Northern tribune. [volume] (Cheboygan, Mich.) 1875-1885, 1885-07-02
Carrying tho Mails In Early DAYS.


The following extract is from the Sec
Odd volume of John b. McMasters "His-
tory of the People Of the United States"
just published:
On the resignation of Samuel Osgood
In 1871, the office OF Postmaster General
was bestowed on Timothy Pickering.
So Insignificant was the place and
80 light the duties that officer was to
perform that Washington did not think
him worthy of Cabinet seat. Yet there
is now no either department of the gov-
ernment in which the people take SO
lively an interest as ia that over which
the Postmaster General prssides. The
number Of men who care whether the
Indians get their blankets and their ra-
ti0ns on the frontier, whether one or two
are stationed at Fort Dodge, whether
there is feet of gunboats in the Med
iterranean Sea, is extremely small, But
the SUE never sets without millions up
on millions of our citizens intrusting to
the mail letters and postal cards money
orders and packages, In the safe and
speedy delivery Of which they are deeply
concerned. The growth OF the pOstOffice
la the last ninety years is iadsed amaz-
ing. In 1892 there were 264 postoffiees
in the country; now there are 49,C }. The
yearly revenue which they yielded then
was $3.50 }. Now 1t is far above $45,-
OOOC o. More time was then consumed
ia carrying letters ninety miles than
now sufflces TO carry them l,CC0. The
postage required 10 send letter from
New York to Savannah was precisely
eighteen times as great as will send one
now far beyond the Rocky Mountains.
into regions Of which our ancestors had
never heard.
With newspapers the Postmaster Cen
eral would have nothing to do. The
postmasters in the towns and villages
did, indeed, receive them and send them
on with the mails, but they were under
nc obligation 10 do SO. 1t is, therefore n
common thing TO read in the papers
printed AT towns remote from the sea-
board, complaints that the Pennsylvania
packets or the New York Journal were
kept back, and civil requests to the post
masters to let them 60 on. When they
did come IL was
USUALLY IN SADDLE-BAGS,
and, as the riders never travelled by
night, they were several days old. From
the official pOstOffiee notices in the news
papers. il appears that letters which
went out from Philadelphia at $40 in
the morning OF Monday were expected
to reach New York at 2 in the afternoon
of Tuesday. Precisely the same number
of hours was spent on the road from
Philadelphia to Baltimore. Under the
confederation this space was thought
speedy enough, but times had changed.
A new government had beeR set up; the
bank had been established. A wild de-
sire to speculate had taken hold upon
men, and in their ANXIETY to hear of the
doiRgs of Congress and the price of
stocks in the neighboring cities, q post
that made ninety miles in twenty-four
hours and half seemed insufferably
slow. An attempt was therefore made
TO hasten the mails, and Jefferson, at the
suggestion of Washington, had long
conference with Pickering, The wish
of the President was that letters should
travel Il miles IN twenty-fOur hours
The plan was to have the pouches car
ried by riders in the day and by the
coaches during the night. but the coun-
try was too poor. An attempt had, in
mail coaches with seats for four passen-
gers. but that State laid yearly tax of
$400 on stages and taverns, declared the
Federal Government was no better than
an individual, and demanded payment.
In Maryland and Virginia the right to
convey passengers had been granted as
monopoly to certain men. When there
fore, the motion was made in Congress
that all stage wagons Of the postoffice
should HAYS the righs to carry pascal
gers too, a cry went up that such law
woed be a violation Of State rights, and
the motion was lost