Colonial post office under Queen Anne's act--Early packet
service.
For some years various circumstances had been arising which made it
necessary that the post office in Great Britain and the colonies should
be established on a footing different from that on which it then stood.
The legislative union between England and Scotland in 1707 called for a
uniform postal service throughout Britain; but without additional
legislation the postmaster general of England could not dispose of the
revenues of the post office in Scotland.
The colonies were in their infancy when the English law of 1660 was
enacted, and they were not mentioned in it at all. The only clause in
that act which affected the colonies in any way was that which required
all masters of ships who brought letters with them from beyond the seas,
to deposit them at the nearest post office. There was no penalty
attached to the disregard of this clause, and the attempt to induce the
shipmasters to obey the law by paying them a penny for every letter they
delivered in the English post office was pronounced by the auditors to
be illegal, and there was a threat made that these payments would be
disallowed in the accounts.
There were a number of other circumstances arising out of the growth of
the kingdom and its colonial expansion, which compelled the postmaster
general to take action in advance of legal authority. When the treasury,
after the union of England and Scotland, learned that a new post office
law was necessary, they determined to take advantage of the fact to
serve their own purposes. The war of the Spanish Succession, which began
in 1702, while ruinous to France, also seriously crippled England; and
the treasury saw that the enactment of a new post office act might be
utilized to increase the postal charges, and additional sums raised for
carrying on and finishing the war.
In 1710, accordingly, a post office bill was presented to
parliament.[37] It was passed by parliament; and this act was the first
measure which dealt in a comprehensive way with the British post office.
Substantially it was the law of the post office for more than a century
afterwards.
The effect of the new law on the colonial post office was profound.
Until 1710 the terms and conditions under which the post office in the
colonies was operated, were matters of arrangement between Hamilton and
the several legislatures. While the Neale patent enabled Hamilton to set
up post offices in the colonies, the postal charges were fixed by the
colonial legislatures at such rates as "the planters shall agree to
give."
The Neale patent had been resumed by the crown in 1706, but not
abrogated. Hence, until the new act came into force, the crown simply
stood in the place of the patentees, and operated under the legislation
agreed upon between Hamilton and the colonial governments. New York and
Pennsylvania, as their short term acts expired, renewed them with the
crown; and New Jersey, which established a postal system in 1709, fixed
the rates of postage by act of the legislature, but placed the
management of the service in the hands of the postmaster general.
The post office act of 1710 made it no longer necessary to consult the
colonial legislatures as to the charges to be made for the conveyance
and delivery of letters in North America. The supreme control of the
postal system throughout the British dominions, beyond the sea, as well
as at home, was vested in the postmaster general of England. The rates
of payment were fixed by the act, and the mode in which the surplus
revenues were to be disposed of was set forth in the same enactment.
In America, the general post offices at Boston, New York and
Philadelphia, which stood quite independent of one another, were reduced
to the rank of ordinary offices, and made parts of the system, the
headquarters of which were placed by the act in New York.[38] The
administration of the system, as reconstructed, was continued in the
hands of John Hamilton.
As in all other parts of the British dominions, the rates of postage
were sensibly increased.[39] Under the Neale patent, a letter from New
York for Philadelphia cost fourpence-halfpenny. The act of Queen Anne
raised the charge to ninepence, just double the former rate. A letter
posted in Boston, and addressed to Philadelphia, which under the Neale
patent cost for postage fifteen pence, cost twenty-one pence under the
act of 1710. But these figures give no adequate idea of the magnitude of
the postal charges as fixed by the act of Queen Anne.
An explanation of the system to which these rates applied will make the
matter clearer. At the present time the postage on a letter passing
anywhere within the British Empire, or from Canada to any part of the
United States or Mexico, is two cents per ounce weight, whether the
letter is addressed to the next town or to the farthermost post office
in the Yukon.
In 1710, and indeed in Canada until 1851, the distance a letter was
carried was an element which entered into the cost. It would have been
thought no more proper to ignore the element of distance in fixing the
postage on a letter than in fixing the charge for the conveyance of a
parcel of goods. By the act of 1710 the postage on a single letter
passing between two places sixty miles apart or less was fourpence;
where the places were from sixty miles to one hundred miles apart the
charge was sixpence.
Besides the distance, however, there was another factor which helped to
determine the amount of the postage. This factor will appear from a
description of the classes into which letters were divided.
Letters were single, double, and treble, and ounce. A single letter was
one consisting of one sheet or piece of paper, weighing less than one
ounce. If with this single sheet letter, a piece of paper was enclosed,
no matter how small, the letter was called a double letter. The treble
letter was a letter consisting of more than two sheets or pieces of
paper, under the weight of an ounce.
Whatever the postage of a single letter might be, the postage on a
double letter was equal to that of two such single letters; and that on
a treble letter was three times that on a single letter. There were no
envelopes in use at this period, and the sheet on which the letter was
written was so folded that an unwritten portion came on the outside, and
on this space the address was written.
The question will occur as to how the presence of enclosures could be
detected among the folds of the larger single sheet. There were several
means of detection born of ingenuity and experience. The approved method
and the one long in service, was to hold every letter up to a lighted
candle, and by some skilful manipulating, the taxable enclosures could
be seen.
But it was not only enclosures to which the attention of the officials
was directed. The postal charges were found so oppressive that several
merchants who had letters to send to the same town used to write their
several communications on the same sheet, which on reaching the person
addressed was by him passed on to the others, whose letters were on the
same sheet.
In the post office the practice was much condemned. As it was not
specifically provided against in the act, it had to be tolerated until
the act was amended; and thereafter when several letters were written on
one paper, each was to be charged as a distinct letter. The letter
inspectors then had to satisfy themselves that there was no more than
one person's handwriting in the sheet, which was, of course, carefully
sealed with wax.
The ounce letter needs no explanation. At present the ounce is the unit
of weight for letters sent from Canada to every part of the civilized
world. In this aspect it corresponds with the single letter of the
pre-penny postage days. But the ounce letter of 1710 and of over a
century afterwards was far removed from the single letter in the matter
of postage.
In that respect the ounce letter was equal to four single letters, and
was charged four times the rate of the single letter. Thus, while a
single sheet weighing less than an ounce could pass between two
neighbouring towns not over sixty miles apart for fourpence, if it
tipped the ounce weight it was chargeable with sixteen pence.
The act of 1710 offered a problem to the paper makers. A sheet of paper
had to be made stout enough to stand the handling of the post office
without the protection of an envelope, and be yet so light as to allow
the largest space possible within the ounce weight.
Under this system, in which distance, number of enclosures and weight
were all factors, the charges for letters, such as are posted by
thousands in our larger offices every day, were very high. An ounce
letter, which at the present time costs but two cents to convey to the
remotest post office in the North West of Canada, or to Southern Mexico,
in 1710 cost three shillings to carry from New York to Philadelphia.
From New York to Boston, the postage on the same letter was four
shillings. Between the outermost points of the North American postal
system in 1710--Portsmouth, N.H., and Charlestown, N.C.--the postage for
an ounce letter was ten shillings.
The act of Queen Anne's reign, so long the charter of the British postal
system, also greatly increased the charges on letters passing between
the mother country and the colonies. In place of the penny or twopence
which satisfied the captains for the delivery in America of the letters
which had been placed in the letter bags hung up in the London coffee
houses, the postage on a single letter passing from London to New York
became one shilling. If the letter weighed an ounce, the charge was four
shillings.
Captains of vessels, moreover, were no longer at liberty to disregard
the requirements of the post office that they should deliver their
letters at the post office of the port of arrival. If they failed, they
laid themselves open to a ruinous fine.
Remembering the resentment with which half a century later the Americans
greeted every scheme, which could be construed into imposing a tax
without their consent, one wonders how the post office act of 1710 was
regarded in the colonies.
The question is interesting enough to warrant some inquiry. The
legislative records have been searched carefully, and also, so far as
they were available, the newspapers of the period. With one exception
about to be mentioned, the only reference to the post office act which
has been discovered is in the New Hampshire records. There it is stated
that the act was read before the council on the 13th of September, 1711,
and afterwards proclaimed by beat of drum in the presence of the council
and of some members of the house of representatives.
The case in which the act came into question occurred in Virginia. This
colony had no post office in 1710, nor for a considerable period
afterwards; and it was the attempt to put the post office in operation
in 1717 which led to the protest and the countervailing action.
Virginia seems to have had no desire to be included in the American
postal system. In 1699 Hamilton reported on the proposition of extending
the system southward to Virginia.[40] The extension would cost L500; and
Hamilton declared that the desire for communicating with the northern
colonies was so slight that he did not believe there would be one
hundred letters a year exchanged between Virginia and Maryland and the
other colonies. Practically all the correspondence of the two colonies
was with Great Britain and other countries in Europe.
In the autumn of 1717, steps were taken to establish a post office in
the two colonies, and to connect them with the other colonies.
Postmasters were appointed in each colony. Couriers carried the mails
into several of the more populous counties; and a fortnightly service
was established between Williamsburg and Philadelphia. This was quite
satisfactory, until the people began to read the placards which they
observed affixed to every post office wall, directing that all letters,
not expressly excepted by the act of parliament, should be delivered to
the local postmasters. Here was matter for thought.
A glance at the tariff showed that the charge made by the post office on
a letter from England was one shilling for a single letter. The letters
from England were the only letters the people of Virginia cared anything
about, and they were accustomed to pay only a penny as postage for them.
There was some little trouble, and perhaps a slight risk attending the
safe delivery of letters by the existing arrangement. Virginians were,
however, used to it, and had no great fault to find. It might be that if
they could have received their letters at the post office for the same
charge as they paid for receiving them direct from the ship captains,
they would have preferred going to the post office.
But the difference in convenience between the two places of receipt was
not worth the difference between one penny and one shilling; and indeed
it looked uncommonly as if the government were using this means to tax
them elevenpence on every letter they received.
The people, on realizing the condition of things, made a great
clamour.[41] Parliament, they declared, could levy no tax on them but
with the consent of the assembly; and besides that, their letters were
all exempted from the monopoly of the postmaster general because they
nearly all, in some way or other, related to trade.
The Virginians were putting an unwarrantably broad interpretation on an
exemption, which appears in all post office acts, in favour of letters
relating to goods which the letters accompany on the vessel. It has
always been the practice to allow shipmasters, carrying a consignment of
goods, to deliver the invoice to the consignee with the goods, in order
that the transaction might be completed with convenience.
It would not be practicable, however, to confine this exemption to
invoices accompanying goods, as this would require a knowledge of the
contents of letters, which could not be obtained without an intolerable
inquisition. Consequently, it has been customary to allow all letters
accompanying consignments of goods to be delivered with the goods,
without asking whether they relate to the goods or not. But the scope of
the exemption is clearly defined, and has never been allowed to include
ordinary business letters, not accompanied by goods.
The Virginians, however, were not content to leave their case to the
precarious chances of a legal or constitutional argument. They set about
neutralizing the post office act by an effective counter measure. A bill
was submitted to the legislature which, while it acknowledged the
authority of the post office act, imposed on postmasters giving effect
to it certain conditions which it was impossible to fulfil, and attached
extravagant penalties for the infraction of those conditions. The
postmasters were to be fined L5 for every letter which they demanded
from aboard a ship--letters of a character which the British statute
exempted from the postmaster general's exclusive privilege.
Now every ship's letter bag would contain probably many letters relating
to goods aboard the ship, as well as many which were in no way so
related. But how was the postmaster to tell the letters accompanying
goods from those which did not? Even if the ship's captain assisted to
the best of his ability, which was more than doubtful, there would be
many letters about which the postmaster could not be certain, and with a
L5 penalty for every mistake, his position was not an enviable one.
Another clause in the bill of the legislature of Virginia contained a
schedule of hours for every courier. The terms of the schedule were so
exacting that compliance with it was impossible. The penalty attached to
every failure to observe the hours set forth, was twenty shillings for
each letter delayed.[42] As the governor pointed out, the difficulties
of travel during the winter season, owing to the number of great rivers
to be passed, would subject the postmasters to the risk of a fine for
every letter they accepted for transmission at that period of the year.
The bill of 1718, when sent up for the governor's assent, was promptly
vetoed; but on the other hand, the intention of the deputy postmaster
general to establish a post office in Virginia was not pressed. It was
not until 1732, when the governor had relinquished his office, and had
himself been appointed deputy postmaster general, that Virginia was
included in the postal system of North America.
Even after that date the post office in Virginia was on a somewhat
irregular footing, at least in regard to the conveyance of the mails. In
a gazetteer published in 1749,[43] it is stated that while regular trips
are made by mail courier from Portsmouth to Philadelphia, southward to
Williamsburg the courier's movements were uncertain, as he did not set
out until there were sufficient letters posted for the south, to
guarantee his wages from the postage on them. There was a post office at
this period as far south as Charlestown, but the post carriage for that
office was still more uncertain.
With the exception of the Virginian contretemps, the period from 1710
until after the middle of the eighteenth century was one of quiescence.
Deputy postmaster general succeeded deputy postmaster general; and the
annals of their administrations carry little that is interesting. After
the retirement of Hamilton in 1721, a change was made in the relations
between the deputy postmaster general and the general post office, by
which the post office in London was relieved of all expense in
connection with the maintenance of the North American postal system.
Hamilton had a salary of L200 a year. But the profits from the post
office did not quite cover that amount, as on his withdrawal, there was
due to him L355 arrears of salary. In recommending the claim to the
treasury, the postmaster general stated that the post office in America
had been put on such a footing that if it produced no profit, it would
no longer be a charge on the revenue.[44]
The facilities given to the public were not increased during that
period. Indeed, in 1714, they were diminished, as the courier's trips
between Boston and Philadelphia, which in 1693 were performed weekly
throughout the year, were reduced to fortnightly during the winter
months, and they remained at that frequency until 1753.
It is obvious that the post office was not used by the public any more
than was absolutely necessary, and that every means was taken to evade
the regulations designed to preserve the postmaster general's monopoly.
Thomas Hancock, in a letter written in 1740, to Governor Talcott of
Connecticut, told him that he saved the colony from forty shillings to
three pounds every year, through the interest he had with the captains
of the London ships, who delivered the letters to him instead of handing
them over to the post office.[45]
The line of undistinguished representatives of the British post office
in America came to an end in 1753, when Benjamin Franklin was made
deputy postmaster general, jointly with William Hunter of Virginia.
Franklin, besides being a man of eminent practical ability, brought to
his task a large experience in post office affairs. He had been
postmaster of Philadelphia for fifteen years prior to his appointment to
the deputyship; and for some time before had acted as post office
controller, his duty being to visit and instruct the postmasters
throughout the country.
At the time Franklin and Hunter entered upon their office they found
little to encourage them. The couriers who conveyed the mails were much
slower than most other travellers on the same roads. It took six weeks
to make the trip from Philadelphia to Boston and back, and during the
three winter months, the trips were made only once a fortnight.
The new deputies so reorganized the service that the trips were made
weekly throughout the year, and they shortened the time by one-half; and
many other improvements were made.[46] For a time the expenditure of the
post office largely outran the revenue. But the usual rewards of
additional facilities to the public followed.
In 1757, when the outlay had reached its highest point, and the public
response to the increased facilities was still but feeble, the post
office was over L900 in debt to the deputy postmasters general. Three
years later this debt was entirely cleared off, and the operations
showed a surplus of L278. In 1761 the surplus reached the amount of
L494, and this sum was transmitted to the general post office in London.
The receipt of this first remittance was the occasion of much
satisfaction to the postmasters general. For a generation the post
office in America had been nearly forgotten. Since 1721, it had cost the
home office nothing for its maintenance, and for long before that time
it had yielded nothing to the treasury, and so it had been allowed to
plod along unregarded.
A remittance from this source was quite unexpected, and one can imagine
the pleasure with which the entry was made in the treasury book, and the
words added "this is the first remittance ever made of its kind."[47]
But though the first, it was by no means the last; for until Franklin's
dismissal in 1774, a remittance from the American post office was an
annual occurrence. Franklin declared that, at the time of his dismissal,
the American office yielded a revenue three times that from Ireland.[48]
The success of the post office under Franklin's regime suggests the
question, as to the share Franklin had in that success. During the whole
course of his administration, he had with him an associate deputy
postmaster general, William Hunter, from 1753 until 1761, and John
Foxcroft, from 1761 until his connection with the post office ceased.
Little is known of the capacity of either of these officials; of Hunter,
practically nothing. Foxcroft was certainly a man of intelligence, but
nothing is known to warrant the belief that he possessed unusual
qualities. That the routine of post office management was left in the
hands of the associates, may be inferred not so much from the
multifarious character of Franklin's activities, for he seems to have
been equal to any demands made upon him, as from the fact that out of
the twenty-one years of his administration, fifteen years were spent in
England as the representative of the province of Pennsylvania in its
negotiations with the home government.
That Franklin's occupations in England did not absorb all his time is
amply proven by his voluminous correspondence which shows him to have
been engaged in abstruse speculations in science, and in economic and
philosophic studies. But to administer an institution like the post
office one must be on the spot, and the Atlantic ocean lay between him
and his work from May 1757, until November 1762, and from November 1764,
until his dismissal in 1774. Franklin was in America while the measures
were taken which put the post office on an efficient footing, and again
in 1763, when the treaty of Paris confirmed England in her possession of
Canada.
Franklin's contribution to the North American post office consisted
mainly, it would seem, in certain important ideas, the application of
which turned a half century of failure into an immediate success. It is
a commonplace that money spent in increased facilities to the public is
sure of a speedy return with interest, and in private enterprises
competition keeps this principle in fairly active employment.
This is not the case with an institution like the post office, until, at
least, each new application of the principle had been justified by
success. A post office is a monopoly, and at certain stages of its
history that fact has been its bane. To-day when the demands of social
and commercial intercourse make an efficient vehicle for the
transmission of correspondence a necessity, the evils inherent in
monopolies sink out of sight so far as the post office is concerned.
A peremptory public takes the place of competitors as a motive for
alertness. The faults of the institution are freely exposed, and
correction insisted upon; and, what is as much to the point, the public
contributes of its ingenuity for the improvement of the service. When,
towards the end of the eighteenth century, the British public was
disgusted with the slowness of its mail carts, and dismayed at the
number of robberies, Palmer, a Bath theatre manager, came forward with
his scheme for the employment of fast passenger coaches for the
conveyance of the mails.
A half century later the public united in a demand for lower postage
rates; and Rowland Hill, a schoolmaster, produced a scheme, which for
originality and efficacy, has given him a high place among the inventors
of the world. To-day the Universal Postal Union affords a medium by
means of which the results achieved by every postal administration are
brought into a common stock for the benefit of all.
But when Franklin took hold of the North American post office, he had
none of these aids to improvement. The measure of the public interest in
the post office may be taken from the fact that its total revenue during
the first three years of his administration, from 1753 to 1756, was L938
16_s._ 10_d._--but little more than L300 a year.
As for encouragement or stimulus from the outside, there was none. The
only connection the American post office had was with the home office;
and it is doubtful whether, even if it had been disposed, the British
post office could have lent any helpful advice in those days.
The British post office was at that time passing through one of its
unprogressive periods. It had come to know by long years of observation
what was the volume of correspondence which would be offered for
exchange, and it provided the means of transmission, taking care that
these should not cost more than the receipts.
Franklin's merit lay in his rising above an indolent reliance on his
monopoly, and in his generous outlay for additional facilities, by means
of which he not only drew to the post office a large amount of
business, which was falling into other hands, but called into existence
another class of correspondence altogether.
It is tolerably certain that had Franklin's work lay in England instead
of America, he would have anticipated Palmer's suggestion that the stage
coaches be used for the conveyance of the mails, instead of the wretched
mail carts which came to be regarded as the natural prey of the
highwayman.
At the beginning of 1764 the post riders between New York and
Philadelphia made three trips a week each way; and at such a rate of
speed that a letter could be sent from one place to the other and the
answer received the day following.[49] In reporting this achievement to
the general post office, Franklin states that the mails travel by night
as well as by day, which had never been done before in America.
Franklin planned to have trips of equal speed made between New York and
Boston in the spring of 1764, and the time for letter and reply between
the two places reduced from a fortnight to four days. When his
arrangements were completed a letter and its reply might pass between
Boston and Philadelphia in six days, instead of three weeks.
As a result of these arrangements Franklin anticipated that there would
be a large increase in the number of letters passing between Boston and
Philadelphia and Great Britain by the packets from New York. That the
fruits of his outlay answered his expectations is clear from the fact
that the revenues, which up to the year 1756 had scarcely exceeded L300
a year, mounted up to L1100[50] in 1757, and that became the normal
revenue for some time after.
It was during this period that the British government began to employ
packet boats for the conveyance of the mails to the American colonies.
Until this time there had been no regular arrangements for the
conveyance of the mails between Great Britain and the colonies. There
were no vessels under specific engagement to leave either Great Britain
or America at any fixed time.
This is not, of course, to say that there were no means of exchanging
correspondence between England and America, or even that the post office
had no control over the vessels by which letters were carried. Vessels
were continually passing between Falmouth or Bristol and New York or
Boston in the course of trade; and these were employed for the
conveyance of mails. Sometimes the letters were made up in sealed bags
by the post office before being handed to the shipmasters; and sometimes
they were handed loose to the captains, or picked up from the coffee
houses.
The captains were under heavy penalties to hand over to the post office
all letters in their possession, when they reached their port of
destination, and they were entitled to one penny for each letter so
delivered to the local postmasters. By this arrangement, the cost of
carrying the letters across the Atlantic fell in no degree upon the post
office. Indeed, after the act of 1710, the post office made a very good
bargain of the business. The postmasters paid the shipmasters a penny a
letter, and the act of 1710 authorized them to collect a shilling for
each letter delivered to the public.
A service so irregular had its disadvantages, however. Captains were of
all degrees of trustworthiness. Some could be depended upon to deliver
the letters at the post office as the law directed; others were careless
or unfaithful. These either did not deposit their letters with the
postmasters promptly as they should have done, or they had private
understandings with friends by which the letters did not go into the
post office at all, but were delivered by the captains directly to the
persons to whom they were directed.
In 1755 the board of trade called attention to the great "delays,
miscarriages and other accidents which have always attended the
correspondence between this kingdom and His Majesty's colonies in
America, from the very precarious and uncertain method in which it has
been usually carried on by merchant ships." The remedy sought was a line
of sailing vessels devoted entirely to the conveyance of correspondence.
Services of this class were not uncommon, although they were usually
confined to a time of war. During the war of Spanish Succession, packet
ships ran regularly to Holland and to France.
It was during this war when French and Spanish privateers held the
southern seas, that the first line of mail packets was established,
which ran to North America. In 1705, the British government contracted
for five vessels of one hundred and forty tons each, to carry the mails
to and from the West Indies.[51] Each vessel was to carry twenty-six men
and ten guns. The contractor was paid L12,500 a year.
A curious feature of the contract was that the contractor was required
to enter into a warranty that the receipts from the vessels for mails
and passengers would not be less than L8000. If they did not come up to
this amount, the contractor had to make up the shortage, up to the sum
of L4500 a year. The contract was for three years certain, with an
additional two years if the war should last so long.
The postal business of the West Indies was comparatively large at the
beginning of the eighteenth century. The receipts for the two years
ending January 1706--L10,112[52]--make the American continental
business, even under Franklin's capable management, very small by
comparison. In 1760 the receipts from the colonial post office of North
America were only L1100. This packet service to the West Indies was
maintained until the peace of Utrecht in 1713.
During the same period, repeated efforts were made by English merchants,
to have a packet service to the North American colonies. In 1704 a
petition was presented to the government for a mail service between
England and New York.[53] The petitioners asked that the vessels be
employed for letters only, in order that by their greater speed they
might outrun the merchant vessels on their homeward trips and by giving
timely notice, make it possible to send out cruisers to meet the
merchant vessels and escort them home in safety. They observed that, in
the year before, eighteen of the Virginia fleet were captured because
they had set out later than was expected.
The treasury were unimpressionable. They read the memorial, and after
adding to it the curt query "Whether the merchants intend to be at the
charge," they dismissed it from further consideration. In 1707, the
question was again brought to the attention of the treasury, and they
asked Blathwayt, a commissioner of trade, to give them a report upon it.
Blathwayt was hearty in support of the proposition.[54] He declared that
"Her Majesty's plantations in America are at present the chief support
of the kingdom without impairing their own proper strength and yet
capable of very great improvements by their trade and other means." He
pressed for the establishment of a service with trips six or eight times
a year. In view of the war, however, Blathwayt considered it inadvisable
to fix upon a certain rendezvous on either side of the Atlantic, as
this would enhance the opportunities for interception by the enemy.
The treasury were willing to have one or two experimental trips made to
ascertain what revenue might be expected from the service, if these
could be secured without expense; and they accepted a proposition, made
about this time, by Sir Jeffry Jeffrys, who was preparing to make two
trips to New York.[55] Jeffrys asked that his vessel might be
commissioned as a packet boat, and that he might be allowed to retain
the postage on all the correspondence which he carried between England
and America. There is no record of the result, but from what is known of
the postal business in America, it cannot be supposed that it would be
of a magnitude to encourage the establishment of a packet service.
Other offers were made to the government, but they were not seriously
considered until the outbreak of the war in America between England and
France in 1744. Orders were at once given for the restoration of the
packet service to the West Indies; and in 1745 armed packets again
carried the mails on this route.[56] The service was very expensive; for
though the revenue reached the respectable figure of L3921 in the first
year, this amount was far from covering the outlay; and as soon as the
treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle was signed in 1749, the packets were
discontinued.
The peace, which followed the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, was of short
duration. So far as America was concerned, the treaty did little more
than to impose upon the combatants a momentary suspension of arms. It
did nothing to remove the causes of war, and while these remained a
permanent peace was impossible.
The grounds of dispute were almost entirely territorial. The French
claimed the whole vast stretch of country to the west of the
Alleghanies, and set up a line of forts along the valley of the
Alleghany and Ohio rivers. The English disregarded these claims, and
their traders pushed over the mountains into the disputed territory. The
French displayed so much energy in dispossessing the encroaching
English, that the border country was kept in a state of alarm, and the
governors of the English colonies appealed to have a regular means of
communication established between the mother country and the colonies,
so that help might be obtained if required.
The representations of governors Shirley of Massachusetts, Delancey of
New York, and Dinwiddie of Virginia, were vigorously supported by
governor Lawrence of Nova Scotia.[57]
The situation of Nova Scotia was one of peculiar danger. The province
was hemmed in between Cape Breton, with its powerful fortress at
Louisburg, on the one side, and Canada on the other. The control which
the French exercised over the valley of the St. John, and over the
isthmus of Baie Verte, gave them a safe and easy passage from Canada to
Cape Breton, by way of the St. John river, the bay of Fundy, the isthmus
of Baie Verte, and the straits of Northumberland. The Acadians who were
scattered over Nova Scotia were naturally in hearty sympathy with their
own people in Cape Breton; and in order to send supplies of cattle to
the fortress, they made a small settlement at Tatamagouche, on the
straits of Northumberland, which served as an entrepot.[58]
The first result of the appeal of the governors was the establishment of
a post office at Halifax, in the spring of 1755,[59] and the opening up
of communication with New England by the vessels which plied to and from
Boston. It required a ruder prompting before the government could be
induced to spend the money necessary for a packet service, and this was
not long in coming.
In the early spring of 1755, General Braddock, with two regiments, was
sent to America to oppose the large claims made by the French. In
concert with the governors of Massachusetts and Virginia, a plan of
attack was arranged which involved movements against four different
points as widely separated as fort Duquesne on the Ohio river, and
Beausejour on the bay of Fundy.
Braddock undertook the expedition against fort Duquesne, which if
successful would break down the barrier which was confining the English
colonies to the Atlantic seaboard, and relieve the more westerly
settlements of Virginia and Pennsylvania from the harassing attacks
which were making life on the frontiers unendurable. The execution of
his part of the campaign was beset by difficulties, arising partly from
the mountainous and woody character of the country through which he had
to pass, and partly from his ignorance of the methods of forest warfare,
in which his enemies excelled.
Whatever could be accomplished by dogged energy was done successfully.
Braddock managed to get his army within sight of his destination. But
here his good fortune left him. While still in the thick woods he was
attacked by the French and their Indian allies. Employing methods to
which Braddock was a stranger, methods which would have seemed to him to
be unworthy of soldiers, the French and their allies managed to keep
themselves in perfect cover, while the British army stood exposed, the
easiest of marks.
There could be but one outcome. The British were overwhelmed and
Braddock slain; and the only result of the campaign was to redouble the
fury of the enemy against the unfortunate border settlements.
The disaster and its consequences were brought home to the government
with a directness that put an end to all hesitation about establishing
the closest possible communication between the mother country and the
colonies. On the 18th of September, the board of trade, which
administered the affairs of the colonies, approached the treasury on
the subject. After emphasizing the inconveniences of the existing
arrangements, the board insisted that it was of the highest importance
that the king should have "early and frequent intelligence of what is in
agitation" in the colonies, and recommended that packet boats be
established to New York.[60]
The treasury approved, and directed the postmasters general to arrange
for regular monthly trips to New York, and to restore the West Indian
service, which was discontinued in 1749. Four vessels of 150 tons each
were provided for the latter route.[61] They were to carry twenty-six
men each, and be fully armed for war.
For the New York route, larger vessels were thought necessary, owing to
the roughness of the winter seas; the vessels placed on this line were
each of 200 tons, and carried thirty men. The carrying of any
merchandise was forbidden, so that the vessels were devoted entirely to
the service of the post office.
In the elaborate instructions which the commanders received, they were
directed, when they had a mail for a place at which a postmaster had not
been appointed, to open the bags themselves, and deliver the letters for
that place to a magistrate or other careful man, who would undertake to
have the letters handed to the persons to whom they were addressed. In
case the vessel was attacked, and could not avoid being taken, the
commander must, before striking, throw the mails overboard, with such a
weight attached as would immediately sink them, and so prevent them from
falling into the enemy's hands.
The new service was a most expensive one, and when peace was concluded
in 1762, the question of continuing it came up for immediate
consideration. During the seven years of its course, the New York
service cost L62,603; while the produce in postage was only L12,458. The
service was popular, however; and the revenue had been increasing
latterly, and an effort was made to reduce the cost.[62] In this the
postmasters general were successful, and as the treasury saw reasons for
indulging the hope that before long the service would be
self-sustaining, they sanctioned the amended terms.
So far as the district in the neighbourhood of New York was concerned,
the service was very satisfactory. But the people in the more remote
southern colonies had ground for complaint in the length of time it took
for their letters to reach them after arriving at New York.
No time was lost in despatching the couriers to the south; but, at the
best, between bad roads and no roads at all, there were great delays in
delivering the mails to Charlestown. In the fall of 1763, a proposition
was made to extend the West Indies service to the mainland, and to
require the mail packet to visit Pensacola, fort St. Augustine and
Charlestown, before returning to Falmouth.
The extended scheme, which was accepted in 1764, involved an entire
reorganization of the postal service of the southern colonies. The
colonies to the south of Virginia were separated from the colonies to
the north and, with the Bahama Islands, were erected into a distinct
postal division, with headquarters at Charlestown.[63]
A sufficient number of vessels were added to make a regular monthly
service,[64] but in spite of this, the arrangements did not give
satisfaction. The route was too long to make it possible to deliver the
mails at Charlestown within a reasonable time. The postmasters general
reported that letters for those parts often lay forty or fifty days in
London before starting on their way.
It was then resolved to break up the connection between the mainland and
the West Indies, and have a separate monthly service between Falmouth
and Charlestown. To secure the greatest measure of advantage from this
service a courier was sent off with the mails for Savannah and St.
Augustine as soon as they arrived at Charlestown from England.[65]
There were thus, from 1764, three lines of sailing packets running
between England and the North American colonies--one to New York,
another to Charlestown, and a third to the West Indies. There was but
one defect in these arrangements. They did not provide connections
between the several systems except through the mother country.
A letter sent from New York to Charlestown or to the West Indies had to
travel across to London and back again by the first outward packet to
its destination. To connect the two systems on the mainland, a courier
travelled from Charlestown northward to Suffolk, Virginia, where he met
with the courier from New York.
In dealing with the means for establishing communication between the
mainland and the West Indies, the treasury were called upon to consider
a petition from the merchants who traded to Florida. The termination of
the war was followed by the withdrawal of the troops which were
stationed at Pensacola, the principal trading settlement in Florida, and
the merchants feared the savages would plunder their goods, if succour
could not be easily obtained from the sister provinces.
The first step taken to meet the difficulty was to run a small
forty-five ton vessel from Jamaica to Pensacola and on to Charlestown.
This was satisfactory as far as it went, but as it took eighty-three
days to cover this route and return to Jamaica, this service had to be
doubled before the people concerned were content.
FOOTNOTES:
[37] Statutes of the United Kingdom, 9 Anne, c. 10.
[38] New York did not become the headquarters of the postal system until
the reconstruction of 1773.
[39] The postal rates as fixed by the act of Queen Anne were as follows:
London to Jamaica, Barbadoes, 1_s._ 6_d._; to New York, 1_s._ New York,
to West Indies, 4_d._; to New London or Philadelphia, 9_d._; to Boston
or Portsmouth, 1_s._; to Williamsburg, Va., or Piscataway, 1_s._ 3_d._;
to Charlestown, 1_s._ 6_d._; to within 60 miles, 4_d._; to within 100
miles, 6_d._ These charges were for single letters.
[40] G.P.O., _Treasury_, II. 253.
[41] Governor Spottswood to the board of trade, June 24, 1718 (_Va.
Hist. Coll._, new series, II. 280)
[42] _Journal of the House of Burgesses_, May 1718, _passim_.
[43] Douglas' _Historical and Political Summary_.
[44] G.P.O., _Treasury_, VI. 206-207.
[45] _Talcott Papers_, vol. 5.
[46] "The Ledger-Book of Benjamin Franklin," in the Boston Public
Library.
[47] G.P.O., _Treasury Letter-Book_, 1760-1761, p. 96.
[48] _Works of Benjamin Franklin_ (Federal ed.), I. 256.
[49] Franklin to Todd, January 16, 1764, Smyth, _Life and Writings of
Benjamin Franklin_, XII. 292.
[50] G.P.O., _General Accounts_, 1761-1770.
[51] G.P.O., _Treasury_, III. 236.
[52] G.P.O., _Treasury_ volume.
[53] Cal. Treasury Papers, 1702-1707, p. 267.
[54] _Treasury Papers_, CII. 120.
[55] G.P.O., _Treasury_, III. 127.
[56] _Cal. Treasury Books and Papers_, 1742-1745, p. 707.
[57] _C. O._ 5.
[58] _C. O._ 5, vol. 15.
[59] _Boston Evening Post_, April 28, 1755. (This note was furnished by
Mr. C. W. Ernst of Boston.)
[60] _C. O._ 5, Bundle 7.
[61] G.P.O., _Treasury_, VII. 248-249.
[62] G.P.O., _Treasury_, vol. 8.
[63] The first deputy postmaster general for the southern division was
Benjamin Barons, who was appointed December 19, 1764 (G.P.O., _Orders of
the Board_, II. 126). He resigned on August 26, 1766, and was succeeded
by Peter Delancy, who was killed in a duel with Dr. John Hale, in August
1771. His successor was George Roupell, who held office until displaced
by the Revolution (G.P.O., _Orders of the Board_, 1737-1770, II.
211_b_).
[64] G.P.O., _Instructions_, pp. 16-21.
[65] G.P.O., _Treasury_, June 6, 1768.