In this circular, Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton makes several clarifications regarding reports from Treasury officials on exports, including procedures for liquor and molasses. After becoming the nation’s first Secretary of the Treasury in November 1789, Hamilton turned his attention to solving the new nation’s debt crisis and instituting policies that protected domestic businesses. In his December 1791 statement to Congress, Report on the Subject of Manufactures, Hamilton advocated aiding the growth of nascent industries through clear laws that encouraged and benefited domestic production.

In this circular, Hamilton clarifies that a Congressional act allowing for a decrease in duties charged on exported liquor for loss of product in the export process should be calculated at the end of each quarter and reported by the collectors. This allowance prevented distilleries from having to pay export duties on lost product. He also clarified that molasses fell under the provisions of a specific section of the 1789 “Act to Regulate the Collection of the Duties.”

“Proud of Race / Serious Problem, / all can help / In & out of slavery”

These pages of notes, written by African American leader and educator Booker T. Washington, are not fully developed texts but are likely either speaking points for speeches or points to stress in reports. A few can be tied to specific speeches Washington gave in the mid-1890s, but many refer to anecdotes or themes that he used in multiple speeches over a lifetime of addressing black and white audiences.

Washington’s approach to the path for African Americans to rise out of the miseries of slavery was more gradual than that of other African American leaders and aimed for accommodation to white hostility, fearing that the more confrontational methods espoused by others would lead to disaster for his race. The educational institutions and business organizations he nurtured created a more confident and capable generation of leaders who led African Americans to demand equal political and civil rights in the mid-twentieth century.

George C. Maynard (1839-1918) was a telegraph operator who worked for the U.S. Army Telegraph Service during the Civil War. He later worked for the U.S. Signal Service and the fledgling telephone industry. He documented the growing telecommunications industry as curator at the National Museum (now the Arts and Industries Building at the Smithsonian Institution) in Washington, D.C. He was also Superintendent of the first telephone company in the District. This collection documents the growth of the telephone and related businesses in the cities and towns of the United States, along with some observations on the Civil War, home and family life, donations to the Smithsonian.

John D. Rockefeller (1839-1937) incorporated the Standard Oil Company in 1870. Through mergers and the elimination of competitors, he achieved a vertically integrated monopoly of the production, refining, and distribution of oil. Standard Oil Trust was created by secret agreement in 1882, combining management of its companies in different states. In 1906, the Federal government brought suit under the 1890 Sherman Anti-Trust Act, and in 1911, the Supreme Court ordered Standard Oil to be broken up. Among its successor companies are Amoco, Chevron, and ExxonMobil.

Dedicatory inscription on verso of title page (partly cropped by binder), handwritten in Hebrew by Imber: “To my wise friend, the linguist... of the periodical HaZvi in Jerusalem. [...] The renowned wordsmith from the ranks of the Jewish sages [...], Ben-Yehuda. This booklet is a memento from the author.”

Inked stamps on title page and on several additional pages (Hebrew): “House of Reading and [Home of] the Book Collection, Jerusalem, may it be rebuilt and reestablished” / “Beit Sefarim Livnei Yisrael... Yerusahalayim…” [House of Books for the Children of Israel in the Holy City of Jerusalem]. The library known as “Beit Sefarim Livnei Yisrael” was established in Jerusalem by a group of scholars led by Eliezer Ben-Yehuda in 1884 (upon its closing in 1894, its book collection was transferred to the Midrash Abarbanel Library, which eventually evolved into the National Library of Israel.)

In 1886, prior to the publication Barkai, Imber published the following advertisement in Eliezer Ben-Yehuda's Hebrew-language newspaper, HaZvi (2nd year, Issue No. 36): “There is a book with me among my writings [to] which I have given the title ‘Barkai’ [...] Any printer who wishes to purchase it from me in order to publish it should contact me...” An editor’s note follows the advertisement: “We have seen these poems which have been written by Mr. Imber, and [regard them] in keeping with the principle to which we adhere, ‘Look upon the vessel and relate not to its creator' [in a play on words on the chorus of the well-known liturgical poem for the Day of Atonement, ‘Ki Hineh KaHomer’]. It is incumbent upon us to state that the spirit of lofty poetry hovers over them; their thoughts are pleasant and desirable. The language in them is pristine and clear, and the ideas are exceptional. Many of these poems are worthy of becoming national songs. In general, these poems are faithful national songs, writings of a distinguished poet.”

VI, [2], 127, [1] pp., 15.5 cm. Good-fair condition. Stains, mostly to first and last leaves. Tears, some open and some long, to title page and to several other leaves, mostly restored with paper or mended with adhesive tape. Handwritten notations to some pages. New binding and endpapers.

Following the provisions of a law passed on September 15, 1789, Thomas Jefferson, as Secretary of State, signed two copies of each law, order, vote, or resolution of Congress for distribution to the executive of every state.

“BE it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the act passed the last session of Congress, intituled ‘An act for the temporary establishment of the post-office,’ be, and the same hereby is continued in force until the end of the next session of Congress, and no longer.”

“there are serious, very serious, choices of policy to be made, and made immediately, which it was neither right nor constitutionally permissible that I should assume the responsibility of making.”

In this address to Congress, President Woodrow Wilson reluctantly requests a declaration of war on Imperial Germany because of its announcement that “it was its purpose to put aside all restraints of law or of humanity and use its submarines to sink every vessel that sought to approach either the ports of Great Britain and Ireland or the western coasts of Europe or any of the ports controlled by the enemies of Germany within the Mediterranean.” Germany had cast aside its earlier restraint and begun to pursue unrestricted submarine warfare on vessels from every nation with a “reckless lack of compassion or of principle.”