thousand six hundred and fifty-seven dollars) in aid of the department, which was then in an embarrassed condition, there still remained to its credit $606,270 (six hundred and six thousand two hundred and seventy dollars.) It will also be borne in mind that, besides receiving the sum above mentioned, the government has been exempt, during the whole time, from the payment of postage. Mr. Dana, in his minority report from the Committee on the Post Office and Post Roads of the House of Representatives, in 1844, says: "Even if it should happen that a temporary deficiency occurs during the progress of the change from a high to a low tariff of postage, and it has to be paid out of the treasury, no great injustice will be done. A report made in 1834 (No. 285) shows that the Post Office had paid into the treasury the sum of one million one hundred and three thousand nine hundred and twenty-seven dollars. In 1841, four hundred and ninety-seven thousand six hundred and fiftyseven dollars were appropriated from the treasury to pay the debts of the Post Office Department, leaving a balance of six hundred and six thousand two hundred and seventy dollars due from the treasury. This sum may, with propriety, be used to supply any deficiency. The govern ment, from the time it was first established, has been exempt from the payment of postage; and at the rate individuals are taxed, the government postage could not have been of late years much less than half a million of dollars annually. For the last fifty years it must have averaged half that sum, amounting to twelve million five hundred thousand dollars. The government has paid some post office expenses, (not averaging, we think, more than eighty thousand dollars a year,) amounting to four millions, leaving a balance on this account in favor of the Post Office of about eight and a half millions, and, with the six hundred thousand dollars in money before mentioned, will make a total of over nine millions. We do not pretend to any accuracy in making this estimate, nor is it necessary; it is sufficient to know that the balance amounts to a considerable sum. Whatever it be, individuals have paid it for the use of the government; and we can see no special injustice in the repayment of a part, or even of the whole, if the necessities of the department require it." To show the unfairness of the old system, the committee would ask what claim the government proper has to the enormous amount paid, as above, into the national treasury. The individuals who, in paying the postage on their letters, had contributed to this large fund received by the government in cash, and franks which were equivalent to cash, had also paid their share of indirect taxes, in the form of custom-house duties. Nor is this all: the rates of postage under the former system were tantamount to hundreds per cent. duty on the service rendered. The poor man of business, who, in purchasing his stock in trade, had paid the charges on importation, was forced, in the course of his business, either to pay these exorbitant rates or be deprived of the advantages of his correspondence, and this for the purpose of paying for the transportation of the enormous amount of franked matter, as well as for the more laudable purpose of paying for the carriage of the mails in those sections of the country where, from necessity, the revenues derived were not sufficient to meet the expenses.

High rates of postage on account of distance, the committee believe to be wrong in principle, and calculated in practice to diminish rather than increase the revenues of the department. The thinly peopled portions of the country, it is true, have not paid revenue sufficient to meet the ex

penses of transporting the mails, but the individual who is located upon the frontier and subjected to the inconveniences and hardships unknown in the more dense settlements, is not the less equally entitled to the benefits to be derived from a general system of communication, and would be much more likely to avail himself of the facilities under a low, than a high rate of postage.

While your committee are not willing to subject themselves, in the slightest degree, to the charge of being disposed to follow blindly the lead of Great Britain or any other country, they cannot close their eyes against the light of experience, emanating from that or any other source. It is now about ten years since the British government, in consequence of the expressions of popular will upon the subject, determined on a reform in their post office establishment. The reform thus introduced embraced four cardinal principles: charging by weight, instead of the old plan of exacting postage for each piece of paper, whatever might be its size; a uniform rate of postage, without regard to distance, fixing that rate at 1d. sterling, or about two cents, on all letters of a certain weight; prepayment in all cases; and the abolition of the franking privilege. The results of the change, as tested by an experience of ten years, have been as follows:

"Letters increased from seventy-six millions under the old system, to one hundred and sixty-nine millions the first year, two hundred and fortytwo millions the fifth year, and three hundred and fifty millions the tenth year-nearly a million a day.

"The gross receipts fell off one million thirty-one thousand two hundred and ninety-seven pounds-i. e., from £2,390,763 to £1,359,466 sterling. In 1847, the gross receipts had risen to two million two hundred and one thousand one hundred and fourteen pounds-the highest point reached under the new system, and only one hundred and eightynine thousand six hundred and forty-nine pounds short of the old system. "The cost of management increased but one hundred and one thousand six hundred and seventy-eight pounds the first year-i. e., from seven hundred and fifty-six thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine pounds to eight hundred and fifty-eight thousand six hundred and seventy-seven pounds. Afterwards, it increased to one million three hundred and eighty thousand eight hundred and fifty-three pounds, in 1848, owing to the increased accommodations, the growth of railroad service, &c. The railroad service increased about five-fold-from £51,301 in 1840, to £316,941 in 1848. Of £522,176 added to the cost of management from 1840 to 1848, £265,640, or just about one-half, is the increased cost of railroad service. The cost per letter, which was nearly 24d. in 1839, was reduced to little above three farthings per letter, including all this additional expenditure." In Scotland, with 2,628,957 inhabitants, the number of letters in 1847 was 28,669,169, which would give, in the same proportion, for the popu lation of the United States a circulation of 220,000,000.

When the old system of postage of Great Britain was adopted in this country, the franking privilege was included as one of its incidents, and has been retained up to the present time, although, in the great reform on the subject, it was repudiated by the British government. Members of Congress, and those at the heads of the executive departments, have enjoyed this immunity as standing in positions analogous to those of members of Parliament, and officers connected with the executive departments in England. However consonant such a provision may have been with the spirit of British political institutions, it must be admitted that, indepen

dently of the burden unnecessarily and improperly imposed upon the Post Office Department in this country, it is totally at variance with the equality of rights that should characterize our free institutions. That the postage arising on the business correspondence of the government in all its branches should be paid from the public treasury, there can be no doubt; but the committee can see no propriety in making a department which was instituted for public convenience, and intended to sustain itself by its own resources, bear the expenses of the government at large. The payers of postage are also the contributors to the treasury, in common with their fellow-citizens, for the support of the government. Then why, it may be asked, should they pay all the postage of the government in the form of franking, when the business thus paid for has no reference to them? or if it has, they have already furnished a fund out of which the necessary expense of correspondence connected with it should be paid. The committee have taken great pains in collecting statistical information respecting the exercise of the franking privilege; and although they may have fallen short of absolute accuracy, they believe the results of their investigation to be sufficiently correct to convey a pretty clear conception of the evil which it produces. It appears that during the 30th Congress there were franked by members

Senate speeches, estimated by comparison with the House 200,000 “

1,340,727 lbs.

There are two hundred and ninety members of Congress, and it is reasonable to suppose that they receive and frank at least a thousand letters each during two years; making, in the aggregate, two hundred and ninety thousand letters. A postage of five cents on one half and two cents on the other half would amount to twenty-two thousand seven hundred and fifty dollars. In 1845 the mail matter sent from and received at the executive offices amounted to five hundred thousand seven hundred and sixty-seven dollars.

It is proper to remark that, although different periods are referred to in the above estimate, there can be no serious difference, as in 1849 the business could not have been less than in 1845, and therefore the assumption on the part of the committee is likely to be below, rather than above, the actual amount.

About five years since an effort was made in Congress in favor of a reduction in the rates of postage, and an act was passed establishing two rates, viz: five cents for each half ounce in weight, for all distances less than three hundred miles, and ten cents on the same weight for all distances greater than three hundred miles. In this change a valuable improvement was effected, not only by the reduction of the rate of charge, but also in the adoption of weight as the standard of compensation, instead of the old mode of exacting payment on each piece of paper. The law left untouched, however, the principle of difference in rates, the credit system, and the franking privilege, and it was at the expense of no little excitement that the partial reform which has proved so salutary, under the experience of five years, was effected. At the time of the passage of

the law the worst consequences were predicted by the opponents of the measure, who foretold that the bankruptcy of the Post Office Department must necessarily follow. Time, however, the unraveller of human affairs, has told a different tale, and, instead of inevitable ruin, a great enlargement of mail facilities, accompanied by increased revenue, has followed. It is true that some persons have asserted that there has been a diminution of mail service in some sections of the country, but it will be seen from the following statements of the late Postmaster General, the Hon. Cave Johnson, that such is not the case, or that, if there has been any reduction of service, it has proceeded from a different cause. In his annual report of December, 1845, Mr. Johnson says: "The cost of transporting the mail in New England and New York will be reduced two hundred and fifty-two thousand seven hundred and thirty-two dollars, the present year, below the prices of last year, being a saving of thirty-five per cent. without any material reduction of the amount of service performed."

In the report for December, 1846, he says: "In the northwestern and southwestern territories there appears a reduction of three hundred and twenty-three thousand seven hundred and one dollars per annum, being a saving of thirty three per cent. This, as in the case of the New England and the New York contracts, is not produced by the curtailment of the service, but by a reduction of the rates at which the contracts were taken. So far from curtailing the amount of the accommodation which the mails dispensed, except in reducing the grade from coach to horse conveyance whenever required by the special provision of the new postage act of 1845, the department has in the new contracts increased the frequency and despatch of the mails."

No casual observer can be aware of the immense loss to the department occasioned by the credit system, and it becomes proper for the committee to furnish data by which the enormity of the evil may be estimated.

They have caused inquiry to be made, and have ascertained that in the year 1848 the number of letters returned to the dead letter office in Washington was one million seven hundred thousand in 1849 there were two million one hundred thousand; and in the present year, 1850, according to the same rate of increase, there will be two million five hundred thousand. Of these one-fifth only were paid letters. Taking the present year as the basis of calculation, there will be two millions of unpaid letters, the postage on which, as the committee are informed, including advertisements, will be about three hundred thousand dollars; to which may be added the expense of six clerks to open them, six thousand dollars. These losses are exclusive of all the labor of remailing and forwarding them to Washington. With reference to the transportation by mail of moderate sized parcels, it is proper to state that the present rates of transportation by Messrs. Adams & Co., express agents, are as follows: to St. Louis, a box weighing three hundred pounds, $4 50; to Cincinnati, $3; to Louisville, Kentucky, $3 50; for which they take the box to the house or store, and deliver it without additional expense.

If, then, books can be sent at this low rate by express, there can be no reason why the Post Office Department cannot afford to transport and deliver them at one cent an ounce, which would be $16 the hundred pounds.

Persons on the frontiers desiring books can send to the large Atlantic cities and procure them, and have them delivered at home for a small addition to their cost, and thus avoid the enormous prices at which they are sold by the retailers, sometimes quadruple the amount of the first cost.

The committee had intended to recommend a change in the system of newspaper postage at the present time, but have determined to refrain from doing so in consideration of the reform in letter postage proposed by the accompanying bill.

The committee feel that, in approaching the last special point of which they intend to treat in this report-the franking privilege-they are about to enter upon a subject which, in their opinion, forms the prolific source of the greater portion of the evils that exist under the present system. It is to furnish means to supply the deficiency created by the exercise of this pretended right, that the social and business correspondence of the people of this country has been taxed and restricted ever since the commencement of the government. If the mails have been overburdened, and the facilities which they should afford have been withheld from the great mass of American citizens, it has been because the revenues of the department have been absorbed to a most unwarrantable extent in paying for the transportation of myriads of documents, speeches, and letters from and to members of Congress and the heads of execu tive departments, the cost of conveying which should never have been defrayed by the Post Office Department, as has been the case. Year after year have the reports of Postmasters General and Post Office committees, in both branches of Congress, teemed with the strongest appeals against an evil which was crushing the mail service of the country; but their appeals have been unheeded, lest legislators and executive officers should be obliged to pay for services which, it cannot be denied, have been too much the offspring of their own desire for popularity, or the gratification of an inordinate self-esteem. The servants of the people have taxed those who sent them here to a most exorbitant extent, in the form of letter postage, in order that their speeches and documents might be circulated among those who, it is believed, in the ma jority of instances, did not take the trouble to read what was sent to them. These are unpleasant truths, but they are nevertheless truths; and it is the object of your committee, if possible, to correct this abuse, perpetrated upon every citizen of the country, by reducing the rate of postage to a fair compensation for the service actually rendered, requiring prepayment on all letters, and causing each department of the government to be held accountable for and made to pay its own legitimate expenses. Nor will the effect of a reform so salutary be disastrous, as some have supposed, even to those who have heretofore enjoyed a privilege which the com mittee do not hesitate to brand as an outrage upon the spirit of our repub lican institutions, based as they are, and must be, upon equality of right. The committee would ask in what manner can the proposed reform operate unfavorably, either upon members of Congress or the heads of executive departments? Is it the paltry postage of two cents each on all letters, for whatever distance? This, as the committee propose, is to be paid by regular appropriations for Congress and for each executive department. But they would further ask, what becomes of this mighty burden when we reflect that, all letters being neces sarily prepaid, those who have now the franking privilege will receive no letter upon which the two cents will not have been paid? Nay, more: will not the fact of their being required to prepay, deter thousands who now write to members of Congress and heads of departments for pastime, or to indulge a childish curiosity, from inflicting their epistles upon them,