[104] 35 Stat. L. 1088, 1123.
[105] “Where a letter carrier left a letter in the hall of the residence of the person to whom it was addressed, and the defendant opened it with intent to pry into the business and secrets of the owner” it was held to be a violation of the provision against taking mail before it reached the addressee, and the principle was laid down that the protection extends until the letters reach their destination by actual delivery to the persons entitled to receive them. U. S. v. McCready, 11 Fed. Rep. 225 (1882), citing U. S. v. Hall, 98 U. S. 343 (1878).
[106] Act of August 24, 1912; 37 Stat. L. 554. See below, pp. 121, 164.
[107] U. S. v. Wilson, 1 Baldwin (U. S. C. C.), 78 (1830).
[108] U. S. v. Pearce, 2 McLean’s C. C. R. 14 (1839).
[109] U. S. v. Mills, 7 Peters, 138 (1833).
[110] U. S. v. Wood, 3 Wash. C. C. R. 440 (1818). See also U. S. v. Hardyman, 13 Peters, 176 (1839).
[111] U. S. v. Thompson, 28 Fed. Cas. 97 (1846). But see “The Postoffice Monopoly,” 11 Law Reporter, 384 (January, 1849). In this paper the writer argues that the idea of a monopoly is not incidental to the postal grant and that the framers did not intend to make the postoffice a source of general revenue. The Constitution enumerates methods of raising funds and Expressio unius, exclusio alterius. Mr. Paterson’s plan as proposed to the Convention named the postoffice as a source of revenue, but his language was rejected. May the same, asks this writer, be said of his theory? (p. 396). And if the federal government has no such power it has no right of espionage and it may not say of what “mailable matter” consists (p. 397).
[112] U. S. v. Kochersperger, 26 Fed. Cas. 803 (1860). “In a royal grant of the office of postmaster to foreign parts (July 19, 1632, XIX Rymer’s Foedera, 385) the monopoly is justified by the consideration ‘how much it imports to the state of the King and this realm that the secrets thereof be not disclosed to foreign nations, which cannot be prevented if a promiscuous use of transmitting or taking up of foreign letters and packets should be suffered,’” Freund, Police Power, p. 688, n.
[113] Act of March 2, 1827; 4 Stat. L. 238; Niles’ Register, vol. xlvii, p. 120. Until 1827 newspapers could be carried privately, but by the act of this year an express exception hitherto existing was omitted. At the present time, of course, they may be carried outside of the mail. See Postal Laws and Regulations of 1913, p. 605.