33D CONG....2D SESS. all objects under the control of the Navy Department.... But of this amount there was expended, for special objects, the sum of.... Leaving, as the legitimate expenditures for the support of the Navy and Marine Corps for the fiscal year ending June 50, 1854, Report of the Postmaster General. sand five hundred and thirty miles by coach, at 10,801,845 28 $1,290,095, about 6 cents per mile. Fifteen million four hundred and thirty-three thousand three hundred and eighty-nine miles by 3,910,012 29 railroad, at $1,758,610 about 11 cents 4 mills per milė. $6,891,832 99 There are, however, outstanding claims to be paid out of the appropriation for the fiscal year 1853-'54. Your attention is invited to the reports and estimates of the chiefs of the several Bureaus connected with this Department. I perform but an act of justice in testifying to the fidelity and attention to business of all these officers, and in suggesting that the compensation to the heads of the Bureau of Construction, Equipment, and Repair, and Medicine and Surgery, should be the same as that now allowed to the others. You will perceive, from reference to the report of the Chief of the Bureau of Ordnance and Hydrography, the importance of the action of Congress, in making necessary appropriations for ordnance, which will be much larger than usual, in order to enable the Department to supply the six new steam-frigates with armament, which it is designed shall be of different and heavier caliber than heretofore used. In pursuance of the suggestions of the Chief of the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery, the naval laboratory in connection with the hospital at Brooklyn was reorganized in the fall of 1853, and placed on a basis to secure its success, and enlarge its benefits to the service. Since January last the entire supply of medicines for the Navy has been prepared at that laboratory, thereby giving assurance that a reliable article is supplied, and that the service will not suffer from the imposition of spurious and deleterious drugs. As a matter of economy, also, the advantages will not be inconsiderable. The letters of Commander Charles H. Davis, touching the Nautical Almanac, and of Professor Alexander, in regard to the character of alimentary substances, accompany this report, and will explain the progress made in their departments. I have the honor to be, with great respect, your obedient servant, J. C. DOBBIN. To the PRESIDENT of the United States. Report of the Postmaster General. POST OFFICE Department, The whole number of post offices in the United States, on the 30th of June, 1854, was 23,548. Of this number 257 are offices the annual commissions from which amount to one thousand dollars or upwards, and the appointments at these offices are therefore made by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, agreeably to the provisions of the act of 1836. The number of offices-established during the last fiscal year was 1,842, and the number discontinued 614, showing a net increase in one year of 1,228. The number of which the sites and names have been changed in the course of the year was 499. The number of postmasters appointed during the year was 8,618. Of these, 4,185 were appointed to fill vacancies occasioned by resignations; 1,977 by removals; 320 by deaths; 294 by change of name and sites; and 1,842 on establishment of new offices. The total number of offices on the 1st of December, 1854, was 23,925. On the 30th June last there were in operation 6,697 mail routes. The number of contractors was 5,167. The length of these routes is estimated at 219,935 miles. The total annual transportation of mails was 63,387,005 miles, costing $4,630,676, and divided as follows, viz: Twenty-one million two hundred and sixtyseven thousand six hundred and three miles by modes not specified, at $1,092,833, about 5 cents per mile. Five million seven hundred and ninety-five thousand four hundred and eighty-three miles by steamboat, at $489,138, about 8 cents 4 mills per mile. Compared with the services of the 30th June, 1853, there is an increase of 1,494,463 miles of transportation, or about 2 per cent., and of $134,708 cost, being about 3 per cent. The increase of railroad service is 2,446,684 miles, and the expense $157,281, being 19 per cent. in transportation, and not quite 1 per cent. in ccst. The increased transportation by modes not specified is 377,157 miles, or about one per cent., at a cost of $37,520, or 3 35-100 per cent. The transportation by coaches is less by 439,796 miles, or about 2 per cent., though at an increased cost of $83,137, or 6 88-100 per cent. The unprecedented extension of railroads superseded much coach service. The increased cost for a diminished amount of such service may be accounted for from the fact that the new contracts in New England and New York, commencing 1st July, 1853, were made at largely enhanced rates, increasing the aggregate expense, while the amount of service was largely reduced. The steamboat transportation during the past year was reduced 889,582 miles, or 153 per cent., at a reduced cost of $143,230 or 29 7-10 per cent. This is accounted for by the discontinuance of service between Wilmington, North Carolina, and Charleston, South Carolina, Savannah, Georgia, and Charleston, and Detroit, and Buffalo, and the suspension of service on the Arkansas and White rivers, owing to the failures of the contractors. Several steamboat routes were also dispensed with at the lettings of new contracts for New England and New York. The portions of service in the foregoing estimates chargeable to California, are 591 630 miles of annual transportation, costing $142,933, and varying but slightly from last year's report. For steamboat transportation, 159,120 miles, $21,000. For coach transportation, 174,026 miles, $35,185. Modes not specified, transportation 258,484 miles, at $86,748. In Oregon the service is as follows: The annual transportation by steamboat was increased 10,760 miles during the year, without additional pay. The following table exhibits the extension of railroad service during the year, separately, in five groups of States: Length. Miles trans. Add. cost. 971,341 $29,488 New England and New York, 629 New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, and Ohio... 56,863 44,214 342 Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida..... Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, and Wisconsin.. Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana..... 121 75,504 11,234 The lettings for the year embraced the States of Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, Texas, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, California, and the Territories of Oregon, New Mexico, Utah, Washington, and Minnesota. In some of the States and Territories I found the mail facilities greatly deficient, and not at all such as the wants and requirements of the people absolutely demanded. After a careful survey of each State and Territory, I gave to it such additional facilities as its increasing trade and population seemed to require. A comparison of the service under the new contracts commencing 1st July last, as in operation on the 30th September, with that under the expired contracts in the northwestern and southwestern Twenty million eight hundred and ninety thou-sections of the Union, shows that the annual 12,203 Louisiana.......................... Texas... .................... In Alabama the transportation has been slightly decreased, though the total cost of service is increased $19,764. In New Mexico the same amount of transportation continues as under the former contracts, but at a reduced cost of $10,700. In California, 68,302 miles of additional transportation is obtained at a reduced annual cost of $41,804, according to the accepted bids; but, owing to the failure of the bidders on two important routes, it is expected that the actual cost of the service will be largely increased. The service in Oregon has been reduced by not renewing the contracts on the routes from Columbia to Cascades, Cascades to Wascapum, and Wascapum to Salt Lake. In Kentucky, 269,258 miles of additional service were obtained at less pay than under the former contracts. Of the 2.990,860 miles of transportation above stated, 1,292,650 miles are performed by railroad. Of the additional cost of $395,373, $106,951 is for railroad service. The total annual transportation under the new contracts, as adjusted for the quarter ending 30th September, is 29,047,050 miles, and the total annual cost $2,375,789, divided as follows, viz: Three million five hundred and seventy-six thousand nine hundred and sixty-six miles by railroad, at $343,118, or 9 cents and 6 mills per mile. Four million one hundred and fifty-nine thousand eight hundred and sixty-four miles by steamboat, at $436,768, or 10 cents per mile. Six million six hundred and seventy-four thousand and seventy-two miles by coach, at $646,068, or 9 cents and 6 mills per mile. Fourteen million six hundred and thirty-six thousand one hundred and forty-eight miles by modes not specified, at $949,835, or 62 cents per mile. Contracts have been made to convey mails by steamboat between New Orleans, St. Francisville, and Vicksburg, at $75,000 per annum, and between Mobile and Montgomery, Alabama, at $35,000 per annum, which are not included in the foregoing statements. The amount of pay for service, as in operation on 30th September, between New Orleans and St. Francisville, by transient boats, is $33,680. It is proper, therefore, to add for the new regular service $41,320, which, with the $35,000 on the Alabama river route, will increase the cost of the service for the current year, $76,320-making the whole additional cost of the new contracts $471,693. To these must also be added the cost of additional route agents, local agents, and mail messengers, appointed since 1st July, amounting to $7,988. There were in service on 30th June last 236 route agents, at a compensation of $181,600 per annum; 21 local agents, at $15,490 per annum; and 968 mail messengers, at $92;131 80 per annum; making a total cost of $289,221 80 per annum to be added to the other cost of transportation, stated above at $4,630,676. Pursuant to the act of Congress of 5th August, 1854, I invited proposals on the 31st August for conveying mails from Cairo, Illinois, to New Orleans, and back, daily, in steamboats. Only one bid was received within the prescribed time, (6th November;) and that being for $300,000, I did not feel myself at liberty to accept it. A second bid, at a much more reasonable rate, was received after the regular time had expired. There are now no great mail lines in operation 33D CONG....2D SESS. with which to connect the proposed one at Cairo. The time is, however, not distant when the necessary connections will be effected by the completion of the Illinois Central railroad to Cairo, and of the Ohio and Mississippi road to its point of intersection from the East with the Illinois Central. I am informed that by the 1st of January the Illinois Central will be completed, and that by the 1st of July the Ohio and Mississippi road will make its eastern connection with that road. The chain of railroads between the Atlantic at various points and the Mississippi river, thus completed, will attract large and important mails which are now conveyed on other routes, and most materially enhance the importance of a steamboat route between Cairo and New Orleans. Moreover, it is reasonable to anticipate such an increase of trade and travel in the same direction as will go very far towards sustaining a line of boats, thus reducing the cost of mail service. At present the principal, if not the only support of the line, would be from this Department; and I have, therefore, deemed it my duty not to enter into a contract now, but await developments so soon to be expected, enabling me to negotiate terms much more advantageous both to the public and this Department. In the mean time mails are regularly conveyed as heretofore, by the trip between Louisville and New Orleans, and St. Louis and New Orleans. I have also contracted for separate service between New Orleans and Vicksburg, Vicksburg and Napoleon, and Memphis. There were in operation on the 30th September last, 239 railroad routes; their aggregate length was 16,621 miles, and the cost of mail transportation thereon was $1,923,747 89. Add to this the sums paid mail messengers, route and local agents, and the whole cost of this service will be $2,196,249 89. In adjusting the rate per mile to be paid these railroads, great difficulties continue to exist. The principle which should regulate their pay seems to be agreed upon. The companies allege that the Government should not ask or expect them to perform for it any service at a less rate than that paid by individuals for similar services. This principle has never been denied or disputed by the Post Office Department; but, on the contrary, it has always mantained-and this has been ever the great cause of difficulty between the Department and the companies-that the Government has been charged and paying much greater prices than those paid by individuals. Whether this be so or not, is a matter that could be easily settled by computation. And when the Post Office Committee of the House of Representatives at its last session proposed a bill fixing certain rates per mile for mail transportation on the roads, if it could have been shown to them that the rates thus fixed were too low, considering the weight of the mail, its importance, and the facilities and space given for its transportation, I am satisfied they would have at once increased the rates. What is required is to fix fair and just prices, companies performing similar services to receive the same pay, which is not now the case, and all of them to be paid according to the bulk of the mails, the speed with which they are conveyed, and the accommodations required. The sums paid by express companies would be a very unfair criterion by which to regulate the charges to be paid for the conveyance of the mails. Controlled by no competition excepting such as it is in the power of the railroad companies themselves to prevent, they can pay any prices which may be demanded of them, and assess it upon their customers. It would be unjust, too, to found a calculation upon the assumption that the mail car was twenty-five feet in length, fifteen for a mail room, and ten for a post office, and then to estimate and charge both for weight of car and mails at fourteen tons. Accommodations, such as these, are required both for the security of the mails and to enable route agents properly to discharge their duties; and to this fact, I early drew the attention of the companies; but these accommodations have not been given. Many of the railroads, desirous of properly serving the public, devote a car exclusively for mail purposes; but in the great majority of cases a car is divided between the Government and the express companies, or a space is apportioned off for the route agent, the mail being placed with the bag-alone will be authorized to give the required cergage in one, and the balance of the car appropriated tificate. for a smoking-room. The calculations which I have made and those which some of the companies make, differ most widely, and show that they are receiving for the mail much more than for firstclass freight; but the question whether the calculations of the Department or the companies be correct, could be readily settled by a committee of Con- || gress; and if the companies wish Government to pay them only such prices as they receive from individuals, the whole matter is one of easy solu- || tion. In the opinion that this Government is paying much more for railroad mail service than it is worth, I have been confirmed by the prices paid for similar services in England, France, Germany, and Canada. With the Great Western Railroad Company in the latter country, the Department, in March last, entered into a contract to carry the United States mail from Suspension Bridge, New York, to Detroit, Michigan, for the sum of thirty dollars a mile. The same cars carry the local Canada mail, and if the Canadian Government allow this company thirty dollars a mile in addition to the sum received from this Department, this important trunk road will be receiving sixty dollars a mile. It is of very great importance that kind relations should always exist between the Post Office Department and the different railroad companies, because when such is the case the public interests are always better served. It has been and ever will be, my effort to preserve these relations. Exorbitant demands for services, however, will always be refused; and when a schedule is arranged, not by the Department alone, because it has no such power, but by the joint concurrence of the Department and the company, who always have regard to the local business of the road, the public officer would be derelict in his duty, who would not exact a conformity thereto. Unless such were the case, there would be no order or regularity in the mail system, and business in its thousand ramifications would be seriously disturbed. When a fine is laid, if afterwards good cause be shown, it is always remitted; but it is not asserting too much to say that every delay of the mail causes embarrassment, if not injury, to hundreds, and therefore every excuse should be carefully examined. The merchant, manufacturer, and farmer, rely upon the mail principally for their remittances. All classes of our citizens anxiously await the arrival of their letters and newspapers; and if, through the inattention or neglect of the railroad companies or their agents, delays take place, what good reason can be assigned why they should not be treated as other contractors? The proper distribution of mail matter in a country so vast as ours, with so many mail routes and so many post offices, is a subject attended with great difficulty, and to which the attention of my predecessors has frequently been directed. Letters, instead of having one or, at most, two distributions, have been distributed four or five times before their arrival at the destined point. The consequence has been that the distribution and delivery commissions have almost consumed the postage; but the worst evil arising from this practice has been that great delays have been occasioned, which have always been the subject of just complaint. To distribute mail matter properly requires a minute knowledge of mail arrangements, and this the Department alone can have. If the postmasters at the various distributing post offices were permitted to make their own distribution schemes, with their necessarily imperfect knowledge, great mistakes must occur, and, instead of a letter being mailed direct to the distribution office to which it belongs, it would be mailed from point to point along the route until it reached its destined point. To prevent these delays, and at the same time to possess myself of the local knowledge of the postmasters at the distributing post offices, I caused to be forwarded to me the different schemes of distribution. Some of them I found quite perfect, but the great majority of them were very defective, and my only surprise has been that greater delays in the delivery of letters have not taken place. I am now having prepared distribution schemes for every distributing office in the country, allotting to each its proper distribution. When they are completed the postmaster at the mailing point can, by turning to his scheme and looking to the counties and towns in each State allotted to the various distributing offices, be enabled to mail direct. The Department will likewise have the important matter of distribution under its exclusive control, and when new mail arrangements are made, by railroad or otherwise, which would change the course of distribution, the different offices can be instructed accordingly. Much, however, remains to be done. Every distribution causes delay, and this must necessarily take place under our present system once or twice, which is one great cause of complaint that letters do not reach their point of destination as soon as passengers. When the letter is from one distributing office to another the mailing is direct, and if sent on its proper course there is no good reason for any delay. The mailing, indeed, should be direct from every post office in the United States to another, but this, under our present system, I view as impracticable. With our existing regulations, which prescribe that every postmaster shall mail direct to the place addressed all letters for his own State or Territory, and all letters for the post offices in other States and Territories which should not pass through a distributing office on their proper route to the office of delivery, rigorously enforced, and the new schemes of distribution in operation at the various distributing post offices, I trust to be able to give to our mails greater speed and regularity. By the act of 21 July, 1836, it is provided that contracts shall in all cases be awarded to the lowest bidder. In order to guard the Department against fraud and imposition, the form of a bid is prescribed by the regulations. A guarantee is likewise provided from the act, by which two responsible persons undertake that, if the party bidding be accepted, he shall enter into the contract for the service proposed, with good and sufficient securities. A certificate is then required to be signed by a postmaster, judge, or clerk of record, who certifies to the sufficiency of the guarantors. Notwithstanding these precautions, irresponsible men frequently become bidders, having no design of performing the service, but with the sole object of selling out their bid. Failing to find a purchaser, they refuse to enter into the contract, and when inquiry is made into the sufficiency of the guarantors, in order to institute an action against them, it is discovered that they are pecuniarily worthless. On failures of this description, the contract is awarded to the next lowest bidder; but, as he is not bound by his bid, after the acceptance of the lowest bidder, it very frequently happens that he declines its acceptance, and the Department is thus obliged to pay much more for the service than it could have been had for, or than it is really worth. Such instances occurred frequently at the last lettings, which have increased very much the cost of the service. Some discretion should be lodged in the Postmaster General to prevent such frauds; but, in its absence, I have determined, at the next lettings, to designate certain postmasters Payments for British mails..................................... in each State in which a letting is to be had, who The Auditor reports the expenditures of the Department for the last fiscal year at $8,577,424 12, for the following objects, víz: Compensation to postmasters.. Extra compensation to postmasters by the act of March 3, 1851.... Ship, steamboat, and way letters. Transportation of the mails, including the mails to Bremen, Havre, and Havana, and the mails across the Isthmus of Panania... Wrapping paper .......... Office furniture for post offices......... Mail bags Blanks.... ..... ................... Mail locks, keys, and stamps..... Stamped envelopes............... .$1,707,708 29 34,799 97 19,549 67 5,401,382 50 40,463 66 5,929 36 103,863 57 48,861 57 78,176 81 10,070 77 48,769 51 631,128 26 447 32 13,664 57 47,418 77 51 65 135,968 52 1,000 00 153,617 96 94,541 39 $8,577,434 12 $6,955,586 22 Miscellaneous receipts...... Total for 1853.. Three fourths $1,035,130 89 As the act of the 30th August, 1852, fixing the The revenue, as above stated, includes the present rates of postage on printed matter, took balance against the Department of $138,565 61, effect on the 1st October following, a fair comresulting from our postal account with Great Brit-parison can only be instituted between the reveain, Prussia, and Bremen, for the last fiscal year. The expenditures of the Department for the past year, including payments for foreign postages, were, as already stated... .$8,577,424 12 The revenue of the year, including foreign postages and the appropriation for free matter, amounted to.. 6,955,586 22 .$1,621,837 90 133,483 33 .$1,755,321 23 2,117,078 20 1,755,321 23 Difference in favor of 1854........ One of the results of the great activity and expansion which have prevailed in the general business operations of the country during the past year is manifest in an extraordinary increase of the Post Office revenue; and that it may be seen in which branch this increase has mainly arisen, the revenue of the past and preceding year is here presented in a comparative statement from which the foreign postages are excluded: Letter postage.... Revenue Newspapers and pamphlets.. 38,386 01 113,017 73 4,760 00 700,000 00 5,940,724 70 Deduct the balance in each year resulting from our posfal accounts with England, . Prussia, and Bremen....... 94,466 27 5,846,258 43 nue of the two last fiscal years, through the whole In this act there is a clause which provides that Revenue 81,952 46 135,968 52 7,930 54 700,000 00 6,955,586 22 6,816,657 91 Total increase of 1854.. Or 18 85-100 per centum. If from the letter postage and stamps sold in each year the foreign balances be deducted, there will appear an increase over 1853 of 20 67-100 per cent.; while the revenue from newspapers and pamphlets in 1854 seems to have fallen off nearly one per cent. But the general account of “stamps sold" is necessarily so kept as to embrace not only the letter postage stamps and stamped envelopes, but also the one cent blue stamps, which are generally used to prepay transient newspapers, printed circulars, and dropped letters, and occasionally upon domestic and foreign correspondence. Therefore, to arrive at a proper estimate of the revenue from printed matter, it is necessary to SENATE & HO. OF REPS. thirteen cents a quarter. The newspapers to subscribers living in the county where published will continue to go free. The expenditures of the current year ending June 30, 1855, owing to causes not within the control of the Department, will greatly exceed those of the past year. In my report of the 1st December last, I had the honor to state that the commissions allowed to postmasters by the 6th section of the act to establish certain post roads, &c., approved 3d March, 1853, had proved insufficient at several of the distributing offices to defray the expenses necessary to their efficient administration; and to remedy a state of things so injurious to the service, I then recommended the restoration to the Postmaster General of the discretion given him by the 6th section of the "Act to reduce and modify the rates of postage," approved March 3, 1851, so that he might have it in his power to allow to the postmasters at such distributing offices the means necessary to defray expenses. At the same time I took occasion to say that, while this power should be given to meet the exigencies of a particular class of cases, not exceeding twenty in number, there were abundant reasons why a larger share of the postages should not be diverted from the general purposes of the Department. Upon representations subsequently made, it was deemed expedient to ask an enlargement of the power above mentioned so far only as to embrace a few separating offices situated at points exacting great labor, and affording but a nominal compensation to the incumbents. Careful estimates were made by the Auditor of the increase of expense necessary to relieve the few distributing and separating offices which might, upon investigation, appear to be justly entitled to aid from the Department, and the conclusion was that the whole amount could not exceed $45,000 per annum. This sum would certainly have been sufficient to cover all proper demands for additional aid. But the views of the Department did not prevail, and Congress passed the act of June 22, 1854, fixing an increased scale of commissions and raising the aggregate compensation of all the postmasters in the United States not less than $300,000 per annum, thereby increasing the expenditures of the Department to that amount, instead of $45,000, as had been recommended. The expenditures of the current year for "compensation to postmasters," "clerks for offices," &c., will be further increased by the operation of the fourth and fifth sections of the act of 27th July, 1854, making provision for the postal service in the State of California, and the Territories of Oregon and Washington. By the fifth section of the act the Postmaster General is authorized and directed to allow in the statement of the accounts of postmasters in California and Oregon originating previous to the 30th June, 1853, "all just and reasonable expenses incurred by them in and about the business of their respective offices and the discharge of their official duties: provided, that no allowance shall be made whereby the United States shall be charged with any indebtedness whatsoever." The balances due from late and present postmasters in California and the Territories of Oregon and Washington, subject to the operation of the fourth and fifth sections of the act just mentioned, amounted on the 30th June, 1854, to $164,144 41, of which sum it is estimated that not less than $50,000 must be canceled under the provisions of the fifth section, and carried into the general accounts of the Department as expenditures of the current year. In addition to the burdens thrown upon the revenue of the Department by the general increase of the compensation of postmasters, and the special legislation for those in California, Oregon, and Washington Territories, the cost of transporting the mails will be greatly increased in the present year by putting new post routes in operation, by the enhanced prices demanded in the very large section let to contract from the 1st July last, and by important improvements in the grades of service generally. Whilst I shall take care that the expenditures of the Department are not unnecessarily increased, and that it shall draw from the General Treasury only as much as its absolute wants require, which, I fear, it must necessarily do for some years under 33D CONG....2D Sess. the present rates of postage, it would be neither wise nor expedient to deprive or keep from our people the mail facilities which they require. The principle adopted in the infancy of our Republic, that the Post Office Department should sustain itself from its own revenues, was, in my opinion, most wise and salutary. A postage was then laid sufficient to meet the wants of the service, and under this system each citizen paid the expenses of the transportation of his own letters, and others were not taxed for his benefit, as they must be when sums have to be drawn from the General Treasury, to meet deficiencies in the Post Office revenues. Report of the Postmaster General. while it would facilitate and expedite the opera- Very soon after I entered upon my duties in this Department, its large and increasing correspondence in regard to the loss of valuable letters intrusted to the mails attracted my attention. I found, on examination of the subject, that although Congress, in establishing our postal system, appears to have had principally in contemplation the providing of suitable and convenient means of correspondence, and the diffusion of intelligence, yet, from that time until now, the mails have been used to a large and constantly increasing extent for the transmission of bank-notes, and other valuable inclosures, and are now the principal means through which the remittances of It is estimated that the expenditures for the year the country are made; while neither the laws nor 1855, exclusive of payments for foreign post-any regulations of this Department have provided ages accruing within the year, will be about $9,841,921 33, viz: Having thus briefly adverted to some of the causes of increase in the expenditures in the current year, I proceed to show what those expenditures will probably be, and what means the Department will have to meet them. The rate of cost of transportation, including foreign mails, Total for transportation in 1855..... ments...... For balances due to foreign countries up to June 30, 1854, which will be paid in 1855, amounting to...................... 650,000 00 . 6,167,312 00 3,541,126 00 133,483 33 $9,841,921 33 During the three years which commenced on the 1st July, 1851, and ended on the 30th June, 1854, the Department issued 166,126,417 postage stamps, and 25,076,656 stamped envelopes, amounting in the aggregate to $5 507,022 03, of which $5,092,301 73 were sold, being about 92 per cent. of the whole amount issued. Having ascertained that the mode of examining and checking the quarterly returns of postmasters was radically defective, I took occasion to invite attention to the subject in my report of last year, and I again advert to it because subsequent investigation and experience have convinced me that a thorough check of the accounts under the present system is wholly impracticable. Such a check is indispensable to the safety of the revenue, and can in no way be effected so certainly, at so little cost, and with so much advantage to the service, as by adopting prepayment of postage in all cases not coming within our postal arrangements with foreign countries. This plan, connected with a well-digested system for the registration of letters, to which I shall presently allude, would quicken correspondence, SENATE & HO. OF REPS. In Great Britain the" registration fee" on inland and most foreign letters is sixpence sterling (about twelve cents) in addition to the ordinary rates of postage, and it is expressly provided that “such registration shall not render the Postmaster General or the post office revenue in any manner liable for the loss of any such post letters or the contents thereof." It is believed that authority to establish an additional rate of five cents on each letter registered, and to require the postage on all registered letters to be prepaid, would enable the Department to carry into effect the plan here submitted without prejudice to its revenues. It is not proposed to make the registering of valuable letters compulsory, nor that the Government shall become liable for such letters when lost, but only to enable each person mailing a valuable letter to do so in the ordinary manner, or to add something to its security by the payment of a small registration fee. The cost of the service for the last fiscal year, New York, via Southampton, to Bremen, I have no doubt that the registration of valuable any additional guards for their security against letters, as proposed, would be highly appreciated loss or depredation beyond those originally estab- as a means of security by the large commercial lished. In view of the enormous sums which are classes of the community, whose collections and constantly passing through the mails, the losses exchanges are made principally through the mails, by depredation are inconsiderable. Still, such and who have from time to time urged in vain losses are numerous, their aggregate amount is upon this Department the adoption of some such large, and they are increasing with the growth of plan for their protection. I believe, too, that such our country, and the extension of its mail service. a system of registration would relieve this DeUnder these circumstances, I have thought it partment from the imputation of numerous losses proper to recommend such legislation on this sub-not properly chargeable upon it-cases in which ject as may enable this Department to give greater valuable letters alleged to have been lost through security to valuable letters in the mails, without the mails either never reached any post office, or assuming any liability for their ultimate loss. have been stolen after arriving at the places of By our present system, all letters mailed at a their destination. given date at one post office for delivery or distribution at another, are entered in gross, according to their several rates of postage, upon one postbill. If a letter of great value be embraced in the bill, neither its address nor any other description of it is entered on the post-bill, by which it can be distinguished from other letters of the same grade or rate of postage. Nor is the address or description of any such letter entered on the postmaster's account of mails sent, nor indeed upon any other record kept in the office from which it is sent. The only account kept by the postmaster is a money account, made up each day, of the several aggregates of postages of the different rates, either collected or charged as unpaid. It will be seen that, under such a system of accounts, a missing letter can never be traced with certainty, for the account neither furnishes evidence that a particular letter ever reached the place of its destination, nor even that it left the office of mailing. Believing that this imperfection in our system can only be remedied by the adoption of a general and uniform plan of registration for all valuable letters, I have, after consulting the experience of other countries on the subject, devised a plan of registration which I think suited to our circumstances, and likely to add greatly to the security of the mails against depredation. It provides that receipts shall be given for valuable letters when posted, and that duplicates of these receipts shall be kept for reference at the office of mailing; that the full address of such letter shall be entered on a separate post-bill, which shall be copied at large upon an account to be kept of registered letters sent. This post-bill is to be forwarded in a sealed envelope, separate from the package of letters to which it relates, and its receipt at the office of its destination is to be acknowledged by a duplicate thereof returned to the office of mailing-marked correct, or otherwise, as it may be found on comparison. It provides that at the large offices valuable letters shall be received at one window only, and that the receiving clerk shall check them to the register clerk, and he to the mailing clerk. It is, in short, designed to fix responsibility and to furnish means which do not now exist for tracing a missing letter from the point of its reception to that of its disappearance. To carry this plan into effect, it will be required that new and expensive blanks be prepared and distributed, and that an increased clerical force be employed in the principal post offices. I have not, therefore, felt at liberty to adopt it without the sanction of Congress, and authority to establish such additional rate of postage on this class of letters as may be deemed adequate to the expense of registration. New York, via Cowes, to Havre, eleven New York and New Orleans to Aspinwall, 183,333 26 137,500 00 289,000 00 348,250 00 50,000 00 37,200.00 119,727 03 $2,023,010 29 By the act of Congress approved the 3d of March, 1847, the President was authorized to contract for the construction and equipment of four first-class sea-going steamships, to be attached to the Navy of the United States. It was by the second section made the duty of the Secretary of the Navy to accept on the part of the Government of the United States the proposals of E. K. Collins and his associates for the transportation of the United States mail between New York and Liverpool. The steamships to be employed were to be so constructed as to render them convertible at the least possible cost into war steamships of the first class. By the fourth section of the same act it was likewise made the duty of the Secretary of the Navy to contract with A. G. Sloo for the transportation of the mail from New York to New Orleans twice a month and back, touching at Charleston, if practicable, Savannah, and Havana, and from Havana to Chagres, and back twice a month. The fifth section authorized him to enter into a contract to carry the mail from Panama to Oregon once a month. The sixth section made it the duty of the Secretary of the Navy to provide in the contracts authorized by the act that the Navy Department shall at all times exercise control over said steamships, and at any time have the right to take them for the exclusive use and service of the United States, due provision being made in the contracts for the mode of ascertaining the proper compensation to the contractors therefor. On the 1st of March, 1847, the Secretary of the Navy entered into a contract with E. K. Collins and his associates. The contract contains all the stipulations required by the act of Congress; the service to be performed was twice each month for eight months of the year, and once a month during the 33D CONG....2D SESS. other four months. The sum to be paid was three hundred and eighty-five thousand dollars, or nineteen thousand two hundred and fifty dollars a trip, and the contract was to continue in force for ten years from the date of the commencement of the service. A. G. Sloo was contracted with by the Secretary of the Navy on the 20th of April, 1847, to perform the service mentioned in the fourth section. The service was to be twice a month; the sum to be paid two hundred and ninety thousand dollars, and the contract to continue in force for ten years from the commencement of the service. This contract likewise contains all the stipulations required by the act of Congress, and was assigned by A. G. Sloo to George Law, Marshal O. Roberts, and B. R. Mcllvain, on the 3d of September, 1847. The contract to transport the mail from Panama to Oregon was entered into with Arnold Harris on the 16th of November, 1847. The service was to be once a month; the price to be paid was one hundred and ninety-nine thousand dollars, and the contract was to continue for ten years from the 1st of October, 1848. All the stipulations required by the act of Congress are contained in this contract also, which was assigned on the 19th of November, 1847, to William H. Aspinwall. On the 13th of March, 1851, the Secretary of the Navy and Postmaster General, in pursuance of a law passed on the 3d of March, 1851, entered into an additional contract with the Pacific Mail Steamship Company, acting by William H. Aspinwall, by which the service from Panama to California and Oregon was increased to twice a month, at an increased price of one hundred and forty-nine thousand two hundred and fifty dollars, making the whole cost of the service three hundred and forty-eight thousand two hundred and fifty dollars. The object of Congress in the passage of this act seems to have been to build up a naval steam marine, which might temporarily be employed for commercial purposes. In order to enable private individuals to build and equip those steamships in the mode pointed out by Congress, sums of money were advanced to them, and, to sustain them until wanted for Government purposes, large sums of money were paid them for conveying the mails. If in the progress of time it is discovered that these steamships are not suited for naval purposes, or that the large sums paid their owners for mail transportation have created a monopoly, checking the energy and enterprise of others of our citizens, Congress, in my opinion, is called upon to terminate their contracts, if it can do so consistently with plighted faith. By the terms of the act, and of the contracts entered into between the Navy Department and these companies in pursuance of the act, it will be seen that Congress reserved to itself the right to purchase the steamships, and thus terminate the connection between the companies and the Government. When they have been paid for their vessels the sums fixed by the appraisers mutually chosen, everything has been done which the faith of the nation requires. It is, of course, of great importance to the commercial and other interests of the country that the mails should continue to be carried, but if these contracts are to be considered with reference to the transportation of the mails, the prices paid are too high, and if continued, all competition on the part of private individuals unconnected with the Gov-| erament must cease. High, however, as are the present prices, if the competition on the New York and California line be driven off by the aid of funds derived from the General Government, no one can foretell the prices that will have to be paid after the expiration of the present contract. If the present contractors do not wish the Government to purchase their steamships, and thus to end the contracts, it will be for them to agree to a reduction of the present prices. Government will then pay a fair remuneration for all the service which it receives, and the carrying and passenger trade between our Atlantic and Pacific coasts will not have become a monopoly. In the bids received under an advertisement issued to obtain information, required by the third section of the act of 33 March, 1853, the Nicaragua Company proposed to carry a semi-monthly mail between New York and California for a sum not exceeding $300,000, or $600 000 for a weekly service, which is now required; and this, in my opinion, is the highest rate Report of the Postmaster General. of pay which ought to be demanded. The present semi-monthly service, including the sum of $119,727 03 paid for the Isthmus transportation, will cost this year the sum of $757,977 03. By the act of July 21, 1852, the number of trips on the Collins line was increased to twenty-six, and the price raised from $19,250 to $33,000 a trip, making the yearly cost of this service $858,000. The section thus increasing the compensation contains a proviso reserving the power to Congress to terminate this additional allowance at any time after the 31st December, 1854, upon giving six months' notice. While I shall always take great pleasure in testifying to the faithfulness with which those contractors have performed the service, and in saying that the ships built under the contract reflect great credit upon American skill and enterprise, I cannot resist coming to the conclusion that the sums now paid are too high, and that the notice should be given. Considering the size and cost of these steamships, and the speed with which the mail is carried, the sums fixed in the contract may have been too low; but however that may be, the present rates are much too high, and such as ought not to be paid. For the mail service between Liverpool and the United States, the English Government pay the Cunard line the sum of one hundred and seventy-three thousand three hundred and forty pounds, which, computing the pound sterling at five dollars, will make the sum of eight hundred and sixty-six thousand seven hundred dollars. For this sum they have weekly service, the seven steamships which constitute the line running alternately between Liverpool and New York and Liverpool and Boston, and receiving sixteen thousand six hundred and eightysix dollars a trip. It is true there is a difference in the tonnage of the Collins and Cunard lines, and that the American steamers make their voyages in a shorter time; but the difference in the tonnage and speed of the two lines does not, in my judgment, afford any valid reason why there should be so marked a disparity in the prices paid by the two Governments. The steamships Humboldt and Franklin, of the New York and Havre line, have both been wrecked during the year. The former was lost in the month of December, 1853, and the latter in July, 1854, in consequence of which the service on that line has been irregular. Temporary arrangements have been made to supply the places of the lost steamers until suitable steamships can be built to replace them on the line, and such vessels are now in course of construction. Both on this and on the Bremen line one of the monthly trips have been omitted. These irregularities materially detract from the efficiency of our mail service across the Atlantic. In September last, the United States Mail Steamship Company having withdrawn their direct steamers between New Orleans and Aspinwall, the mails between New Orleans and the Pacific have since been conveyed, according to the original contract, by the way of Havana. On the Pacific line the company are permittted to omit Monterey and San Diego by their ocean steamers, and thus expedite the through mails, on condition of their supplying those offices, together with Santa Cruz, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, (if practicable,) and San Pedro, semi-monthly by a coastwise steamer from San Francisco, in due connection with the through route, without change of pay. No progress has been made since my last annual report in the pending negotiations with Great Britain relative to the admission of France into the arrangement as contemplated by the provision in the twelfth article of our postal convention. This article provides that "the rate of postage to be taken by the British post office upon letters arriving in the United Kingdom from the United States, either by British or United States packets, and to be forwarded through the United Kingdom to colonies or possessions of the United Kingdom, or of the United States, or to foreign countriesand vice versa-shall be the same as the rate which is now or which may hereafter be taken by the British post office upon letters to or from such colonies or possessions, or foreign countries, respectively, when posted at the port of arrival or delivered at the port of departure of the packets SENATE & HO. OF REPS. conveying the mails between the United Kingdom and the United States." By this article a similar privilege is secured to Great Britain in respect to letters to and from the United Kingdom to be forwarded through the United States. But letters and newspapers passing through the United Kingdom to and from France" are expressly excepted from the stipulations of said article. The two contracting parties, however, agreed to invite France to enter into communication with them, without loss of time, in order to effect such arrangement for the conveyance of letters and newspapers, and closed mails through the territories of the United Kingdom, of the United States, and of France, respectively, as may be most conducive to the interests of the three countries." The clause above referred to, excluding the correspondence between the United States and France from the advantages of the convention, was strongly objected to by Mr. Bancroft, who negotiated the treaty on our part, and he was induced finally to consent to it only on being assured by the British Government that "the treaty stipulations between England and France rendered its insertion necessary, as without it the latter Power would have just cause of complaint against the former." This representation, however, appears to have been incorrect, as Mr. Lawrence, the successor of Mr. Bancroft, was subsequently assured that "France was then ready to negotiate at once, waiving the privileges of the convention which England set up in her behalf." This Government, deeming the treaty unequal in its bearing upon the interests of the two countries, particularly on account of the exceptional clause referred to, and being desirous of consummating, without loss of time, the triple arrangement contemplated by the twelfth article, commenced negotiations for that purpose immediately after the treaty was executed; which negotiations have been continued to the present timenearly six years-without any beneficial result. The British Government has steadily declined to unite in effecting such arrangements as would be most conducive to the interests of the three countries;" which arrangements might have rendered the treaty more equal in its operation; and the original terms of the convention still remain unchanged. The more important parts of the correspondence which has passed between the two Governments on this subject is contained in Executive Document No. 32, published by order of the Senate at the second session of the Thirty-Second Congress. On the part of this Government, it is claimed that the British transit charge for the United States and French correspondence, if sent in closed mails through the United Kingdom, shall not exceed twelve and a half cents an ounce, that being the price paid by Great Britain for the transit of British closed mails through the United States to and from the British North American provinces. The lowest offer of the British Government is that contained in Lord Palmerston's note of the 9th May, 1851, in reply to Mr. Lawrence's communication of 18th October preceding, of one shilling, (twenty-four cents) an ounce-a sum nearly or quite double that received by the United States for similar service. Under a partial arrangement concluded between Great Britain and France in May 1851, the mails from France for the United States have been forwarded through England as closed mails, France agreeing to pay to Great Britain the price demanded, viz: a transit postage of one shilling, (twenty-four cents,) and for the Atlantic sea conveyance one shilling eight pence, (forty cents,) an ounce. Prior to that date, the British office was charging and receiving the sea postage on all correspondence between the United States and France, via England, conveyed across the Atlantic by United States steamers, the same as when conveyed by their own packets; the result of which was that double sea postage having to be paid on all correspondence forwarded by United States packets, the great bulk of the United States and French mails, via England, was sent by the Cunard line. Since the partial arrangement above referred to went into operation, no charge has been made by Great Britain for the sea postage of letters conveyed by American packets; yet, under its operation, the single rate of postage between the United States and France, by United States packets, is six cents higher on each letter of the |