The “Globe,” after alluding to the further abuse of the franking privilege, says,—
“If the government had been placed upon the footing of citizens, and had paid during Mr. Barry’s administration one-third even of what these would have paid for the same services, would the department have been in debt? Strike an account with the executive government only, even for the last year, and we find that the balance due to the department, including the losses by abuses, would more than pay its whole debts. To those, then, who charge that the department is ‘insolvent,’ we say that its unrequited labors have justly earned for it a revenue more than sufficient to meet all the demands against it.”
In connection with this subject,—and it is one that, when fully exposed, will astonish the country,—we annex the following from the “American Merchant,” New York, for July, 1859. “There is not the slightest doubt that very extensive frauds may be successfully carried on in the department; but we incline to the opinion, however, that the most aggravated ‘frauds’ perpetrated on the department, and which are the more hard to be borne that there is no remedy for them under the existing law, are those which grow out of the franking privilege. It would astonish the world, could the figures be correctly ascertained, to see to what extent this evil is carried. From a statement made by the postmaster of Washington City to the Post-Office Committee of the House of Representatives, in January, 1854, we gather the following items of ‘franked’ matter sent during one month from Washington alone:—
| Pounds weight. | Postage. | |
| Letters from members of Congress | 3,446 | $4,664 |
| Documents ” ” | 693,508 | 110,961 |
| Letters from Departments | 7,065 | 6,782 |
| Newspapers (numbering 1,110,020) | 111,002 | 11,100 |
| ———— | ———— | |
| Total for one month | 815,021 | $133,507 |
| For twelve months | 9,780,242 | 1,602,087 |
| Postage for one year, if not prepaid | 3,158,390 |
“Let it be remembered that this amount of $2,500,000, which is a fair average for one year, is actually taken out of the revenues of the department in one city. Is it strange that our postal system should be non-supporting?
“If it be right that the General Government should defray the expenses of sending ‘pub. docs.’ and the public and private correspondence of members of Congress to every part of the country, then a sufficient appropriation should be made for that purpose, and there should be some means of fixing a limit to this system of dead-heading. And if letters, papers, and public documents were the only commodities transported under this talismanic ‘frank,’ it would be less a matter of concernment; but when, as has been the case, members of Congress send home their dirty linen to be washed, at the expense of the post-office department, the subject assumes a more serious aspect, and the sovereign people—very impudently, perhaps—persist in knowing why such things are. From the statements of the department for the ten years ending with 1856, the total expenses were $68,136,197, and the revenue from postages $54,014,652, leaving a deficiency of $14,121,545. The appropriation by government during the same space was $5,626,682,—which reduces the actual deficiency to a little more than $9,000,000.”
Many of the packages thus franked, even when received by the parties, to whom they are sent, are rarely opened, for the simple reason that the newspapers (which also go free) containing the same documents or speeches have already been received, read, and commented upon. For instance: it is well known to every member of Congress, and to every one connected with the post-office, that long after the President’s message has been published in every newspaper throughout the country, thousands upon thousands are sent daily under frank from Washington. This was our written objection to the privilege in 1841. Now the same thing extends to “Annual Reports” of the respective heads of departments, other reports, and speeches of members of Congress, which are never read in pamphlet form by the masses to whom they are sent. Many of these speeches, which attracted no attention in the House and created little or no sensation out of it, are handsomely gotten up, neatly printed, artistically stitched, and mailed by the members at the expense of the government to their constituents, to whose literary merit and classical beauties the words of Virgil would most aptly apply:—
“Monstrum horrendum, informe, ingens, cui lumen ademtum.”
There are two meanings to this terrible passage from the Latin poet. The learned reader will apply the less terrible to the subject in question.
It would present a painful picture were we to sum up by number, bulk, and character the public documents which weigh down the mails passing from Washington City to every other in the country,—not cities alone, but towns, villages, hamlets, grog-shops, and places not reputable, either to the sender or the recipient, to name. Documents, such as valuable books, find their way as per direction to ignorant blacks and foreigners, many of whom can neither read nor write. Wholesale and ponderous as are these costly matters, they are few in comparison to the speeches which members of Congress send to their constituents. We refrain from alluding further to these matters, as we feel humiliated as a citizen of the United States when we consider that it is done under the law.