Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1888-05-18
see old letters Of Ben Franklln's, and some

see old letters OF Ben Franlzllns, and some
of his account books are kept in glass
case to show the visitors. The first gen
eral postotiice in the United States was
that established by parliament for the
colonies in 1710 and it was in 1885 that
DE-. Benjamin Franklin was made deputy
postmaster general. In 1854 the mails
were carried from New England to Phila-
delphia every week, and few years later
a line of stage wagons was inaugurated
between Boston and that city to carry the
mails and passengers. The Continental
postoffice department was inaugurated
with Benjamin Franklin as postmaster
general at the beginning of our govern
ment, and Franklin was to receive salary
of 81 600 year. The postmaster general
now gets $4,000 year; but the first post
master general after the revolutionary
war was over and the new government
was organized was appointed in 1889, and
his salary was only 1900. He was a
Massachusetts man, and his name was
Stephen Osgood. In 1880 there were
seventy-ive postofices in the United
States, and the general postotiice was
taken from Philadelphia 60 New York
city. When congress was carried to Phil
adelphia it was taken there and when the
government was removed to Washington
its headquarters were established here.
~.
The postmaster general was for years
considered a very unimportant man in the
cabinet. He was looked upon more as a
clerk than as cabinet officer, and | do
not think he ranked as a cabinet officer
proper until the days of Amos Kendall
and the presidency of jackson. Kendall
was one of Jackson's kitchen cabinet.
He was a man of brains, an editor and a
shrewd wire puller. He is charged with
having written some of Jacksons state
papers, and the truth seems to be that
Jackson used him as a high class private
secretary. He would, it is said, tell Ken
dali his ideas and have him write them
out for him. Kendall would have to write
again and again sentence until it ex-
pressed the exact shade of Old Hickory $
mind The result was that he was one of
the most influential men at Washington,
and he had his voice in the cabinet meet,
ings. X*x
A number of postmasters general Of
the past are still living, and Judge Joseph
Holt and Horatio King, both of whom were
postmasters general under Buchanan, re-
side at Washington. John A. J. Creswell,
who was postmaster general under Grant,
| is well to do. and lives at Washington.
Marshall Jewell died only few years Ago,
and Judge Tyner, another of Grants post
masters general, is practicing law here,
Judge Walter Q. Gresham is on the bench
In Indiana, and is a candidate for the
presidency. Frank Hatton has been an
editor in New York and Chicago since he
/ left the postoffice, and ex-Postmaster Gen
eral Villas is now secretary of the inte-
rior.
The position is now the most important
one of the cabinet, and it controls greater
amount of patronage than any other. Its
10000 postmastcrs are supplemented by
an immense number of clerks, who serve
both at Washington on the railroads and
as examiners and inspectors all over the
country, and its chief is to the people at
large almost as important a man as the
president himself
FRANK G. CARPENTER.