New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1856-12-31

A deluslOn has prevailed very extensively III tnis
country that the Post Office Department was es-
tablshed and il supported for the convenience and
advantage Of the public at large. Nothing can be
more remote from the truth than this extfavsgant
persussiop. Had Sir Thomas Browne lived to
this day, he would assuredIy have raoked
this chimera among the Vulgar Errors he once
treated of; and had Charles Lamb had his desk in
Wal.street instead of Leadenhal.-street, he would
have classed it among the Popular Fallacies he
wrote an Essay to dsprOve, or he would have been
puilry of a sin of omission. The duties of the Post
Office Department are three-fOld: First to con-
duct the business it cannot help doing in such
way as to cause the least trouble and inconvenience
to the Postmaster. General and bis deputies. Sec
ondly, to exercise wise supervision over the great
National Institution of Slavery in the South and to
gee 10 it that the Republic suffers no detriuent in
that direction. And, thirdly, to promote every
where, by all the means its extensive ramhcatlon
puts at it's disposal the interests of the Democratic
party and It's continuance in power. Subordinate
to these paramount duties, and hating q long way
behind them, comes the mere vulgar transportation
and distribution of letters and newspapers.
Our readers have been made aware from time to
time of the little liberties which have been taken
by these guardians Of the public safety aud
morality with our own harmless sheet. Our sub
scribers in Virginia and elsewhere in the South
have been refused permission to receive THE
TRIBUNE BY these conservators of the peace. We
have even attracted the attention of the Grand
Jury Of Harrison County, Virginia, and have at
this moment an indictment hanging over our heads
TO the utter destruction Of our peace of mind.
Beside this, it il proposed to make it a penal
Ofenie in any one in the Ancient Dominion to re-
ceye our innocent lucubrations. And all this
is owing to the vigiant eye kept upon what passes
through their Offices by the Deputy Possmasters,
in obedience to the Higher Law which transcends
in it's jurisdiction the simple authority Of the Con-
stitution and Laws Of the mere United States. In
the Free States as we'll as the Slave, the services
of these multitudinous agents are demanded 70
assist in preserving the Union, by keeping in power
the only mer who are capable of that delicate pro-
cess Of political cookery. We have had occasion
- than once to speak Of the zeal of some Of the
h., earnest patriots which would make it part
The post.Dsgisteri.l duty to hinder the cireula-
!on of such prints ours, and TO promote by their
officisl irsAence aud helping that of papers Of
more wholesome character.
. 1t is not much msre than twenty years since
fs, the most important function of oil, was added
40 the duties Of Postmasters. The improvement
was fifty inaugurated, however, aud in the fttess
place. On the Both Of July, 1885, the citizens Of
Charleston, S. c., Learning that certain publica-
tions not to their mind had arrived at the Post
Office of that city, arose in their majesty, broke
open the mail-bags, seized the offending docu-
ments and offered them up as a holocaust to
Slavery. The Charleston Postmaster wrote to
Amos Kendall, then Postmaster General, for iu-
structons should like outrage be attempted
again on the sensibilties Of his fellow citizens
through the mails. That conscientious but patri-
otto minister replied that "we owe an Obligation
Ito tie avs, but higher one to the community
"in Which We live: and, if the former be perverted
"to destr'y the letter, it ia patriotism 10 disregard