Postmasters.
Having brought the postal history of the colonies up to the time Richard
Bache succeeded Benjamin Franklin (November, 1776), and whose dismissal
gave the latter some grounds of complaint, if not censure, against the
appointment of Ebenezer Hazard, who had the office under President
Washington, we will carry out the object of these tables, by continuing
the list of postmaster-generals from that period.
SAMUEL OSGOOD.—This gentleman was born at Andover, Massachusetts,
February 14, 1748; graduated at Harvard College in 1770; a member of the
Massachusetts Legislature, and also of the board of war, and
subsequently an aid to General Ward; in 1779, a member of the
Massachusetts Constitutional Convention; in 1781, appointed a member of
Congress; in 1785, first commissioner of the treasury; and September 26,
1789, postmaster-general. He was afterwards naval officer of the port of
New York, and died in that city, August 12, 1813.
Early in the first session of the Second Congress two important subjects
of a national character received the attention of the representatives of
the people: one was establishing a national mint, and the other the
organization of the postal system.
The establishing of a mint, however, was delayed, and no special action
was taken in that direction until 1790, when Mr. Jefferson, then
Secretary of State, urged the matter upon the attention of Congress. In
1792, April 2, laws were enacted for the establishment of a mint. It
did not, however, go into full operation until 1795.
The first mint was located in Philadelphia, and remained the sole issuer
of coin in the United States until 1835, when a branch was established
in each of the States of Georgia, North Carolina, and Louisiana,—in
Charlotte, Dahlonega, and New Orleans. These three branches went into
operation in the years 1837-38.
A bill for the organization of a post-office system was passed in 1792,
simultaneously with that for establishing the mint.
Very soon after the commencement of the first session of Congress a
letter was received from Ebenezer Hazard (July 17, 1789), then
postmaster-general under the old Confederation, suggesting the
importance of some new regulations for that department. A bill for the
temporary establishing of a post-office was passed soon afterwards. The
subject was brought up from time to time, until the present system was
organized in 1792. The postmaster-general was not made a Cabinet-officer
until the first year (1829) of President Jackson’s administration.
TIMOTHY PICKERING.—Born at Salem, Massachusetts, July 17, 1746;
graduated in 1763; was colonel of a regiment of militia at the age of
nineteen, and marched for the seat of war at the first news of the
battle of Lexington; in 1775, was appointed judge of two local courts;
in the fall of 1776, marched to New Jersey with his regiment; in 1777,
appointed adjutant-general, and subsequently a member of the board of
war with Gates and Mifflin; in 1780 he succeeded Greene as
quartermaster-general; in 1790 he was employed in negotiations with the
Indians; August 12, 1791, he was appointed postmaster-general; in 1794,
Secretary of War, and in 1795, Secretary of State; from 1803 to 1811 he
was senator, and from 1814 to 1817 representative in Congress; died at
Salem, June 29, 1829.
JOSEPH HABERSHAM.—Born in 1750; a lieutenant-colonel during the
Revolutionary War, and in 1785 a member of Congress; appointed
postmaster-general, February 25, 1795; he was afterwards president of
the United States Branch Bank in Savannah, Georgia; died at that place,
November, 1815.
GIDEON GRANGER.—Born at Suffield, Connecticut, July 19, 1767; graduated
at Yale College in 1787, and the following year admitted to the bar; in
1793, elected to the Connecticut Legislature; November 28, 1801,
appointed postmaster-general; retired in 1814, and removed to
Canandaigua, New York; April, 1819, elected a member of the Senate of
that State, but resigned in 1821 on account of ill health. During his
service in that body he donated one thousand acres of land to aid the
construction of the Erie Canal. Died at Canandaigua, December 31, 1822.
RETURN JONATHAN MEIGS.—Born at Middletown, Connecticut, in 1765;
graduated at Yale College in 1785, and subsequently admitted to the bar;
in 1788, emigrated to Marietta, Ohio, then the Northwestern Territory;
in 1790, during the Indian wars, he was sent by Governor St. Clair on a
perilous mission through the wilderness to the British commandant at
Detroit; in the winter of 1802-03 he was elected by the legislature the
first chief justice of the Supreme Court of the new State; in October,
1804, he was appointed colonel commanding the United States forces in
the upper district of the Territory of Louisiana, and resigned his
judgeship; in the following year he was appointed one of the United
States judges for Louisiana; April 2, 1807, he was transferred to the
Territory of Michigan; in October following he resigned his judgeship,
and was elected Governor of the State of Ohio, but his election was
successfully contested on the ground of non-residence. He was chosen at
the same session as one of the judges of the Supreme Court of the State,
and at the next session as United States Senator for a vacancy of one
year, and also for a full term. In 1810 he was again elected Governor of
Ohio, and on the 8th of December resigned his seat in the Senate; in
1812 he was re-elected Governor; on the 17th of March, 1814, he was
appointed postmaster-general, which he resigned in June, 1823. Died at
Marietta, March 29, 1825.
JOHN MCLEAN.—Born in Morris county, New Jersey, March 11, 1785. His
father subsequently removed to Ohio, of which State the son continued a
resident. He labored on the farm until sixteen years of age, when he
applied himself to study, and two years afterwards removed to
Cincinnati, and supported himself by copying in the county clerk’s
office while he studied law. In 1807 he was admitted to the bar; in 1812
he was elected to Congress, and re-elected in 1814; in 1816 he was
unanimously elected by the legislature a judge of the Supreme Court of
that State; in 1822 he was appointed by President Monroe commissioner of
the General Land-Office, and on the 26th of June, 1823,
postmaster-general; in 1829 he was appointed as one of the justices of
the Supreme Court of the United States.
WILLIAM T. BARRY.—Born in Fairfax county, Virginia, March 18, 1780;
graduated at the College of William and Mary. He was admitted to the
bar, and in early life emigrated to Kentucky. In 1828 he was a candidate
for Governor of that State, and defeated by a small majority after one
of the most memorable contests in its annals; appointed
postmaster-general March 9, 1829; in 1835, appointed minister
plenipotentiary to Spain, and died at Liverpool, England, on his way to
Madrid.
Mr. Barry was the first postmaster-general who had the honor of being
one of the Cabinet. Whether such a movement has benefited the postal
department or not can only be ascertained by a reference to its records.
As these present more the appearance of political names, figures,
changes, removals, and a confusion of all the elements which make up a
party, it is doubtful if the public mind is prepared to view the postal
department in any other light than that of one of the revolving
political luminaries of the country. A reference, however, to some
statistics furnished in this work, and an occasional reference to its
not being a self-sustaining institution, may probably throw some light
upon the subject.
We have avoided, through motives of nationality rather than of choice,
any direct allusion to frauds in the postal department. “When Judge
McLean left the department it was,” said his friends, “in a thriving
condition.” Such was not the case. From “The Aurora,” edited by the late
William Duane, bearing date January 10, 1835, we take the following
statement:—
“It would be a hopeless task to seek the _qualities_, _actions_,
_evidence of fitness_, or _principles_ of Mr. McLean. We know he was a
member of Congress: can any one _discover_ any thing which he did there?
He was appointed postmaster-general to cover the _retreat_ of R. J.
Meigs, who should have been removed three years before.
“And what did he do in the general post-office? Why, the men who had
practised the most enormous abuses, which had been proved by _blanching
evidence_ before Congress, he retained in the prosecution of their
_former business_.
“The reproach is no doubt to be shared with Congress, which, on the
occasion of the investigation of the sale of post-office drafts,
suffered the inquiry to be stifled after attempts had been made, without
success, on some poor men to suppress the truth, and who were discharged
for their fidelity, whilst others were retained whose memories, like the
memorable Italian delator, was _non mi ricordo_!
“Mr. McLean entered the general post-office when it was whelmed in
abuses and in debt. Accounts in that office had not been brought up, or
cash accounts balanced, for several years; and, in fact, no true
_account_ of the affairs of the post-office department at that period
had ever appeared.
“Mr. McLean was a mere walking-stick for the _directors_ of his
predecessor. He made some efforts to bring up the business, and some
laws were passed to oblige accountability; but he left the general
post-office as he found it, deep in debt,—saddling his successor with
the burden, and leaving the system in such disorder as to render it
necessary for Mr. Barry to organize the department wholly anew, were it
only to extricate it from the hands of those men who had thrown it all
into confusion.”[38]
Mr. Barry, in his address to the people, speaking of the department as
it came from the hands of Mr. McLean to him, says,—
“The late postmaster-general, in his report dated November 17, 1828,
shows that, instead of saving $500,000, the expenses of his department
from the 1st of July, 1827, to the 1st of July, 1828, were upwards of
$25,000 more than all its revenues for the same period, and that he had
entered into contracts to take effect from the 1st of January, 1829,
which involved the department in an expense, for the period of only six
months from the 1st of January to the 1st of July, 1829, of $40,778.55
more than all its revenue for the same time; and that the expenses of
the department for the year commencing the 1st of July, 1828, were
$74,714.15 more than its revenues, and that the excess of expenditure,
together with the losses sustained, had diminished the finances of the
department within one year to the amount of $101,266.03. In this state
of things I had no agency. It was produced before I came into office.”
AMOS KENDALL.—Born at Dunstable, Massachusetts, August 16, 1789;
graduated at Dartmouth College in 1811; about the year 1812, removed to
Kentucky, and in 1815 was appointed postmaster at Georgetown in that
State; in 1816 he assumed the editorial charge of the “Argus,” published
at Frankfort, in the same State, which he continued until 1829, being
most of the time State printer; in 1829 he was appointed fourth auditor
of the United States Treasury; and May 1, 1835, postmaster-general. He
resigned the latter office in 1840, and has, since the introduction of
the electric telegraph, been mainly employed in connection with
enterprises for its operation. He is yet living.