The Madisonian. [volume] (Washington City [i.e. Washington, D.C.]) 1837-1845, 1843-11-13

POST OFFICE REFORM.

tHe peTSOnal ABUSE OIL the postmaster GENERAL
for an honest effort to execute the laws, and
faithful discharge of his official duties, we are
nevertheless as decidedly and as strenuously in
favor OF thorough, and in fact, somewhat rd-
dical reform in the Post Office Department, as
our contemporaries can be, who abuse him the
most vehemently. But it is not the Executive
Officer, that attempts the execution of an unpo-
pular and odous law, that we wage war against,
but the law itself Ii is not the officers of the
Post Office Department that should be quarrel
ed with, but the system portions of which re-
qure TO be overhauled, and altered so as 10 con-
| form to the present wants of the community.
/ The machinery of the Department was well
enough till the introduction Of steamboats, and
railroads OF ened The door for the establishment
OF private expresses on all the great thorough
fares, more rapid, if not more safe, and cheaper
than the Govakpment performed the same du-
| ties; thus taking the business out of its hands,
and greatly diminishing its revenues, and at the
same time, augmenting its expenses. That
some change is absolutely necessary, seems to
be admitted on all hands, but there is diversity
of opinion in regard to its character and extent,
both of which we propose briefly to discuss in
this article. But before examining ether we
declare uncompromising hostility 10 the policy
that has prevailed from the foundation of the
Government, of throwing the Department upon
its own resources for its support. The Consti-
tuition regards it as it does the army, navy, and
mint, as necessary NATIONAL concern, and in
discussing its present merits and dement's, and
the changes necessary TO impart to it its highest
degree of usefulness, we propose to view it in
the same light.
The Army and Navy and national police are
necessary to the protection of The country against
violence from without and anarchy within, and
the Mint to furnish uniform standard or mea-
sure Of value; and the Post Office to furnish a
cheap, regular, and safe transmission Of wrilten
and printed intelligence.
We regard the Post Office Department as one
of the most essential branches Of the Govern
ment. Without it, how could the city and the
country hold regular, cheap, and daily, or even
weekly intercourse How could the printed
Sermon or the pamphlet, filled with eloquent
essays on all subjects; the newspaper with in
formation of all that is passing upon the face of
| the whole earth, and the business letter, or The
epistle Of family friendship and love, circulate
from the Atlantic to the Lakes, and from Maine
to Louisiana?
The Post Office Department is one of the
great moral machines Of the Nation. It's value
in binding together the most distant points, in
keeping up familiar acquaintance with the most
distant neighborhoods, in facilitating internal
trade and in carrying on foreign commerce, and
spreading all kinds of information, is indi ,pensi-
| bic AMI cannot be over-estimaed. But it re-
quires great changes and Improvements, which
should be made with a bold hand, and without
stopping at the responsibility Of throwing a mil
lion or two of expense upon the Treasury, an
nualy, beyond its receipts. We say the neces-
sary reforms should be made without regard TO
their expenses, though we verify believe, il the
lowest letter postage was no more than three or
four cents and the highest ten or fifteen, and the
lowest newspaper two or three mills, and the
highest ten or fifteen mills, upon newspapers of
medium size, aud doubled or quadrupled upon
the larger sheets-that the receipts Of the De-
partment, instead of being diminished, would be
greatly increased for the newspapers and let
ters which now go outside of the mail and
which in the densely ,eIlled and revenue pay
ing sections, prob,by exceed by ten to one
those that go in it, would be carried by The Go
vernment, while the correspondence of the I'M
try would very soon be doubled or trebled, and
The circulation of printed matter rapidly in
creased.
The New York Tribune says
"Can any consderate man doubt as TO the true
IL a. r1o IF Dat k..Ca
him. There the reduction of postage by three fouths
to etenhs has been followed by inconsiderabIe
reduction Of the receipts, which five years will
tirely replace. There not one.fourth of the people
habituay read write here three fourths do So
Is it not clear that reduction of rates of post
age two-thirds would increase the Post Office revenue
How can the Postmaster General hesitatei"
We should rather say hop can Congress he
siidte2
1t is with a good deal of diffidence that we
totally dissent from the opinion of shrewd bu-
sness man, who has had the very best opporu-
nifty of becoming intimately acquainted with the
workings of the Post Office Departmv nj, but we
cannot but regard the suggestion Of Hon. Amos
Kendall in his Exposition, to abandon TO private
expresses the mail business on the great tho
roughfares grave error. The Government
should accommodate the public cbea er and bet
ter than it can be done by private enterprise but
not abandon it TO doubt and uncertainty. Be-
sides, ii is the most productive routes, where
conveyance is the cheapest, that it is proposed
to abandon ii which if carried into execution,
would certainly throw the less productive upon
the Treasury for support. But we do not ap-
prehend that there is any danger of the adoption
of so great an error, Notwithstanding it is coun
tenanced by such high authority.
The fact that barrel of -four is carried from
Troy to New York for IL l-2 cents while let
ter by mail costs Is Cd cts, first noticed by the
Journal of Commerce, as an argument for The re-