CHAPTER XXI.

ANTI-SLAVERY Publications - Mails Examined Post Office in Charleston Mobbed-President Jackson's Recommendation-Incendiary Bill— Speech of Mr. Morris.

THE slave power, in 1836, made a strong effort to exercise a censorship over the public press of the country. The Post Office, the common property of the people, was used as a medium for the transmission of Anti-slavery publications, to some of the citizens of the South. The exercise of this Constitutional privilege, awakened great indignation, and efforts were immediately made, to arrest it. The Northern Mails when they arrived in Charleston, South Carolina, were guarded as the passed through the city to the Post Office, and, after undergoing a thorough search, all Antislavery publications were taken out of the mails, and consumed in a bonfire, in the streets, in the midst of a general rejoicing of the citizens. Similar acts were commited in other portions of the South.

President Jackson, at the opening of Congress, in 1836, recommended in his Annual Message, "the passage a law, that will prohibit, under severe penalties, the circulation in the Southern States through the Mail, of incendiary publications, intended to instigate the slaves to insurrection." Mr. Calhoun reported to the Senate a Bill, prohibiting Postmasters from delivering, "any pamphlet, newspaper, handbill, or other printed paper, or pictorial representation touching the subject of slavery, in any State, in which their circulation is prohibited by law."

Against this Bill, Mr. Morris, on the 14th of April, 1836, made the following

SPEECH.

Mr. PRESIDENT: I am opposed to the Bill; it contemplates the exercise of new power or powers, in a new form, over the Post Office and mails of the United States; and if the power contemplated be not unconstitutional, it is, to my mind, a most dangerous abuse. "Congress shall have power to establish post offices, and post roads." Those words, as used in the Constitution, have an evident reference to an existing state of things, and the use for which post offices and post roads was intended for the purpose of a free intercommunication of thoughts and opinions between the citizens of different parts of the country; and was deemed of so much importance, that the power to provide for its safety was vested in Congress; and the words "to establish" were used to denote, that Congress had the power to fix, unalterably and immovably, beyond the interference of any State power, the entire operations of the Post Office, and the traveling of the mail throughout every part of our extended Republic. The Post Office establishment was not intended as an attribute of the power of Government, but as a means by which that power should be exercised for the benefit of the citizens individually, by providing a channel of free and full communication between them, though residing in different sections of the country; and that their letters, papers, or pamphlets, should pass without any hindrance. or molestation from State authority. This principle has never been considered as a proper charge on the revenue of the country, but Congress have provided that it shall be supported and paid for by those who use it; Congress being vested with its management, and guaranteeing its safety and fidelity. The use of the mail, then, is in the nature of a reserved right, with which no law ought to

interfere. It is not, then a Government machine exclusively, which Congress can withdraw at pleasure, or render nugatory by the acts of its officers; but Congress have the power to regulate the expenses of the Department and fix its income, so that the Government shall at no time be subject to, or chargeable with, any expense of the establishment; and the postage has, from time to time, been regulated accordingly.

It is true that the mail is a great convenience, and probably a necessary appendage to the Government; but I consider this not to be the first and most important object; it is second to the safety of intercommunication between the citizens of this extensive Republic. Though this was the primary object, yet Congress has, in the regulation of the mail, levied a tax on those who make use of this privilege to the full extent of all the purposes of Government, by the exercise of the franking privilege. I somewhat question the correctness of this franking power, while the Government contributes nothing toward the support of the Post Office establishment, because it is in the nature of a direct tax in the rates of postage, which is levied upon those only who use the mail, while all such taxes ought to be apportioned among the States according to their respective numbers. But, Sir, it is not necessary for the purpose I have in view, to examine this point. That Congress have power to regulate the mail, and prescribe what shall be carried therein, I do not deny; but I insist that this power is confined to the material, not the moral matter to be conveyed. Congress can prescribe the weight, the bulk, and the kind of material which shall not be conveyed by mail, but the material must be judged by its outward appearance alone, and not by breaking any envelope or seal for the purpose of ascertaining this fact; for instance, no postmaster would be bound to put into the mail a piece of sheet iron or tin

of the shape and size of a common letter, even on the payment of postage according to established rates; and why not? because it is the usual means of conveying mental property only, and because its very texture would tend to the destruction of papers and documents which the mail was designed to convey, and which is its legitimate business; but if even an article of the above kind was carefully folded in the usual paper envelopes, sealed, directed, and put into the Post Office, it would be a dangerous exercise of power indeed, to permit a deputy postmaster to refuse its conveyance in the mail, because he should judge it contained improper matter. But, Sir, I would say to the Senator from Connecticut, that his amendment affords no redeeming quality to the dangerous principles of this Bill, by confining its operation to postmasters in the slaveholding States.

Can we, can Congress, take from any citizen in such State any personal right or privilege, or regulate under any circumstances the manner of this engagement? I should think not. Suppose a letter, package, or even a pictorial representation, folded and directed in the usual manner, and put into any Post Office in the United States: I would ask the gentleman whose property that letter or pamphlet is? Does it remain the property of him who deposited it? I think not. And though postmasters might as a mere act of courtesy, permit the depositor to take it back from the mail, yet he would not be bound to do so, because it is his sworn duty to forward all packages, which, in their common outward appearance, are such as are commonly sent by the mail. Is a letter or package, when left in a Post Office, the property of the United States or Post Office Department? Surely not; no one will contend for this. It is then the property of the person to whom it is directed, and the United States have given a solemn Constitutional pledge that they will convey it to him, without permitting its contents to be

inspected or suffering it in any degree or manner to be detained or injured, beyond what must necessarily take place in its passage.

Sir, what would be thought of the honor, or even honesty of an individual, who would receive a letter or printed document, under a general or special promise that he would deliver it safely to the person to whom it was directed, and should afterward retain or destroy it, because he should be of opinion it contained offensive matter? Every honorable mind can furnish a ready And what, Sir, shall be thought of the honor of this Government, which, after having declared that "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, PAPERS, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, should not be violated," and that no State shall pass any law impairing the obligation of contracts; who, after having received into its possession, for the purpose of carriage and safe delivery, the PAPERS and property of one of its citizens (for printed publications and letters are property, as well as papers), suffer this property to be seized and detained, by the most unreasonable of all means, that of the belief of a postmaster that it contained something touching the subject of slavery? or permit the States, by any law or regulation therein, to violate, or rather impair the obligation of the contract on the part of the United States for the delivery, as well as that existing between the person who sent, and him who has paid for the publication or document, and for its transportation? Sir, the very thought that this Government is, or ever will be, disposed to listen to a regulation of this kind, must, in my humble judgment, meet with the most decided disapprobation of the great majority of the American people. We, Sir, frequently lose sight of our argument, by attempting to extend it too much into generalities the mind, by attempting to embrace too many ideas, is apt to become confused. I will, then, make a