vernon D. Acree

ES)

Robert E. Chasen

William von Raab

HIEFS, DIVISION OF CUSTOMS

(Office created March 3, 1875...
Abolished March 3, 1927)
Henry B. James, 1871-1875
W.F. Clarke, 1875-1879
Henry B. James, 1879-1885
James G. Macgregor, 1885-1893
John M. Comstock, 1893-1899
Andrew Johnson, 1899-1903
John R. Garrison, 1903-1905
James L. Gerry, 1905-1909
Charles P. Montgomery, 1909-1911
Frank M. Halstead, 1911-1919
George W. Ashworth, 1919-1922
Ernest W. Camp, 1922-1923
Ernest W. Camp, Director 1923-1927

Emest W. Camp
(1927-1929)

Francis Xavier A. Eble
(1929-1933)

James Henry Moyle
(1933-1939)

Basil Harris
(1939-1940)

William Roy Johnson
(1940-1947)

Frank Dow
(1949-1953)
(Acting, 1947-1949)

Ralph Kelly
(1954-1961)

| COMMISSIONERS OF CUSTOMS

Career employee. . . Chief, Division of Customs
... Director, Division of Customs. .. first “modern”
Commissioner of Customs.

Served with U.S. Army Medical Department... owned
drug firm in Pennsylvania... World War I caption of
infantry ... member of War Loan Staff, U.S. Treasury
... Treasury Attache, Berlin. . . vice president, the
American Foundation... co-author, The Bureau of Internal
Revenue, Its History, Activities, and Organization.

Lawyer... County Attorney... member of the Utah
House of Representatives... chairman of Utah
Democratic committee ... Democratic nominee for
Governor and U.S. Senate .. , Assistant Secretary of the
Treasury... and Assistant to the Secretary... named
Commissioner of Customs at age 75.

Businessman . .. shipping . . . partner, Roosevelt
Steamship Co. . . . vice president, International
Mercantile Marine .. . vice president, senior vice
president, U.S. Lines... Assistant to the Secretary
of the Treasury.

Lawyer... served with the U.S. Army Medical
Department, in World War I... began Customs career
as clerk in New York City, 1926... transferred to
Washington, rose to Deputy Commissioner . . . again
became Deputy Commissioner after his tour as
Commissioner . . . went into private practice in New
York City and in the District of Columbia. . . retired
from second career at age 74.

Lifetime Federal employee ... began as teacher in
Puerto Rico ... joined Customs in 1913... appraiser at
Philadelphia . . . served in Customs Information
Exchange, New York City .. . Customs Assistant to the
Assistant Secretary of the Treasury ... Assistant
Commissioner ... Acting Commissioner . . . 43 years

of service.

Businessman .. . served in U.S. Navy, World War I,
as lieutenant... worked for Westinghouse Electric and
Manufacturing Company 39 years in sales, achieved vice
presidency of the East Pittsburgh plant. . . vice president
and president, Baldwin Locomotive Works... . retired to
local political offices.


l
COMMISSIONERS
OF CUSTOMS

~

James Henry Moyle

Lester D. Johnson

4 Basil Harris


Philip Nichols, Jr.
(1961-1964)

Lester D. Johnson
(1965-1969)

Myles Joseph Ambrose
(1969-1972)

Vernon Darrell Acree
(1972-1977)

Robert E. Chasen
(1977-1980)

William von Raab
(1981- )

Lawyer... worked for Justice Department... War
Production Board . . . Office of the General
Counsel . . . officer in U.S. Navy during World War
Il...served in Treasury Department .. . General
Counsel for the Renegotiation Board... Com-
missioner . . . Judge, U.S. Customs Court.

Career Customs employee . . . started as clerk and
examiner in the San Francisco office . .. served as
appraiser; Treasury Attache in Japan; Assistant Deputy
Commissioner; Regional Customs Representative in
Italy; Deputy Commissioner; Assistant Com-
missioner . . . reorganized the Customs Agency Service.

Lawyer... New York Bar... practiced before U.S.
Supreme Court, U.S. Customs Court, U.S. Court of
International Trade . . . Assistant to the Secretary of the
Treasury... executive director, Waterfront
Commission, New York Harbor... Special Consultant
to the President and Special Assistant to the

Attorney General.

Career Federal employee . . . began career as clerk-
messenger, Treasury Department... deputy marshal,
U.S. Marshal’s office . . . investigator, U.S. Civil Service
Commission . . . investigator, U.S. Army (Europe)

... Assistant Commissioner, Internal Revenue
Service... 41 years of service.

Federal employee... businessman. . . special agent,
Federal Bureau of Investigation . . . 25 years service with
the International Telephone and Telegraph Company
... began career as coordinator of plant security and
assistant to the vice president for industrial

relations .. . held many executive positions at ITT until
retirement... began new career as executive vice
president and director, Wackenhut Company, after
Customs Service.

Lawyer... public servant... corporate lawyer in New
York City... director, Pay Board, Cost of Living
Council .. . consultant, Bureau of East-West Trade,
Department of Commerce . . . Executive Assistant to the
Administrator, Federal Energy Administration...
financial consultant and Vice President for
Administration, New York University... private

legal practice.



Department of the Treasury
U.S. Customs Service
Historical Study #3
December 1987

Customs Publication No, 591

“Our 199th Year” f



NTRODUCTION

Lady Liberty, featured on the
cover, was discovered on an
old form used in the 1880's
by the Commissioner of
Customs. She has become

a symbol of the events
celebrating the bicentennial
of the U.S. Customs Service
in 1989.

President Zachary Taylor created the office
of Commissioner of Customs in 1849, 60 years after
Congress had established the U.S. Customs Service.

Why was there no such position in the early
days of the Republic? The answer to that may lie
with the nature of Customs in Colonial America.

The hated Townshend Act, passed by the
British Parliament in 1767 to reorganize and
provide enforcement teeth to the American Customs
Service, created the American Board of
Commissioners of Customs.*

The King appointed five commissioners and
directed them to set up headquarters in Boston.
One of the five was Charles Paxton, who had been
Surveyor of Customs in Salem from 1750 to 1752
then in Boston from 1752 until his appointment
to the board.

Paxton had so aroused the enmity of the
merchants in Boston that his superiors feared for his
safety. In 1766 he went to England.

His relationship there with the author of the
Townshend Act ts satd to have led to placement of the
Board of Commissioners in Boston and greatly
influenced the severity of the Act.

So influential was Paxton that one scholar
suggests that “Charles Townshend, in England,
and Charles Paxton, in America, were among the most

* The American Board of Commissioners of Customs is thoroughly
covered in several monographs: “The American Board of
Commissioners of Customs,” Proceedings, Massachusetts Historical
Society, volume XLII, October 1909-June 1910, 477-490. Clark,
Dora Mae, “The American Board of Customs, 1767-1783,” The
American Historical Review, volume XLV, number 4, July 1940, 777-
806. Smith, Maurice H., “Charles Paxton, Founding Stepfather,”
Proceedings, Massachusetts Historical Society, volume 94,

1982, 15- 36.


officient in producing the Revolution.”

Many years were to pass before the
Commissioner of Customs assumed his current duties.
From 1849 until 1894 the Commissioner acted as
an auditor of Customs officials’ accounts. At no time
during this period did his activities include overall
administration of the Customs Service or of
its officers.

Then in 1875 the Congress gave Customs some
degree of independence from the Secretary of the
Treasury by creating a Division of Customs, headed
by a Chief, whose office ran parallel to that of
the Commissioner.

This in turn was abolished on March 3, 1927,
ushering in the modern era of Commissioners
of Customs.

This publication incorporates the flyer Customs
produced for the 197th anniversary of the U.S.
Customs Service on July 31, 1986. The original
photographs are hanging outside the office of the
Commissioner of Customs in Washington, D.C.

Lady Liberty, featured on the cover, was
discovered on an old form used in the 1880's
by the Commissioner of Customs. She has become
a symbol of the events celebrating the bicentennial
of the U.S. Customs Service in 1989.

William von Raab
Commissioner of Customs

Charles William Rockwell
(1849-1852)

Hugh Johnston Anderson
(1853-1857)

Samuel Ingham
(1857-1861)

Nathan Sargent
(1861-1871)

William T. Haines
(1871-1873)
Henry Clay Johnson
(1874-1884)

John Swayze McCalmont
(1885-1889)

Samuel V. Holliday
(1889-1893)

William Henry Pugh
(1893-1894)

| HE EARLY YEARS (1849-1894)

COMMISSIONERS OF CUSTOMS

Teacher... banker... railroad president... Mayor of
Norwich, Conn. . . . related to Jedediah Huntington,

first Customs Collector appointed by George
Washington at New London, Conn. . . . Rockwell's
resignation was accepted personally by President Millard
Fillmore.

Lawyer... Member of the U.S. House of
Representatives, 25th and 26th Congresses... Governor
of Maine . . . Presidential Elector... Reorganizer of Mint
at San Francisco . . . Sixth Auditor of the U.S. Treasury.

Lawyer... Member of Vermont House of
Representatives and Senate. . . judge of Vermont
courts... Member of the U.S. House of Representatives,
24th and 25th Congresses... unsuccessful candidate for
reelection to the U.S. House and to the U.S. Senate.

Lawyer... judge... newspaperman, founder of a Whig
newspaper... wrote under pseudonym, “Oliver
Oldschool” . . . Sergeant-at-Arms, U.S. House of
Representatives .. . Register General of U.S, Land
Office... author, Public Men and Events in the United States,
1817-1853.

Little is known about Haines except that he was born in
Pennsylvania and that he was Commissioner of Customs.

Little is known about Johnson except that he too was
born in Pennsylvania and that he was also a
Commissioner of Customs.

West Point graduate, class of 1842 ... served in
Seminole War... lawyer, Deputy Attorney General of
Pennsylvania . .. member of Pennsylvania House of
Representatives .. . Presidential Elector... District
Judge . . . Civil War Colonel in Pennsylvania Volunteers,
resigned because of ill health . . . practiced law in the
District of Columbia with his son.

Little is known about Holliday except that he was a
Republican from Erie, Pennsylvania . . . ex-soldier, Civil
War, attained rank of major.

Lawyer .. . Civil War veteran with Ohio Volun-

teers... Deputy Clerk, Court of Common Pleas

... Prosecuting Attorney, Ohio . . . actually applied for
the Cabinet position of Attorney General, but was given
appointment as Commissioner of Customs. . . last of this
line . . . held series of minor appointments in Treasury.