144 ft. and 64 vols. The records of this committee provide a thorough coverage of the various activities that occupied its members during its 138-year existence. The minute books and docket books taken together cover much of the life of the committee. They record the petitions, memorials, bills, resolutions, and other documents that were referred to the committee and their disposition within the committee. The bulk of the documents from the early years of the committee are petitions and memorials .
Several topics dominate the files during each of the historical periods of the committee.
The records from almost every Congress during the years before the Civil War, for example, contain requests for new or expanded post offices, post roads, or postal routes. Opposition to Sunday mail operations was the subject of a continuous stream of petitions and memorials during the early period. A variety of other issues, many of which involved the salaries of postmasters and other employees of the Post Office were considered by the committee during each Congress. 16.8 Claims petitions, usually submitted by Post Office employees or persons who contracted to carry the mails, appear in the records of every Congress before the Civil War. The claims often asked for reimbursement for unexpected expenses involved in the fulfillment of a contract, or for the performance of extraordinary duties.