Ramsey & Carmick, contract. / Letter from the Postmaster General transmitting copy of a conditional mail contract; also copies of correspondence relative to the same

by Various

Now, therefore, the said Albert C. Ramsey and Edward H. Carmick, contractors, and Silas C. Herring, Elihu Townsend, Simeon Draper, Robert B. Coleman, William H. Aspinwall, and Edwin Bartlett, their sureties, do jointly and severally undertake, covenant, and agree with the United States, and do bind themselves:

1st. To carry said mail within the times fixed in the annexed schedule of departures and arrivals, and so carry until said schedule is altered by the authority of the Postmaster General of the United States, as hereinafter provided, and then to carry according to said altered schedule.

2d. To carry said mail in a safe and secure manner, free from wet or other injury, in weather-proof bags and vehicles on the land route, and in a separate and convenient apartment on shipboard, to be suitably fitted up under order of the department, at the expense of the contractors, for the assorting and safe-keeping of the mails, and for the sole and exclusive occupation, use, and accommodation of the Post Office Department and its mail-agent, if the Postmaster General shall require it for the use and accommodation of the mail and mail-agent, and such mail-agent is to be conveyed without further charge.

In case the contractors fail to furnish such suitable accommodations, the department shall have the right to provide the bags, vehicles, or apartments, or other suitable accommodations, at the expense of the contractors.

3d. To take the mail and every part of it from, and deliver it and every part of it into, the post office at San Francisco, and to and from the mail steamers at Vera Cruz on the New Orleans and Vera Cruz line, and also to deliver and receive the mails at San Diego and Monterey, regularly by each trip going and returning, as is now done by the “Pacific Mail Steamship Company.”

They also undertake, covenant, and agree with the United States, and do bind themselves, jointly and severally, as aforesaid, to be answerable for the person to whom the said contractors shall commit the care and transportation of the mail, and accountable to the United States for any damages which may be sustained by the United States through his unfaithfulness or want of care; and that the said contractors will discharge any carrier of said mail whenever required to do so by the Postmaster General; also, that they will not transmit by themselves or their agent, or be concerned in transmitting, commercial intelligence more rapidly than by mail, and they will not carry out of the mail letters or newspapers which should go by post; and that they will not, knowingly, convey any person carrying on the business of transporting letters or other mail matter without the consent of the department; and further, that the said contractors will convey, without additional charge, post-office blanks, mail bags, and the special agents of the department, on the exhibition of their credentials.

They further undertake, covenant, and agree with the United States, that the said contractors will collect quarterly, if required by the Postmaster General, of postmasters on said route, the balances due from them to the General Post Office, and faithfully render an account thereof to the Postmaster General in the settlement of quarterly accounts, and will pay over to the General Post Office all balances remaining in their hands.

For which services, when performed, the said Albert C. Ramsey and Edward H. Carmick, contractors, are to be paid by the said United States the sum of four hundred and twenty-four thousand dollars a year, to wit: quarterly, in the months of May, August, November, and February, through the postmasters on the route, or otherwise, at the option of the Postmaster General of the United States; said pay to be subject, however, to be reduced or discontinued by the Postmaster General, as hereinafter stipulated, or to be suspended in case of delinquency.

It is hereby stipulated and agreed by the said contractors and their sureties, that the Postmaster General may increase the service or change the schedule, he allowing a pro rata increase of compensation within the restrictions imposed by law for the additional service required; but the contractors may, in case of increased service or change of schedule, relinquish the contract, on timely notice, if they prefer it to the change.

It is hereby also stipulated and agreed by the said contractors and their sureties, that in all cases there is to be a forfeiture of the pay of a trip when the trip is not performed, and of not more than three times the pay of a trip when the trip is not duly performed and no sufficient excuse for the failure is furnished; a forfeiture of at least one-fourth part of it when the running is so far behind time as to lose connexion with a depending mail, unless it is shown that the same was not caused by neglect, or want of proper skill or misconduct, and a forfeiture of a due proportion of it when a grade of service is rendered inferior to the mode of conveyance above stipulated; and that these forfeitures may be increased into penalties of a higher amount, according to the nature or frequency of the failure, and the importance of the mail; also that fines may be imposed upon the contractors, unless the delinquency be satisfactorily explained to the Postmaster General in due time, for failing to take from or deliver at a post office, or a steam-vessel, the mail, or any part of it; for suffering it to be wet, injured, lost, or destroyed; for carrying it in a place or manner that exposes it to depredation, loss or injury, by being wet, or otherwise; for refusing, after demand, to carry a mail by any vessel or other vehicle which the contractors run or are concerned in running on the route beyond the number of trips above specified; or for not arriving at the time set in the schedule, unless not caused by neglect or want of proper skill, or by misconduct. And for setting up or running an express to transmit letters or commercial intelligence in advance of the mail, or for transporting knowingly, or after being informed, any one engaged in transporting letters or mail matter in violation of the laws of the United States, a penalty of five hundred dollars may be exacted for each offence, and for each article so carried.