The Tench Coxe Papers, 1638-1896

Tench Coxe was America's first Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, Commissioner of Revenue, and Purveyor of Public Supplies. He also was a prolific writer, leaving behind a massive collection of papers relating not only to his involvement with and service to the government of early America, but also to his family's commercial interests, his land dealings, his support of the U.S. Constitution, and his views on the nation's fledgling economy.

Coxe's early years were characterized by his involvement with the family's import-export firm. But during the American Revolution, his actions, if not his words, indicate that he held royalist sympathies. Coxe developed an interest in the new national government in the 1780s, however, and became a fervent supporter of the Constitution, publishing several notable pamphlets in response to its critics. Following the adoption of the Constitution, he became intensely caught up in the life of the new nation, and governmental service became his principal passion and employment.

Now students of American history, political science, and economics can gain valuable insight into not only Coxe's life and contributions, but also into the mainstream of early political thought through his correspondence with people of consequence in public affairs--Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and Aaron Burr, for example.

Of value to students will be some of Coxe's other writings on: