These principal items of postal history concerning France and Germany are condensed from the excellent articles upon the subject as found in the Encyclopedia Brittanica, edition of 1891, as well as the information on English postal history, for which acknowledgment is made in its proper place relating to the Postal History of Great Britain.
The American Colonial Period
The earliest attempt to provide postal facilities for the colonies was in 1672 when Governor Lovelace, of the New York colony, established monthly service between New York and Boston. An office was later established at Philadelphia from which weekly mail was received and sent. By the signing of letters patent in 1691 the control of the American posts was vested in Thomas Neale, commonly called the “Neale Patent.” In that year Neale and the Royal Postmasters General appointed Andrew Hamilton, Postmaster General of America. All the colonies except Virginia cooperated with him in improving and extending the service. A weekly post was established between Portsmouth, New Hampshire, to Boston, Saybrook, New York, Philadelphia, Maryland and Virginia. Five riders were engaged to cover each of the five stages twice a week. In 1707 the crown purchased the good will of the American post and continued John Hamilton, the son of Andrew, in that office at an annual salary of 200 pounds. In the year 1737, Franklin became postmaster at Philadelphia and generally supervised the other offices of the colonies. In 1753 he was one of the deputy Postmasters General, but was dismissed in 1774 by Governor Hutchinson, of Massachusetts, because of his adherence to the patriotic cause.
Under the Continental Congress
But Franklin was not to remain idle for when the Continental Congress met at its second session at Philadelphia, July 26, 1775, they resolved to have a post office system of their own and he was selected to carry on the work. A salary of $1,000 per annum was voted him with permission to employ a secretary and a comptroller with a salary of $340 per annum to each, and a line of posts ordered established from Falmouth, New England, to Savannah, Ga., with postages 20 per centum less than those afforded by parliament. However, Franklin’s great diplomatic ability soon secured him a transfer to a wider field of usefulness and his son-in-law, Richard Bache, who had been comptroller, was named to succeed him. The ledger kept by this gentleman is still preserved among the archives of the Department. It consists of about 3 quines of foolscap, written over in a neat and legible hand. Ebenezer Hazard, who had been the Constitutional postmaster at New York, so termed to distinguish him from the British deputy at that place, was appointed to succeed him. In 1782, an act was passed by the Colonial Congress establishing a line of posts between New Hampshire and Georgia, the salary of the deputies not to exceed 20 per cent of the revenues. The rate of postage at that time on letters weighing not over 1 penny-weight and going not more than 60 miles was equal to 5½ cents and a proportionate charge for greater weights and distances.
The Crown Postmasters
In a well-written article in the Washington, D. C., Evening Star, of July 26, 1913, upon the occasion of the celebration of the one hundred and thirty-eighth year of the American postal service, the activities or self-assumed powers of the English or crown postmasters and its effect in encouraging the independent sentiment of the time was stated as follows:
“These crown postmasters had, or at least they exercised, the right of ‘spying’ upon the mails intrusted to their care. This made it difficult and dangerous for the liberty-loving colonists to communicate with each other. The zealous representatives of England also professed to exercise a supervising care over the newspapers which were printed in the colonies, and made arbitrary rules and regulations against those who were too liberal or outspoken in their expressions of condemnation of things as they then were and who dared to urge the liberty and independence of the colonists. Some papers were shut out of the mails and some were forced to tone down their utterances. A pound sterling was demanded to carry 250 papers, 130 miles.
“The post office led in the unification of the colonists. Paul Revere was the confidential post rider of Massachusetts. The tea party in Boston Harbor would have been but a neighborhood affair but for the agency of the post office and the patriotic publishers who spread the news up and down the Atlantic coast.