Washington was the second cutter of that name to serve in the U.S. Navy and was named after Peter G. Washington, who had served as a clerk in the United States Department of the Treasury, as chief clerk to the 6th Auditor, as First Assistant Postmaster General of the United States, and as Assistant Secretary of the Treasury.

[3] She apparently was built quickly, as orders were issued on 11 November 1837 for the ship to conduct "winter cruising" off the United States East Coast between New York City and the Virginia Capes.

She had set sail from the coast of Africa two months or so before, carrying two white passengers and 54 slaves, bound for Guanaja, Cuba.

Four days out of port, the slaves rose and killed the captain and his crew, saving the two passengers to navigate the ship back to Africa.

In the second week of January 1854, Washington, and five other revenue cutters sailed almost simultaneously from their home ports, ranging from New London, Connecticut, to Wilmington, Delaware, and from Norfolk, Virginia, to New York City, in a search for the foundering steamer SS San Francisco.

Ordered to the Gulf of Mexico in the spring of 1859 to relieve the revenue cutter USRC Robert McClelland, Washington apparently arrived at Southwest Pass, Louisiana, soon afterwards.