“The postmaster, or one of his assistants, in all cases, _immediately_
before the office is swept or otherwise cleared of rubbish, is to
collect and examine the waste paper which has accumulated therein, in
order to guard against the possibility of loss of letters or other
mail-matter which may have fallen on the floor or have been intermingled
with such waste paper during the transaction of business. The observance
of this rule is strictly enjoined upon all postmasters, and its
violation will constitute a grave offence. Postmasters should be careful
to use, in mailing letters or packets, all wrapping-paper fit to be used
again; and the sale of any such paper is strictly forbidden.”
A neglect of this section might lead to serious consequences, inasmuch
as letters are continually falling from the tables and trays to the
floor, and, unless looked after, would unquestionably find their way to
the “waste-bags.”
The proprietor of a paper-mill informed us that one of the girls
employed by him in separating the waste paper purchased from postmasters
had found several letters, one of which contained $30 in Treasury notes,
and another contained a note for $500 and an order to cancel stamp
placed upon a note since it was signed, as stamps could not be obtained
at the place where the note was signed.
The above letters had been thrown into the waste paper by some careless
postmaster or clerks, and sold at two and a half cents per pound; and
some other postmaster or clerks have been under suspicion of committing
a depredation upon those letters; and had this girl been dishonest they
might never have been able to convince the parties interested of their
innocence.
This is inexcusable carelessness; and postmasters who read this article
should see that they or their clerks are not caught in this way.
_SEALING-WAX._
Under no circumstances use sealing-wax for postal purposes. Wax should
only be used for letters or documents when a person is anxious to
_display his seal or coat of arms_, or where it may be required for a
legal purpose, and only then when they are more effectually secured.
The practice of sealing letters passing more particularly through warm
climates with wax is attended with much inconvenience, and frequently
with serious injury, not only to the letters so sealed, but to the other
letters in the mail, from the melting of the wax and adhesion of the
letters to each other. The public are, therefore, recommended in all
such cases to use either wafers or gum, and to advise their
correspondents in the countries referred to to do the same.
English newspapers—indeed, nearly all European printed matter—come to us
sealed with _bad wax_; and if many of them were not secured by thread,
few would ever reach the parties to whom they are addressed.
_COMPLAINTS ABOUT MISTAKES._
When complaint is made of letters or newspapers lost, miscarried, or
delayed, to furnish information as precise as possible regarding all the
facts of the case, and to enclose whatever documents may throw light
upon it. The day and hour at which the letter or newspaper was posted,
as well as the office at which and the person by whom this was done,
should always be stated, and, when possible, the cover or wrapper, in an
entire state, should be sent, in order that the place of delay may be
ascertained by an examination of the stamps. Cases frequently occur in
which complaint is made against the post-office and redress expected,
although little or no means of tracing the error and of guarding against
a repetition of it is supplied by those who alone are able to do so.
_A LAW CASE._
In 1806 a case was tried in the District Court of Maryland, “United
States _vs._ Barney,” which we deem essential to the nature of our work.
“WINCHESTER, J.—The indictment in this case, which charges the defendant
with having wilfully obstructed the passage of the public mail at
Susquehanna River, is founded on the act of Congress of March, 1799.
“The defendant sets up as a defence and justification of this
obstruction of the mail that he had fed the horses employed in carrying
the mail for a considerable time, and that a sum of money was due to him
for food furnished at and before the time of their arrest and detention.
“On this state of the facts, two questions have been agitated:—
“1st, Whether the right of an innkeeper to detain a horse for his food
extends to horses owned by individuals and employed in the
transportation of the public mail. And,
“2d, Whether such right extends to horses belonging to the United
States, employed in that service.
“The first question involves the consideration of principles of some
extent, and to decide correctly on the second it may be necessary to
state them generally.
“Lien is generally defined to be a tie, hold, or security upon goods or
other things which a man has in his custody, till he is paid what is due
to him. From this definition it is apparent that there can be no lien
where the property is annihilated or the possession parted with
voluntarily and without fraud. 2 _Vern._ 117; 1 _Atk._ 234.
“The claim of a lien otherwise well founded cannot be supported if there
is—
“1st, A particular agreement made and relied on. _Sayer’s _ Rep. 224; 2
_R. A._ 92. Or,
“2d, Where the particular transaction shows that there was no intention
that there should be a lien, but some _other security is looked to and
relied upon_. 4 _Burr._ 2223.
“If, therefore, in this case the agreement between the defendant and the
public agent actually was that he should be paid for feeding the public
horses on as low terms as any other person on the road would supply
them, he could not justify detaining the horses; for the particular
agreement thus made, and under which the food was furnished, is the
foundation of the remedy of the defendant, and it can be pursued in no
other manner than upon that agreement. Or, if there was no particular
agreement, this case is such that between the defendant and a private
owner of horses and carriages employed in transporting the mail I
incline to think it could not legally be presumed a lien was ever
intended or contemplated. A carrier of the mail is bound not to delay
its delivery, under severe penalties; and it can scarcely be supposed
that he would expose himself to the penalty for such delay by leaving
his horses subject to the arrest of every innkeeper on the road for
their food, or that in such case the innkeeper could look to any other
security than the personal credit of the owner of the horses for
reimbursement. But the law on such a case could be only declared on
facts admitted by the parties or found by the jury, and is not now
before the court.
“3d, The great question in this case rests on a discrimination between
the property of the government and individuals.”
After defining the constitutional rights of the government and its
general power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excise, to
pay the debts and provide for the common defence and general welfare of
the United States, and quoting numerous authorities, the judge concludes
with the following:—
“_A stolen horse found in the mail-stage._ The owner cannot seize him.
“The driver being in debt, or even committing an offence, can only be
arrested in such way as does not obstruct the passage of the mail.
“These examples are as strong as any which are likely to occur; but even
these are not excepted by the statute; and probably considerations of
the extreme importance to the government and individuals of the regular
transmission of public despatches and private communications may have
excluded these exceptions. But whatever may have been the policy which
led to the adoption of the law, which the court will not inquire into,
it totally prohibits any obstruction to the passage of the mail. It is
the duty of the court to expound and execute the law, and therefore I am
of opinion and decide that the defendant is not justified.”
_POSTAGE-STAMPS._
Connected with stamps, whether used as a currency or for the increase of
revenue, there are many curious and interesting circumstances. The idea
of producing a revenue by the sale of stamps and stamped paper in
America was promulgated almost forty years before its final development
in legislative enactment in 1765. Sir William Keith advised the policy
as early as 1728. In 1739 the London merchants advised the ministry to
adopt the measure, and public writers from time to time suggested
various schemes predicated upon the same idea. In 1770, Douglas, in his
work on “British America,” recommended the levying of a stamp duty upon
all legal writings and instruments. Dr. Franklin regarded the plan
favorably, and Governor Sharpe, of Maryland, was confident in 1754 that
Parliament would speedily make a statute for raising money by means of
stamp duties. Lieutenant-Governor Delancey spoke in favor of it in the
New York Assembly in 1755, and the following year Governor Shirley, of
Massachusetts, urged Parliament to adopt a stamp tax. The British press
urged the measure in 1757, and it was confidently stated that at least
three hundred thousand dollars annually might thus be drawn from the
colonies without the tax being sensibly felt. The tax bill became a law
in 1765 and was repealed in 1766. Had not ministers been deceived by the
representations of the stupid and selfish governors in America, it
probably would never have been enacted. Those men were frequently too
indolent or indifferent to make themselves acquainted with the real
temper of the people. Regarding the mass as equally servile as their
flatterers, they readily commended that fatal measure which proved the
spark that lighted the flame of the Revolution and severed forever the
political connection between Great Britain and the thirteen American
colonies. The stamp so carefully and so artistically prepared, bearing
upon its imposing front the crown and its motto, “_Honi soit qui mal y
pense_,” and intended to enhance the power and might of kingly rule,
sealed the doom of monarchy in the colonies forever!
The use of stamps, however, apart from tax purposes, is not of modern
invention, but for postal purposes they bear date quite recent. Stamps
of one penny and twopence each were first introduced in England on the
6th of May, 1840.
When Victoria succeeded to the British crown—midsummer, 1837—there were
eleven thousand parishes in England and Wales, and only three thousand
post-offices. A fourth of the population were entirely destitute of
postal accommodation. Four hundred of the registration districts, the
average extent of which was nearly twenty square miles, were without a
post-office. In 1839 the number of chargeable letters was in the
proportion of _four_ a year to each person of the population of England
and Wales, _three_ in Scotland, and _one_ in Ireland. In 1864 the
proportion of letters is twenty-four a year to each of the population of
England and Wales, nineteen in Scotland, and nine to Ireland. The
increase from 76,000,000 letters in 1849 to 600,000,000 in 1864 is
really an increase of nearly seven hundred per cent. A stamped envelope
was used at first (consisting of a very absurd allegorical group, said
to have been improved by Mulready, the eminent painter, from a drawing
by Queen Victoria herself!); but this was superseded, in a few months,
by a stamp called 'penny blac' compulsory prepayment, which was begun in
England, has become the rule in the many countries which have adopted
Hill’s postal reform. This reform, which went into operation in England
on January 10, 1840, was not adopted in the United States until July 1,
1845.
Perhaps no country in the world has ever yet produced such a number of
stamps as the United States of America. Foreign nations limit their
postal stamps; we issue them in quantity and variety to meet the demands
of the public without stint or hindrance. The denominations of postal
stamps in the United States are 1 cent, 2 cent, 3 cent, 5 cent, 10 cent,
12 cent, 24 cent, 30 cent, and 90 cent.
The amount of stamps and stamp-envelopes
issued during the year 1860, ending June 30,
was $6,870,316 19
Total amount for 1861 6,690,233 70
” ” ” 1862 7,078,188 00
” ” ” 1863 9,683,384 00
” ” ” 1864 10,974,329 50
The postage-stamp system has been adopted in all parts of the world, by
over ninety different kingdoms, states, provinces, colonies, islands,
and free cities,—in fifty different parts of Europe, in over a dozen
parts of Asia, including China, in some twenty parts of the New World,
in every province of British North America, in seven parts of Africa,
and even in St. Helena on one side and the Sandwich Islands on the
other. There are postage-stamps used in Ceylon; but the Japanese have
not as yet arrived at that period in perfection which would lead them
towards its attainment.
The stamps of the secessionists command a high price in foreign
markets,—probably as much for their having the head of “Jeff Davis” on
them than for any artistic skill or beauty attached to them. When the
rebellion broke out, of course a line was drawn between the two sections
of our country, leaving the South in possession of slavery and its
fruits, and the North, with its vast amount of wealth, intellect, and
artistic power, to contend against the world. Of course the South,
heretofore dependent on the North for every thing genius, art, and skill
produced, found they could not have a stamp cut that would even do
credit to their bogus government. The first ones produced presented a
most _counterfeit_-like appearance of something once belonging to art:
even Jeff Davis became ashamed of them, and he applied to his good
friend and secret ally, Napoleon of France, for assistance. Something
better was produced by a French artist; and thus the stamps came over
with a variety of other things to strengthen the Southern Confederacy
and assist her in maintaining something of the appearance of a people
who could claim some consideration among other _advanced_ nations of the
world.
Connected with the issue of postal stamps is that strange mania which
seizes upon a certain class to collect and treasure up every thing that
is termed _unique_ or new in art or science. These stamps in time will
become relics, and possess an interest for the antiquarian equal to that
of old coins.
To such an extent is this passion carried, that in Europe cabinets are
formed and albums invented wherein these stamps are fancifully arranged.
In many instances men make such collections a matter of business, and
these receptacles for stamps bring very high prices,—in fact, like old
coins, many of them command fabulous prices. The collection of these
miniature paper currency circulating mediums is decidedly a British
institution. Periodicals devoted to the interest of dealers are
established in various parts of the kingdom, and agents employed, not
only to furnish information upon the subject of new issues, but to
procure various stamps for orders. The demand in England for American
stamps is great, and they command—more particularly those of the
Southern Confederacy—very high prices.
We have no objection to this, although a strange fancy on the part of
those who are seized with the mania, because it opens a new trade for
the enterprising speculator on the infirmity of human nature. A house in
New York advertises for “correspondents all over the world,” for
furnishing and supplying it with _stamp news_. Another in Montreal
advertises “stamps cheaper than ever:” these consist of foreign, British
colonial, and European stamps of all kinds. The number of North American
is enumerated at fifty varieties.
Connected, however, with the various stamps now in use in this country
is the necessity of teaching to our youth their use and application to
banks, custom-houses, railroads, post-offices, pawnbrokers, and, in
fact, as stamp tax to every trade, business, and department of
government.
In several of our commercial colleges an actual stamp department is
invented, and mock-banks, custom-houses, steamboat-offices,
post-offices, &c., are fitted up for the purpose of familiarizing youth
with their use in the various mercantile and governmental departments of
the country. This is what we term the best and most useful knowledge
that the stamps can impart to those who are so anxious to treasure them
up in albums and cabinets.[55]
We annex the following article from Appleton’s “United States Postal
Guide”[1864]:—
“By the _Sonora_, a few days since, says a Californian correspondent,
some two hundred of Uncle Sam’s orphans arrived, and were distributed
around. Some were sent to Fort Alcastra, some to the barracks at the
Presidio, and the remainder were quartered at Benicia barracks,
preparatory to being assigned to the different companies of the
regiments in this department. They will soon be scattered from Oregon to
that most delightful post, Fort Yuma, in Arizona,—a place where they
have to put rocks on the roofs to keep the ends of the boards from
curling over like little dogs’ tails. It is a wretched place to live at,
and to be ordered there is enough to make any officer resign, unless a
Catholic, who acknowledges the justice of being sent to purgatory. They
have a little fun even in that awful place sometimes, and an officer was
telling me the other day of how he lost his postage-stamps. He had sent
up here for some twenty dollars’ worth, and had left them on his table.
Now, the habits, manners, and customs thereabouts are considerably on
the free-and-easy style, and the Indians are allowed to roam around the
garrison _ad libitum_, if they behave themselves and do not steal. On
this occasion a young squaw, who had the run of the quarters, and was
very much at home anywhere and everywhere, happened to stray into my
friend’s room, and, seeing the postage-stamps, began to examine them
with great curiosity. She discovered they would stick if wet, and
forthwith a happy idea struck her. Now, the fashionable dress of the
ladies of her class in that warm climate is of the briefest description.
She was ambitious to dress up and excite the envy of the other
Pocahontases. So she went in on the postal currency, and, much to the
astonishment of the garrison, made her appearance presently on the
parade-ground entirely covered over with postage-stamps. She was stuck
all over with Benjamin Franklin, and the Father of his Country was
plastered all over her ladyship’s glossy skin indiscriminately,
regardless of dignity and decency. The ‘roar’ that greeted her, from the
commanding officer down to the drummer-boys, was loud enough to be heard
nearly at head-quarters in San Francisco; but, Indian-like, she
preserved her equanimity, and did not seem at all disconcerted, but
sailed off with the air and step of a genuine princess, while my friend
rushed into his quarters to discover himself minus his twenty dollars’
worth of postage-stamps, and that what was intended for the mail had
been appropriated to the female. She might have been put in the overland
coach and gone through: she certainly could not have been stopped for
want of being prepaid.”
_REPORT OF MR. GEORGE PLITT._
Amos Kendall, postmaster-general from 1835 to 1840, anxious to have the
postal department as perfect as human efforts can avail towards such a
state of things, sent the gentleman whose name heads this article to
Europe for the purpose of adding to our store of knowledge on postal
matters. Mr. Plitt was well calculated for this mission, having served
seven years in the New York post-office, and was familiar with its
operations. He left New York in the month of June, 1839, and returned in
August, 1840, after having visited “the post-office departments of
England, Scotland, France, Belgium, Saxony, Prussia, Austria, Bavaria,
Wirtemberg, Baden, and the free Hanseatic cities of Frankfort, Hamburg,
Bremen, and Lubeck.”
Among other reforms and suggestions made in Mr. Plitt’s report are the
abolition of the franking privilege, the prepayment of all letters, as
well as of newspapers and all printed matter. He strongly urges the
reduction of postage, and quotes the English postal law as an evidence
of its pecuniary advantages. As many of the reforms suggested, based on
the European system, have been introduced into ours, and nearly every
other improvement carried into the department, it is not necessary for
us here to name them; but, at the same time, it is due to Mr. Plitt to
state that his report met with a cordial response from the department,
whose instructions he had so ably carried out, and whose ideas on and
about foreign mail arrangements afforded it an opportunity to improve
those of our own.
He also suggested the establishing special agents and mail-guards. In
Europe they form a prominent feature in their system; but as regards the
necessity of the latter in this country, we doubt if their services
would be required, unless in time of war, frontier insurrections, or
disgraceful rebellions, such as a vile portion of the land had
inaugurated, and over whose downfall and ruin our nation’s flag is now
proudly uprising. It will float again,—float in its might and power over
every foot of land that Columbia calls her own; but not until
“Bold rebellion’s blood has all been drain’d.”
The subject of the reduction of postage had been agitated in Congress
before Mr. Plitt’s visit to Europe. In 1836, Edward Everett proposed
measures for that purpose, but no well-digested plan was brought
forward. _There was no Benjamin Franklin there to propose one._ In 1843,
three years after Mr. Plitt’s return from Europe, the general discontent
of the people on the subject of postage was expressed in the form of
resolutions by the legislatures of several States, instructing their
Senators and requesting their Representatives in Congress to take some
measures for a reduction. Mr. C. A. Wickliffe, at that time
postmaster-general, made some investigation in regard to the English
system, and in an elaborate report advocated some reduction, but not a
radical one, on the ground that the department would become a heavy
charge upon the government if large reductions were made. Subsequent
reductions far greater than those proposed at that period show how much
the postmaster-general and those who sustained him in this idea were
mistaken. It was not until 1845 that Congress was enabled to pass a bill
for a reduction. March 3, 1845, a bill was passed, which went into
operation July 1, 1845. Its rates were as follows:—for a letter not
exceeding a half-ounce in weight, whether of one or more pieces of
paper, under three hundred miles, five cents; over three hundred miles,
ten cents, and an additional rate for every additional half-ounce or
fraction of a half-ounce. Advertised letters, two cents; pamphlets,
magazines, &c., per ounce, two cents, and each additional ounce, one
cent. Newspapers, under thirty miles, free; over thirty and under one
hundred, or any distance within the State where published, one cent;
over one hundred and out of the State, one and a half cent. At various
periods since, changes have been made, until it is now reduced to a
system based on the lowest rates, which under proper and efficient
management must, and no doubt will, result in self-sustaining the
department: certain abuses have of course to be corrected.
_ENGLISH POST-OFFICE._
Mr. Plitt states in his report that the number of persons employed in
the English post-office, London, is one thousand nine hundred and
three.[56] This number comprises all the letter-carriers and receivers
employed within a circle of twelve miles from the post-office. In this
circle letters are delivered at the residence of the person addressed
and taken up from the receiving-houses five times per day. There is
besides an inner circle of three miles from the post-office, within
which there are seven deliveries per day, and also seven collections
from the receiving-houses, to go by the general post, as late as five
o’clock P. M.[57]
_FRANKING PRIVILEGE._
“This privilege is entirely abolished under the late new law. Members of
Parliament, even before the law was passed, were restricted as to the
number of letters they were allowed to frank, and were, besides, obliged
to put the day of the month upon each letter franked by them.” The
privilege, however, was not _entirely_ abolished, inasmuch as it was
granted to the Minister of Finance and some of his agents.
_PENNY POSTAGE._
Stamps of one penny and twopence each were first introduced on the 6th
of May, 1840, and since that period there has been an increase of nearly
three hundred thousand letters. Mr. Plitt strongly advocates the cheap
postage system.
_LETTER-CARRIERS IN PARIS._
In Paris, where there are six deliveries of the “Petite Poste” per day,
the carriers of the General and “Petite Poste” letters are the same. In
a report made by Rowland Hill on the French post-office, in October,
1839, speaking of this plan, he says, “The plan of employing one set of
letter-carriers for the delivery of all letters appears to work
exceedingly well in Paris. All that I heard and saw in Paris tends to
confirm the opinion I have already expressed, that great convenience and
economy would result from the union of the two bodies in London.”
_INDECENT POSTAL MATTER._
“SEC. 16. _And be it further enacted_, That no obscene book, pamphlet,
picture, print, or other publication of a vulgar and indecent character
shall be admitted into the mails of the United States; and any person or
persons who shall deposit or cause to be deposited in any post-office
or branch post-office of the United States, for mailing or for delivery,
an obscene book, pamphlet, picture, print, or other publication, knowing
the same to be of a vulgar and indecent character, shall be deemed
guilty of a misdemeanor, and, being duly convicted thereof, shall for
every such offence be fined not more than five hundred dollars, or
imprisoned not more than one year, or both, according to the
circumstances and aggravations of the offence.”
Apart from this act, there is an understanding between the
postmaster-general and postmasters generally relative to obscene and
vulgar postal matter. So far as the secrets of the office are concerned,
that understanding is “contraband.” But this is not sufficient. If the
post-office is to be used as the medium through which the vilest works
of art pass so readily, and calculated to corrupt the innocent and
excite the passions of youth by high-colored pictures, the public, at
least, should know how and why so many reach the persons to whom they
are directed, and to what extent this espionage extends. It would
require no breach of the observance of postal rules to ascertain almost
at a glance the nature of the book or picture which comes under the head
of “indecent postal matter.” These publications, varying in accordance
to the artistic taste of the originators, pass through the office in the
shape of splendid photograph albums, handsomely-bound books, embossed
prints, transparent cards, and “yellow-cover pamphlets,” _à la Dr.
Young_, and photograph cards of a most indecent character. At other
times they are posted as letters, addressed chiefly to young ladies,
containing a card and making the most dishonorable proposals. In several
instances the parents have shown the author these letters, and upon a
close examination he feels satisfied that the only motive the writer had
was to corrupt and demoralize, without the most distant idea of ever
reaping the fruits of his villany. The imagination cannot conceive or
pencil paint a more hideous picture of a fiend than one who would thus
attempt to corrupt the young and innocent by such means. The idea could
only have been suggested by the devil, and as readily carried out by his
agent. Artists of well-known reputation lend themselves to this work of
destruction; and specimens denote the highest order of talent, as well
as the most exquisite workmanship of art,—art devoted to the production
of the most vulgar and disgusting subjects the human mind ever conceived
or a diseased imagination conjured. That very intellect which should
have shed a halo over the pure things of earth is here devoted to the
production of things evil.
A tendency to sap the foundation upon which rest the pillars of
morality, and to poison the minds of youth, seems to be a prevailing
vice. High literary attainments, great mental powers, have been brought
into the arena to battle for crime, lasciviousness, and vice. In all
ages the vile corruption of man’s nature, aided by genius and talent,
has been manifested in the production of things evil. The rapid and, we
may say, alarming increase of crime, the callousness manifested at the
recital of human suffering, the want, or, rather, the absence, of a
correct moral standard in every thing appertaining to social life, the
sneering at the tenets of our holy religion, the assumption as it were
of omniscient powers on the part of sinful men, have led to a state of
things which will require stronger measures than that of mere reasoning
to remedy.
Our streets of a night are flooded with the daughters of vice; temples
are dedicated to licentiousness, sanctioned by the authorities, who
grant them “license” as it were to corrupt youth and demoralize the
masses. Intemperance and pauperism are the results of the “law’s
license” to common crime. Thus the dark shadow of vice extends its fatal
power over that portion of the human family from whose domestic circle
the voice of prayer never ascends. There instead is heard the sound of
rattling glasses: loud oaths, the bacchanalian song, there throw around
the circle of which they form the nucleus an atmosphere to poison and
destroy. Much of all this can be traced to the estimate men place upon
the modern mode of education. If genius invents something that places
vice in a brilliant light, in and through which all that is startling in
picture-view or description presents new features to the novice in
licentiousness, it becomes at once an institution from whence flows a
stream that poisons a city. In an instant these productions take
miniature shapes: art combines with the genius of the originators, and,
lo! they go forth through the post, spreading ruin and desolation
everywhere. It is that very facility which the post affords that gives
power and influence to these fiends; and, alas! how many, dazzled by the
“refinement of vice,”—refined by the touch of art,—fall into the snare
by the very excitement they produce! Many of these photographs of the
more vile character reach “young ladies’ seminaries.” Many books of a
similar character find their way hither, and thus corruption works its
way to the ruin of their inmates.
We would have—what under no other circumstance would we suggest to the
department—_an espionage over all suspicious postal matter_.
_ESPIONAGE OVER THE POST-OFFICE IN FRANCE._
That country must be in a bad way where the heads of the several
departments find it necessary to resort to the most infamous means of
tracing out suspected traitors. Thus, in the postal department, every
letter is subject to the system of espionage, and the innocent as well
as the guilty alike suspected and their private correspondence betrayed.
In time of rebellion, insurrection, or an attempt to assassinate a king
or an emperor, there might be some excuse for the exercise of such
precaution; but in the absence of such startling causes the system is
both mean and cowardly. In France, at the present time (1865), private
letters, newspapers, and pamphlets are subjected to the most anxious
scrutiny. A large portion of every day is devoted to such examinations
by a skilful and energetic body of men. Between the time when letters
are received at the chief office from the district-offices and the time
they are sent out again, two hours elapse. _During this period they are
in the hands of the police._ The police have a list of certain
addresses, and are furnished with examples of the handwriting of every
one in whose correspondence the government is interested. With these and
practised eyes the officials set to work, carrying all suspected letters
into the Cabinet Noir, where they are read, copied, delayed, stopped at
discretion; and the police are very discreet about seizing letters: it
is done as seldom as possible. The system is so perfect, it works so
well, that the only chance of evading it is to correspond under assumed
names, changed with every letter; and this is actually done by people
who are not more treasonable than the majority of Frenchmen, but who,
being eminent and powerful, are condemned to the degradation of shifts
like these, or every letter they write would be read by the police.
Governments maintained thus are never safe in power.
_THE POST-OFFICE SOLVENT._
The following article we take from the “Philadelphia North American and
United States Gazette” of the 13th July, 1865. The view the editor takes
is simply, however, from a hastily-arranged statement made shortly after
the appointment of Mr. Dennison as postmaster-general. We have our
doubts about its accuracy, inasmuch as the short time for reductions of
salary and other expenses would not lessen the debt against the postal
department and yield a surplus of seven hundred thousand dollars. Well
may the editor say, “_How long this is likely to continue we cannot
say._”
“For the first time in many years the United States Post-Office
Department has become a paying institution, the revenues of the last six
months having yielded a surplus of more than seven hundred thousand
dollars above the expenses, and the ensuing six months will tell still
better. How long this is likely to continue we cannot say. During Mr.
Blair’s administration of this department he reduced the expenditures to
such an extent as to afford an astonishing contrast with the old
Buchanan dynasty, when the annual deficit of the department was five
millions of dollars. We thought Mr. Blair’s management unprecedently
good; but still he could not bring the department to a paying standard,
which his successor has now done very handsomely. Mr. Dennison has done
this by means of a system of the most stringent and searching economy,
reducing the force of employees everywhere, cutting down salaries and
allowances, examining carefully into items of expenditure, the
management and compensation of contractors, &c.
“In fact, Governor Dennison brought to the conduct of our postal affairs
the excellent training he had received in the executive government of
Ohio, like his predecessor in that office, Mr. Chase, and he has looked
carefully into every thing under his charge with an eye to economy and
efficiency, and the service, instead of suffering by this scrutiny, has
been largely benefited. But with the renewal of our authority in the
South comes back a region wherein before 1860 the postal service was
always carried on at a heavy loss to the National Government. It hardly
admits of a doubt that this deficit was owing solely to the running of
great numbers of useless mails to gratify local influences. This was
consequent upon the predominance of Southern politicians at Washington.
Their demands for favors of this kind were incessant, and, as they were
generally with the ruling element in Congress, they got whatever they
asked for. It may be inferred that modesty was not one of their faults,
and that they did not lose any thing for the want of asking.
“In places where a weekly mail would have answered, a daily,
semi-weekly, or tri-weekly mail was run, and so where a place of
somewhat more consequence needed a semi-weekly mail a daily mail would
be run. Instead of making every post-office a paying one, by making it
the depot for a sufficient population, swarms of unnecessary offices
were created to gratify local politicians, the effect of which was that
none were remunerative. We are sorry to say that this evil afflicts the
service in many parts of the North, and that there is great need of
discontinuing offices now in existence. Sometimes the ambition or the
jealousy of villages led to this multiplication of useless offices, but
generally it was caused by the Congressmen catering for their political
supporters. Since the year 1860 the necessities of the government have
compelled the department to reduce both the number of these offices and
of the mails run. The deficiency always visible in the postal revenues
at the South, aside from the causes we have referred to, arose also from
the evil policy of the slaveholding oligarchy. Four millions of the
Southern population were prohibited from a knowledge of reading and
writing, and of course the post-office was not needed for them. The
planter had no right to complain of being reduced to a weekly mail; for
in a region of six square miles there might not be more than three
families using the post-office, the rest being all slaves, or illiterate
‘poor white trash.’
“Yet these planters would make a vast deal of fuss about their mail
facilities, and to satisfy them the National Government sustained an
annual loss of millions of dollars. It was not only the prohibition of
letters toward the slaves that caused the loss, for the poor whites
labored under no such prohibition, and yet were as ignorant as the
slaves; but it was the total absence of all provision for the education
of the masses of the population throughout the South. The poor whites
could not read newspapers if they received them; they could not write
letters, nor could they read them. Moreover, the mail-matter was still
further reduced by the refusal to allow anti-slavery newspapers to
circulate at all in the South. A merchant could not receive the
commercial papers of the North, because of their sentiments about
slavery; a clergyman could not receive the religious papers of the
North, for the same reason. If a man in any of the interior districts
received frequent letters from the North, he would be sure to find them
a matter of inquisitorial questioning, and would be obliged to give an
idea of the nature of his correspondence.
“The question how the postal service can be rendered permanently
remunerative at the South involves three distinct and very important
considerations:—
“How can the ignorant masses of the Southern population be educated in a
knowledge of reading, writing, and arithmetic, and insured hereafter the
benefits of a well-established common free-school system for their
children?
“How can we relieve the national mails of that infamous espionage which,
down to the present time, has been rigidly enforced in every hole and
corner of the South, sometimes by the post-office itself, but generally
by outside parties, though always in the interest of the plantation
aristocracy and their political agents and domination?
“How can we prevent the renewal of the old evil of supernumerary
post-offices and superfluous mails all over the South, and so gauge the
service that each office shall pay expenses and each mail be well filled
with paying matter?
“These are the problems to be solved, and it behooves us all to reflect
upon their exceeding difficulty when we complain that our postal
department is not better managed. Although the franking system is bad
enough in all conscience, it is not responsible for the bulk of the
postal loss. From what we have said above, it must be plain that the
despotic social system, established for the benefit of the plantation
aristocracy, has been annually paid for largely out of our pockets. We
have paid five millions of dollars annually as a premium upon Southern
ignorance. We have helped the planter to keep his slaves and his poor
white neighbors in ignorance and degradation, and, in order the better
to enable him to enforce his cruel and abominable despotism, we have
given him the surveillance of our mails, and allowed him to terrorize
over them as he saw fit. Mr. Dennison, we can readily believe, is not
the man to put up with this hereafter; but it requires vigilance to
prevent it altogether, and the exercise of other powers than his to
remedy the great evil,—Southern ignorance.”
_SALARIES OF POSTMASTERS._
Under the old postal arrangement, the salary of postmasters of the
principal cities was limited to $2000. This compensation was derived
from a commission out of their receipts, which could not exceed the
amount named. This would appear at first as small pay for such an
important position,—more particularly as under the administration of
Postmaster Blair the salary was raised to $4000: yet there is not a
postmaster but would willingly go back to the old system. Under the
former provision of the postal law postmasters were allowed the amount
arising from the rent of letter-boxes in their respective offices as a
perquisite, and also certain other matters, which shrewd men knew well
how to place under this head. During the existence of this system the
desire for the office far exceeded that which was and is likely to be
manifested under the latter, inasmuch as $4000 per annum and _no
perquisites_ is scarcely a desirable position for an ambitious and
popular politician. Many a business-man, outside of the political ring,
would consider it quite sufficient, however: _business-men are not
cormorants_. It is true, even under the old law, by an act passed March
3, 1847, the rent of boxes to be credited to the postmaster was limited,
restricting the amount so received to $2000,—consequently limiting his
salary to $4000: for all over and above that amount he had to account to
the department. Under some administrations postmasters became rich,
whether by husbanding their actual income or the perquisites are
questions simply of conjecture.
_THE PENNY POST._
The first attempt to establish the penny post in the United States was
in the years 1839-40. It was simply a speculation, and resulted at first
in almost total failure, but revived again under more enterprising
parties. Previous to this, however, contrary to the laws of
Congress,—particularly the law of 1825, sect. 19, which enacts that no
stage or other vehicle which regularly performs trips on a post-road or
on a road parallel to it, and no packet, war, or other vessel which
regularly plies on a water declared a post-road, shall convey
letters,—certain persons, actually availing themselves of these modes of
conveyance, _constituted_ themselves “private posts,” travelling as
passengers, and carried packages containing valuable letters, documents,
and other available matter: these were, of course, transported as
baggage or freight. The conveyances used by these men passed regularly
over post-roads, and thus they travelled in company with their powerful
opponent, “the post-office department.” It was also well known to the
department; but as they _were not special posts_, the law of 1825 did
not reach them. Still their system was a secret one, and hard to be
detected. The law, however, of 1827, sect. 3, enacts that no person
other than the postmaster-general or his authorized agents shall set up
any foot- or horse-posts for the conveyance of letters and packets upon
any post-road which is or may be established as such by law.
This law paved the way for the establishing penny posts by individuals
in cities and even in rural districts. At first they were called
expresses, but soon they assumed a more postal shape. The
postmaster-general’s annual report of December 2, 1843, stated that
“numerous private posts, under the name of expresses, had sprung within
a few years into existence, extending themselves over the mail-routes
between the cities and towns, and transporting letters and other
mailable matter for pay to a great extent.” Suits were commenced against
parties residing in New York, Massachusetts, and Maryland. It appears
from the postmaster-general’s report of November 25, 1844, that the
government had been unable to suppress the private expresses, which were
still continued “upon the leading post-routes.” In this and in the
former annual report he recommended legislation by Congress for their
suppression. There is yet no law of Congress to suppress these
expresses. Governments, more particularly that of ours, cannot enact
laws that will interfere with the commercial interests of the people. It
may facilitate every movement by such laws as are legitimate; but taking
out of the hands of individuals their _legitimate_ business, connected
with no department of the government, becomes at once not only a
monopoly, but assumes the complexion of tyranny. The decision of the
judges in the cases referred to settled the question, until compromise
stepped in and the government came down to the “penny system,” and thus
satisfied the public.
In 1860 Mr. Holt, the postmaster-general, by virtue of the act of March
3, 1851, by a formal order declared all the streets, lanes, avenues, &c.
within the corporate limits of the cities of Boston, New York, and
Philadelphia, to be post-roads, and notified all engaged in the
transportation and delivery of letters for compensation in said cities,
that they would expose themselves to the penalties imposed by the third
section of the act of March, 1827. The private expresses in the cities
named acquiesced in the legality of the step, with the exception of one
in Philadelphia long and familiarly known as “Blood’s Express,” and
subsequently, “Despatch.” In despite of the act of 1851, or the penalty
imposed under that of 1827, Blood’s Express continued its regular
delivery of letters in defiance of the department. A bill in equity was
filed with a view of restraining the company from this habitual and
persistent violation of the postal laws; but, upon full argument and
consideration had on the questions involved, the injunction was denied.
The mere existence of a postal department of the government is not an
establishment of monopoly. No government has ever organized a system of
posts without securing to itself a monopoly of the carriage of letters
and mailable matter; but this was never intended to control individual
enterprise in the express line. Judge Grier, who indorses the decision
of this case, says,[58] “The business of private carriers of letters and
mailable packets, even on principal mail-routes, is lawful unless
legislatively prohibited. A private monopoly, secured by prohibitory
legislation, cannot require the suppression of a rival business of
competitors who do not infringe the prohibition, merely because the
continuance of their business would lessen or destroy the profits of his
monopoly. A like rule applies in determining the effect of a
government’s legislative prohibitions to secure its own postal monopoly.
The monopoly cannot be extended beyond the legislative prohibitions,
merely because the continuance of a specific business which has not been
prohibited would reduce the postal earnings of the government, or even
frustrate the purposes of its exclusive policy.” Streets, lanes, alleys,
and avenues were not, in the opinion of the judge, “post-routes.” Public
streets intersecting a municipal town are as highways distinguishable
specifically from the general public highways of a State beyond the town
limits. The streets are, indeed, as thoroughfares, general public
highways of the State; but, independently of this character of
thoroughfares, the streets are specially _local highways_ of the town.
Internal affairs of municipal towns affecting their local interests
alone are always regulated more or less by their local governments. So
far as these streets over which the mail may be carried are entitled to
be termed “post-roads for the passage of the mail,” there is no
question; but whether Congress has the right to declare the streets of a
city post-roads for any purpose is questionable.
When Blood’s Express was first established, its main object was to
accommodate merchants, mechanics, and professional men generally, by
furnishing a medium of communication with their customers, clients, &c.,
which would anticipate the slow movements of the old postal mode of
delivery. If this continued to be its legitimate object, it is very
probable the commercial community would have taken a much greater
interest in it than they did; but, unfortunately for this new postal
system, it assumed the character of a “Parisian Bureau,” for the
reception and delivery of small documents, wherein “love, courtship, and
marriage” were all treated with an eye to _excitement_ rather than as a
virtuous incentive to their study and moral consequences. Young and
inexperienced girls were gradually led into (initial) correspondence
with “fast young men;” foolish widows and old maids to advertise for
husbands, and equally silly, weak-minded elderly gentlemen to imitate
their example. Added to this, many made this penny system the medium to
originate practical jokes, and thus the “express” became a sort of
Pandora’s (_postal_) box for “all sorts of people” to try experiments
with fickle fortune, either by marriage or swindling. Both in some
instances succeeded.
The same was attempted when the government took charge of the “express;”
but the department soon put a stop to this nonsensical practice by
ignoring as legitimate matter every thing of an _initial_ character.
Young girls, foolish widows, old maids, and weak-minded men, who could
without much publicity send and receive communications through “Blood’s
Express,” found a post-office somewhat too dignified an institution for
their _childish_ intellects.
Still, this class of people,—and it takes all kinds to make up a
world,—added to another class who make of crime a pastime and
licentiousness a pleasure, adopted other modes of carrying on their
“vocation,” which we here allude to under the head of “Indecent postal
matter.”