Cincinnati daily press. [volume] (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1860-1862, 1860-07-30


ing of this Is that the Postoffice Department
intends TO monopolize the business Of carry
ing and delivering letters within the city,
and 10 enforce the same penalty against all
who infringe on this monopoly that Is pre-
scribed against carrying lstters outside the
mails, on all post-routes. This, we think, is
$50 Heretofore private companies have
shared the business of delivering letters in
New York. Now any company or person
thatc carries letter in the city, will be liable
to fine of $5o.rN 0UTW ..
We need a good many instances Of the
operations Of Government mail system, in
order TO break IL down. The present diff
Guilty in the California mails is another illus
tration Of the beauty of Government mails.
The old contracts expired, and no new ones
had been made, consequently the old con-
tractor, who owned all the steamers on the
Atlantic side, refused TO carry the mails except
at his own terms The express companies
would gladly have taken the letters for the
postage, but the steamers refused to permit
it As common carriers they would have
been compelled TO carry the mails, as freight,
from the express companies, but for the Gov
erninent monopoly which prohibits them
from carrying letters. -..... .s-. f.
Thus the ocean-mail communication with
California was brought to deadlock by the
very means which Government has devised
10 retain in its own hands the monopoly of
carrying the correspondence of the people.
What kind of free country is that in
which person is fined for carrying letter
in the street, If this is the elimination of
our free institutions, we had better rub out
the score and begin again. Has Government
any more right to prohibit the carrying of
letters than the carrying of goods2 OF
course not. No person of common sense will
pretend that il has not just as much right in
one case as in the other. Nor is there the
palliation for this exercise of despotic power,
that IT Is for the convenience of the people.
The convenience of the people does not
need fines and penalties to commend
it TO their use. 1t is system which sacri-
fees public convenience, and forces the busi-
ness of the people into inferior methods by
severe penalties The Government carriers
delivered letters in New York city at two
cents. Private express companies did the
business much more satisfactorily at charge
Of one cent. Now the Postofice Department
proposes 70 do it for one cent, but in order TO
protect an imperfect system against the
superior energy of private enterprise, IL pro-
claims the streets Of the city to be post
routes, after which we suppose that citizen,
Who takes letter for friend to the next
door, will be liable to fine of $50, unless II
Is in one-cent Government envelope.
We read of government monopolies in
different countries, of various commodities
In France OF tobacco, in Naples of sulphur
and we naturally regard them as features of
despoticgovernments, where the rights ofthe
people are mot recognized butkoYl dolithey
differ in principle from our Government,
monopoly of carrying the Correspondence Of
the people? None of them are so odious in
their operation. The French tobacco mo-
nopoly only puts high price on an article of
luxury, for revenuepurposes; but our Gov
srnment mail monopoly t4kes possession of
our public highways, and forbids US to carry
our own property on them, under severe
penalties. .f .. Y.H,
1t must seem strange to any one who
thinks Of the nature of the system, that it
could ever have existed in free Govern
ment. 1t is relic of despotism. Its original
motive was to keep all correspondence under
Government surveillance; but it has de-
scended, by the force of custom, to countries |
where the public mails are inviolable. The re- |
suit Is that in this country every thing is |
carried with certainty, dispatch and safety,
except the correspondence of the people,
Intelligence labors under government en-
barge.
But how are we TO get rid of this incubus? /
How can we make the change from the ex-
tended Government system, To one built up /
by private enterprise, without great Interrupt
tion2 Simply by repeating the penalties.
Then let the Government mails be with
drawn as fast as they lose the business. lI
But for the legal penalties, private enter
prise would have supplied the California
route, even on the short notice, without any
The Government mails would |
be superseded on all the great routes within
'ix months, and letters would be transported |
and delivered at the residence of each person.
by expresses, just as money packages are
now.
II there are country routes which private
would not supply, let the Govern
nent mails continue on them until other
means grow up, or until proper time comes
% abandon them, but there is no sense in |
astening this odious system ON the whole
ountry for the sake of the sparsely-settled |
md unnecessary routes. All that is required |
0 make the change without any Interrupt
lon or Inconvenience to business, is to repeal
snalties which have no right to exist, and
'hich never ought to have been enacted.
side from the relief Of the business of the
ountry by this change, the relief to politics
,orals and society, by disbanding the army
postoffce officials throughout the country.
almost too great blessing to think of.
would change this Government, from the
lost corrupt one on sarth, TO one of almost
urity Il would be the Russian campaign
} the grand army Of oitice-seekers in this
alton.
Biblical RepubIicanfsirl. n - s
Mr.. lSidor " Bush, Hebrew, and a Re-
ahlican candidate for the Missouri LeRisIa-
ire, malee the comments on that circun,-
ance text for communication to the I
l. l..