And it is hereby further stipulated and agreed by the said contractors and their sureties that the Postmaster General may annul the contract for repeated failures; for violating the post office laws; for disobeying the instructions of the department; for refusing to discharge a carrier, or any other person having charge of the mail by his direction, when required by the department; for assigning the contract without the consent of the Postmaster General; for setting up or running an express as aforesaid, or for transporting persons, conveying mail matter out of the mail as aforesaid; or whenever the contractors or either of them shall become a postmaster, assistant postmaster, or member of Congress; and this contract shall in all its parts be subject to the terms and requisitions of an act of Congress passed on the twenty-first day of April, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and eight, entitled “An act concerning public contracts.”
And it is hereby further stipulated and agreed by the said contractors, that the steam-vessels for the service between San Francisco and Acapulco shall be of a class contemplated by the act of Congress, passed March 3, 1845, entitled “An act to provide for the transportation of the mail between the United States and foreign countries, and for other purposes;” and that the same shall be delivered to the United States, or their proper officer, on demand made, for the purpose of being converted into vessels of war, according to the tenor and terms of the said act.
And it is hereby further expressly understood that this contract is to have no force or validity until it shall have received the sanction of the Congress of the United States, by the passage of an appropriation to carry it into effect.
In witness whereof, the said Postmaster General has caused the seal of the Post Office Department to be hereto affixed, and has attested the same by his signature; and the said contractors and their sureties have hereunto set their hands and seals the day and year set opposite their names, respectively.
| S. D. HUBBARD, Postmaster General. | [SEAL.] | March 3, 1853. |
| WM. H. ASPINWALL, | [SEAL.] | March 3, 1853. |
| EDWIN BARTLETT, | [SEAL.] | March 3, 1853. |
| By Wm. H. Davidge, their Att’y. | ||
| ALBERT C. RAMSEY. | [SEAL.] | February 25, 1853. |
| EDWARD H. CARMICK. | [SEAL.] | February 25, 1853. |
| SILAS C. HERRING. | [SEAL.] | February 25, 1853. |
| ELIHU TOWNSEND. | [SEAL.] | February 25, 1853. |
| SIMEON DRAPER. | [SEAL.] | February 25, 1853. |
| R. B. COLEMAN. | [SEAL.] | February 25, 1853. |
| THE MEXICAN OCEAN MAIL AND INLAND COMPANY, | [SEAL.] | February 25, 1853. |
| By Robert G. Rankin, President. |
Signed, sealed, and delivered by the Postmaster General in the presence of—
- James Lawrenson.
- R. T. McLain.
And by the other parties hereto in the presence of—
- J. B. Nott, witness for A. C. Ramsey, S. Draper, and R. B. Coleman, and Edward H. Carmick.
- Edward S. Gould, witness to S. C. Herring.
Witness to Wm. H. Davidge’s signature, as attorney of Wm. H. Aspinwall and Edwin Bartlett—