US Presidency
1850

He also recommends that the prepaid rate shall be reducedto 2 cents whenever the revenues of the Department, after the reduction, shall exceed its expenditures by more than 5 per cent for two consecutiveyears; that the postage upon California and other letters sent by our oceansteamers shall be much reduced, and that the rates of postage on newspapers, pamphlets, periodicals, and other printed matter shall be modified andsome reduction thereon made. It can not be doubted that the proposed reductions will for the presentdiminish the revenues of the Department. It is believed that the deficiency, after the surplus already accumulated shall be exhausted, may be almostwholly met either by abolishing the existing privileges of sending freematter through the mails or by paying out of the Treasury to the Post-Office Department a sum equivalent to the postage of which it is deprived by suchprivileges.