Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1841-1853, 1847-06-24
The Postage Law---Unjust abuse Of the
II. M. General.

me- EOstASc hsftt---G MUST abuse OIL Tie
II. NJ. General.
Our neighbor Of the Journal suffers no opportunity
to escape which gives him chance to abuse and viii
fy the administration.
In his paper of the 10Th he copies, editorializes
and endorses article from the ST. Louis Republic
can under the head of "Importan violations Of the
laws by the Postmaster General - The portion of
the law violated is said to be the following
"And all newspapers conveyed in the mail shall SUBJ
ct to postage except those sent by Of exchange be-
tween the publishers Of newspapers, and except those
ranked by persons enjoying the Thanking privilege, and
newspapers sent from the Office of publication and
all handbs circulars printed or Autographed not ex
ceedng sheet shall be subject to three cents postage
each, Except those franked by persons enjoying the
ranking privilege and newspapers not from the Office
Of publications. and all handbis circulars printed or
hogrs phed exceeding sheet shall be subject to
three postage, each to be paid when deposited in
sny post Office to be conveyed in the mail"
Now in the first place, the Republican or the Jour
nall both in publishing this extract from the law
have made what the printers technically call a
doa5let. That is, they have printed part cof it
tcice ouer and this part we have nclosed in brackets.
We should think that when charging high function
airy with the high crime Of wilfuly violating the law,
and pretending prove it by an extract from the law
ITSELF they would be little more careful, not to say
a little more honest.
Having thus blunderingly copied, the,Journal goes
on to say -
"Ths is the official law, published by authority, with
the punctuation preserved in every respect 1t will be
seen, that all newspapers free, except those
sent from the Office of publication that in can
pre- payment be demanded except circulars
bills Of sheet each. provision of the old law is
changed except for such circulars handbis
posed of one sheet each"
And the Journal winds up. by proposing to the peo-
pie the following very formidable remedy:
aAnd the public will ask for remedy and if they
win act they will have speedily Let every postmaster
who withhods paper not sent from the Office Of pubca-
ton be required deliver the paper Free and in of
REFUSAL let him be prosecuted before justice of the peace
for the paper Whenever paper is sent from the Office
of publication and than the old demanded,
let the postmaster be prosecuted in the same manner Let
every postmaster who refuses to receive newspaper, be
also prosecuted before justice of the peace and shall
soon see whether Mr. Cave Johnson to make laws,
whether they to be passed by Congress"
! Now all this fuss and folly and abuse, is based
upon the simple accident, that, in the pamphlet from
which the above extract from the law is copied, a
| comma and Semi-colon were misunderstanding an
erroneous punctuation, and thus apparently altering
the sense of the text in a certain sentence. But this
erroneous punctuation is so plainly evident on the
the Journal could have been misled by it nor would
he have been, he not blinded by his hostility
the administration.
| A week ago statement in the New York
papers relative TO this error and now we have the
Union containing an "oficial' extract from the
law, under the oficial' sign and seal of JAMES b.
cHANAN Secretary of State of the United States, by
which it appears that in the original parchment roll
of the law, in the Department of State this comma
and this semi-coon in their proper places, and
that they make the law precisely what the post
master general and every man of common judgment
and common sense must have supposed it meant
Here is the extract thus 'ofically" sanctioned:
"And all newspapers conveyed the mail, shall be SUBJ
ec to postage except those sent by way of exchange be-
tween the publishers of newspapers. aud except those
franked by persons enjoying the ranking privilege and
newspapers not sent from the Office of publication and all
handbs circulars printed Autographed not exceed
ing Sheet shall be subject three postage each
be paid when deposited any post Office to be convey
~ mail"
1rnal's extract there is a comma after the
Sag privilege" and semi-coon after
" publication - but to give the true mean
ing of the law, the position of these punctuation
marks should be reversed This it seems to us should
be sefeviden without the authority of the Secretary
/ of State; for how absurd it is to suppose, as the
Journal pretends that Congress intended to make all
newspapers Free ercept those sent from the Office Of
publication. They have made some foolish laws, we
confess the subject of postage, but Bedlam itself
would not make such foolish law as that. Why il
every body could send their newspapers free except
publishers, how many would any publisher mail We
doubt if We or the Journal either should mail any
all bayo n,
friends here, who according to the Journals under
standing of the law could mail them all for nothing
Are right about this matter, you, Mr.
Journals If your decision is in your own favor, we
recommend that you yourself apply the ''remedy,'
which you so generously propose for the benefit Of
others. You 60 to work and prosecute every any
postmaster who enforces the law upon you if you
1cin, others may risk following your example well
as your advice you will at least evince your OWL
confidence in your own judgment and honesty I'm
til you do this, and come off with safe skin, We
should advise all honest people to be shy of your la
as well your politics.
The Journal will become satisfied that it has beer
in error and has done injustice to the postmaster gen.
eral. Will it acknowledge the corn
Foreign News.
The Cambria arrived at Boston -on the 18th inst
with Liverpool papers of the 4th
The late fine weather in England and on the Con
tinent, promising favorable harvest, has had the
effect of materially depressing the prices of Flour
and Grain.
The markets have fallen Dos per Or from the highes
point. Flour, which had declined to 40s. is, how
ever, now worth abs, and may be fairly quoted a