Weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1858-1865, 1863-04-08

p. %. DEPARTMENT, CONTRACT Bureau,
RlcHMoND, March "a, 1868.
Messrs. E. j. Hale Dc Sons The attention of this
Bureau has been drawn to your issue of the 10th
instant, which, under the relative heads "a serious
evil" and "more mail troubles" contains two ar
.icles in relation to the postal servce,-one depre
eating the enrolment Of contractors and drivers
conscrpts in the army of the Confederacy, and the
other complaining Of an arrangement of schedule,
between Richmond and Weldon, which throws the
mail into Raleigh and Warsaw "after midnight in
stead OF the afternoon"
The character of the legislation, on the subject of
the evil alluded to in the former instance, unfortun.
ately places its correction beyond any adEinistra-
tive measure which the Postmaster General might
adopt No one can, more deeply than he does, re-
greet that the provisions OF the CONSUMPTION law
should, by reason of noD-exemptiOn so strngently
bear the status Of mail contractors and drivers,
to a certain extent, when those agents are found
to come within the condition of military age, seri-
ously to affect the service and the responsibilities
of the Department over which he presides. Hence,
the grave inconvenience likely to result to the mail
service from the operations Of the Act Of Oct II,
1862, had not escaped his solicitude. And he has,
accordingly, made it the subject of'a special report
to Congress, to which the remedial power belongs,
and the action of which, in the premises is yet un-
dssermined In the conclusion of your structures
on the subject it is inferred in the absence of CON-
plant from other quarters, that either the law is
not equally enforced in othe: States that if so,
some mail contractors and carriers are exempted
under favoritisu,. Upon the general execution of
the law throughout the States of the Confederacy,
this Department take upon itself pronounce
As to its application, however, to its mail contrac
tors and their carriers it can safely assert that in
one instance have they been exempted by its &C.
ton, whether through favorltlsm any other con-
sheraton. Its files daily swelling with applica-
tons for exemption, which has invariably declined
because it has power to extend the relief which
is sought at its hands.
Touching the other mail grievance, which you
trace to a new schedule, ruling from Richmond
South, beg to state that the Department claims
absolute freedom of responsibility for the nconven-
icnce which it may have created, as it equally does
for the blame which the arrangement might other
wise entail. would rather refer the cause OF that
grievance to its proper source, springng from the
action of the Wilmington and Manchester and VII
mington and Weldon railroads, whose Presidents,
without consultation with, and without the concur
renee of this Bureau, nay against its better appre-
citation of public convenience far as the transporta
zion of the mails is concerned fixed their time table
in such way as to compel the Department to yleld
to the necessity of such an alteration Of schedule
between Richmond and Weldon, as to make the
running time harmonize at least with the arbitrary
arrangement of the companies.
Yours respectfully,
II. ST. GEO. OFFUTT,
Chief of the Contract Bureau