[264] Young, The Cumberland Road, p. 100. The question of state tolls on mail carriers will be treated in the chapter on “The Power of the States to Interfere with the Mails.”
[265] “The government of the United States cannot construct a postroad within a state of this union without its consent; but Congress may declare, that is, establish, such a road already opened and made a public highway by the direct or indirect authority of the state.... The United States have the mere right of transit over these roads for the purpose of carrying the mail, and in case of obstructing this right their laws provide an adequate remedy.... The act of Congress making all railroads postroads means only such as have charters from the several states.” Cleveland, P. & A. R. Co. v. Franklin Canal Co., 5 Fed. Cas. 1044 (1853).
[266] 13 Stat. L. 365.
[267] 15 Stat. L. 124.
[268] U. S. v. Inlots, 26 Fed. Cas. 482 (1873). See also Trombley v. Humphrey, 23 Mich. 472 (1871). and 1 Kent’s Comm. 268, Note A.
[269] Kohl v. U. S., 91 U. S. 367 (1875).
[270] 5 Stat. L. 283.
[271] Pennsylvania v. Wheeling Bridge Co., 18 How. 421 (1856); see also 13 How. 518 (1852).
[272] 12 Stat. L. 205. See Blackham v. Gresham, 16 Fed. Rep. 609 (1883), and U. S. v. Kochersperger, 26 Fed. Cas. 803 (1860), where it was said: “The public streets of a municipal town over which the mail may be carried in any of the routes established by Congress as postroads, are doubtless, postroads for the passage of the mail. Whether the streets of such a town can be established by Congress as postroads for any other purpose is questionable.... So far as the prohibition of private letter carrying within the limits of such a town may be concerned, the legislative power which is wanting under the head of postroads, may, perhaps, be incidental to the execution of the power to establish postoffices. If this be so, the point may be of little ultimate practical importance.” Blackham v. Gresham upheld the act of 1861.
[273] See Postal Laws and Regulations of 1913, p. 605.