The Massachusetts spy, and Worcester County advertiser. [volume] ([Worcester, Mass.]) 1825-1831, 1830-12-29
ne PosrMAsrrn GrnrRAL. [Leller

THx Postmaster GENERAL. Letter
from Washington to the editor Of The ~. 4.
Daity .aduertiserl If an officer of the gov
eminent was held responsible only for his
acts of commission, Mr.. Barry, the Post
master General, would stand freed from re-
proach or censuTe. 1t is incoacelvable how
any man, placed at the head of a depart
ment where so much business is to be trans
acted, as there is in the General Post Office,
could consent to spend the whole of his time
in Incidence. And this is the more sur
IaBrising, when it is considered that his pre-
deeessor, Mr.. Mclean, was universally es-
teemed as being one of the most industrious
and hard laboring men in Office, and was
enabled by his strict and rigid attention 10
burJs PERFORM IT, NIT TO Understand Tie
duty of every clerk in his department, to
have general superintendent over the
whole Post Office establishment, and to
keep the whole in harmonious operation,-
dltfusing its benefits to every section ofthe
United States. His integrity, and the sin
gle eye with which he discharged his ardu-
Gus duties, inspired general confidence
and MIR. McLean's fame is as imperishable
as the department over which he presided
IS lasting. When Mr.. Barry came into Of
nee, his course and his habits were most
obvious. Instead of finding Mr.. Barry at
business, you find him perfectly at his ease
and as ready to sit down and talk politics
as # he had not any thing to do, or think
about. No one pretends to call at the Office
TO see him on business. If any thing of that
kind is 10 be done, an inquiry is made fol
MIR. Hohbie, Mr.. Gardner, Mr.. Brown, OF
perhaps for an eight hundred dollar clerk
who has a particular duty assigned him
When Stockton 81 Stokes send word to Mr.
Barry, that a coach is in waiting to take
him to Baltimore, to Philadelphia, or to any
other place, he is always ready, cap in hand
TO step into il. And when they want three
thousand dollars for carrying the mail from
Washington to Baltimore, instead of eight
cen hundred, the proposition seems to be
too reasonable to meet with a denial. Mr.
Barry, however, has been censured for acts
of commission, of which he was wholly in
nocent. For some time after he came into
office, the removals and appointments were
principally at the disposal of the jackson
central committee of this district: the Off
GERS Of other departments, and clerks in
the General Post Office. The Jackson
central committee. by and with the advice
and consent of the President, turned out
Mr.. Monroe from the city post office, and
appointed DR.. Jones, who was a member OF
the committee, and he knew nothing of the
movement, until DR.. Jones brought to hirs
the order of removal Mr.. Monroe solicited
that his discharge might be entered on the
books as had been customary, but Mr..
Barry said he had no agency in the removal,
and would not then have any thing to do
with making the entry. Mr.. Hill gave in
list for the removals and appointments in
New Hampshire; and clerk in the post
Office a similar list for Missouri. This is
the manner in which the business of that
department is conducted. Mr. Barry is in
the interest of Mr.. Van Buren,, and it is
said, out of all the appointments that have
been made of deputy post masters, there is
not an instance where friend of Mr.. Cal
houn has been appointed.