I’m thinking through the relationship between the US Consular Service and the US Customs Service, as well as the true nature of the US-Canadian border in the late nineteenth century. As an initial exercise, I made a quick map of US Customs posts in 1872, based on the US Register. As you can see, they’re certainly thick on the ground, especially in the northeast. Some of that may have something to do with the fact that James G. Blaine of Maine was the speaker of the House at the time and already in possession of a significant network of people who needed patronage appointments, but it also speaks to the realities of the coastline and the importance of tariffs to the federal government. I look forward to expanding the maps across time and across other agencies.