“That no other than a free white person shall be employed
in conveying the mail, and any contractor who shall employ
or permit any other than a free white person to convey the
mail shall for every such offence incur a penalty of twenty
dollars.”[208]
This passed the Senate March 1, 1825, and the House March 2,
without a division. The first suggestion of this measure was
as early as 1802, by Gideon Granger, Postmaster-General, in a
communication addressed to Hon. James Jackson, Senator from
Georgia, which, it will be seen, was private in character.
“GENERAL POST-OFFICE, March 23, 1802.
“SIR,--An objection exists against employing negroes, or
people of color, in transporting the public mails, of a
nature too delicate to ingraft into a report which may
become public, yet too important to be omitted or passed
over without full consideration. I therefore take the
liberty of making to the Committee, through you, a private
representation on that subject.…
“Everything which tends to increase their knowledge of
natural rights, of men and things, or that affords them an
opportunity of associating, acquiring, and communicating
sentiments, and of establishing a chain or line of
intelligence, must increase your hazard, because it
increases their means of effecting their object.
“The most active and intelligent are employed as
post-riders. These are the most ready to learn and the
most able to execute. By travelling from day to day, and
hourly mixing with people, they must, they will, acquire
information. _They will learn that a man’s rights do not
depend on his color. They will in time become teachers to
their brethren._ They become acquainted with each other
on the line. Whenever the body, or a portion of them,
wish to act, they are an organized corps, circulating our
intelligence openly, their own privately.”[209]
This communication, which Mr. Sumner laid before the Committee,
was the argument on which he relied.
April 11th, the bill was considered in the Senate, on motion of
Mr. Sumner, and passed without amendment or debate: Yeas 24,
Nays 11.
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