Foot-prints of a letter carrier; or, a history of the world's correspondece

by James Rees

Francis Granger, immediately on entering upon the duties of his office, made the same discovery as had others before him,—that the postal department was not self-sustaining. Had the postmaster-general been acquainted with the business of the office before entering upon its duties, he would have been fully enabled to reconcile the warring elements of statistics and figures which the books of the office presented. The post-office department is not a self-sustaining one, nor will it be until there is a reconstruction of the whole system. In several portions of this work we have alluded to some of the causes tending to such deficiencies, and pointed out the remedy. As this remedy, however, is connected with certain abuses not unknown to high officials, it is questionable if any action will ever be taken upon it. Mr. Granger says, “When first entering upon my official duties, my attention was forced to the constant demands for payment beyond the ability of the department to pay; and, with a view to ascertain as nearly as might be its undisputed liabilities and probable means, on the 21st of March [1841] last a letter was addressed to the Auditor of the Treasury for the post-office department, requesting from him information on those subjects.”

Mr. Granger became considerably enlightened, no doubt, when the auditor furnished him with the following, which he recognized thus:—“By an examination of that statement, it will be seen that there was due and unpaid to contractors of ascertained balances on the 1st of January last the sum of $447,029, a considerable portion of which has been paid from the revenues of the quarter ending on the 31st of March. A report from the auditor upon the outstanding contracts will undoubtedly increase this amount of indebtedness to a total exceeding half a million of dollars: in addition to which, heavy demands are frequently made on the department upon unliquidated claims.” ... “Under these circumstances,” he asks, “how is the department to be sustained under its present embarrassments? and what are its financial hopes for the future?”

“He also states that the amount demanded by railroad companies for transportation of the mails is more than two hundred per cent. higher than is paid for coach service upon the roads connecting links between different railroad companies upon the same main route, and that, too, where the night-service upon the railroads is less than that performed in coaches.” He illustrates this by the following:—“Boston is one of the most important points of railroad concentration in the Union. Its business prosperity is proverbial; and yet in that city the quarter ending the 31st of March shows, as compared with the corresponding quarter of the year before, a decrease in postage receipts of three thousand one hundred and ninety-five dollars, being double the amount of diminution to be found within the same time in any other post-office in the nation, with the single exception of Philadelphia, which is another great terminus of railroad communication.”

Charles A. Wickliffe.—Born at Bardstown, Kentucky, June 8, 1788, and was admitted to the bar at an early age. He was twice elected to the State legislature during the war of 1812; he twice volunteered in the Northwestern army, and was present at the battle of the Thames; in 1820 he was again elected to the legislature; in 1822 he was elected to Congress, and was four times re-elected. During his service in that body he was appointed by the House as one of the managers in the impeachment of Judge Peck. Upon leaving Congress in 1833, he was again elected to the legislature, and upon its assembling was chosen Speaker. In 1834 he was elected Lieutenant-Governor of the State; and in 1839, by the death of Governor Clark, he became acting Governor. He was appointed postmaster-general September 13, 1841. In 1849 he was chosen as a delegate to the Constitutional Convention of Kentucky; and under the new Constitution he was appointed as one of the revisers of the statute laws of the State.

This gentleman’s views of the postal department were more practical and business-like than those of his predecessor. He says in his report, dated December 2, 1841, “As has already been remarked, the original design in the establishment of the post-office department was that its income should be made to sustain its operations. That principle ought never to be abandoned. Whilst the department should not be regarded as a source of revenue to the nation, it never should become an annual charge to the treasury. Upon assuming the discharge of the duties pertaining to the office of postmaster-general, my first object was to investigate its financial condition; and it becomes my duty to inform you that I did not find it in that prosperous state which the demands upon it require.

“The income of this department is liable to be affected by the fluctuations of the business of the country. It is increased or depressed in proportion to the increase or depression of that business.”

Mr. Wickliffe also took another sensible view of the department: he says, “Besides this cause of fluctuation in its income, other causes of a reduction, more or less in every year, may be found in the increased facilities which the travel upon railroads and steamboats furnishes for the transmission of letters and newspapers by private conveyance; secondly, in the great extension, to say nothing of the abuse, of the FRANKING PRIVILEGE; thirdly, in the recent establishment of what are called private expenses upon the great mail-routes of the United States; fourthly, in the frauds practised upon the department in evading by various devices the payment of the postage imposed by law.”

Cave Johnson.—Born January 11, 1793, in Robertson county, Tennessee. His opportunities for education were limited, but made available to the greatest extent. In his youth he acted as deputy-clerk of the county, his father being clerk. He was thence led to the study of the law. In 1813 he was appointed deputy-quartermaster in a brigade of militia commanded by his father, and marched into the Creek nation under General Jackson. He continued in this service until the close of the Creek War in 1814. In 1816 he was admitted to the bar; in 1817 he was elected by the legislature one of the attorneys-general of the State, which office he held until elected a member of Congress in 1829. He was re-elected in 1831, 1833, and 1835, defeated in 1837, again elected in 1839, 1841, and 1843. Appointed postmaster-general March 5, 1845. In 1849 he served for a few months as one of the circuit judges of Tennessee, and in 1853 was appointed by the Governor and Senate as President of the Bank of Tennessee, at Nashville.