The daily morning journal and courier., 1904-01-12
THE POSTAL SERVICE.
How it Has Grown With the Growth of
 This Country.


 How it Has Grown With the Growth of
 This Country.
 The postal service of this country is the greatest business concern managed for the people by Uncle Sam. Its his tory, which dates back nearly 250 years. should prove of especial interest at this time, the postofiee department having been prominent in the public eye for the last year.
 This country's postal history has four well defined periods: Colonial, up to 1893; under the Neale patent, 1893 to HOT; under the control of the general postoffice in London, 17O7 to 1774; Amer ican control in two divisions. 1774 to the present-1774-'Ss under congress and 17S9 to the present, the postoftice de- partment of the United States. In 1859 the postoffice first made its appearance in this country. Massachusetts seems to have been foremost in it's establish ment. The General court of that col- ony issued the following in 16S9: It is ordered that notice be given that Rich ard Fairbanks, his house in Boston. is the place appointed for all letters which are brought from beyond the seas. or are sent thither, to be left with him, and he is to take care that they are to be delivered or sent according to direc- ton; and he is allowed for every letter a penny, and he must answer all mes l sages through his neglect of this kind"
 In 1857 postal service was establish ed in Virginia. The colonial law re- quired every planter to provide mes senger to convey the dispatches, as | they arrived, to the next plantation, and so on, on pain of forfeiting a hogs head of tobacco for default. In 1872 the government of New York established a mail "to go monthly" between New York and Boston. In 1874 the General court at Hartford enacted laws to reg l ulate the postal service in the colony. In July, 1883, William Penn established a postoffice ill Philadelphia, With week | ly mails to various places near the city, and about the same time opened mail routes between Philadelphia and the larger towns of Pennsylvania and Ma ryland.
 | In 1893 pe5toffice was established by the colony, but this was set aside to CO., operate with the service under the Neale patent. These represent the sew eral colonial enactments in relation to n5stal communication. Of a regular post outside these efforts, no trace can be found in the archives of either the state or the postoffice department. As between residents in the different colo nies private correspondence was carried mainly by coastwise vessels or occa- sional travellers.
 | The beginning of the American post | dates with the signing of patent, Feb ruary IT, 1891, vesting in Thomas Neale the American post. On the 4th of April Following Neale and the royal postmas- lter-general appointed Andrew Hamilton postmaster general of America Ham Hilton undertook the arduous duty of es- tablishing an intercolonial post. proving himself successful He visited all the colonies, was trusted implicitly and sat- lisfied each colony of his ability and re- sources in the new venture. The CO., operation of all the colonies except Vir- ginia having been secured, service be- gan on May 1, 1893, and consisted of a Iweekly post from Portsmouth, N. H., to Boston, Saybrook, New York, Philadel- phia, Maryland and Virginia. Five rid CTS were engaged to cover each of the 1 five stages twice a week. In winter service was performer fortnightly. Hamilton died in 1703, and his son, John Hamilton, succeeded him. In 1707 the crown purchased the good will of the American postoffice for E ssit,s664, and con tinued John Hamilton as postmaster general with an annual salary of e200. The acquisition of the American post in 1707 found the postmaster general of King William at the head of an imper- ial post coextensive with the British empire The logical result was the great act of ITO. From 1707 to the year before the Revolution the general post office in London controlled the service in America. Its growth was steady and Improved each year. In I'll there was a weekly mail operation between Bos- ton and Maine and a fortnightly ex- lchange between Boston and New York. In 1717 the mail ran weekly between New York and Williamsburg, Va, and ten years later there was fortnightly mail between Philadelphia and Annap- lolis, Md.
 The period of activity in the estab- llishment of postal facilities began when lBenjamin Franklin was appointed postmaster at Philadelphia. This was in 1737 At the request of the deputy postmaster-gener for the colonies he Iassisted him in the regulation and man. Iagement of the various postoffices then established, and when that official died, in 1753, Franklin, in company with Will liam Hunter, was appointed to succeed him. In consequence of some difficulty with Governor Hutchinson, of Massa- chusetts, Franklin was removed in I1774.
 But Franklin was not to remain idle, for when the Continental congress met at it's second session, in Philadelphia on July 26, 1775, it's members resolved to have a postoffice system of their own, and Franklin was elected to carry on the work. A salary of $1,000 q year was ivoted him, and permission given to ap- Ipoint a secretary and controller, with a salary of $340 each. However, Frank llin's great diplomatic talents secured him soon afterward a transfer to a
 wider field of usefulness, and in 1776 his son-in- law, Richard Bache, who had H