Tench Coxe

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Tench Coxe (May 22, 1755 – July 17, 1824) was an American political economist and a delegate for Pennsylvania to the Continental Congress in 1788-1789.

Coxe was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on May 22, 1755. His mother was a daughter of Tench Francis, Sr. His father came of a family well known in American affairs.

He was initially a Loyalist during the American Revolution when he left the Pennsylvania militia in 1776 and joined the British Army under General Howe in 1777. He was later arrested, paroled, and joined the patriot cause and supported the new government.

A proponent of industrialization during the early years of the United States, Coxe co-authored the famous Report on Manufactures (1791) with Alexander Hamilton and provided much of the statistical data. He had been appointed Assistant Secretary of the Treasury on September 11, 1789 under Alexander Hamilton when Hamilton was Secretary of the Treasury. Coxe also headed a group called the Manufacturing Society of Philadelphia. He was appointed revenue commissioner by President George Washington on June 30, 1792, and served until removed by President John Adams. He was appointed by President Thomas Jefferson purveyor of public supplies and served from 1803 to 1812. He was a writer on political and economic subjects and a champion of the use of tariffs to protect the new nation's growing industries.

Coxe died July 17, 1824 in Philadelphia, where he is interred in Christ Church Burial Ground.

[edit] Further reading

Jacob Cooke, Tench Coxe and the Early Republic; 1978, Univ. of North Carolina Press, ISBN 0-8078-1308-7.
Jacob E. Cooke, "Tench Coxe, Alexander Hamilton, and the Encouragement of American Manufactures," The William and Mary Quarterly, 3rd Ser., Vol. 32, No. 3 (July 1975), pp. 369-392.