Arkansas true Democrat., 1858-03-09
Overland Mail Route to California. Letter of the Postmaster General to the Chairman of the Post Office Committee of the House of Representatives.
POST OFFICE DEPARTMENT, z
 February 1858. {

February 1858.
 STR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of yours of the 26th June, 1857, enclos- ing House Report No. 50, and inquiring whether I have any information to communicate or re- commendation to make touching the subject matter of the same You further add, that the committee would be pleased to receive any ln- formation that may be in possession of the de- partment or any recommendation or suggestions which you may desire to make touching the subject of the overland mail to California, to as sist them in arriving at a proper determination in the premises.
 In reply, beg leave to refer you to my elabo- rate report to the President on that subject, as containing my best convictions, after the most patient and aborious research, as to the proper route to be selected in order to carry ont the true intent and purpose of Congress.
 Whilst engaged in the investigation, was constantly met with the suggestion, that the whole scheme was impractcable, and the natn- ral obstacles, lying chiefly west of the Rio Grande, would render it impossible to obtain the service anticipated by Congress.
 l am happy to inform your committee that, since this route was established and the contract duly executed, all these forebodings have been dissrated, and the practicablity of having four horse coach service, carrying passengers, with the required speed, has been fully de monstrated. The route established by Con- greSS, from San Antonio, by Fl Pa>o, through the Gadsden Purchase or Arizona, passing Fort Yuma to San Diego, has been put in operation. Many trips, with passengers, have been mad in excellent time and with the happiest result Large public assemblies have been called at both ends of the line, and the most unbounded re- joicings have attested the success of the service ba E,,a of ,, .l.1 same with that of the overland mail from the Rio Grande near Fl Paso to Fort Yuma, or the Colorado, and Is to be, disco 1tinued between those points whenever the latter service begins To abandon that line after it has been actually tested for many months Is to abandon certaintv for an uncertainty, and to take away from the department and the public the certain assurance | and positive knowledge that the service can and will be well performed on the route selected - And what Is to be substituted for this assurance which actual experiments have given? No route that Congress may prefer, any that its com naittee may recommend, but the whole field is thrown open to the contractors, to go here or there according to the suggestions of their own in- terest swyaed and influenced as they may be, by large sectional or railroad combinations that may choose 10 appeal to their cupidity. hls department intends to intimate no com- binations to have been, in fact, entered into in this case. It knows of no facts which would warrant such charge but the postmaster gem eral feels 1t to be his imperative duty to point out the almost certain consequences, which na turaly grow ont of conferrng power so vast and unbounded in the hands of a company oi mere carriers, who owe no responsibility ;o the public, whose individual members may not even be known to the country. In this very case if the action of the executive government is tn be d'safhrmel by conferring the power on Me~srs. Butterield, Fargo < Co.,, what will be at once their cOudtion2 The South Pass and Salt Lake route was zealonsly advocated, aui great ral road interests and the 'tere>t of cities iyiug above St. Louis invoked to sustain that route. Well, suppose these cifies and railroad companies combined shall apply, not to Congress, not to your committee, not to the Executive ot the United States, but to Mr. Butterfiell, MT Fargo, and the rest of them, n the exercise of tter discretion, to start on the Mississippi above or even at St. Louis, and thence by the South Pass, Salt Lake, etc. What answer would they make? Why, that the route was utterly i'm practicable from snow, ice, and mountains. for at least four or five months of the year.
 The reply to this may b., and according to all the laws of human nature would be. i've know it, but We have such large private iu- terest vested in railroads town lots, etc, all along much of this route, that if you select it, We will promptly pay all the fines and forfeit ures which the post office department may i'm pose" This might satisfy ''the bond" it is true, but in the meantime. for the four or five months, the public would have no mails, and the means of importation of passengers, as we'll mails, would be entirely lost.
 The department has no doubt that there are large companie. and interests who might press hard on these contractors 10 select this Salt Lake route; and yet the positive experience of Six wears, as shown in pages 33 and 34 of my report. | demonstrates de utter jmPossihAty of conveying | mail on t for more than ei Iht or nine months of the year. full confirmation of all this may be found in the present condition of vour army 1 n Utah. They are embedded in the snows and ice of the Rocky Mountains You cannot send ] mule, or horse, or a soldier, to their rclief- l Although encamped within one hundred miles | of the enemy, your army cannot move trom is | position; and from November to April you have | to remain in state of utter inactivity
 \ If the purpose of taking t by the ,uth Pass \ and Salt Lake be dtstvowed why < it mot ,x- \ cIuded by the bill: If s. Louis, Springfield. N Neusho, Anton Chico. and Abbuquarlue. be the route, why not specify it as He ole to be sulsti- tuted for the one selected, leaving no room lor \ combinations and bids to the cupdity of coutrac- N tors, under no obligations to the government or ' people of the United States beyond the mere \ mohey clauses of their covenant. Here are two | routes. The one has been selected bv The Pre> dent, through one of his departments The COL. tractors have hargained freely and willingly. to perform the service required Positive experi- ments over the most dilficult, and indeed the | only questionable part of the way, demons rate. beyond all caUj{, that stages with mails and pas sengers, can be, and are twice every month, con- veyed i'll safety and comfort over it. Now. ii Congress shall think this not to be the best routa why not say so itself? Why set up Butterfield Fargo o., not only above the President and one of his departments, but even above them selves?
 There is another mode by which lhe proprietv of this proposition may he tested hy your con- mltee. The government of the United States has vast number of heavy contracts with steam ships along our coast and steamboats aiong our rivers; als" with railroads and stage contractors almost without number
 In every one of these the route has been es
 tablIshed either by Congress itself or by the post office, acting under its authority. Now what would be thought of a proposition to overtnrn all these routes established by law, and specified in every contract, and turn the whole loose, de- pendent upon the selfish interest of the contrac- tors themselves. Such a proposition woull startle the whole country, and on principle would not differ in one ot or title from the one now under consideration.
 One reflection more in this case will demon. strate beyond all disputation that this proposi-
 ton is altogether wrong. By the contract made
 with these parties they are now bound to start
 at Memphis and run out to Little Rock; also. tc start al St. Louis and run out, making junction
 with the Memphis route either at Little Rock ol
 Preston, in Texas, as they may choose Other
 bidders stood ready to do the same service, in the same time, and for the same price, and when they lost the contract went away greatly disa,,- pointed. Now it is proposed to release Butter
 field, Fargo & Co.,, from performing the service
 on these two branches of the main road, and to
 permit them to select only one as may best com-
 port with their own interest. Why, it may be
 well asked, this er post tacto easement to these