James Page, reappointed July 9, 1836.
John C. Montgomery, appointed March 23, 1841.
James Hoy, Jr., appointed June 26, 1844.
George F. Lehman, appointed May 5, 1845.
William J. P. White, appointed May 9, 1849.
John Miller, appointed April 1, 1853.
Gideon F. Westcott, appointed March 19, 1857.
Nathaniel B. Browne, appointed May 30, 1859.
Cornelius A. Walborn, appointed April 20, 1861.
The past history of our city shows that the post-office was but a minor
consideration on the part of the historian who attempted to speak of its
institutions. Even those whose business it was to furnish statistics and
local facts invariably overlooked the post-office. A glance back through
the vista of time presents to the eye a panoramic view of the buildings
which were used for postal purposes; and a more motley architectural
picture scarcely ever presented itself to sight. From the time Benjamin
Franklin had his office in a portion of his printing-shop to the
present, we cannot find the department ever blessed with even a decent
building for postal purposes until the one now occupied for that special
service was erected.
True, the Old Coffee-House on Second Street was the centre of trade, and
merchants often met there to discuss commercial matters and secure their
foreign papers and letters: still, it was not calculated for the general
business of the postal service. From 1793, passing along from street to
street, we at last come to Dr. Jayne’s gloomy building, where, amid the
sound of steam-engines, the fumes from eating-houses, and the _dead-rat_
smell from lager-beer saloons, we find the operations of the great
postal business of the city moving on. The very atmosphere was as
injurious to the health of the employees as its dark and dingy
appearance was painful to those who visited it.
Emerging from this, we come into a new and beautiful building, erected
on Chestnut Street below Fifth. For this edifice, so conveniently
situated, so light and airy, so admirably adapted to postal business,
the community is solely indebted to Postmaster CORNELIUS A. WALBORN,
Esq.
_A GLANCE AT THE PHILADELPHIA POST-OFFICE FROM AN ARCHITECTURAL POINT OF
VIEW._
The Philadelphia post-office was completed and ready for the transaction
of business on the 23d of March, 1863. It is situated on Chestnut
Street, between Fourth and Fifth Streets, adjoining the custom-house.
The contrast between these two buildings is most remarkable: one
presents the view we have in classic illustrations of the Parthenon of
Athens; the other, disdaining all the associations which the history of
Greece and Rome throws around our ideas of classic architectural beauty,
looms up before us, blending the style of the rural districts of France
(_Alaon_) with that of the city of Paris in the seventeenth century.
The Exchange of Paris (_La Bourse_), in the Rue Vivienne, seems, at
least in part, to have furnished for our post-office the idea for its
architectural construction. This is more observable in its Attic design,
known in the modern French school as the “masked Attic.” The front of
the Philadelphia post-office is cased or veneered with white marble,
and, in connection with the peculiar Attic style, presents an appearance
by no means flattering to the architect who designed it.
Modern architects consult variety rather than harmony in drawing their
plans. Thus, foreign ornaments of a more classic form are occasionally
mingled with them: hence we have presented to us an incongruous style,
offensive alike to good taste and judgment.
The Philadelphia post-office reminds us very much of the Paris
post-office (_Hotel des Postes_), which is situated east of the Palais
Royal: it has a handsome front, but in its _tout ensemble_ does not
present to view much architectural beauty either in style or design.
France, like England, never considered the architecture of a country as
being inseparable from its history: hence her public buildings present
to view the combined peculiarities of the styles and eras of the sixteen
different orders which have marked the progress of architecture since
the building of the great temple of Samos.
In this country, with few exceptions, we have not studied architecture
with an eye to a national feature: on the contrary, our artists have
copied the styles of all nations, from which designs are made to please
the eye only, without regard to originality or the age in which we live.
This cannot be called an architectural construction, but rather an
adaptation of Grecian models to the buildings of our own time. _There is
no originality here._
A building may be well arranged for all purposes of mere convenience,
but in reality, if destitute of harmony in its outward appearance, it
cannot be called an architectural construction. This remark will apply
to the buildings in our country generally, and equally, as stated, to
those of England and France.
If the Philadelphia post-office is devoid of these requisites as regards
its exterior, its interior makes full amends.
Every department is so constructed and arranged that there is no
clashing or cause of impediment in the general routine of its business.
Each man has his position, each _bureau_ its place, and over all the
chief clerk, from an elevated position, has an eye to every action and
movement of the employees. To Cornelius A. Walborn, Esq., the present
efficient postmaster [1866], is the department indebted for the
admirable arrangements of the Philadelphia post-office.
In speaking of the outward appearance of “our post-office,” we may be
singular in our ideas of what constitutes architectural beauty, and
others may appreciate what we censure. It is not, however, altogether a
matter of taste with us, but a sense of what constitutes harmony. In
every thing that owes its existence to nature alone, there is harmony.
It is, in fact, the music of the spheres joining chorus with the growth
of plants and flowers, which the ancients believed came blooming into
life with music; or, as the poet says, it may be “the language of some
other state, born of its memory.” Thus, in all things imitative of
nature there should be harmony. Why not in art?
Perhaps there is no other block of buildings in this city that presents
a greater variety of architectural incongruities than does that wherein
stands the Philadelphia post-office. It may be called a picturesque view
of brick, marble, and mortar thrown together without regard to order,
style, or _harmony_.
Let the classic reader cast his eyes over the topographical view of
Olympia as seen from the walls of Altis, glancing down through the
“Sacred Grove” and along the Alpheus River: you will see even at that
period, 440 B.C., how strictly the ancients adhered to harmony. The
Temple of Jupiter and the Prytaneum or Senate-house, although widely
different in their architectural designing, bore nevertheless a
remarkable similarity in style, so as to preserve what might be termed
classic harmony. Near to the Mount of Saturn stood the Temple of Juno.
In the Temple of Vesta, the Theatre, the Hypodrammon, even to the
Stables of Œnomaus and the Workshop of Phidias, the same harmonic
traits in style and design were observable. Every thing was classic,
every thing artistic.
How is this feature observed with us? Speaking of the block alluded to
above, embracing the custom-house, the post-office, the Philadelphia
Bank, the Farmers’ and Mechanics’ Bank, &c., perhaps the following scene
from R. B. Sheridan’s “School for Scandal” will give a better
description of the style of architecture characterizing each than any
thing we could furnish.
The several characters are describing the personal appearance of a
lady:—
“_Crabtree._—She has the oddest countenance, a collection of
features from all corners of the globe.
“_Sir Benjamin._—She has, indeed, an Irish front.
“_Crabtree._—Caledonian locks.
“_Sir Benjamin._—Dutch nose.
“_Crabtree._—Austrian lips.
“_Sir Benjamin._—The complexion of a Spaniard.
“_Crabtree._—And teeth _à la Chinoise_.
“_Sir Benjamin._—In short, her face resembles a table d’hôte
at Spa, where no two guests are of a nation.”
_OUTSIDE AND INSIDE VIEW OF THE PHILADELPHIA POST-OFFICE._
The outside of a post-office before the opening of its doors reminds one
of a vast sleeping city, cold and calm, though containing within itself
all the elements that make up a living, sleepless world. As the stars
shine down on the earth and move on in their spheres, so feeble lights
gleam up from the post-office windows to denote that “watchers” of the
night are there, and thus, like the machinery of the great world, move
on the wheels of this epitomized one.
Dull and heavy glide on the hours of night; silence like that of the
prairie rests for a while on and around the city, save the howl of some
watchful dog and the far-off sound of a tinkling bell. A city at night,
wrapped in the curtains darkness throws around it, is like a vast
sepulchre, and visited alike with ghosts from the _spirit_-world.
Presently the dark panorama begins to move: there is an uprising of a
long stream of light in the eastern sky; a vast and mysterious
movement, as impulsive and as sudden as that of light, agitates the
city; sounds quick and incessant come upon the ear,—rattling of wheels,
ringing of bells: the world and its inhabitants are awake. The night
dream is over; reality assumes its power once again. Moving on, men,
women, and children take their respective ways to business or pleasure,
for this world is made up of both. There you see the mechanic, there the
merchant looking for the “early worm,” there the newsboy hurrying to his
morning traffic in literature, himself its evil genius, there the
housebreaker moving quietly away from the scene of his villany, and
there the man of pleasure staggering to his wretched home. There is one
point at which, however, many assemble: there, clustered around a
marbled veneered building,—for it is not _all marble_,—you can read in
the looks of the crowd the world’s history, and alike the name of the
building: it is the PHILADELPHIA POST-OFFICE. The sun that awoke
millions from their sleep now shines down and sheds its light around
this “mimic world:” it awakes; its night slumber is over; the hour has
arrived—action, action. The doors open—the crowd rush in. Ah! what is
life?—one scene of struggle and strife, and for what? That’s the
question.
“Quid sit futurum eras fuge quærere”
is not a bad idea of the poet Horace: its literal meaning is, “Avoid all
inquiry with respect to what may happen to-morrow.” We should not look
so anxiously into the future as to preclude all present enjoyment.
Action, action is the motto of our land. This the effect of a
cause,—that cause the Revolution. It changed alike men and the opinion
of nations upon the subject of sovereignty. Mental, physical, political,
speculative, and financial revolutions are all the results of one great
cause,—a cause bearing date 1776. Here we are; here in the post-office,
one of the branches of the General Government. This is the little world
of letters, this the index to the inner history of man. It is a book of
thoughts.
THE DEPOSIT-WINDOWS.—These are surrounded by a motley crew; letters are
dropped in hastily, some carefully by those who write in doubt and seem
to hesitate the sending until the last moment. Why? Ah! reader, there is
a mystery in all things: here mystery becomes secrecy. There you see an
old lady carefully depositing a letter: she glances down the opening,
takes one last look, and, sighing, silently moves away. What are the
contents of that letter? It is her secret.
Pass on to the newspaper—not window; for newspapers are a wholesale
article: singly they are mere letters; in bulk they are _legion_. You
must go to a door, and there you will see bags piled Olympus high: these
are opened and distributed into their respective pouches to go to all
parts of the habitable world; for newspapers now are, like letters, “the
world’s correspondents.” The inside of the office is now wide awake, the
world outside is in arms and “eager for the fray.” Millions of letters
go and come, millions of hearts are made glad by a mere stroke of the
pen, which passes lightning-like through this postal medium, millions of
hearts are alike made sad, and mourn and sob over the one line that
brings news of sickness and of death.
The post-office in many points of view presents the appearance of a
besieged fort. The chief clerk is at his post: he stands on a platform
somewhat elevated above the line of the main floor; his eye glances
along the line of clerks, some of whom are at the (port-holes)
delivery-windows, awaiting the outward attack. The assault commences,
the windows are assailed. Loud voices are heard, one above the rest
shouts 2400: this is answered by an immediate discharge from within,
which silences battery 2400. These attacks continue along the “box line”
until the demand for surrender on the one side is answered by a furious
discharge of _epistolary_ ammunition on the other. Both parties retire
satisfied with the result. The victory, however, is always on the side
of the post-office: the effect of the fire from their port-holes is felt
when all within its lines are quiet. The wheels of the department
uninjured move on. Let us take a glance through yonder opening. We are
on the outside, looking into the interior of this postal fortress.
Hundreds of active business-men are moving about in their shirt-sleeves,
looking fierce and desperate: they are engaged in a great struggle,—a
_struggle with time_. Some are dragging along the vast extent of
flooring large leather pouches, others huge canvas bags: it seems, as
you gaze, that they are the bodies of the dead and wounded, the result
of the recent attack. Not so; they are mail-bags. See how furiously one
is thrown down: it is seized upon as if a victim to be sacrificed.
“Brass lock,” yells one. “Iron,” screams another. Brass or iron, they
are quickly unlocked, and in an instant their contents are scattered
like chaff, and away they go to the four quarters of the globe as fast
as busy hands, wind, tide, and steam can take them.
No fort—not even Sumter, Darling, or the defences of Vicksburg—ever
presented a more busy scene of life and death than does the post-office
on the opening of mail-bags: it may indeed be compared to “life and
death;” for, as we have said, it is a “struggle with time.”
And yet what to an outsider might seem all chaos, system has reduced to
perfect order; and if the same observer will look once more into the
office after these sudden attacks on mail-pouches and bags, he will see
the parties sitting quietly down, seemingly well contented with the
result of the strife between _time_, _matter_, _and motion_,—the
conquerors they.
Mr. William Lewars, author of “Her Majesty’s Mails,” thus describes the
scenes which daily occur from 5.45 to 6 o’clock in the London
post-office:—
“It is then that an impetuous crowd enters the hall, and letters and
newspapers begin to fall in quite a literary hail-storm. The
newspaper-window, ever yawning for more, is presently surrounded and
besieged by an array of boys of all ages and costumes, together with
children of a larger growth, who are all alike pushing, heaving, and
surging in one great mass. The window with tremendous gape is assaulted
with showers of papers which fly thicker and faster than the driven
snow. Now it is that small boys of eleven and twelve years of age,
panting, Sinbad-like, under the weight of huge bundles of newspapers,
manage somehow to dart about and make rapid _sorties_ into other ranks
of boys, utterly disregarding the cries of the official policemen, who
vainly endeavor to reduce the tumult into something like post-office
order. If the lads cannot quietly and easily disembogue, they will whiz
their missiles of intelligence over other people’s heads, now and then
sweeping off hats and caps with the force of shot. The gathering every
moment increases in number and intensifies in purpose; arms, legs,
sacks, baskets, heads, bundles, and woollen comforters—for who ever saw
a veritable newspaper-boy without that appendage?—seems to be getting
into a state of confusion and disagreeable communism, and ‘yet the cry
is still they come.’ Heaps of papers of widely-opposed political views
are thrown in together; no longer placed carefully in the openings, they
are now sent in in sackfuls and basketfuls, while over the heads of the
surging crowd come flying back the empty sacks thrown out of the office
by the porters inside. Semi-official legends, with a very strong smack
of probability about them, tell of sundry boys being thrown in, seized,
emptied, and thrown out again _void_. As six o’clock approaches still
nearer and nearer, the turmoil increases more perceptibly, for the
intelligent British public is fully alive to the awful truth that the
post-office officials never allow a minute of grace, and that “Newspaper
Fair” must be over when the last stroke of six is heard. _One_, in rush
files of laggard boys who have purposely loitered in the hope of a
little pleasurable excitement; _two_, and grown men hurry in with their
last sacks; _three_, the struggle resembles nothing so much as a
pantomimic _mêlée_; _four_, a Babel of tongues vociferating desperately;
_five_, final and furious showers of papers, sacks, and bags; and _six_,
when all the windows fall like so many swords of Damocles, and the slits
close with such a sudden and simultaneous snap, that we naturally
suppose it to be a part of the post-office operations that attempts
should be made to guillotine a score of hands; and then all is over so
far as the outsiders are concerned.
“Among the letter-boxes, scenes somewhat similar have been enacted.
Letters of every shape and color, and of all weights, have unceasingly
poured in; tidings of life and death, hope and despair, success and
failure, triumph and defeat, joy and sorrow; letters from friends and
notes from lawyers, appeals from children and stern advice from parents,
offers from anxious-hearted young gentlemen and ‘first yeses’ or
refusals from young maidens, letters containing that snug appointment so
long promised you, and ‘little bills’ with requests for immediate
payments, ‘together with six-and-eightpence;’ cream-colored missives
telling of happy consummations, and black-edged envelopes telling of
death and the grave; sober-looking advice notes, doubtless telling when
‘our Mr. Puffwell’ would do himself the honor of calling upon you, and
elegant-looking billets, in which business is never mentioned, all
jostled each other for a short time; but the stream of gladness and of
woe was stopped, at least for one night, when the last stroke of six was
heard. The post-office, like a huge monster,—to which one writer has
likened it,—has swallowed an enormous meal, and, gorged to the full, it
must now commence the process of digestion. While laggard boys, to whom
cartoons by one ‘William Hogarth’ should be shown, are muttering, ‘Too
late,’ and retiring discomfited, we, having obtained the requisite ‘open
sesame,’ will make our way to the interior of the building. Threading
our course through several passages, we soon find ourselves among
enormous apartments well lit up, where hundreds of human beings are
moving about, lifting, shuffling, stamping, and sorting huge piles of
letters, and still more enormous piles of newspapers, in what seems at
first sight hopeless confusion, but in what is really the most admirable
order. In the newspaper-room, men have been engaged not only in emptying
the sacks flung in by strong-armed men and weak-legged boys, but also in
raking up the single papers into large baskets and conveying them up and
down ‘hoists’ into various divisions of the building. Some estimate of
the value of these mechanical appliances, moved, of course, by
steam-power, may be formed from the fact that hundreds of tons of paper
pass up and down these lifts every week. As many of the newspapers
escape from their covers in the excitement of posting, each night two or
three officers are busily engaged during the whole time of despatch in
endeavoring to restore wrappers to newspapers found without any address.
Great as is the care exercised in this respect, it will occasionally
happen that wrong newspapers will find their way into loose wrappers not
belonging to them; and, under the circumstances, it would be by no means
a matter of wonder if—as has been more than once pointed out—Mr. Bright
should, instead of his ‘Morning Star,’ receive a copy of the ‘Saturday
Review,’ or an evangelical curate the ‘Guardian’ or ‘Punch,’ in place of
his ‘Record’ paper.
“In the letter-room the officers are no less busily engaged: a number of
them are constantly at work, during the hours of the despatch, in the
operation of placing each letter with the address and postage-label
uppermost, so as to facilitate the process of stamping. In the general
post-office the stamping is partly effected by machinery and partly by
hand, and consists simply in imprinting upon each letter the date, hour,
and place of posting, while at the same time the queen’s head with which
the letter is ornamented and franked gets disfigured. It will easily be
imagined that a letter containing a box of pills stands a very good
chance of being damaged under this manipulation, as a good stamper will
strike about fifty letters in a minute. Unpaid letters are kept apart,
as they require stamping in a different-colored ink and with the double
postage. Such letters create much extra labor, and are a source of
incessant trouble to the department, inasmuch as from the time of their
posting in London to their delivery at the Land’s End or John O’Groat’s,
every officer through whose hands they may pass has to keep a cash
account of them. The double postage on such letters is more than earned
by the post-office. All unfastened and torn letters, too, are picked out
and conveyed to another portion of the large room; and it requires the
unremitting attention of several busy individuals to finish the work
left undone by the British public. It is scarcely credible that above
two hundred and fifty letters are daily posted _open_, and bearing not
the slightest mark of ever having been fastened in any way; but such is
the fact. A fruitful source of extra work to this branch of the office
arises through the posting of flimsy boxes containing feathers,
slippers, and other _récherché_ articles of female dress, pillboxes
containing jewelry, and even bottles. The latter, however, are detained,
glass articles and sharp instruments of any sort, whenever detected,
being returned to the senders. These frail things, thrown in and buried
under the heaps of correspondence, get crushed and broken: yet all are
made up again carefully and resealed.
“When the letters have been stamped, and those insufficiently paid
picked out, they are carried away to undergo the process of sorting. In
this operation they are very rapidly divided into ‘roads,’ representing
a line of large towns: thus, letters for Derby, Loughborough,
Nottingham, Lincoln, etc., might be placed in companionship with one
division or ‘road,’ and Bilston, Wednesbury, Walsall, West Bromwich,
etc., in another.”
As we have stated, the immense amount of business transacted in the
post-offices of large cities is not unfrequently lost sight of,—business
transactions of a nature that few understand or comprehend, and which
exercise an influence on men and nations equally as powerful as that of
the press.
Few persons are acquainted with the inner arrangements of a post-office.
Let any one glance into it as he passes, and he will be struck with the
vast pile of mail-matter constantly arriving and departing, as well as
the number of hands engaged in their arranging and distributing. Forty
mails arrive and depart in the twenty-four hours,—making over three
hundred pouches, besides canvas bags containing newspapers, &c.: these
are estimated more by bulk than numbers.
Mind, intellect, strength, quickness of action and of thought, are all
required here, _and found_. Without this, confusion worse confounded
would ensue, and the pulsation of this little world would cease to
throb.
A post-office is a little world: it is peopled with the thoughts of men
that go and come, pass and repass, move on afar and away over land and
water to other cities, and return again,—some oppressed, some elated:
“so runs the world away!”
What is the romance of a post-office but its reality? It is a history of
letters. Peep into their contents, and you read a volume far surpassing
the wildest flights of the imagination. And yet they are as a sealed
book to all except those to whom they are directed. Yet you can read it
in the action of the recipients, trace its effects, the moral is there.
Glance at the ladies’ window: see that tall female, upon whose face you
can trace the dark lines of sorrow. Day after day has she called, asking
in a trembling voice for a letter. She had told the clerk a sad story of
an absent son,—told it for the purpose of explaining the cause of her
frequent visits. Did she but know that beneath a blasted tree, scathed
by the lightning flash of a thousand rebel muskets, he lies
buried,—deep, deep down in the cold ground, with hundreds of others,
both friends and foes, who fell there in bloody strife. But when the
startling news did come, her tall form was seen no more at that window.
She was alone in the world! Watch that window: it is an index to a
volume of life. Not alone the broken-hearted and the sorrowing, not
alone the forsaken wife and the expectant maiden, not alone the anxious
mother, but the gay, the frivolous, the abandoned, all flock here; for
all are mixed up in the great struggle of life.
Pass on to the box-window. There you read the history of men in trade
and commerce. There you have a compendium of that wonderful thing known
as and called ‘Change. There you will observe the various and peculiar
characteristics of men as they eagerly clutch their letters and rush
away. Watch their actions, and you will find that a line or two in a
letter convulses the market, and for a while there is a commotion on
’Change. Watch the politician: by his looks you can read the secret of
his heart. If you follow his footsteps and read the name of the
publication-office into which he plunges, the chief editorial next day
tells its contents. Perhaps it will read, “Reliable Intelligence from
Richmond. The Rebel Army well supplied with Ammunition. Probable
Recognition by England, &c.” Or, perhaps, if the publication-office
should be on Fourth or Third Street, it may read, “Glorious News from
Grant’s Army, &c.”
There is another portion of a post-office which adds another page to its
romantic history; and that is the “Carriers’ Department.” Many a sad
tale has the carrier to tell,—many a strange incident connected with his
“constant round.” A glance into this room shows you a number of men
busily engaged in assorting or “blocking” the letters on their route.
These they receive in bulk from the distributor, which are passed to
them from a smaller room through a series of pigeon-holes. And here we
have a most remarkable illustration of what the human mind is capable of
accomplishing. Let us explain. In 1854 the corporate limits of the city
of Philadelphia were made coextensive with those of the county, covering
an area of one hundred and twenty square miles, and placing twenty-one
towns and villages under the guardianship of one Mayor and City
Councils. In nearly all of these there were separate post-offices. The
bringing of all these rural districts under one general postal head was
one of the first suggestions that Mr. C. A. Walborn made to the
department shortly after he became postmaster of this city.
Postmaster-General Blair entered fully into his views upon this subject,
and thus the whole rural district embracing the area named above is
under one general postal head. Mr. Walborn established station-offices,
engaged carriers; and letters are distributed within an area of over one
hundred miles, with as much ease and facility as they were in the
limits of the old city proper.
For the accommodation of persons residing at points remote from the
general post-office, in Chestnut Street, stations have been arranged to
which four mails are sent daily. In the extreme rural sections, three
daily deliveries are considered sufficient by the residents, but four
collections are made of matter for delivery or mailing. These stations
are located as follows:—A, 41 South Eighteenth Street; B, Market Street,
west of Thirty-Seventh, West Philadelphia; C, southeast corner of Broad
and Coates Streets; D, 1206 North Third Street; E, corner Richmond and
William Streets, Port Richmond; F, 90 Main Street, Frankford; G, Main
Street, below Railroad Depot, Germantown; H, Main Street, below Church
Lane, Chestnut Hill; I, Main Street, below Grape, Manayunk; K,
Washington Street, near Fifth.
The carriers deliver letters and papers within the following
bounds:—Delaware River on the east; Montgomery county line on the west;
upper end of Frankford, Chestnut Hill, and Andora on the north; Delaware
county line on the south, including the old districts of Kensington,
Port Richmond, Bridesburg, Frankford, Rising Sun, Nicetown, Germantown,
Mount Airy, Chestnut Hill, Falls of Schuylkill, Manayunk, Leverington,
Andora, Blockley, Haddington, Hestonville, Belmont, and Kingsessing. If
thrown into a square, this would form a territory of about ten by
fifteen miles.
Sixty-three carriers are employed, making four deliveries daily, within
the following boundaries: Delaware River, Schuylkill River, Canal
Street, and York Street. There are thirty-four persons also employed
exclusively in collecting letters from places of deposit within the same
district. They make five collections daily. The rural districts,
including that territory which is contained within the limits of
Delaware county line on the south, Montgomery county line on the west,
Delaware River on the east, and on the north the northern boundary of
Chestnut Hill, Germantown, and Frankford, occupy twenty-four persons,
making at least three trips per day to collect and deliver letters.
There is, therefore, a force of one hundred and twenty-one carriers and
collectors employed.
The number of letters received by mail and delivered by carriers
amounted, last quarter, to 1,134,111. They collected and delivered, in
the same period, 389,233 local or drop letters, making a total delivery
of 1,523,344.[44]
The number of papers received by mail and delivered during this period
was 117,010; the number of local or drop papers was 35,257, giving a
total delivered, 152,267. The number of letters returned from
misdirection, removal, refusal to pay postage, and similar reasons, was
8742. The number of letters for the mail collected from lamp-posts and
other located boxes of deposit was 744,723; and the number of newspapers
similarly obtained, 59,292,—a total of 804,015.
_THE LETTER-CARRYING SYSTEM._
But few persons have any adequate idea of the vast number of letters
which day after day pass through the post-office into the hands of the
carrier, to be delivered at their final destination. The following list
gives the number of letters delivered and collected in the four largest
cities during the month of June, 1865:—
Mail Letters Drop Letters Letters
Delivered. Delivered. Collected.
New York 799,389 253,434 785,990
Philadelphia 492,004 168,330 361,068
Chicago 118,200 9,200 100,591
Cincinnati 84,370 7,714 47,201
——————— ——————— ———————
Total 1,493,963 438,678 1,294,850
During the same period there were collected from pillar or lamp-post
boxes 1,294,850 letters.
The annexed statement gives the number of letters delivered in three
principal cities:—
Boston 284,440
Baltimore 152,230
Chicago 130,819
———————
Total 567,489
Philadelphia 516,836
So, according to this, the amount of business transacted through the
Philadelphia post-office is almost equal to that of Boston, Baltimore,
and Chicago combined. Statistics further show that it is nearly equal to
the combined business of Brooklyn, St. Louis, Washington, Cincinnati,
and Cleveland.
From the little room which we have termed the “distribution-room,”
letters are sent and scattered over the area named above, to the full
amount of 18,000 daily, not including those called “city drops.” The
distributor is to know, _or is supposed to know_, apart from consulting
the directory, the name of every street, lane, and alley, as well as
their locality, so that he can place the letters so directed into their
separate pigeon-holes, both for the city carriers and the “subs.” He has
to observe the limits of certain routes, and see that his letters do not
go astray, thus causing a delay in the delivery of at least twenty-four
hours. Many letters are received without direction, and others, again,
so imperfectly given that it requires the exercise of a little of Job’s
patience, assisted by an imperfect directory, to find out where they
actually belong. The carriers, however, to whom these letters are
submitted, being familiar with the names of persons on their routes,
select from this _débris_ of letters those that they _think_ belong to
the parties to whom they are so carelessly directed. A good carrier
never brings back a letter to the office until he is fully satisfied
that it is not on his route. _Philadelphia can boast of such._
This retentive quality is also powerfully exercised at the box-windows.
There are 2600 boxes, which we may say will average six letters each
daily, thus making an aggregate of 15,600. These letters are selected
from the “pile” by clerks, who actually know not only the names of the
owners of the boxes, but the names of those who are entitled to their
use,—as, for instance, the clerks and porters of the parties engaging
them. This is what we term a wonderful exercise of memory and its
practical application. Newspapers are distributed on the same principle
as are the letters.
The newspaper department of a post-office is one that may well be called
the “reservoir” of the press: here flows all that makes up that vast
institution, here comes the highest standard of our literature, down to
the meanest sheet venality produces. A number of men are constantly
employed in the newspaper room, or, as we term it, “the rotunda of
literature.” This is emphatically the wholesale room; for they deal in
bulk. Papers coming singly, directed to individuals, pass through the
same process as do the letters. The packages directed to neighboring
cities find their way through the “rotunda” in canvas bags to their
respective places of destination. Let us here say one word of
_THE PRESS._
It has identified itself with, and forms one of the main features of,
our great republic. Its very liberty is essential to the nature of a
free state. Its complicity and power claim for it a consideration which
no other department of literature and science, however popular, can
attain. The press of our country is now the medium, if not, in fact, the
very source, of that knowledge of which as a nation we are so justly
proud.
THE WORK OF THE POST-OFFICE is of such a nature, changing its character
with every new incumbent, that it is utterly impossible to reduce it to
a system of permanent order during one term of office. Move, however, it
must, right or wrong: hence it is that some portion of its machinery may
get out of order and thus militate against the probability of reaching
perfection. Perfection! and who seeks perfection in any of the
institutions established by man? Nature alone “is perfect indeed.” It
was so from the beginning, not only in its elements and principles, but
in its members and its organs.
“The post-office,” says a writer in “Fraser’s Magazine” for September 2,
1862, “no longer assumes to be perfect, and its conductors have
renounced their claims to infallibility. Suggested improvements, if they
can sustain the indispensable test of rigid scrutiny, are welcomed, and
not, as of old, frowned away. The department acts under the conviction
that to thrive it must discard the confidence heretofore placed in legal
prohibitions, and seek its continuance of prosperity only by deserving
it.”
The English post-office has far better opportunities of rendering its
system more perfect than it is, from the fact that its clerks are not
discharged on every change made in the heads of the department by the
government. They are fixtures. But in this country no one engaged in a
public office under one administration can calculate being continued
under another.
A clerk in the post-office, being appointed for an especial duty,
troubles himself very little about that of any other. He takes no
interest in the general business or details of the office, from the fact
_that his situation is not a permanent one_: hence it is that few
postmasters are enabled, within four years, to bring the office out of
the chaos into which a previous administration had reduced it, so as to
congratulate himself upon making one step towards perfection. He has to
study the political elements outside first, and by the time these are
reconciled, nearly one-third of his term has expired. In another portion
of this work we have alluded to this political clog placed against the
wheels of the postal department, and retarding, if not materially
impairing, its social, moral, and financial interests.
_LETTER-CARRIERS._
Letter-carriers are a very important class of men,—important, we mean,
in their connection with the postal department. We speak of them here
because their duties are not generally known to the public, nor their
services properly appreciated or rewarded by the department. They are
the “walking posts,” and carry with them daily thousands of dollars,
which rarely are lost on their way to the recipients. The instances are
so few of dishonest carriers that we have often been surprised that the
fact has not been recorded ere this, so as it might be placed in
juxtaposition with those _élite_ rogues in office who are daily robbing
the government of millions. Is it because they are generally faithful?
or is it because the position of a letter-carrier is one that requires
no consideration from the department beyond the annual—rather
limited—stipend for their services? The letter-carriers of our country
represent a political class: they come forth from their respective wards
under, as it were, leading politicians. The postmaster, in fact, has
scarcely a voice in making these appointments. We have no objection to
this system, as it is one peculiarly allied to the institutions of our
country and mode of election; but we do object to good and honest men
being discharged simply from the fact that a few politicians outside of
an office want to get their particular friends in. This can scarcely be
called rotation in office, as it frequently assumes an unjust, if not an
intolerant, exercise of power.
We have alluded to the English post-office as being perhaps the
best-ordered and best-conducted in the world, _for there changes are not
made_.
In England carriers are classified. The lowest class are not so well
paid, receiving only from 18 to 25 shillings per week. They are allowed
by government, however, to receive presents, and their Christmas boxes
and New-Year gifts,—thus realizing a nice little sum of money, as well
as many useful and ornamental articles.[45] If the salary of a
letter-carrier in England is not high, the position is so identified
with the governmental patronage that he becomes a part and portion of
the great institution itself. If he is taken sick, he has medical
attendance and medicine furnished gratis. When unfitted for work, he may
retire upon a pension, for which he has not to pay a farthing; and
during service, if he insure his life for the benefit of his family, the
post-office will assist him to pay the premium: this is done by allowing
him twenty per cent. on all his payments. Every year the letter-carriers
are allowed a fortnight holiday without any deduction from their pay.
Many spare hours each day may be devoted to other pursuits; for, if when
at work at the office his hours of duty exceed eight hours daily, he is
at full liberty to ask for investigation and redress. See p. 205,
Kendall.
The higher grade of carriers are distinguished from the lower by wearing
a livery of the department and at its expense, viz.:—a scarlet coat with
a blue collar, and buttons stamped with an impression of the royal arms.
The carriers of the two-penny post wear the common citizens’ dress.
We have alluded to the general character of the letter-carriers of our
city, and, we may justly and proudly say, of our country, being equal in
point of moral standard, correct deportment, and honesty of purpose, to
any other (public) class of men in the Union. Of this fact the writer
has opportunities of knowing; and when we take into consideration the
extremely low salaries they receive,—scarcely sufficient to support
them,—the fact impresses itself upon us, as it should on the government,
that a “_carrier’s fidelity, diligence, and experience should be
properly rewarded._” We quote here nearly every postmaster-general’s
language, _but as yet the words only stand on the record_!
During the writer’s connection with the department, there were but two
instances of carriers being detected in opening letters and
appropriating their contents to their own use. One of these men died
suddenly while under heavy bonds for his appearance at court to answer
for his crime; the other is now expiating his crime in the Penitentiary.
We have spoken more particularly about carriers and their general good
character; but our remarks will apply to those who occupy positions in
every department, from the chief clerks down to the wounded soldier who
sweeps out the office.[46] It certainly must be a source of satisfaction
to postmasters generally, that peculation, fraud, and robbery in their
departments are of very rare occurrence. Many losses have been charged
to the department, but in nine cases out of ten they have been traced to
parties _who act as carriers between the post-office and merchants’
counting-houses_. These are boys and clerks who are authorized by
merchants to take letters from their boxes, many of which, as we can
prove, never reached their employers, but were opened and the money
extracted. Under the old State laws this was laid down as simply a
breach of trust: it is now made a criminal offence, and subjects the
guilty party to imprisonment. Since the passage of this law there have
been _but few such breaches of trust_.
In another portion of this work we have alluded to the decoy system as
being uncalled for and insulting to the employees. It does seem as if
the public and even postmasters themselves have an idea that _dishonesty
is a national calamity_, and that it becomes a duty with them to suspect
alike all who are in their employ. Suspicion, however, is no proof; and
we are inclined to think that many _open robberies_ of the government
can be traced to the fact that high positions _seem_ to sanction the
deed. The poor wretch who steals a loaf of bread to keep his family from
starving finds no mercy at the hands of the law, while the wholesale
robber, the thief of millions, is simply required to make the amount
stolen good! Where one public official robber is convicted for
appropriating the public funds to his own use, thousands are annually
tried and punished for taking a penny loaf! It is no wonder, therefore,
that suspicion should haunt the guilty mind, and every man in power
judge of others by the example set in high places.
Some years ago, long before the postal system became the mighty engine
of power that it is now, a Philadelphia postmaster, since gathered to
his fathers, openly stated that no man should intrust a clerk in the
post-office (his own office) with the knowledge that a letter posted
contained money!
How different is the English post-office in this respect from ours!
There the employees are considered a part and portion of its national
character, identified with it by all those ties which protection gives
and justice sanctions. The government not only studies the present
interest of all connected with the postal department, but amply provides
for that of the future. (See p. 147.) Their confidence is not easily
shaken; but like Othello, when they doubt, they prove; and on the proof
there is no more but this:—Away at once!
_IMPORTANT POSTAL TABLES._
The following tables, carefully prepared, fully prove that there is no
surer test of the advance of business and commercial enterprise than
that which is learned from the increase of postage. A glance at the
table from 1790 shows a wonderful increase in the short space of eight
or ten years, entirely unexampled in the history of the world; and taken
in connection, as we think it may be, with a similar increase in other
statistics, it sets all previous examples completely aside. The fact is,
the country is ignorant of the history of our postal department, a
knowledge of which would tend materially to strengthen that love of
country which a state of ignorance naturally lessens. The post-office
department should no longer be as a sealed book to the nation.
Statement of Receipts and Expenditures of the Post-Office Department
under Various Heads, and by States, for the Year ending June 30, 1862.
─────────────────────┬────────────┬────────────┬───────────┬──────────────┬──────────────┬──────────────
States and │ Letter │ Newspaper │ Registered│ Stamps │ Total │ Compensation
Territories. │ postage. │ postage. │ letters. │ sold. │ receipts. │ allowed
│ │ │ │ │ │ postmasters.
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
─────────────────────┼────────────┼────────────┼───────────┼──────────────┼──────────────┼──────────────
Maine │ $16,151 48 │ $15,143 32 │ $364 75 │ $174,250 15 │ $205,909 70 │ $87,437 05
New Hampshire │ 5,270 41 │ 10,600 40 │ 245 15 │ 112,674 66 │ 128,790 62 │ 57,605 44
Vermont │ 5,040 02 │ 13,210 71 │ 107 80 │ 111,001 79 │ 129,360 32 │ 62,723 43
Massachusetts │ 53,960 83 │ 26,017 85 │ 938 25 │ 630,945 54 │ 711,862 47 │ 178,302 36
Rhode Island │ 4,597 27 │ 3,138 61 │ 124 00 │ 71,259 82 │ 79,119 70 │ 18,723 46
Connecticut │ 10,360 68 │ 16,560 24 │ 200 55 │ 199,995 04 │ 227,116 51 │ 78,643 49
New York │ 186,079 59 │ 82,877 23 │ 2,462 60 │ 1,543,349 08 │ 1,814,768 50 │ 375,647 15
New Jersey │ 17,902 57 │ 11,681 08 │ 254 10 │ 145,255 42 │ 175,093 17 │ 69,264 81
Pennsylvania │ 70,982 27 │ 41,634 24 │ 2,054 20 │ 770,025 27 │ 884,695 98 │ 248,695 26
Delaware │ 1,782 20 │ 2,265 95 │ 50 95 │ 26,431 57 │ 30,530 67 │ 10,867 93
Maryland │ 19,330 33 │ 9,053 54 │ 412 15 │ 178,566 52 │ 207,362 54 │ 48,059 82
District of Columbia │ 8,113 23 │ 3,295 38 │ 714 85 │ 220,399 83 │ 232,523 29 │ 4,974 33
Virginia │ 8,261 65 │ 3,526 45 │ 301 50 │ 129,284 88 │ 141,374 48 │ 30,212 30
North Carolina │ 86 │ 1 00 │ ... │ 1 17 │ 3 03 │ 1 37
South Carolina │ 693 54 │ 16 68 │ 31 25 │ 8,734 47 │ 9,475 94 │ 1,173 96
Georgia │ ... │ ... │ ... │ ... │ ... │ ...
Florida │ 224 29 │ 238 44 │ 27 10 │ 3,702 27 │ 4,192 10 │ 2,181 17
Alabama │ ... │ ... │ ... │ ... │ ... │ ...
Mississippi │ 768 82 │ 45 39 │ 2 10 │ 2,598 46 │ 3,414 77 │ 571 74
Texas │ 410 41 │ 303 63 │ 3 25 │ 3,774 49 │ 4,491 78 │ 1,568 48
Kentucky │ 10,853 71 │ 10,413 86 │ 225 36 │ 156,383 79 │ 177,876 71 │ 56,134 80
Michigan │ 18,627 77 │ 20,035 00 │ 565 60 │ 198,002 35 │ 237,230 72 │ 96,342 58
Wisconsin │ 20,500 74 │ 21,160 79 │ 706 15 │ 200,304 73 │ 242,672 41 │ 92,140 83
Louisiana │ 413 88 │ 12 50 │ 1 55 │ 1,063 97 │ 1,491 90 │ 164 83
Tennessee │ 346 25 │ 294 67 │ 9 65 │ 13,242 05 │ 13,892 62 │ 1,722 39
Missouri │ 17,158 44 │ 12,012 51 │ 419 45 │ 197,941 27 │ 227,531 67 │ 54,391 22
Illinois │ 35,528 66 │ 40,921 73 │ 1,516 90 │ 512,537 84 │ 590,505 13 │ 192,517 25
Ohio │ 51,011 36 │ 46,777 68 │ 1,608 15 │ 601,087 26 │ 700,484 45 │ 242,660 99
Indiana │ 30,056 54 │ 28,366 16 │ 720 55 │ 258,659 00 │ 317,802 25 │ 133,765 80
Arkansas │ ... │ 46 │ ... │ 12 26 │ 12 72 │ 45
Iowa │ 12,736 41 │ 18,866 91 │ 444 60 │ 151,436 63 │ 183,484 55 │ 80,201 30
California │ 24,430 64 │ 9,869 93 │ 402 55 │ 218,540 19 │ 253,243 31 │ 48,672 41
Oregon │ 2,211 07 │ 1,467 34 │ 7 25 │ 10,390 35 │ 14,076 01 │ 5,975 93
Minnesota │ 5,907 22 │ 6,336 24 │ 159 05 │ 41,850 41 │ 54,253 22 │ 24,693 39
Kansas │ 1,842 71 │ 2,348 60 │ 44 25 │ 26,236 61 │ 30,472 17 │ 13,592 51
Utah │ 1,436 81 │ 174 49 │ 2 40 │ 1,348 58 │ 2,962 28 │ 1,597 13
Nebraska │ 843 61 │ 1,023 34 │ 9 35 │ 7,876 64 │ 9,752 94 │ 4,846 26
Washington │ 1,013 85 │ 258 66 │ 2 45 │ 2,017 39 │ 3,292 35 │ 1,852 25
New Mexico │ 240 54 │ 95 00 │ 95 │ 1,246 42 │ 1,582 91 │ 815 24
Colorado │ 1,639 00 │ 569 83 │ 3 70 │ 6,404 97 │ 8,617 50 │ 4,478 89
Dakota │ 569 76 │ 72 23 │ 50 │ 817 40 │ 1,459 89 │ 810 78
Nevada │ 1,905 54 │ 862 01 │ 6 25 │ 3,200 68 │ 5,974 48 │ 3,500 44
├────────────┼────────────┼───────────┼──────────────┼──────────────┼──────────────
│ 649,205 26 │ 461,550 08 │ 15,151 20 │ 6,942,851 22 │ 8,068,757 76 │ 2,337,531 21
Deduct miscellan’s │ │ │ │ │ │
items │ 1,297 20 │ 745 22 │ 1 85 │ 32,719 33 │ 34,763 60 │ ...
Add miscellaneous │ │ │ │ │ │
items │ ... │ ... │ ... │ ... │ ... │ 3,236 07
├────────────┼────────────┼───────────┼──────────────┼──────────────┼──────────────
│ 647,908 06 │ 460,804 86 │ 15,149 35 │ 6,910,131 89 │ 8,033,994 16 │ 2,340,767 28
On acc’t of route │ │ │ │ │ │
ag’ts, mail │ │ │ │ │ │
messengers, special │ │ │ │ │ │
transportation, │ │ │ │ │ │
for’n mails, &c. │ ... │ ... │ ... │ ... │ ... │ ...
├────────────┼────────────┼───────────┼──────────────┼──────────────┼──────────────
│ │ │ │ │ │
Add receipts on │ │ │ │ │ │
account of │ │ │ │ │ │
emoluments, &c. │ ... │ ... │ ... │ ... │ ... │ ...
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
Deduct excess of │ │ │ │ │ │
receipts │ ... │ ... │ ... │ ... │ ... │ ...
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
─────────────────────┴────────────┴────────────┴───────────┴──────────────┴──────────────┴──────────────
─────────────────────┬──────────────┬──────────────┬────────────────┬──────────────┬──────────────┬──────────────
States and │ Incidental │ Total │ Amount of │ Total │ Excess of │ Excess of
Territories. │ expenses of │ compensation │ transportation │ expenses. │ expenditures │ receipts
│ post-offices.│ and │ certified to │ │ over │ over
│ │ incidental │ the Postmaster-│ │ receipts. │ expenditures.
│ │ expenses. │ General for │ │ │
│ │ │ payment and │ │ │
│ │ │ credited to │ │ │
│ │ │ contractors. │ │ │
─────────────────────┼──────────────┼──────────────┼────────────────┼──────────────┼──────────────┼──────────────
Maine │ $17,489 69 │ $104,926 74 │ $103,483 36 │ $208,410 00 │ $2,500 40 │ ...
New Hampshire │ 5,118 38 │ 62,723 82 │ 53,929 30 │ 116,653 12 │ ... │ $12,137 50
Vermont │ 1,344 44 │ 64,067 87 │ 73,958 60 │ 138,027 47 │ 8,666 15 │ ...
Massachusetts │ 112,309 47 │ 290,611 83 │ 177,787 29 │ 468,399 12 │ ... │ 213,463 35
Rhode Island │ 9,676 44 │ 28,399 90 │ 11,369 87 │ 39,769 77 │ ... │ 39,349 93
Connecticut │ 17,295 78 │ 95,939 27 │ 82,471 38 │ 178,410 65 │ ... │ 48,705 86
New York │ 323,254 45 │ 698,901 60 │ 479,342 89 │ 1,178,244 49 │ ... │ 636,524 01
New Jersey │ 8,691 96 │ 77,956 77 │ 98,778 11 │ 176,734 88 │ 1,641 71 │ ...
Pennsylvania │ 103,911 87 │ 352,607 19 │ 365,907 08 │ 718,514 21 │ ... │ 166,181 77
Delaware │ 2,335 17 │ 13,203 09 │ 18,730 29 │ 31,933 38 │ 1,402 71 │ ...
Maryland │ 34,410 10 │ 82,469 92 │ 232,202 13 │ 314,672 05 │ 107,309 51 │ ...
District of Columbia │ 62,304 15 │ 67,278 48 │ ... │ 67,278 48 │ ... │ 165,244 81
Virginia │ 19,062 42 │ 49,274 72 │ 53,319 09 │ 102,593 81 │ ... │ 38,780 67
North Carolina │ ... │ 1 37 │ ... │ 1 37 │ ... │ 1 66
South Carolina │ ... │ 1,173 96 │ ... │ 1,173 96 │ ... │ 8,301 98
Georgia │ ... │ ........ │ ... │ ... │ ... │ ...
Florida │ 91 49 │ 2,272 66 │ ... │ 2,272 66 │ ... │ 1,919 44
Alabama │ ... │ ........ │ ... │ ... │ ... │ ...
Mississippi │ 395 08 │ 966 82 │ ... │ 966 82 │ ... │ 2,447 95
Texas │ 50 │ 1,568 98 │ ... │ 1,568 98 │ ... │ 2,922 80
Kentucky │ 19,066 27 │ 75,201 07 │ 216,073 18 │ 291,274 25 │ 113,397 54 │ ...
Michigan │ 23,322 77 │ 119,665 35 │ 187,149 80 │ 306,815 15 │ 69,584 43 │ ...
Wisconsin │ 14,584 80 │ 106,725 63 │ 151,010 16 │ 257,735 79 │ 15,063 38 │ ...
Louisiana │ 465 51 │ 630 34 │ ... │ 630 34 │ ... │ 861 56
Tennessee │ 2,639 96 │ 4,362 35 │ ... │ 4,362 35 │ ... │ 9,530 27
Missouri │ 42,601 09 │ 96,992 31 │ 1,340,613 47 │ 1,437,605 78 │ 1,210,074 11 │ ...
Illinois │ 90,703 04 │ 283,220 29 │ 386,610 21 │ 669,830 50 │ 79,325 37 │ ...
Ohio │ 35,636 32 │ 328,297 31 │ 558,771 56 │ 887,068 87 │ 186,584 42 │ ...
Indiana │ 18,836 84 │ 152,602 64 │ 283,193 46 │ 435,796 10 │ 117,993 85 │ ...
Arkansas │ ... │ 45 │ 1,089 29 │ 1,089 74 │ 1,077 02 │ ...
Iowa │ 13,272 81 │ 93,474 11 │ 204,283 26 │ 297,757 37 │ 114,272 82 │ ...
California │ 35,259 26 │ 83,931 67 │ 297,072 52 │ 381,004 19 │ 127,760 88 │ ...
Oregon │ 67 37 │ 6,043 30 │ 23,474 00 │ 29,517 30 │ 15,441 29 │ ...
Minnesota │ 2,860 03 │ 27,553 42 │ 123,278 10 │ 150,831 52 │ 96,578 30 │ ...
Kansas │ 790 06 │ 14,382 57 │ 73,703 60 │ 88,086 17 │ 57,614 00 │ ...
Utah │ 39 87 │ 1,637 00 │ 17,226 00 │ 18,863 00 │ 15,900 72 │ ...
Nebraska │ 88 71 │ 4,934 97 │ 51,904 37 │ 56,839 34 │ 47,086 40 │ ...
Washington │ 6 84 │ 1,859 09 │ 32,685 45 │ 34,544 54 │ 31,252 19 │ ...
New Mexico │ ... │ 815 24 │ 19,825 14 │ 20,640 38 │ 19,057 47 │ ...
Colorado │ 124 76 │ 4,603 65 │ 1,327 60 │ 5,931 25 │ ... │ 2,686 25
Dakota │ 8 75 │ 819 53 │ ... │ 819 53 │ ... │ 640 36
Nevada │ 59 93 │ 3,560 37 │ ... │ 3,560 37 │ ... │ 2,414 11
├──────────────┼──────────────┼────────────────┼──────────────┼──────────────┼──────────────
│ 1,068,126 38 │ 3,405,656 59 │ 5,720,570 56 │ 9,126,228 15 │ 2,439,584 67 │ 1,382,114 28
Deduct miscellan’s │ │ │ │ │ │
items │ ... │ ... │ ... │ ... │ ... │ ...
Add miscellaneous │ │ │ │ │ │
items │ ... │ 3,236 07 │ 65,143 61 │ 103,143 28 │ 103,143 28 │ ...
├──────────────┼──────────────┼────────────────┼──────────────┼──────────────┼──────────────
│ 1,068,126 38 │ 3,408,893 66 │ 5,785,714 17 │ 9,229,371 43 │ 2,542,727 95 │ 1,382,114 28
On acc’t of route │ │ │ │ │ │
ag’ts, mail │ │ │ │ │ │
messengers, special │ │ │ │ │ │
transportation, │ │ │ │ │ │
for’n mails, &c. │ ... │ ... │ 1,207,899 58 │ ... │ │
├──────────────┼──────────────┼────────────────┼──────────────┤ │
│ │ │ 6,993,613 75 │ │ │
Add receipts on │ │ │ │ │ │
account of │ │ │ │ │ │
emoluments, &c. │ ... │ ... │ ... │ ... │ ... │ 265,826 74
│ │ │ │ │ ├──────────────
│ │ │ │ │ │ 1,647,941 02
Deduct excess of │ │ │ │ │ │
receipts │ ... │ ... │ ... │ ... │ 1,647,941 02 │
│ │ │ │ ├──────────────┤
│ │ │ │ │ 894,786 93 │
─────────────────────┴──────────────┴──────────────┴────────────────┴──────────────┴──────────────┴──────────────
NOTE.—The following items of revenue are not embraced in the above
statement, viz.:
Receipts on account of emoluments $93,842 25
Receipts on account of letter-carriers 167,662 16
Receipts on account of fines 1,455 00
Receipts on account of dead letters 1,052 51
Miscellaneous receipts 1,814 82
———————————
Total 265,826 74
===========
Excess of expenditures over receipts $894,786 93
Add amount paid for foreign mails and expenses
of government mail agents $405,249 22
Route agents 274,081 30
Supply of special offices and mail messengers 238,916 10
Ship, steamboat, and way-letters 6,860 11
Letter-carriers’ fees 167,662 16
Dead-letter money refunded ...
Amounts allowed and paid to Department, viz.:
Interest to contractors, under Act of
February 15, 1860 400 36
———————————————————————————
Amount carried forward $1,093,169 25 $894,786 93
Amount brought forward $1,093,169 25 $894,786 93
Wrapping paper 18,179 70
Office furniture 213 31
Advertising 24,120 73
Mail bags 47,902 35
Blanks 89,557 44
Mail locks, keys, and stamps 16,690 00
Mail depredations and special agents 48,320 06
Clerks for offices 14,697 63
Postage stamps and stamped envelopes 93,291 04
Miscellaneous payments 27,723 43
Foreign postage collected and returned
to foreign governments 167,238 40
—————————— 1,641,103 34
————————————
Total excess of expenditures over receipts $2,535,890 27
Add difference between _accrued_ and _paid_ transportation 289,652 96
Add amount charged to “bad debts” and “suspense” accounts 601 12
—————————————
Total amount $2,826,144 35
The aggregate receipts for 1863 were $11,163,789 59
” ” expenditures for 1863 were 11,314,206 84
——————————————
Deficiency $150,417 25
NUMBER OF POST-OFFICES, EXTENT OF POST-ROUTES, AND REVENUE AND
EXPENDITURES OF THE POST-OFFICE DEPARTMENT; WITH THE AMOUNT PAID TO
POSTMASTERS AND FOR TRANSPORTATION OF THE MAIL, SINCE 1790.
───────┬────────┬─────────┬──────────┬────────────┬────────────────────────────
│ No. of │ Extent │ Revenue │Expenditures│ Amount paid for
Year. │ Post- │of Post- │ of the │ of the ├─────────────┬──────────────
│Offices.│ Routes │ Depart- │ Department.│ Compen. of │ Transport’n
│ │in Miles.│ ment. │ │Postmasters. │ of the Mail.
───────┼────────┼─────────┼──────────┼────────────┼─────────────┼──────────────
1790 │ 75 │ 1,875 │ $37,935│ $32,140 │ $8,198 │ $22,081
1795 │ 453 │ 13,207 │ 160,620│ 117,893 │ 30,272 │ 75,359
1800 │ 903 │ 20,817 │ 280,804│ 213,994 │ 69,243 │ 128,644
1805 │ 1,558 │ 31,076 │ 421,373│ 377,367 │ 111,552 │ 239,635
1810 │ 2,300 │ 36,406 │ 551,684│ 495,969 │ 149,438 │ 327,966
1815 │ 3,000 │ 43,748 │ 1,043,065│ 748,121 │ 241,901 │ 487,779
1816 │ 3,260 │ 48,673 │ 961,782│ 804,422 │ 265,944 │ 521,970
1817 │ 3,459 │ 52,089 │ 1,002,973│ 916,515 │ 303,916 │ 589,189
1818 │ 3,618 │ 59,473 │ 1,130,235│ 1,035,832 │ 346,429 │ 664,611
1819 │ 4,000 │ 67,586 │ 1,204,737│ 1,117,861 │ 375,828 │ 717,881
1820 │ 4,500 │ 72,492 │ 1,111,927│ 1,160,926 │ 352,295 │ 782,425
1821 │ 4,650 │ 78,808 │ 1,059,087│ 1,184,283 │ 337,599 │ 815,681
1822 │ 4,709 │ 82,763 │ 1,117,490│ 1,167,572 │ 355,299 │ 788,618
1823 │ 5,043 │ 84,860 │ 1,130,115│ 1,156,995 │ 360,462 │ 767,464
1824 │ 5,182 │ 84,860 │ 1,197,758│ 1,188,019 │ 383,804 │ 768,939
1825 │ 5,677 │ 94,052 │ 1,306,525│ 1,229,043 │ 411,183 │ 785,646
1826 │ 6,150 │ 94,052 │ 1,447,703│ 1,366,712 │ 447,727 │ 885,100
1827 │ 7,003 │ 105,336 │ 1,524,633│ 1,468,959 │ 486,411 │ 942,335
1828 │ 7,530 │ 105,336 │ 1,659,915│ 1,689,945 │ 548,049 │ 1,086,313
1829 │ 8,004 │ 115,000 │ 1,707,418│ 1,782,132 │ 559,237 │ 1,153,646
1830 │ 8,450 │ 115,176 │ 1,850,583│ 1,932,708 │ 595,234 │ 1,274,009
1831 │ 8,686 │ 115,486 │ 1,997,811│ 1,936,122 │ 635,028 │ 1,252,226
1832 │ 9,205 │ 104,466 │ 2,258,570│ 2,266,171 │ 715,481 │ 1,482,507
1833 │ 10,127 │ 119,916 │ 2,617,011│ 2,930,414 │ 826,283 │ 1,894,638
1834 │ 10,693 │ 119,916 │ 2,823,749│ 2,910,605 │ 897,317 │ 1,925,544
1835 │ 10,770 │ 112,774 │ 2,993,356│ 2,757,350 │ 945,418 │ 1,719,007
1836 │ 11,091 │ 118,264 │ 3,408,323│ 3,841,766 │ 812,804 │ 1,638,052
1837 │ 11,767 │ 141,242 │ 4,236,779│ 3,544,630 │ 891,353 │ 1,996,727
1838 │ 12,519 │ 134,818 │ 4,238,733│ 4,430,662 │ 933,948 │ 3,131,308
1839 │ 12,780 │ 133,999 │ 4,484,657│ 4,636,536 │ 980,000 │ 3,285,622
1840 │ 13,468 │ 155,739 │ 4,543,522│ 4,718,236 │ 1,028,925 │ 3,296,876
1841 │ 13,778 │ 155,026 │ 4,407,726│ 4,499,528 │ 1,018,645 │ 3,159,375
1842 │ 13,733 │ 149,732 │ 4,546,849│ 5,674,752 │ 1,147,256 │ 3,087,796
1843 │ 13,814 │ 142,295 │ 4,296,225│ 4,374,754 │ 1,426,394 │ 2,947,319
1844 │ 14,103 │ 144,687 │ 4,237,288│ 4,296,513 │ 1,358,316 │ 2,938,551
1845 │ 14,183 │ 143,940 │ 4,289,841│ 4,320,732 │ 1,409,875 │ 2,905,504
[A]1846│ 14,601 │ 152,865 │ 3,487,199│ 4,084,297 │ 1,042,079 │ 2,716,673
[A]1847│ 15,146 │ 153,818 │ 3,955,893│ 3,979,570 │ 1,060,228 │ 2,476,455
[A]1848│ 16,159 │ 163,208 │ 4,371,077│ 4,346,850 │ │ 2,394,703
[A]1849│ 16,749 │ 163,703 │ 4,905,176│ 4,479,049 │ 1,320,921 │ 2,577,407
[A]1850│ 18,417 │ 178,672 │ 5,552,971│ 5,212,953 │ 1,549,376 │ 2,965,786
[A]1851│ 19,796 │ 196,290 │ 6,727,867│ 6,278,402 │ 1,781,686 │ 3,538,064
[A]1852│ 20,901 │ 214,284 │ 6,925,971│ 7,108,459 │ 1,296,765 │ 4,225,311
[A]1853│ 22,320 │ 217,743 │ 5,940,725│ 7,982,957 │ 1,406,477 │ 4,906,308
[A]1854│ 23,548 │ 219,935 │ 6,955,586│ 8,577,424 │ 1,707,708 │ 5,401,382
[A]1855│ 24,410 │ 227,908 │ 7,342,136│ 9,968,342 │ 2,135,335 │ 6,076,335
[A]1856│ 25,565 │ 239,642 │ 7,620,822│ 10,405,286 │ 2,102,891 │ 6,765,639
[A]1857│ 26,586 │ 242,601 │ 8,053,952│ 11,508,058 │ 2,285,610 │ 7,239,333
[A]1858│ 27,977 │ 260,603 │ 8,186,793│ 12,722,470 │ 2,355,016 │ 8,246,054
[A]1859│ 28,539 │ 260,052 │ 8,668,484│ 15,754,093 │ 2,453,901 │ 7,157,629
[A]1860│ 28,498 │ 240,594 │ 8,518,067│ 19,170,600 │ 2,552,868 │ 14,281,655
[A]1861│ 28,586 │ 140,399 │ 8,349,296│ 13,606,759 │ 2,514,157 │ 9,173,274
[A]1862│ 28,875 │ 134,013 │ 8,299,820│ 11,125,364 │ 2,340,767 │ 6,993,613[47]
1863│ 29,047 │ 139,598 │11,163,789│ 11,314,206 │ 2,876,983 │ 6,541,580
───────┴────────┴─────────┴──────────┴────────────┴─────────────┴──────────────
COMPARATIVE STATEMENT OF THE VALUE OF STAMPS AND STAMPED ENVELOPES
ISSUED DURING THE THREE YEARS 1860-61-62.
───────┬───────────────┬─────────────┬───────────────
Years.│ Stamps. │ Envelopes. │ Total.
───────┼───────────────┼─────────────┼───────────────
1860 │ $5,920,939 00 │ $949,377 19 │ $6,870,316 19
1861 │ 5,908,522 60 │ 781,711 13 │ 6,690,233 73
1862 │ 7,078,188 00 │ 756,904 00 │ 7,835,092 00
───────┴───────────────┴─────────────┴───────────────
Increase over the issue of 1860 $964,775 81
Increase over the issue of 1861 1,144,858 27
STATEMENT SHOWING POSTAL REVENUE AND EXPENDITURES OF THE UNITED STATES,
IN TOTO AND PER CAPITA, ACCORDING TO POPULATION, AT EIGHT SUCCESSIVE
DECADES, FROM 1790 TO 1863, INCLUSIVE.
──────┬───────────┬──────────────┬────────────┬───────────────────┬───────────────────
Years.│ Revenue. │ Expenditures.│ Population.│ Revenue per │ Expenditures
│ │ │ │ capita. │ per capita.
──────┼───────────┼──────────────┼────────────┼───────────────────┼───────────────────
1790 │ $37,935│ $32,140 │ 3,929,827 │ 9/10 of a cent.│ 8/10 of a cent.
1800 │ 280,804│ 213,994 │ 5,305,925 │ 5-3/10 cents. │ 4 cents.
1810 │ 551,684│ 495,969 │ 7,239,814 │ 7-6/10 ” │ 6-8/10 ”
1820 │ 1,111,927│ 1,160,926 │ 9,638,131 │ 11-1/2 ” │ 12 ”
1830 │ 1,919,300│ 1,959,109 │ 12,866,020 │ 14-9/10 ” │ 15-2/10 ”
1840 │ 4,543,522│ 4,718,236 │ 17,069,453 │ 26-6/10 ” │ 27-6/10 ”
1850 │ 5,499,985│ 5,212,953 │ 23,191,876 │ 23-7/10 ” │ 22-1/2 ”
1851 │ 6,410,604│ 6,278,402 │ 23,873,717 │ 26-9/10 ” │ 26-3/10 ”
1852 │ 5,184,527│ 7,108,459 │ 24,575,604 │ 21-1/10 ” │ 28-9/10 ”
1853 │ 5,240,725│ 7,982,756 │ 25,298,126 │ 20-7/10 ” │ 31-1/10 ”
1854 │ 6,255,586│ 8,577,424 │ 26,041,890 │ 24 ” │ 32-9/10 ”
1855 │ 6,642,136│ 9,968,342 │ 26,807,521 │ 24-8/10 ” │ 37-2/10 ”
1856 │ 6,920,822│ 10,405,286 │ 27,595,662 │ 25 ” │ 37-7/10 ”
1857 │ 7,353,952│ 11,508,058 │ 28,406,974 │ 25-9/10 ” │ 40-1/2 ”
1858 │ 7,486,793│ 15,754,093 │ 30,101,857 │ 26-1/2 ” │ 52-3/10 ”
1860 │ 8,518,067│ 14,874,601 │ 31,445,089 │ 27-1/10 ” │ 47-3/10 ”
1861 │ 8,349,296│ 13,606,759 │ 32,577,112 │ 25-6/10 ” │ 41-8/10 ”
1862 │ 8,299,821│ 11,125,364 │ 33,749,888 │ 24-6/10 ” │ 33 ”
1863 │ 11,163,790│ 11,314,207 │ 34,762,384 │ 32-4/10 ” │ 32-9/10 ”
──────┴───────────┴──────────────┴────────────┴───────────────────┴───────────────────
NOTE.—The population from 1851 to 1863, excepting the year 1860, is
estimated by the standard ratio of increase.
_CHANGES AND REDUCTIONS IN THE RATES OF DOMESTIC POSTAGE IN FORMER
YEARS._
The following will exhibit the principal changes and reductions in the
rates of postage on domestic letters at various dates from 1792 to 1863.
The _single_ rate for _land_ transit is referred to in every case.
Act of February 20, 1792. Rates for a single-sheet letter,—30
miles or under, 6 cents; 30 to 60 miles, 8 cents; 60 to 100
miles, 10 cents; 100 to 150 miles, 12 cents; 150 to 200
miles, 15 cents; 200 to 250 miles, 17 cents; 250 to 350
miles, 20 cents; 350 to 450 miles, 22 cents; over 450 miles,
25 cents.
Act of 2d March, 1799. Rates for a single-sheet letter,—40
miles or under, 8 cents; 40 to 90 miles, 10 cents; 90 to 150
miles, 12-1/2 cents; 150 to 300 miles, 17 cents; 300 to 500
miles, 20 cents; over 500 miles, 25 cents.
The revenue act of 23d December, 1814, added 50 per cent. to
the rates last above; but the addition was repealed February
1, 1816, which restored the rates of 1799.
Act of April 9, 1816. Rates for a single-sheet letter,—30
miles or under, 6 cents; 30 to 80 miles, 10 cents; 80 to 150
miles, 12-1/2 cents; 150 to 400 miles, 18-1/2 cents; over 400
miles, 25 cents.
Act of 3d March, 1845. Rates for a single-sheet letter,—300
miles or under, 5 cents; over 300 miles, 10 cents.
Act of 3d March, 1851. Rates for a half-ounce letter,—3000
miles or under, if prepaid, 3 cents, if unpaid, 5 cents; over
3000 miles, double.
Act of 3d March, 1855. Rates for a half-ounce letter,—3000
miles or under, 3 cents; over 3000 miles, 10 cents.
Under this act prepayment was not compulsory, and after
January, 1856, prepayment by stamps was required.
[The issue of postage-stamps was first authorized by an act
of 3d March, 1847, and subsequently by the act of 3d March,
1851.]
Act of 3d March, 1863. Rate for half-ounce letter, 3 cents
everywhere throughout the United States.
_DOMESTIC POSTAGE._
The law requires postage on all letters (including those to foreign
countries when prepaid), excepting those written by officers of the
government, addressed to the department with which they are connected,
and on official business, to be prepaid by stamps or stamped envelopes,
prepayment in money being prohibited.
All drop-letters must be prepaid, at the rate of two cents per
half-ounce or fraction of a half-ounce, by postage stamps. If not
prepaid, the double rate to be charged.
The single rate of postage on all domestic mail-letters throughout the
United States is three cents per half-ounce, with an additional rate of
three cents for each additional half-ounce or fraction of a half-ounce.
The former ten-cent (Pacific) rate is abolished.
_NEWSPAPER POSTAGE._
Postage on _Daily Papers_ to subscribers when prepaid
quarterly or yearly in advance, either at the mailing-office
or office of delivery, per quarter (three months) 35 cts.
Six times per week, ” ” 30 ”
For Tri-Weekly, ” ” 15 ”
For Semi-Weekly, ” ” 10 ”
For Weekly, ” ” 5 ”
WEEKLY NEWSPAPERS (one copy only) sent by the publisher to actual
subscribers within the county where printed and published, _free_.
POSTAGE PER QUARTER (to be paid quarterly or yearly in advance) on
NEWSPAPERS and PERIODICALS _issued less frequently than once a week_,
sent to actual subscribers in any part of the United States:
Semi-monthly, not over 4 oz. 6 cts.
” over 4 oz. and not over 8 oz. 12 ”
” over 8 oz. and not over 12 oz. 18 ”
Monthly, not over 4 oz. 3 ”
” over 4 oz. and not over 8 oz. 6 ”
” over 8 oz. and not over 12 oz. 9 ”
Quarterly, not over 4 oz. 1 ”
” over 4 oz. and not over 8 oz. 2 ”
” over 8 oz. and not over 12 oz. 3 ”
PUBLISHERS OF NEWSPAPERS AND PERIODICALS may send to each other from
their respective offices of publication, free of postage, one copy of
each publication, and may also send to each actual subscriber, enclosed
in their publications, bills and receipts for the same, free of postage.
They may also state on their respective publications the date when the
subscription expires, to be written or printed.
Religious, educational, and agricultural newspapers of small size,
issued less frequently than once a week, may be sent in packages to one
address at the rate of one cent for each package not exceeding four
ounces in weight, and an additional charge of one cent is made for each
additional four ounces or fraction thereof, the postage to be paid
quarterly or yearly in advance.
NEWSDEALERS may send newspapers and periodicals to regular subscribers
at the quarterly rates, in the same manner as publishers, and may also
receive them from publishers at subscribers’ rates. In both cases the
postage to be prepaid, either at the mailing-or delivery-office.
Publications issued without disclosing the office of publication, or
containing a fictitious statement thereof, must not be forwarded by
postmasters unless prepaid at the mailing-office at the rates of
transient printed matter.
A letter over 500 miles cost thirty-seven and one-half cents in 1815;
now it is carried to the extreme portion of our country, traversing
mountains, passing deep ravines and rivers, for the small sum of three
cents!
Harpers’ Magazine, had it been in existence in 1815, would have cost for
each one twenty-seven cents, whereas now they only cost three cents to
all parts of the country. What an age for literature! what an era in
learning!
In 1779, in consequence of the increased nature of the postal business
and the necessity for a more extended ramification of the system, the
postmaster-general was to receive $5000 per annum, and the comptroller
$4000,—meaning, of course, Continental money. Besides these two offices
in the postal department, there was a secretary who acted as clerk to
the postmaster-general. The comptroller settled the accounts, and was
the book-keeper. There were three surveyors, who were to travel and
inspect the conduct of the riders, agents, &c. There was also an
inspector of dead letters, at a salary of $100 a year.
What is now called the post-office department was established in 1789 as
the “post-office,” and subsequently as the “general post-office,” under
the power given to Congress by the Constitution “to establish
post-offices and post-roads,” and the exclusive privilege and control of
all postal affairs, &c.
_ORGANIZATION OF THE POSTAL DEPARTMENT._
Congress shall have power “to establish post-offices and post-roads.”
This short, concise, yet _embracing_ sentence sums up the constitutional
basis of this department. It is comprehensive enough to all who fully
understand the economical and practical workings of our government. Its
conciseness is its very history; and that history becomes a mighty
_tome_ in the library of nations.
The direction and management of the post-office department are assigned
by the Constitution to the postmaster-general. That its business may be
the more conveniently arranged and prepared for its final action, it is
distributed among several bureaus, as follows:—the Appointment-Office,
in charge of the First Assistant Postmaster-General; the
Contract-Office, in charge of the Second Assistant Postmaster-General;
the Finance-Office, in charge of the Third Assistant Postmaster-General;
and the Inspection-Office, in charge of the Chief Clerk.