History of the Postage Stamps of the United States of America

by John K. Tiffany

XXVII.

Official Stamps.

A thorough understanding of the use of these stamps will best be obtained by a brief review of the system it for a time supplanted, which was briefly designated as the "Franking Privilege." As early as the 1st Session of the Second Congress the necessity and propriety of providing for the carriage of official correspondence and the correspondence of Government officers and Members of Congress upon public business was recognized, and Chapter 7, Section 19, approved February 1st, 1792, of the Acts of that Sessions provided:

"That the following letters and packets and no others shall be received and conveyed by post, free of postage under such restrictions as are hereinafter provided, that is to say: all letters and packages to or from the President or Vice-President of the United States, and all letters and packages not exceeding 2 ounces in weight, to or from any member of the Senate or House of Representatives, the Secretary of the Senate, or Clerk of the House of Representatives, during their actual attendance in any session of Congress, and twenty days after such session, all letters to and from the Secretary of the Treasury and his assistant; Comptroller, Register and Auditor of the Treasury, Treasurer, Secretary of State, Secretary of War, the Committee for settling accounts between the United States and individual States, the Postmaster General and his assistant. Provided that no person shall frank or enclose any letter or packet other than his own, but any public letter or packet from the department of the Treasury may be franked by the Secretary of the Treasury, or the assistant Secretary, or by the Comptroller, Register, Auditor or Treasurer, and that each person before named shall deliver to the post office, every letter or packet enclosed to him, which may be directed to any other person, noting the place from whence it comes by post, and the usual postage shall be charged thereon."

By various acts of Congress this privilege was gradually extended to various persons in the employ of the Government until, in 1869, the Postmaster General stated in his report that fully 31,933 persons were authorized by the laws to enjoy this privilege.

As early as 1836, Congress appropriated the sum of $700,000 to pay the post office department for this carriage of official correspondence. The abuses became enormous. Signatures with hand stamps were even recognized. All sorts of favors were extended by persons having the privilege, to their friends. In 1869 the annual expense to the department of this free matter was estimated at $5,000,000. To remedy this abuse, which had the effect of preventing a proper reduction of postal rates to the general public, as the expenses of the Department, including the expense of carrying official matter so-called, greatly exceeded its annual revenue, there was but one remedy—the passage of an act abolishing the franking privilege and providing by appropriation for carrying the necessary government dispatches. The Act of the XLII Congress, Session III, Chapter 82, approved the 27th of January, 1873, accordingly provided

"That the franking privilege be hereby abolished from and after the first day of July, Anno Domini 1873, and that henceforth all official correspondence of whatever nature, and other mailable matter sent from or addressed to any officer of the government or person now authorized to frank such matter, shall be chargeable with the same rates of postage as may be lawfully imposed upon like matter sent by, or addressed to other persons. Provided that no compensation or allowance shall be now or hereafter made to Senators or Members and Delegates of the House of Representatives on account of postage."

The Act of the XLII Congress, Session III, Chapter 228, approved March 3, 1873, after appropriating so much as should be necessary of a certain sum for the purchase of postage stamps for each department, continues.

"That the Postmaster General shall cause to be prepared a special stamp or stamped envelope to be used only for official mail matter for each of the executive departments, and said stamp and stamped envelope shall be supplied by proper officer of said departments to all persons under its direction requiring the same for official use, and all appropriations for postage heretofore made shall no longer be available for said purpose, and all said stamps and stamped envelopes shall be sold or furnished to said several departments or clerks only at the price for which stamps and stamped envelopes of like value are sold at the several post offices."