New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1861-10-07
SOUTHERN POsTmAsTERs.

SOUTHERN POsTmAsTERs.
For great many years past, the Postal
service in the Slayeholdng States has been q
heavy tax upon the public treasury. 1t has
annually run the Department in debt hundreds
of thousands of dollars. This was mainly due
to the great number of miles traversed, and
the small amount of matter carried by the
mails Not being reading community, having
when compared with the North very few
newspapers and common schools, and, in fact
embracing large preponderance of the illit-
crate portion of the inhabitants of the country
and yet, being very sparsely settled, of course
the South sent her mail-bags almost empty
except along a few great thoroughfares connect
ing the more hourishing cities We recollect
to have heard of one route, five hundred miles
long, over which a daily mail was carried,
where the average contents of the bags and
pouches did not exceed twenty letters and five
new papers. So much for the remote past.
We always regarded the carrying of the
mails, BY the Federal Government, in those Sc
dependent, and some of which were in open
arms against ii, as q remarkable stretch OF
that charity which covers a multitude OF slns
AT length, when the postal service In those
States was suspended, and the traitors left to
foot their own bills, it was found, on looking
over the account current of the year, that the
annual cost of the service in the Rebel States
was SO, 926 SOC 49, while the proceeds were
only $3.50, 378 80, making loss of S3,096, 4H
"a. This was quite snug little sum for the
North to annually expend in carrying the let
ters and newspapers of 4" our Southern breth-
rem" who, for years had been plotting
conspiracy against the Union, which had now
ripened into open insurrection against the
Government that layished such sums upon
them.
But this is not the worst Of the case. The
Confederate States, on organizing their so-called
Government, placed at the head of the Post.
Office Department John Fl. Reagan, formerly
member of the United States Congress from
Texas. Reagan had been thief and swindler
in small way in that State ere be appeared
upon the broader theater of the Union. lie
achieved, while in Congress, marked reputa-
ton for trickery, chicanery and dishonesty, ac-
companjed by an exhibition Of fair business ca
pacity and quenchess perseverance in accom-
plishipr his ends. Our Washington reporter
gives us, this morning. under the telegrapmc
head a specimen of the manner in which kea'
cams subordnates ia the Soulful Will De
recollected that all Federal Postmnsters IN the
Rebel States were continued in Office by the
JEFF. Davis Congress-are disposed TO ciose up
their accounts with the Post.Ohice Department
at Washington. Following the lead OF their
Mississippi chief they repudiate their obliga'
s.--. .nA ike Reagan and his colleague Ben
lamiu, stea all they can lay their hands upon.
or the moneys and postage.stamps in their
hands on the lst Of April last, and actually be-
longing TO the Federal Government these Con-
federate POstmasters have retained and refuse
TO pay over S2l0,544 IL. Some OF these
swndlers probably have reported to the depart
ment. but refuse to refund, while 5,769 of
them decline to make any returns at all. To
this sweeping statement there are two honor
able exceptions. The Postmasters at New-Or-
leans and Nashville acknowledge the amount OF
Federal funds in their hands, and hold it sub.
iect to the draft of the Postmaster General at
Washington. Like the few righteous men in
Sodom, they are refreshing GASES in a wide
desert of thieves, peculntors and swindlers