AMERICAN POSTS
1692-1707
American progress has long been the wonder of the world, and in nothing
perhaps has it displayed itself more remarkably than in the matter of
the posts. The figures which the United States Post Office presents to
us year after year--figures as compared with which even those of the
Post Office of Great Britain fall into insignificance--make it difficult
to believe that only two hundred years ago an enterprising Englishman
was struggling to erect a post between New York and Boston.
An Order in Council dated the 22nd of July 1688, after prescribing the
rates of postage to be charged not only between England and the island
of Jamaica, but within the island itself, ended with these words: "And
His Majesty is also pleased to order that letter offices be settled in
such other of His Majesty's plantations in America as shall by the said
Earle of Rochester be found convenient for His Majesty's service, and
the ease and benefitt of his subjects, according to the method and rates
herein settled for His Majesty's island of Jamaica."
Nearly four years later, namely, in February 1692, Thomas Neale obtained
a grant from the Crown authorising him to set up posts in North America.
The grant was secured by letters patent, which were to hold good for
twenty-one years. Neale, who appears never to have set foot out of
England, appointed as his representative in America Andrew Hamilton; or
rather, as the patent required, Neale nominated and the
postmasters-general appointed him. The patent also required that at the
expiration of three years Neale should render an account showing his
receipts and expenditure; but it was not until the year 1698 that this
condition was fulfilled, and in the same year Hamilton came to England
to report progress.
By this time a post, to run once a week, had been established along
seven hundred miles of road, from Boston to New York, and from New York
to Newcastle in Pennsylvania. What the postage rates were we do not
know, except indeed that the charge on a letter between New York and
Boston was 1s. On other points the account which Hamilton furnished on
Neale's behalf gives full information. A salary of L20 a year is paid to
"Mr. Sharpus that keeps the letter office at New York." Mr. Sharpus also
receives two allowances, one of L110 a year "for carrying the mail
half-way to Boston," and another of L60 "for carrying the mail from New
York to Philadelphia." Of the former allowance, Hamilton states that
after the 4th of November 1696 he "retrenched" it from L110 to L90.
There is also a salary of L10 "allowed to him that keeps the letter
office at Philadelphia"; and "an allowance of L100 sterling per annum
given by Mr. Neale himself to Peter Hayman, deputy-postmaster of
Virginia and Maryland." Hamilton's own salary was L200, and his
travelling expenses are thus stated in his account:--
To my expense of a journey from New York to Road
Island, Boston, and eastward of it and back again,
when I settled the Post Office there L50 0 0
To my expense of a journey from New York to Maryland
and Virginia and back again to settle the
office there 50 0 0
To several other journeys and incident charges relating
to the Post Office 16 18 0
In America as in England, from the first erection of the posts, the
correspondence went on steadily increasing year after year. Thus, in the
first year beginning the 1st of May 1693 the "New York Post" produced
L61; in the second, L82; in the third, L93; and in the fourth year,
ending the 1st of May 1697, it produced L122. The same progress is to be
seen in what were called the "Boston, Road Island, Connecticut and
Piscataway Posts." In the first two years beginning also in May 1693
these produced L296 or at the rate of L148 a year; in the third year
they produced L227; and in the fourth, L298. The returns of the
Philadelphia post also kept improving; but here Hamilton encountered
difficulties of management, as will be seen by his own entries:--
By the produce of the Philadelphia post from the 22nd
of August 1693 to the 23rd of April 1694, at
which time I was forced to change the Postmaster L10 9 6
By the produce of the same post from the 23rd of April
1694 to the 13th of February 1697, at which time
I was forced to change the Postmaster again 105 3 7
The Virginia and Maryland posts were the single exception. Of these
Hamilton records "The Virginia and Maryland posts never yielded
anything, but cost Mr. Neale near L600." However much these posts might
be improved, he dared not reckon upon the correspondence exceeding one
hundred letters a year.
There is only one more entry which we will quote from Hamilton's
account. It is this:--
By cash which the Postmaster of New York gathered
up upon the road in Connecticut for letters L6 16 0
Promising as the prospect was on the whole, Neale's receipts from the
posts fell far short of his expenses in erecting and maintaining them.
His expenses up to May 1697 were L3817, and his receipts L1457, leaving
him not only out of pocket to the amount of L2360, but with his means
and his credit exhausted. It was admitted on all hands that the posts
must before long become self-supporting, even if they should not prove
remunerative. But meanwhile how were they to be carried on? Hamilton had
his own plan to propose. This was first that within America the postage
rates should be raised, and "that the post and his horse should go
fferry-free"; and second, that between England and America rates should
be settled, and that shipmasters should be required on the other as on
this side of the Atlantic to take their letters at once to the Post
Office of the port at which they first touched, and hand them to the
postmaster, receiving as remuneration one penny a letter.
For inland letters the increased rates which Hamilton proposed were as
follows, all but the first two entries being in his own words:--
Pence.
Where the distance from New York does not exceed 80 miles 6
Where it exceeds 80, and does not exceed 150 miles 9
To and from Boston and New York, 300 miles 12
To and from Boston and Jersey, 370 miles 18
To and from Boston and Philadelphia, 390 miles 20
To and from Boston and Annapolis in Maryland, 550 miles 36
To and from Boston and James Towne in Virginia, 680 miles 42
To and from New York and Annapolis, 250 miles 24
To and from New York and James Towne, 380 miles, and many
broad and dangerous bays and rivers to be ferryed over 30
It may surprise our readers to learn that between England and America
there actually existed, 200 years ago, what now is little more than the
dream of the postal reformer,--an ocean penny postage. Yet such is the
fact. In 1698 it was the custom of the masters of ships bound for
America to hang up bags in coffee-houses, and any letters that might be
dropped into these bags they carried, and were glad to carry, over for
one penny or twopence a letter, according as it was a single or a double
one. This custom, as Hamilton pointed out, was liable to abuse. In the
first place, any one who had put a letter into a coffee-house bag might,
under pretence of wanting his own letter back, possess himself of the
letter of somebody else. And secondly, on arrival in America, the
shipmasters being under no obligation to make a prompt delivery, were
apt to deliver the letters, not when they reached a port, but when they
were on the point of leaving it, and after they had disposed of their
lading. All this would be remedied if rates of postage were settled
between England and America. The letters would then be in the custody of
the Post Office until delivered to the shipmaster, and the shipmaster
would be bound to restore them to the same custody as soon as he
arrived at his destination.
But Hamilton's main argument in favour of establishing sea-rates of
postage was the impossibility of things remaining as they were. Neale
was without resources, and the posts were not self-supporting. Unless,
therefore, some means should be devised for increasing the receipts, the
posts must be given up. Let sea-rates be imposed, and the receipts would
be increased at once, for all letters from Europe, which on arrival in
America were now being delivered by private hand, would then fall into
the post, and be forced to pay American postage. It was true that
between the mother country and her colonies a packet service did not
exist, and that to impose a charge where no service was rendered in
return would be contrary to Post Office usage; but the object to be
gained was too important to allow this consideration to prevail. Such
were the arguments by which Hamilton supported his proposal that on
letters between England and America postage should be charged--of 6d.
for a single letter, 1s. for a double letter, and 1s. 6d. for "a
packet."
There were one or two points on which Cotton and Frankland did not agree
with Hamilton. Experience had taught them, as they stated on another
occasion, that the way to improve the Post Office revenue was to "make
the intercourse of letters easy to people." So now, in their
representation to the Treasury, they condemned the inland rates which
Hamilton proposed as altogether too high. They had been long enough at
the Post Office, they said, to know that "the easy and cheap
corresponding doth encourage people to write letters, and that this
revenue was but little in proportion to what it is now till the postage
of letters was reduced from 6d.[33] to 3d."
[33] This is an allusion to the period antecedent to 1657.
Hamilton had contemplated the passing of a fresh Act of Parliament in
order to impose sea-rates and to oblige shipmasters to give up their
letters as soon as they reached port. Cotton and Frankland were not
satisfied that a fresh Act of Parliament was necessary; nor did they
express any opinion as to the particular rates which should be imposed.
They recommended, however, the appointment of an officer whose duty it
should be "to take care of" all letters for America, and to put them
into a special bag to be sealed with the office seal. Public notice
should at the same time be given prohibiting the collection of such
letters by other persons. To the shipmaster to whom the bag might be
delivered the inducement to take it without delay to the Post Office of
the port at which he should first arrive would be that he would there
receive one penny for each letter the bag might contain. Hitherto, under
the coffee-house arrangement, the penny had been paid in England; for
the future, it would be paid in America. In other words, the shipmaster,
instead of receiving his recompense in advance, would receive it after
his work was done and only provided it was done properly.
On one point the postmasters-general held a decided opinion. Towards the
support of the posts the Government of New York had made an annual
contribution of L50, in consideration of which the Government letters
appear to have been carried free; but otherwise Neale's undertaking had
not received from the authorities that countenance and support which, in
Cotton and Frankland's opinion, were essential to its success. They
expressed themselves convinced that, for want of due encouragement, the
posts would never prosper in private hands, and recommended that they
should be transferred to the Crown.
Whether any, and if so, what action was taken upon the
postmaster-general's representation we do not know. There is some reason
to think that between England and America sea-rates of postage were
settled, as had been done a few years before in the case of Jamaica; but
we possess no certain information on the point. All we know is that,
upon Neale being informed of the postmaster-general's opinion that the
inland posts should be transferred to the Crown, he immediately offered
to surrender his patent, and that the offer was not accepted. The
payment he demanded was either a capital sum of L5000 or else L1000 a
year for life or for the unexpired term of his grant.
Hamilton returned to America. The next we hear of him is in 1700. Neale
was then dead, having shortly before his death assigned his interest in
the posts as security for his debts. To Hamilton he owed L1100, and to
an Englishman of the name of West he owed for money advanced L200; and
into the hands of these two persons, in default of any one willing to
act as Neale's executor or administrator, the posts now came. In April
1703 Hamilton also died; and for three or four years his widow carried
on the posts at her own charge.
In 1706 Mrs. Hamilton and West urged that their patent, which had seven
and a half years yet to run, might be enlarged for a further term of
twenty-one years, and that they might have permission to set up packet
boats between England and America. To this Cotton and Frankland were
opposed, being still of opinion that the posts should not remain in
private hands; and they recommended, as a more politic measure, that the
patent should be purchased for L1664, a sum which the patentees had
expressed themselves willing to accept. Whether this was the sum
actually given we know not; but in the following year the patent was
surrendered and the posts of America became vested in the Crown.
In connection with the transfer John Hamilton, Andrew's son, was
appointed to his father's place of deputy postmaster-general, and this
appointment he retained until 1722, when he resigned. It was then and
not until then that the posts became self-supporting. "We have now,"
write the postmasters-general on the 10th of August in that year, "put
the Post Office in North America and the West Indies upon such a foot
that for the future, if it produce no profit to the revenue, it will no
longer be a charge to it, but we have good reason to hope there will be
some return rather from thence."
Such, hardly 200 years ago, were the humble beginnings of a Post Office
with which, in the magnitude and diversity of its operations, no other
in the world can now compare.