'Tis a pity that the Honourable Congress did not treble the postage for Officers' letters, as a large annual sum by this means would be put into the public Treasury.
The several printers of newspapers on the Continent are requested to insert the above."—Pennsylvania Packet, 22nd June 1779.
[152] In all, no less a sum than $111,967 was advanced to the Post Office during the year 1779.—Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774-1789, pub. Washington, 1904, vol. xv. pp. 1412 and 1436.
[153] Ibid., vol. xviii. p. 1142.
[154] The rates were given in pennyweights and grains of silver, each pennyweight being estimated as equivalent to five-ninetieths of a dollar.
[155] Journals of Congress, Philadelphia, 1781-2, vol. vii. p. 509.
[157] Ibid., vol. xii. p. 11.
[158] Message to Congress, 25th October 1791.
[159] See Debates and Proceedings in Congress, 20th December 1791. (Washington, 1849.)