S. D. HUBBARD,
_Postmaster General_.
MESSRS. RAMSEY & CARMICK, _New York_.
* * * * *
POST OFFICE DEPARTMENT,
_March 7, 1853_.
SIR: You are hereby authorized to make up and send a mail by the Vera
Cruz and Acapulco line, containing letters or papers expressly directed
to go by that line, when said communication is open, and the contractors
are prepared to carry a mail on the terms of their contract of February
15, 1853. You would do well, perhaps, to advertise to the above effect,
adding that all letters, &c., not marked as above indicated, will be
forwarded by the Panama route.
Respectfully, your obedient servant,
S. D. HUBBARD,
_Postmaster General_.
POSTMASTER, _San Francisco, California_.
[Same to postmasters of New Orleans, San Diego, and Monterey.]
* * * * *
OFFICE OF THE MEXICAN OCEAN MAIL AND INLAND CO.,
_New York, June 15, 1853_.
MY DEAR SIR: The position that our company sustains to the government,
(as the real parties by contract,) to execute the mail contracts
with Messrs. Ramsey & Carmick, renders it proper that the Post Office
Department should be advised of the state of forwardness on the part of
the contractors to fulfil the contracts.
Our vice president, Colonel Albert C. Ramsey, is now in Mexico assigning
the stations. In all this month and next month, the coaches, wagons, and
literas will be in Mexico—portions of them being on their way now. By
August 10 the mules and horses (1,000) will be down from Coahuila, and we
then expect to make the regular transit across.
Although the contracts only require a bi-monthly mail, we are making all
our arrangements for a _daily line_ of transit across Mexico, feeling
justified by the assurances we have from Mexico. We shall also establish
a weekly line of steamers from New Orleans to Vera Cruz, (one steamer is
now running there, and another now building;) and with the use of the new
_envelopes_,(when they appear,) we shall actually afford a weekly line
from New Orleans to San Francisco; and if the steamers on the Pacific
could be arranged, we could make a daily line to San Francisco in sixteen
days. Our land route will be daily, in any case, on account of our
Mexican facilities.
We have purchased and ordered the whole of the rolling stock for the
transit, and parties are now in Mexico clearing obstructions, and we
shall not, I think, require the full time allowed by the contract for the
transit, although trial only will verify our expectations.
We already have a margin in our favor in the gulf service, as our
steamer, the “Texas,” has performed the duty in sixty hours; and the
Pacific service has been done in twenty-four and thirty hours less
than schedule time. Our recent reports from Mexico justify us in the
expectation of carrying the mails in fourteen days from New Orleans to
San Francisco, and six months of experimental operation will, I think,
show the feasibility of doing the regular service in within fifteen days.
In conclusion, I would add that we are exerting every energy in pushing
the thing up, and shall spare neither time nor money in proving the
truthfulness of all our positions.
An estafette mail will be carried from Vera Cruz and New Orleans to San
Francisco next month, until the service becomes regular.