Volume 18 — ONE CENT POSTAGE, WITH ABOLITION OF FRANKING.

Speech in the Senate, June 10, 1870.

The Senate, as in Committee of the Whole, having under consideration the House bill “to abolish the franking privilege,” Mr. Sumner said:—

MR. PRESIDENT,—This debate began with a simple proposition to abolish the franking system, sometimes called “the franking privilege.” The bill for this purpose rudely terminates the existing system, without supplying any substitute, and without taking advantage of the proposed change to reduce the rate of postage. The bill is destructive, but in no respect constructive. It pulls down, but does not pretend to set up. It abolishes an old and time-honored, if not beneficent system, under which the people have grown in knowledge; but it does not attempt to provide any means by which the original object of the system shall be accomplished. It is a raw, crude, naked proposition. To adopt it in its present form would be as if you voted the destruction of this Capitol, without providing any place for the meeting of Congress, or economizing the ruins you made.

THE FRANKING SYSTEM, AND NOT THE FRANKING PRIVILEGE, IN OUR COUNTRY.

In England the power to frank was originally conferred as a “privilege,” and it assumed this character completely with time. When O’Connell wrote to a young aspirant, who had just been elected to Parliament, “You can frank to-night,” he announced a privilege. So far as this power in our country can be regarded as a privilege, it has no title to favor,—not the least. But whatever may be its character, nothing is clearer than that it should not be a burden on the postal service. With regard to the frank there are two obvious principles: first, so far as it is a privilege, it must be abolished; and, secondly, so far as it is allowed to remain, it must not be at the expense of the Post-Office, but, like other national services, be paid by the National Treasury. Better still, let it all disappear in a renovated system, where the rate of postage shall render the frank unnecessary.

The franking system in our country cannot be treated alone. It is part of a larger system, being the postal service of the country, and must be regarded in its relations to this service. In its most simple statement it is the freedom of certain letters, documents, pamphlets, and seeds in the public mails; but its true character is seen only in its operation. The franking system is that part of the postal service by which the people are enabled without cost to address their Senators and Representatives in Congress, and also the Departments of Government, while these answer without cost, thus bringing all near together; it is also that part of the postal service by which public documents are circulated throughout the country, and though much is distributed to little purpose, yet much is of unquestionable advantage. Seeds, speeches, and pamphlets are also distributed in the same way; nor can there be any question of the good influence from this agency. All these are component parts of the existing postal system. Strike out these, and the postal system of our country is changed. It is not the system which has existed from the beginning of our Government, under which the country has grown in knowledge and power.

To those who speak lightly of the franking system I indicate briefly what it has done. It has brought the people and the Government nearer together than people and Government ever were before. It has distributed innumerable documents by which knowledge in government, in science, and in the practical arts has been advanced. It has lent itself to the dissemination of truth, especially in speeches; so that it has been preacher and schoolmaster, with the whole people to hear and to learn. During the long tyranny of Slavery it was by the franking system that the arguments and protests against this wrong were carried among the people; and when Slavery broke forth in rebellion, the franking system became the powerful ally of the national cause; and now in the education of the States lately in rebellion this very franking system is the same powerful ally. It may be politic, discreet, and economical to dispense with it, but not, I think, without providing some substitute or commutation.

PROPOSED SUBSTITUTE.

To meet the exigency of the pending proposition I have introduced a bill, whose character may be seen in its title,—being “to simplify and reduce the rate of postage, to abolish the franking system, to limit the cost of carrying the mail, and to regulate the payment of postage.”[22] While abolishing the franking system, I try to provide a substitute, and at the same time, by associate provisions, to simplify and reduce the rate of postage. Taking advantage of the proposed change, I would revise the whole postal service, and bring it into harmony with the demands of republican civilization. Here the example of England is an important guide. The franking system there was an indulgence, or privilege, and little else. The “Quarterly Review,” while recognizing it as an abuse, likened it to “the concomitant and greater one which stands on the same ground,—exemption from arrest.”[23] It was not a system important in the relations between Government and people, and yet it was abolished only in conjunction with the establishment of a uniform letter-postage at one penny. But just in proportion as the franking system is important with us should its abolition be accompanied by a corresponding reduction in postage.

The copper unit of value in England is a penny, and this was adopted as the rate of postage there. With us the copper unit of value is a cent, and this I would adopt as the rate of postage here.

There are other provisions in the bill to which I call attention, especially the new facilities for newspapers and periodicals; also the requirement that all the business of the Post-Office shall be by stamps, so that no money shall be collected or received by any clerk in the office. By this process, at once simple, economical, and efficient, all postages will be collected, and there will be no necessity for accounts. The stamp office will be the universal money office, and the vendor of stamps will be the universal collector.

Do you ask for economy? I show you a way, simple and certain, by which receipts will be assured, while business is simplified. All dues will be collected at the minimum of cost, so that there will be no loss from frauds or supernumerary hands. There will be both security and economy, besides simplicity; but simplicity is economy as well as convenience, in the Post-Office as in mechanics.

FOREIGN EXAMPLES.

If we go to foreign countries for example, we shall be obliged to stop in England. There is nothing in any nation of the European continent which is not a warning. Everywhere on that continent, from time immemorial, postage has been exorbitant. The great Revolution which popularized the institutions of France did not popularize the Post-Office. Kings and nobles disappeared, while equal rights prevailed; but France, fruitful in ideas, did not conceive the idea of the Post-Office as a beneficent agent of civilization and the handmaid of social life. Nor at that time was England in advance of France. Everywhere postage was high and the mails were slow. In England the service had a burden in the circumstance that every peer of the Upper House and member of Parliament had a defined power of franking,—being the power to send ten letters daily and to receive fifteen.[24] As the letters sent and received by each privileged person were limited in number, the Post-Office was obliged each day to verify every frank and to count the letters thus sent and received. Here was what may be justly called “the franking privilege,” while the whole postal service was costly and cumbersome. Like that of the United States, it was the growth of accident, and it was administered with a particular eye to profits, as if this were the first object of a post-office. Economy there should be always, but profits never. In Great Britain the surplus of receipts above the cost of administration was carried to the general treasury. In the United States the surplus received on certain lines has been employed down to this day in extending mail facilities to the sparse settlers in other parts of the country, besides defraying the expense of the franking system; and the letters of the people have been subjected to this tax.

IN ENGLAND THE POST-OFFICE REGARDED ORIGINALLY AS A SOURCE OF REVENUE.

From a proposition submitted to the King in 1635, and still preserved in the State-Paper Office, it appears that the postal service was of the slenderest character: letters, it is said, “being now carried by carriers or foot-posts sixteen or eighteen miles a day, it is full two months before any answer can be received from Scotland or Ireland to London.”[25] But just so soon as it attracted attention the Post-Office was regarded as a source of revenue. In 1657 a voice in Parliament declared that it would “raise a revenue”; while a wise statesman replied, with little effect, “Nothing can more assist trade than this intercourse.”[26] It was often farmed out for hire. The posts, both inland and foreign, under the Commonwealth, were farmed for £10,000 a year.[27] In 1659 the Report on the Public Revenue contains the following item: “By postage of letters in farm, £14,000.”[28] Under Charles the Second the same system was continued, and his first Postmaster-General contracted to pay to the King a yearly rent of £21,500.[29] A little later we meet the statute of 15 Charles II. c. 14, with the suggestive title, “An Act for settling the profits of the Post-Office on his Royal Highness the Duke of York and the Heirs male of his body.” Under Queen Anne, what were called the “cross-posts” were farmed to Ralph Allen, who made great improvements in their management upon an agreement that the new profits so created should be his own during life. The bargain was so excellent for the contractor that during forty-two years he netted an average annual profit of nearly twelve thousand pounds,[30] which was enormous for those days. It is pleasant to think that the money thus obtained was well spent, as will be confessed when it is known that this contractor was the Allworthy of Fielding, and won from Pope that famous praise,—

The Post-Office was not only farmed to contractors, but it was burdened with pensions, sometimes to a royal mistress or favorite. This system was begun by James the Second, who, in execution of the wishes of his brother, Charles the Second, granted to Barbara, Duchess of Cleveland, £4,700 annually, and to the Earl of Rochester £4,000 annually, payable by the Post-Office.[32] Among the rewards lavished at a later day upon the Duke of Marlborough was an annual pension of £5,000, charged upon the Post-Office;[33] so that the victor of Ramillies and of Blenheim was a stipendiary upon the correspondence of the kingdom, every letter contributing to his annual income.

As the correspondence of the kingdom was charged with pensions, so also was it called to bear the burden of war. The statute of 9 Anne, c. 10, tells the story in its title: “An Act for establishing a General Post-Office for all her Majesty’s dominions, and for settling a weekly sum out of the revenues thereof for the service of the war and other her Majesty’s occasions.” This statute was not short-lived, and its success as “war measure” encouraged the imposition of other burdens, so that the great English commentator, Sir William Blackstone, selected the Post-Office as a favorite pack-horse. “There cannot be devised,” says he, “a more eligible method than this of raising money upon the subject; for therein both the Government and the people find a mutual benefit. The Government acquires a large revenue; and the people do their business with greater ease, expedition, and cheapness than they would be able to do, if no such tax (and of course no such office) existed.”[34] Here is the rule authoritatively declared which so long prevailed with regard to the Post-Office.

ORIGIN OF FRANKING PRIVILEGE IN ENGLAND.

The English franking privilege was the natural parasite of such a system, where the true idea of a post-office was entirely forgotten. Its origin belongs to this argument. It was in 1657, beneath the sway of the great Protector, while the Postage Act was before the House, that Sir Christopher Pack is reported as saying, “The design of the bill is very good for trading and commerce; … as to that of letters passing free for members, it is not worth putting in an Act”;[35] and this is the earliest allusion to “letters passing free for members.” The idea showed itself again just after the Restoration, while the Act of 12 Charles II., c. 35, was under discussion. The proposition to frank all letters to or from members of Parliament during the session was carried on a division and after considerable debate, in the course of which Sir Heneage Finch, so eminent as lawyer and judge, characterized it as “a poor mendicant proviso, and below the honor of the House.” Among its partisans was Sir George Downing, a graduate in the first class of Harvard College. The Speaker, Sir Harbottle Grimston, was unwilling to put the question, saying, “I am ashamed of it.”[36] The Lords struck it out of the bill, ostensibly for the reasons which had actuated the Opposition in the Commons, but really because there was no provision that their own letters should pass free. Although the proposition failed at that time to obtain legislative sanction, yet the object was accomplished indirectly. In the indenture with the contractor to whom the Post-Office was farmed occurred a proviso for the free carriage of all letters to or from the King, the great officers of State, “and also the single inland letters only of the members of the present Parliament during the continuance of this session of this Parliament.”[37] And thus began the “franking privilege” in England. Defeated in Parliament, it was smuggled into a Post-Office contract. With such an origin, it became a mere perquisite of office; and afterward, when sanctioned by statute, it was employed at the mere will of its possessor, who sometimes distributed his franks among his friends and sometimes sold them for a price.[38]

POST-OFFICE IN THE COLONIES.

The postal service in the Colonies was on a small scale. Authentic incidents show its beginnings. The Government of New York in 1672 established a post to go monthly from New York to Boston, advertising “those that bee dispos’d to send letters, lett them bring them to the Secretary’s office, where, in a lockt box, they shall bee preserved till the messenger calls for them. All persons paying the post before the bagg be seal’d up.”[39] Thirty years later this monthly post was fortnightly.[40] In Virginia the postal service was more simple. The Colonial law of 1657 required every planter to provide a messenger for the conveyance of dispatches, as they arrived, to the next plantation, and so forward, on pain of forfeiting a hogshead of tobacco for each default.[41] Until after 1704 there was no regular post further East than Boston, or further West than Philadelphia. In that year Lord Cornbury, writing to Government at home, says:—

“If I have any letters to send to Virginia, or to Maryland, I must either send an express, who is often retarded for want of boats to cross those great rivers they must go over, or else for want of horses, or else I must send them by some passengers who are going thither. The least I have known any express take to go from hence to Virginia has been three weeks.”[42]

Shortly afterward stage-coaches were established between Boston and New York, and between Boston and Philadelphia; but no post-office was established in Virginia until 1732; nor did any postal revenue accrue to Great Britain from the Colonies until 1753, when Benjamin Franklin became Postmaster-General for the Colonies.[43]

The same genius which ruled in philosophy and in politics was not wanting in this sphere of duty. The office was remodelled, and the sphere of its operations extended. But the efforts of Franklin in this department became tributary to the revenues of the mother country. On his removal, in 1774, he was able to say, “Before I was displaced by a freak of the ministers we had brought it to yield three times as much clear revenue to the Crown as the Post-Office of Ireland. Since that imprudent transaction they have received from it—not one farthing.”[44] Revenue! always revenue! Even Franklin shows no sign of ascending to the true idea of a post-office. The Revolution was now at hand, when the Crown ceased to receive revenue from any source in the United States. But in separating from the mother country the Post-Office was left unchanged in character. It was an undeveloped agency, with receipts always above expenses.

REFORM AND PENNY POSTAGE IN ENGLAND.

Meanwhile in the mother country the Post-Office continued to be a source of revenue; but its natural capacities were impaired by a defective system, without an animating soul. It was merely a machine for carrying a few letters and putting money into the public treasury. Though still on a small scale, its processes were multifarious. The rates were constantly altered, and generally increased in amount, as also in number, in each of the three kingdoms, and without uniformity in either two. From two or three, in 1710, they rose in number until they reached the climax of absurdity and inconvenience in twelve different rates for England and Scotland in 1812, and thirteen for Ireland in 1814.[45] The impracticable system, with rates at once numerous and high, led to perpetual evasions, while the franking privilege was a charge without an equivalent. At last the day of revolution came. After careful inquiry the old system was swept away, and with it no less than one hundred and fifty Acts of Parliament by which it was incumbered.[46] The old was succeeded by the new, and the change was complete. No institution in history ever underwent at once a transformation so beneficent as that of the British Post-Office.

Next after Benjamin Franklin, Rowland Hill will be enrolled as the most remarkable character in the history of the Post-Office. The son of a schoolmaster, of simple life, and without any connection with the postal service, he conceived the idea of radical reform. It is not too much to say that he became the inventor or author of cheap postage. More than all Franklin did for the Colonies Hill did for Great Britain. Call him inventor or author, there are few on either list more worthy of honor; and since what is done for one country becomes the common property of the world, he belongs to the world’s benefactors.

Rowland Hill well observed, that, while population, business, and all other sources of national revenue had greatly increased during the preceding twenty years, the revenue of the Post-Office had actually decreased; that, for instance, the revenue from stage-coaches had risen from £217,671 in 1815 to £498,497 in 1835, or one hundred and twenty-nine per cent., while the postal revenue, which at a corresponding rate of increase should have exhibited a gain of £2,000,000, in point of fact showed an absolute loss of near £20,000, having declined from £1,557,291 in 1815 to £1,540,300 in 1835.[47] Evidently there was something abnormal, when the conveyance of persons and parcels yielded a revenue so much beyond that of letters. After showing the loss to the revenue, the generous reformer demonstrated clearly that the actual cost of carrying a letter by coach in the mail from London to Edinburgh, being four hundred miles, was only one thirty-sixth part of a penny,[48]—from which it was properly inferred that the actual difference of expense between transporting a letter one mile and delivering it and transporting it four hundred miles and delivering it did not justify a different rate of postage. His conclusion was, that the large cost of distributing letters grew out of a complex and multifarious system, springing especially from many rates,—that all this would be superseded, if postage were charged, without regard to distance, at a uniform rate, and that this uniform rate should be one penny; and he did not hesitate to declare that with this change there would be an increase in correspondence “at least five and a quarter fold.”[49] In his original proposition, Rowland Hill relied especially upon a uniform rate at a penny, regardless of distance,—and from this promised simplicity, economy, and an immense increase of correspondence. But, offensive as the franking privilege had become, and burdensome to the postal service, he did not at first propose its excision.

His plan encountered that honest opposition which improvement of all kinds is obliged to overcome. The record is most instructive. The Postmaster-General, Lord Lichfield, said in the House of Lords: “Of all the wild and visionary schemes which I have ever heard of, it is the most extravagant.” On another occasion the same high official assured the House, that, if the anticipated increase of letters should be realized, “the mails will have to carry twelve times as much in weight; and therefore the charge for transmission, instead of £100,000, as now, must be twelve times that amount. The walls of the Post-Office would burst; the whole area in which the building stands would not be large enough to receive the clerks and the letters.”[50] In the same spirit with his chief, Colonel Maberly, the experienced Secretary of the Post-Office, in his testimony before the Committee, did not hesitate to say: “It appears to me a most preposterous plan, utterly unsupported by facts, and resting entirely on assumption.” And he proceeded to predict a loss of revenue from its adoption, saying, that, if postage were reduced to one penny, the revenue “would not recover itself for forty or fifty years.”[51] The London “Quarterly Review,” with its habitual obstructiveness, set itself against the new plan and its promised result, saying: “Common sense is astounded at such a result and refuses to believe it, though it cannot at first sight discover where the fallacies lie; but a little examination will show, that, as usual, common sense is right, even against the assumed accuracy of arithmetic.”[52] I give these as illustrative examples of the opposition encountered.

Against all these stood Rowland Hill, insisting that the Post-Office, although now “rendered feeble and inefficient by erroneous financial arrangements,” in contemplation of the proposed reform “assumes the new and important character of a powerful engine of civilization, capable of performing a distinguished part in the great work of national education.”[53]

The proposed reform was vindicated as practical and valuable, first by witnesses before the Parliamentary Committee, and then in Parliamentary debate. The Committee examined no less than eighty-nine witnesses. These were from every rank and nearly every trade and profession,—peers of the realm, members of the House of Commons, authors, publishers, merchants, bankers, mechanics, common carriers, clergymen, solicitors, Post-Office officials, and others. Among the witnesses were Richard Cobden, Charles Knight, Rowland Hill, Dionysius Lardner, and Lord Ashburton.[54] The testimony embraced eleven thousand six hundred and fifty-four questions and answers, and filled three large folio volumes bound in two, making altogether nearly sixteen hundred pages. The Index alone makes one hundred and fifty-three pages.

Among the many things testified before the Committee I select the words of Lord Ashburton, as especially valuable. Experienced in business and in public life, he pictures truthfully the burden of excessive postage, when he says:—

“I think it is one of the worst of our taxes. We have, unfortunately, many taxes which have an injurious tendency; but I think few, if any, have so injurious a tendency as the tax upon the communication by letters.”

And then again:—

“It is, in fact, taxing the conversation of people who live at a distance from each other. The communication of letters by persons living at a distance is the same as a communication by word of mouth between persons living in the same town. You might as well tax words spoken upon the Royal Exchange as the communications of various persons living in Manchester, Liverpool, and London. You cannot do it without checking the disposition to communicate very essentially.”

At the same time Lord Ashburton hesitated to adopt a rate as low as one penny. He was for twopence or threepence.[55]

The doubts of Lord Ashburton as to the rate were encountered by Mr. Cobden, who testified:—

“I consider the only way to produce the greatest possible amount of revenue is to charge the lowest possible trading profit; and it is in the Post-Office as in steamboats, or Paddington coaches, or calicoes, or sugars, or teas, or anything else which can be or ought to be an article of universal demand and consumption. With that view I have regarded Mr. Rowland Hill’s plan of Post-Office Reform; and taking the cost of a letter, upon the presumed increase he has stated, even at three-fourths of a penny each letter, I should say one penny would then be a proper charge ultimately to produce the greatest possible amount of revenue. I would reason from analogy and experience in every other business, and in none more than my own.”[56]

On such a point nobody could speak with more authority than Mr. Cobden.

But nobody showed more comprehension of the moral ground for this reform than Mr. Jones Loyd, the eminent banker and economist, afterwards Lord Overstone. Nothing can be better than this:—

“I think, if there be any one subject which ought not to have been selected as a subject of taxation, it is that of inter-communication by post; and I would even go a step further, and say, that, if there be any one thing which the Government ought, consistently with its great duties to the public, to do gratuitously, it is the carriage of letters. We build national galleries, and furnish them with pictures; we propose to create public walks, for the air and health and exercise of the community, at the general cost of the country. I do not think that either of those, useful and valuable as they are to the community, and fit as they are for Government to sanction, is more conducive to the moral and social advancement of the community than the facility of intercourse by post. I therefore greatly regret that the post was ever taken as a field for taxation, and should be very glad to find, that, consistently with the general interests of the revenue, which the Government has to watch over, they can effect any reduction in the total amount so received, or any reduction in the charges, without diminishing the total amount.”[57]

In all the voluminous testimony this beautiful passage is like a beacon-light.

At last this important subject was transferred from the Committee to Parliamentary debate; and here I content myself with a few brief words from leading speakers. Mr. Goulburn, one of the chiefs of Opposition, admitted that the plan proposed would “ultimately increase the wealth and prosperity of the country.”[58] Mr. Wallace declared it “one of the greatest boons that could be conferred on the human race.”[59] Sir Robert Peel admitted that “great social and commercial advantages will arise from the change, independent of financial considerations.”[60] Viscount Sandon, of the Opposition, struck a higher chord, when he declared that he “had long been of opinion that the Post-Office was not a proper source of revenue,” but “ought to be employed to stimulate other sources of revenue.”[61] In the same strain, and with higher authority, Mr. O’Connell declared it “one of the most valuable legislative reliefs that had ever been given to the people”; that it was “impossible to exaggerate its importance”; and even if it would not pay the expense of the Post-Office, he held that “Government ought to make a sacrifice for the purpose of facilitating communication.”[62] I group these testimonies as important in the history of this reform, and furnishing a guide for us.

VICTORY.

At last victory was assured. The Parliamentary Committee reported in favor of change. But Parliament hesitated to fix the change in permanent form. By Act of 17th August, 1839, the Lords of the Treasury were empowered by warrant under their hands to declare the rates of postage according to weight, “without reference to the distance or number of miles the same shall be conveyed,”—and also to suspend, wholly or in part, “any parliamentary or official privilege of sending and receiving letters by the post free of postage, or any other franking privilege of any description whatsoever.” The Lords of the Treasury were contented with ordering a uniform rate of fourpence, and without the abolition of the franking privilege. This was not enough. The people called for more, and the Lords of the Treasury by another warrant declared the rate at one penny and suspended the franking privilege.[63] This was followed by the Act of Parliament passed 10th August, 1840, in which the great change was consummated. The rate was established at one penny, with stamps; and the franking privilege was abolished, except in the case of petitions to the Crown or to Parliament not exceeding thirty-two ounces in weight. The clause of abolition was as follows:—

“That, except in the cases herein specified, all privileges whatsoever of sending letters by the post free of postage, or at a reduced rate of postage, shall wholly cease and determine.”[64]

The abolition of the franking privilege was more than Rowland Hill had proposed. In his testimony before the Parliamentary Committee he undertook to account for the anticipated increase of letters “in some measure from the partial voluntary disuse of the franking privilege,”[65]—thus mildly forecasting, not its abolition, but its voluntary renunciation. And the Committee, in their recommendations, treated its abolition as incident to cheap postage. This is their language:—

“It would be politic, … if, on effecting the proposed reduction of the postage rates, the privilege of Parliamentary franking were to be abolished, and the privilege of official franking placed under strict limitation,—petitions to Parliament and Parliamentary documents being still allowed to go free.”[66]

Thus was the abolition of the franking privilege announced as subordinate to the reduction of the postage rates, which was the main object.

Thus, after inquiry and debate lasting for three years, this great reform was accomplished, and the English Post-Office assumed an unprecedented character. The new system was founded on a uniform rate for uniform weight without regard to distance, and this rate the lowest unit of coin,—with prepaid stamps, and the abolition of the franking privilege. The experiment was a prodigious success, although the first results showed a falling off financially. The Post-Office authorities had predicted that it would not pay expenses; but the diminished receipts were more than enough for the expenses, while the number of letters was more than doubled.[67] There was a smaller net revenue for the National Treasury, but an infinite benefit to the people. The surplus of the first year was £500,789, against £1,633,764 of the previous year.[68] But the improvement financially was constant, so that here Rowland Hill became a prophet. He had predicted that the increase of correspondence and the economy of management would in a reasonable time afford a probable net revenue of £1,278,000.[69] In 1856 the net revenue had reached £1,207,725,—while at the same time the letters were 478,393,803 in number, with 6,178,982 money orders, against 75,907,572 letters, with 188,921 money orders, in the last year of the old system.[70]

The smallest part of the result was in the revenue,—except so far as this was advanced by the increased activity of the country, represented by the added millions of correspondence. Commerce and business were quickened infinitely, while the ties of social life were brightened and the heart was rejoiced. Here the testimony is complete. Tradesmen wrote to Rowland Hill, their benefactor, saying how their business had increased. Charles Knight, the eminent publisher, who did so much for the literature of the people, wrote that every branch of bookselling was stimulated, while the country seller was brought into almost daily communication with the London houses. The publisher of the Polyglot Bible in twenty-four languages, requiring a peculiar revision, declared that it could not have been printed but for penny postage. The Secretary of the Parker Society, composed of Church dignitaries and influential laymen, which has done so much for ecclesiastical literature by reprinting the works of the early English Reformers, stated that without penny postage the Society could not have come into existence. Secretaries of other societies, literary and benevolent, wrote how their machinery had been improved; conductors of educational establishments testified that people were everywhere learning to write for the first time, in order to enjoy the benefits of untaxed correspondence, and that night classes of adults for this purpose were springing up in all large towns. A leading advocate for the repeal of the Corn Laws gave it as his opinion that this reform must have waited but for penny postage,—that through this ally it reached its triumph two years earlier than it otherwise could have done. All this is easy to believe; for penny postage lends itself to all knowledge and to every reform. Others wrote with rapture of its operations. The accomplished naturalist, Professor Henslow, of Cambridge, rejoiced over its “importance to those who cultivate science,” and pictured the satisfaction of the humble people about his country parsonage “at the facility they enjoy of now corresponding with distant relatives,” together with what he calls “the vast domestic comfort which the penny postage has added to homes like my own, situate in retired villages.” Miss Martineau described its social benefits. Rowland Hill himself, showing how much it had done for the poor, said, “The postman has now to make long rounds through humble districts where heretofore his knock was rarely heard.”[71] And from the outlying Shetland Islands a visitor in May, 1842, reported: “The Zetlanders are delighted with penny postage. The postmaster told me that the number of letters was astonishing.”[72] But perhaps the heartfelt exultation was never better expressed than by the accomplished traveller, Mr. Laing, when, after describing the Prussian system of education, and giving the palm to penny postage as “a much wiser and more effective educational measure,” destined to be “the great historical distinction of the reign of Victoria I.,” he proceeds to say, that “every mother in the kingdom, who has children earning their bread at a distance, lays her head upon her pillow at night with a feeling of gratitude for this blessing.”[73] Such was the unbought tribute from all quarters,—alike the cottage of the lowly and the home of the professor, the counting-house of the merchant and the activities of benevolence, business in its various forms, and the commanding efforts of the political reformer, all, all confessing their debt to penny postage.[74]

The benefactor was honored in no common way, but not without tasting the lot of others who have served Humanity. At first assigned to a position in the Treasury connected with the Post-Office, then dismissed, and then, with a change of Administration, not only restored to the service, but appointed to a high position in the Post-Office itself, he had the inexpressible satisfaction of witnessing the triumph of his efforts and receiving the grateful regard of a happy people. He was not rich, and the considerable sum of £13,000 was presented to him by a public subscription throughout the country, with an address declaring the reform he had accomplished “the greatest boon conferred in modern times on all the social interests of the civilized world.” The knighthood bestowed by his sovereign was another attestation of his prevailing merit, destined to be followed by a further gift from Parliament itself of £20,000.[75] This episode of honor and gratitude to the benefactor has a peculiar interest for us, as furnishing new testimony to the cause with which the name of Rowland Hill is forever associated.

THE SAME VICTORY MAY BE OURS.

Such was the great reform by which the Post-Office became an evangel of civilization; but all this may be ours. The impediments overcome were greater than any we are called to encounter, while the object proposed is in undoubted accord with republican institutions, where simplicity, harmony, and adaptation to popular needs are acknowledged principles. This renovation prevailed in England: how can it fail in the United States? The Republic is the most advanced type of government, as the human form is the most advanced type of the animal world; but the Republic is nothing else than an organization to promote the welfare of men. Whatever makes for human welfare is essentially republican. Nor can any loss of revenue be set against this transcendent opportunity. Show me how to promote the welfare of men, and I show you an economy beyond any revenue; more still, I show you a duty not to be postponed.

The ruling principle in England, from the beginning down to the triumph of penny postage, was revenue; and this is still the ruling principle with us, to which all else is subordinated. England was accustomed to say, and the United States now say, with Shylock, “We would have moneys.” The abolition of the franking system is proposed on this ground,—not to lighten the existing burden of correspondence, not to cheapen postage, not to simplify the postal service, not to provide the American equivalent of the English penny postage, but simply to increase the revenue. We are summoned to give up a long-tried system, educational in its influence, merely for the sake of the Treasury. This is the object perpetually in view. Even the Postmaster-General, who is so liberal in all his ideas, says, in words which hardly do justice to the times, “As far as lay in my power, during my short administration, I have reduced the expenditures and increased the revenues of the Department.”[76] Something better than this remains to be done.

COMPLEXITY AND MULTIFARIOUSNESS IN OUR SYSTEM.

The postal system of the United States was kindred in character to that of England until the latter was transfigured by the felicitous genius of Rowland Hill. Both had the same incongruities and incumbrances. The rates in both were complex instead of uniform, and dear instead of cheap. The Act of Congress, February 20, 1792, establishing the Post-Office, provided for no less than nine different rates of postage, viz.,—six, eight, ten, twelve and a half, fifteen, seventeen, twenty, twenty-two, and twenty-five cents,—according to distance. In 1799 the number of rates was reduced to six, viz.,—eight, ten, twelve and a half, seventeen, twenty, and twenty-five cents. In 1816 the number was further reduced to five, viz.,—six, ten, twelve and a half, eighteen and a half, (in 1825 changed to eighteen and three fourths,) and twenty-five cents,—and so continued until 1845, when, yielding partially to the English example, the rates were established at five and ten cents, with two cents for drop letters; then, in 1851, at three and six cents for prepaid and five and ten cents for unpaid letters, with one cent for drop letters; then, in 1855, at three and ten cents prepaid, and one cent for drop letters; then, in 1863, at three cents, or, failing prepayment, six cents, with two cents for drop letters; and finally, in 1865, at three cents prepaid in all cases, with two cents for drop letters delivered by carriers, or one cent where there is no delivery.[77]

The difference between a drop letter and what is called a mailed letter, or letter from post-office to post-office, causes frequent confusion, as is seen here in Washington, where letters for Georgetown often have the two-cent stamp, when they should have that of three cents. The same confusion exists in other places. But this ridiculous division and subdivision are peculiar to the United States. It is not known that they are to be found in any other postal service.

The rates on foreign letters were, if possible, more chaotic. It was different with different countries, according to existing treaties; and this difference prevailed not only in the rate, but also in the unit of weight. As late as 1849 the rate on letters to England and Ireland was twenty-four cents, and was then changed to sixteen cents, and in 1868 to twelve cents; it is now six cents, being two cents for the sea postage and two cents for the inland postage of each country, allowing half an ounce of weight.[78] The treaty rate with France is fifteen cents on one quarter of an ounce.[79] Letters to Canada and other British North American provinces, when not over three thousand miles, are six cents for each half-ounce, if prepaid, and ten cents, if not prepaid; when over three thousand miles, ten cents; to Newfoundland, ten cents.[80] Then, in the absence of postal international convention, there is a general provision by Act of Congress establishing the rate of ten cents for each half-ounce carried to or received from foreign countries “by steamships or other vessels regularly employed in the transportation of the mails.”[81]

Such are the complexity and multifariousness of our postal service,—at least three different rates on inland letters, with an unknown variety on foreign letters. Here is discord where there should be uniformity, and out of this discord springs necessarily embarrassment with untold expense. True, much has been done; but much remains to be done before the service will have that simplicity without which it is vain to expect the desired combination of utility and economy. Every departure from uniformity is an impediment and an expense. It is with the postal service as with all else in Nature and Art: it is efficient and economical in proportion as it is simple. The rates of postage should be uniform. Borrowing a phrase from our political victories, all letters should be equal before the law.

Take by way of illustration the increased perplexity from two rates: and here I follow an old official of the Post-Office, Pliny Miles, who puts this very case. “Suppose,” says he, “city or local letters were two cents, and letters for a distance three or four cents. What a vast amount of labor and inconvenience in the work of rating and sorting in the Post-Office, and how perplexing to the citizen!”[82] By the existing system there is a double perplexity,—first, for the citizen, and, secondly, for the postal service. Each rate is like an additional language to be learned, while the unknown rates on foreign letters are like the confusion of Babel.

UNIFORM RATE AT ONE CENT.

In the process of simplification the uniform rate should be the lowest unit of coin. Beyond the sufficiency of this rate as a protection of the Post-Office against abuse, and also its obvious convenience, is its cheapness, reducing the tax on correspondence to its practical minimum. In England the penny was the lowest unit of coin, being in the English currency what the cent is in ours. The success of the English experiment is our best encouragement. There is better reason for the cent as a proper rate in our country than there was for the penny as a proper rate in England.

Such a rate will be so near to free postage for all, that it may be considered such practically. Let it be adopted, and free postage will become the companion of free school, free lecture, and free library, constituting the mighty group of republican civilization. The existing franking system will naturally disappear in this new franking system for all.

Here we encounter the financial question, What will be the effect on the Treasury? Will it pay? These are the potential words. This is the touchstone. That it will pay in beneficent influence tenfold, ay, Sir, a hundred-fold,—that it will make the Post-Office more than ever the powerful agent of human improvement, I cannot doubt. What is a little revenue, compared with such a result? What, even, is a deficit, with such a compensation? But looking at the financial question, and forgetting for a moment the incalculable good, it will be found that there are general laws of profit on small prices applicable to this proposed reduction, reinforced also by the example of England, and even of our own country.

REDUCTION OF PRICE INCREASES CONSUMPTION.

Nothing is plainer, as a general rule, than that the reduction of price tends to increase of consumption. This is illustrated by a thousand instances. Thus, at one time in England the fall in the price of soap one eighth increased the consumption one third; the fall of tea one sixth increased consumption one half; the fall of silks one fifth doubled the consumption; the fall of coffee one fourth trebled it; and the fall of cotton goods one half quadrupled it.[83] The circulation of newspapers and the number of advertisements are governed by the same law. There is another English instance, not within the range of ordinary business, which is not without historic interest. Formerly the admission fee to the famous sights of the Tower of London was two shillings, at which rate there were, during the year ending April 30, 1838, 11,104 visitors, paying £1110 8s. The fee was then reduced to one shilling, and during the twelve months following (1838-9) there were 42,212 visitors, paying £2110 12s. On the first of May, 1839, the fee was again reduced to sixpence, and during the ensuing year (1839-40) there were 84,872 visitors, paying £2121 16s.,—and the next year (1840-41) 94,973 visitors, paying £2374 6s. 6d.[84] Thus at the Tower more people were gratified by the sights and more money was taken,—so that there was at the same time a larger accommodation and a larger revenue. A reduction of the fee in the ratio of four to one was followed by an increase of visitors in the ratio of more than eight to one. According to a familiar story in our own country, the exhibitor of a panorama reported to the proprietor that the proceeds at twenty-five cents a ticket did not pay expenses. “Put it down to ten cents,” was the reply. This was done, and immediately the receipts rose so as to give a profit of one hundred dollars a week.

Such instances as these occurring in business and in life led Rowland Hill to assert that “the increase in consumption is inversely as the squares of the prices”; and this rule justified the expectation, that, with the proposed reduction of letter postage from the average of sixpence to a penny, the number of letters would increase thirty-six fold.[85] If the number did not increase in this remarkable ratio, yet it was such as to disappoint the enemies of reform. It appears that the estimated number of chargeable letters delivered in the United Kingdom of England, Scotland, and Ireland in 1839, the year immediately preceding the first general reduction of postage, was 75,907,572, and in 1840, the first year of penny postage, 168,768,344, showing an increase in one year of more than 122 per cent. Since then this large number has dilated year by year, until in 1867 it amounted to 774,831,000.[86]

Postal facilities have from the beginning promoted correspondence, and this was recognized even before the appearance of Rowland Hill. An old account of the English Post-Office, after describing certain improvements, exults “that there is no considerable market-town but hath an easy and certain conveyance for the letters thereof to and from the Grand Office in the City of London, in the due course of the mails every post”; and then adds, that, “though the number of letters missive in England were not at all considerable in our ancestors’ days, yet it is now prodigiously great, since the meanest people have generally learnt to write.”[87] This is the language of another age; but it attests the stimulation which letters receive from opportunity, and illustrates the value of cheap postage.

CHEAP POSTAGE MULTIPLIES LETTERS.

The experience of England is reproduced in the United States, so far as we have ventured upon postage reform. Every reduction of rate has been followed by a corresponding increase in the number of letters. There was the law of 1845, by which postage was reduced to two principal rates of five and ten cents. At this proposition, which erred only in its feebleness, there was the gloomiest foreboding of utter loss to the Post-Office. The raven did not croak more hoarsely at the entrance of Duncan under the battlements of Macbeth. Mr. McDuffie, the excitable Senator from South Carolina, always sensitive for Slavery, after expressing regret that bodily infirmity disabled him from declaring the strength of his convictions in regard to the evils which would flow from this measure, protested against its adoption as “more radical and revolutionary than anything ever done in Congress.” The Senator denounced it as most unjust, and predicted that in ten years the Post-Office would cost the Treasury $10,000,000.[88] The newspaper press, though not so fervid, was as skeptical as the South Carolina Senator; and the Postmaster-General showed the very disposition which had given to his brother officials in England the designation of “unwilling horses.” In his first Report after the passage of the law, he announced a prospective deficiency for the current year exceeding $1,250,000, and, unless there should be some amendment of the law, another deficiency the next year of little short of $1,000,000.[89] Now mark the result of even this too slight reduction. The actual deficiency for 1845-6 was only $597,097,[90] and for 1846-7 it was but $33,677,[91] while in 1848-9 there was a surplus revenue of $226,127.[92] The letters in 1845 were estimated at 39,958,978; and in 1849 at 60,159,862,[93] showing an increase in four years of more than fifty per cent.

Every reduction of postage in our country exhibits similar results. According to the ratio of reduction has been the ratio of increase in the number of letters. It may surprise Senators to know, that, while the estimated number in 1852 was 95,790,524,[94] it reached in 1868 to 488,000,000, in the estimate of the Post-Office.[95] But this is only according to the prevailing impulsion from a reduction in price. In England, where the rate was smaller, the number of letters was much larger, being in 1867, as estimated, no less than 774,831,000.[96] This becomes more remarkable, when it is considered that the estimated population of the United States at the time was more than forty millions, while that of the United Kingdom was thirty millions,—making twelve letters annually for each person in the United States, and twenty-six letters annually for each person in the United Kingdom.

ILLEGITIMATE BURDENS ON CORRESPONDENCE.

To understand the justice of the proposed reduction in our country, we must analyze and consider existing obligations of the postal service. I mention two, through which we may see the unjust operation of the present tax on correspondence: first, the well-known franking system, and, secondly, the millions of newspapers, by which an inconceivable amount of mail matter is made a burden on the Post-Office, tasking its transportation and its means of delivery. Although printed matter, unfranked, is charged with postage, it is not in proportion to its burden on the postal service; so that the letter not only pays for itself, but contributes to the other. The letter, so small in dimension and weight, but with its own unseen freight of business or friendship, is made to carry an additional load. Every letter is a dwarf shouldering a giant; or stating the case with absolute literalness, it is a sheet of paper compelled to bear free matter and printed matter measured by the ton. This little messenger, whose single function necessarily requires dispatch, is charged with this intolerable mass. No wonder that it staggers under the load heaped upon it. No wonder that the people are obliged to pay high postage; for, on receiving a letter, they not only pay the price of its transportation and delivery, but they contribute to the transportation and delivery of everything else carried by the mails.

But even this burden could be borne, if the whole service were not charged with the cost of transportation and postal facilities in distant parts of the country, where there is necessarily a disproportionate expense,—so that a letter in certain States, after paying for its own transportation and delivery, and contributing to the transportation and delivery of free matter and printed matter, contributes still further to those long lines of service by which the most remote places are supplied and the post-office follows close in the footsteps of the pioneer. This is beautiful, but it is not just; in other words, it is beautiful that these opportunities should be afforded, but it is not just that the correspondence of others should pay for them. Nor should these extraordinary expenses be charged on these remote places, or on the pioneer. They belong properly to the necessary outlay in opening the country, by which the nation, the great untaxed proprietor, finds a market for its land and new scope for its growing empire. Obviously this outlay should be charged to the Treasury, rather than saddled upon the postal service, as it is now.

EXPENSE OF OUTLYING ROUTES.

The last Report of the Postmaster-General shows the operation of the existing system in this respect. By the Statement of Receipts and Expenditures for 1868-9, it appears that in no less than sixteen States and Territories, including the District of Columbia, the Post-Office was more than self-supporting, there being an excess of receipts over expenditures of $3,571,315; while in the other States and Territories there was an excess of expenditures over receipts amounting to $4,727,175.[97] The self-supporting list, with each surplus, is as follows:—

States and Territories.Receipts.Expenses.Excess of receipts over expenditures.

Maine$309,244.35$293,667.27$15,577.08

New Hampshire198,238.89165,370.2132,868.68

Massachusetts1,389,731.76740,121.42649,610.34

Rhode Island149,800.9576,046.7873,754.17

Connecticut418,048.99312,415.28105,633.71

New York3,818,667.452,186,196.211,632,471.24

New Jersey343,192.64297,402.1845,790.46

Pennsylvania1,734,987.751,135,969.06599,018.69

Delaware49,291.1145,496.693,794.42

Ohio1,185,718.441,166,145.1919,573.25

Michigan550,107.68537,012.9713,094.71

Illinois1,442,300.261,125,034.22317,266.04

Iowa438,636.79398,381.2140,255.58

District of Columbia123,422.70111,746.4011,676.30

Alaska316.72150.00166.72

Wyoming18,086.097,322.3710,763.72

Total$12,169,792.57$8,598,477.46$3,571,315.11

Here I ask confidently, considering the nature of the Post-Office and the unquestionable importance of encouraging correspondence, if it is just that the letter-writers in one part of the country should be constrained to make the large contribution attested by this table, for the benefit especially of those at a distance, and also of the country at large. Rejecting again all idea of casting this expenditure upon the distant places and the pioneer, I insist that it should be borne by the Treasury rather than by remote letter-writers.

It is easy to exhibit the extent of this charge, and its palpable injustice. Begin with an illustration. Suppose a common carrier, with an interest beyond his business in an undeveloped part of the country at some distance from his daily line, makes a deviation to this outlying settlement at a daily loss, but looking to the growth of his interest there for ultimate remuneration. It would not be just for him to levy on all his customers along the main line for the expense of this deviation,—making them not only pay for their parcels, but contribute to the development of the outlying settlement. Nor would this enforced contribution commend itself, if urged in the name of charity or as a patriotic service to an infant community. The customers would insist that their parcels should pay only the legitimate cost of transportation and delivery; or they would soon find another carrier, who would charge them simply for their parcels, without adding the cost of opening new settlements. But the National Government is our common carrier, turning aside at great expense to develop and supply new places, to its great ultimate advantage in the sale of public lands, the growth of population, and increase of the revenue; but it is not justified in casting this large expense on the correspondence of the people.

Already the Nation assumes the expenses of the Territories before their admission as States, paying the salaries of their various officers and the cost of administration. For equal reason the Nation should assume the expenses of these outlying post-routes.

By the kindness of the Postmaster-General I am enabled to present from the records of the Department two authentic testimonies. There is the post-route from San Antonio to El Paso, a distance of seven hundred and four miles, with the annual cost of service, $126,601, and the annual receipts from offices on the route, $3,137. There is also the post-route from Kelton, Utah, to the Dalles, Oregon, seven hundred and sixty-five miles, with the annual cost of service, $130,278, and the annual receipts from offices on the route, $3,822. Other instances might be adduced, but these are enough to show how seriously the postal service is burdened by obligations which plainly belong to the Treasury.

In former debates of the Senate, an incident was mentioned by Mr. Crittenden, of Kentucky,[98] which illustrates the character of these unproductive lines. During a journey in Tennessee in the summer of 1844, the Senator had occasion to go to an outlying post-office in the interior of the State, on reaching which, late at night, he found the postmaster had gone to bed, leaving the mail-bags in the wagons. To his inquiries concerning this singular circumstance, “Why, Sir,” responded the official, “we don’t take the bags out at all; we don’t even look into them; it is so seldom we receive anything, we don’t think it worth while.” And upon investigation it in fact appeared that there was not a letter in any one of these bags, and had not been for a month. But this costly mail-service was at the expense of the correspondence elsewhere. The letter of the distant seaboard was a contributor.

DISTANCE ALONE DOES NOT CAUSE EXPENSE.

Sometimes it is supposed that the great distances of our country cause the large expense; but this is a mistake, founded on superficial observation. The large expense proceeds from something besides distance. Here I quote the words of Rowland Hill:—

“It is not matter of inference, but a matter of fact, that the expense to the Post-Office is practically the same, whether a letter is going from London to Barnet [eleven miles] or whether it is going from London to Edinburgh [four hundred miles]; the difference is not expressible in the smallest coin we have.”[99]

I have already mentioned that the actual cost of transportation from London to Edinburgh was only one thirty-sixth of a penny, and this was the average for all letters throughout the United Kingdom. With so small a fraction of a penny representing the cost of the longest line, it was apparent that the element of distance must be eliminated from the question. A recent writer thus strongly testifies to this rule:—

“If Mr. Hill demonstrated one thing more plainly than another, it was that the absolute cost of the transmission of each letter was so infinitesimally small, that, if charged according to that cost, the postage could not be collected. Besides, it is not certain that the one letter would cost the Post-Office more than the other.”[100]

But this rule is as applicable in our country as in the United Kingdom, always provided the lines are productive.

This rule, first enunciated by Rowland Hill, was substantially adopted by the Parliamentary Committee, when they say,—

“That it is the opinion of this Committee, that that part of the inland postage on letters which consists of tax ought to be the same on all; that, as the cost of conveyance per letter depends more on the number of letters carried than on the distance which they are conveyed, the cost being frequently greater for distances of a few miles than for distances of hundreds of miles, the charge, if varied in proportion to the cost, ought to increase in the inverse ratio of the number of letters conveyed; but as it would be difficult, if not impossible, to carry such a regulation into practice, and as the actual cost of conveyance (assuming the charged letters to bear the whole expense of the franked letters and of the newspapers) forms less than the half of the whole charge exclusive of tax, the remaining portion consisting chiefly in the charges attendant on their receipt at and delivery from the Post-Office, your Committee are of opinion that the nearest practicable approach to a fair system would be to charge a uniform rate of postage between one post-town and another, whatever might be their distance; and your Committee are further of opinion that such an arrangement is highly desirable, not only on account of its abstract fairness, but because it would tend in a great degree to simplify and economize the business of the Post-Office.”[101]

All this is plainly reasonable, whether in the United Kingdom or the United States.

The actual cost of each letter is inversely as the number of letters, irrespective of distance. The weight enters very little into the question. Take, for instance, a route of ten miles, at ten cents a mile, and another of one hundred miles at the same rate. If on the route of ten miles there is an average of only one letter, as is the case on some routes, this one letter would cost one dollar, while ten thousand letters on the route of one hundred miles would cost only one mill a letter. The Post-Office pays a fixed compensation for the daily transportation of its mails between certain places, and this compensation is not varied by any addition to the number of letters. Therefore on all productive or paying lines, as between Washington and New York, and then between New York and Buffalo, additional letters may be received for distant places, without adding to the cost, until the letters reach St. Louis or New Orleans, or any other place accessible by a self-supporting line, and the actual cost of a letter for the longest distance will be no more than for the shortest. It will be the same alike to New Orleans and to New York. Thus on the assumption of a continuous self-supporting line the question of distance does not enter into the cost, and thus again we see the injustice of compelling the correspondence on such a line to the contributions it is now obliged to make.

EXISTING RATE NOT OPPRESSIVE A FALLACY.

Here I encounter an old-fashioned objection common in England as well as in the United States, and which has shown itself at every proposed change in the postal service. It is said that the existing rate is not oppressive, and that there is no need of its reduction. Obviously it is not oppressive to Senators and Representatives, who send and receive unnumbered letters free; nor is it oppressive to their correspondents; nor again is it oppressive to the rich and thriving, for they contribute out of their abundance; but plainly and indubitably it is oppressive to the poor, and it is absurd to say that it is not. Plainly and indubitably it is oppressive to the widowed mother, whose best comfort is correspondence with her absent child; it is oppressive to the child corresponding with mother, sister, or brother; it is oppressive to all whose scanty means supply only the necessaries of life. All these are restrained in the gratification of those affections which contribute so much to human solace and strength.

Do not say that practically there is little difference between three cents and one cent,—that the difference is hardly appreciable. A great mistake. Is it not appreciable in the cost of tea, coffee, and sugar? The reduction of one cent a pound in the tariff on sugar, of two cents on coffee, or of a few cents on tea, is not treated as trivial.

There is the poor pensioner with eight dollars a month. She, too, has family and friends; but the postal tax interferes to arrest the congenial intercourse. Every letter adds to the burden she is obliged to bear. Her fingers forget the pen, and she finds herself alone. Nor is this hardship peculiar to the poor pensioner. An eminent citizen and valued friend, who has given much attention to this subject, states the case thus: “When one of my children is absent, I write a line every day. Suppose I were a poor widow, earning barely enough to make the two ends meet, and had children in the West, to each of whom I should want to write at least once a week, making in all several dollars a year; then the cost would be oppressive.” This simple illustration brings home the operation of the postal tax now imposed by law, and shows how it troubles those who most need the care and tenderness of the world. The tax on letters is like the tax on salt. If it must exist, it must be small, very small.

There are some who think that no existing institution is oppressive. According to them, Slavery was not oppressive. In the same mood, the law of 1845, with its two rates of five cents and ten cents, and then again the law of 1855, by which the rate of five cents was reduced to three cents, were pronounced unnecessary. The multifarious rates anterior to 1845 were not oppressive, and in 1855 there was no call for the reduction of the rate from five cents to three cents. Such was the argument then, precisely as now. So in the days of Slavery it was argued that the slaves did not desire freedom, and that their condition was not oppressive. The great reform of Rowland Hill encountered the same objection. Even Lord Ashburton, while favoring a change, was content with twopence or threepence, and, in his testimony, settled down upon threepence as satisfactory. He shrank from the penny rate.[102] This question was treated with excellent sense by Mr. Jones Loyd, whom I have already quoted, whose testimony bears strongly on this very objection. After saying “that the present rate of postage does in point of fact produce a prohibition of the use of the Post-Office to all classes that may be considered as below the higher classes,”[103] the attention of the witness was called by the Committee to the allegation “that the laboring classes do not feel the oppressive rate of postage.” He replied in words of wisdom worthy of memory now, and completely applicable to the very question now before the Senate:—

“The habits of a people are in a great degree the result of the laws under which they live; the high charges of our Post-Office have induced, amongst all but the richer classes, a habit of abstaining from epistolary communication, and it might take some time to correct that habit. But it appears to me very desirable that the impediment should be removed; and I have no doubt, that, in the course of a short time, as the poorer classes have the common affections of the human breast, they would form a taste for the pleasures to be derived from intercourse with absent friends and relations. It would be very desirable, for the moral interests of the community, that every facility should be afforded for that purpose.”[104]

On the “oppression of a tax,” where persons do not use the article taxed, the intelligent witness testified as follows:—

“They may not know the loss they sustain; but that does not alter the fact that they do sustain a very great loss; and it would be highly criminal and cruel voluntarily to inflict such a loss upon a person merely upon the ground that he does not know it. A child that is born blind does not know the advantages of sight; but still it would be a very extraordinary thing to inflict blindness upon a child, merely upon the ground, that, if you do it, in time he will not know the loss he has sustained.”[105]

All this is plain and unanswerable. The oppressiveness of a tax is not to be measured by the insensibility of the people on whose shoulders it is laid. It is a curiosity of despotism that the people are too often unconscious of their slavery, as they are unconscious also of bad laws. A wise and just Government measures its duties not by what the people bear without a murmur, but by what is most for their welfare; and it is to this criterion that I bring the question of cheap postage. Say not that the people are indifferent and do not ask for this reduction. Is it not for their good? Is not the advantage so eminent and unequivocal that the Government can no longer hesitate, especially at this transitional moment, when our country is passing from the Old to the New, and the people more than ever are assured in their rights?

JUSTICE AND PRACTICABILITY OF ONE CENT POSTAGE.

After this exhibition of existing burdens, so prejudicial to the correspondence of the country, I return again to the main postulate of this argument, that a uniform rate of one cent for a letter of half an ounce is entirely reasonable, and in a short time, with proper relief in other directions, would render the Post-Office self-supporting. Here I introduce the testimony of a gentleman practically conversant with the operations of our Post-Office, who writes to me as follows:—

“Taking the weight of the letter mail-matter and the printed mail-matter, and charging the expense of transportation upon each proportioned to the weight, and one cent is all that would be relatively chargeable upon each half-ounce of letter mail. I speak from close daily observation in a large office, in a region that is a large revenue-paying one to the Department on all mail-matter.”

This testimony of an expert is only in harmony with my own conclusion.

This injustice becomes more apparent, when we consider the disproportion between the cost of other transportation and letter postage. Take, for instance, the fare of a passenger on a railway in comparison with that of a letter. The average weight of passengers with their baggage is supposed to be 230 pounds, which is the weight of 7,360 half-ounce letters, paying, at the present rate of three cents, $220.80, irrespective of distance. The following table, prepared some time ago, shows the cost of other transportation:—

From Boston—Passenger fare.Mills per half oz.Express freight. 230lbs.Mills per half oz.

To New York$4.5$1.50.2

” Philadelphia7.93.50.5

” Baltimore101.35.50.7

” Cincinnati253.410.501.4

” St. Louis354.712.001.6

” New Orleans456.114.001.9

” Liverpool per Cunard steamers12016.37.20.9

In other transportation there is a slight increase in proportion to the distance; but it is difficult to see on what principle a mail-bag between Washington and New York should pay more than a passenger; and the same difficulty occurs when we consider ocean postage, where the disproportion between postage and other transportation is, perhaps, more conspicuous. Elihu Burritt, who has enforced the importance of cheap rates on the ocean with admirable comprehension of their importance, has reminded us that the freight of a barrel of flour, weighing two hundred pounds, is about fifty cents, while the charge for the same weight in half-ounce letters, being sixty-four hundred in number, at the rate of twenty-four cents a letter, would be no less than $1,536, and at the rate of one cent would be sixty-four dollars. These instances show that letters have been always overcharged, or charged out of proportion to their weight.

To my mind it is unjust that the letter everywhere should contribute so largely to the transportation and delivery of other mail matter, while in some parts of the country it contributes besides to postal facilities elsewhere. I think I do not err, when I aver, that, even with the latter burden, the Post-Office, if it carried nothing but letters, and every letter paid one cent, would be self-supporting. I put the case in this way so as to exhibit the essential equity of the proposed reduction, and, I would add, its entire practicability. Although the Post-Office cannot be relieved of the other mail-matter, yet the letters can be relieved of the burdensome contribution to which they are now subjected. One cent postage would give new operation to the law according to which reduction of price tends to produce consumption, and there would be a new impulsion to correspondence, by which in a short time it would be doubled, tripled, quadrupled, quintupled, and sextupled,—nay, in our growing country it would be multiplied beyond calculation.

As to this increase, I have already shown something of its progress in Great Britain, beginning with one hundred and twenty-two per cent. the first year of penny postage.[106] Why may not the same take place with us? According to the official table now on our desks, the smaller population of the United Kingdom sends more letters than ours. It would be difficult to credit this result, if the figures did not tell the tale beyond correction. Here is the table:[107]—

Proportion of Letters and Revenue to PopulationUnited States, year ending June 30, 1868.United Kingdom, year ending Dec. 31, 1867.

Population (estimated)40,092,35630,305,284

Number of letters delivered (estimated)488,000,000774,831,000

Number of letters to each person1226

Gross revenue$16,232,148.16$23,341,070

Amount of revenue to each person of aggregate population40 cents77 cents

Testimony could not be stronger. The smaller population sends a larger sum-total of letters, making of course a larger number for each person, and yielding a larger gross revenue. It is humiliating to think that the people of this Monarchy send at the rate of twenty-six letters for each person, while the citizens of our Republic send only at the rate of twelve for each person. The inverse disproportion of letters becomes the more remarkable, when it is understood that the proportion of people who can read and write is greater among us than in the United Kingdom, so that, all other things being equal, the number of letters by each person should be greater among us; but we are obliged to confront the unquestionable fact that the number is less. How is this? Why is this? I know no way of accounting for it except in the discouraging cost of correspondence. Here I find unquestionable reason to conclude that we have not a proper rate of postage. Clearly something is wanting. It is not education; for the people among us excel the British people in this respect. It is not business, or family, or friendship; for are not all these active with us? I submit that we want nothing but cheap postage, so that the people, finding their means in harmony with the rates, shall be tempted to write letters. So it was in England; and so it may be among us.

Against the entire reasonableness of the proposed rate, it will not do to say that in the wages of English labor a penny is the equivalent of three cents among us. Even if it be so, there is a twofold answer to the allegation: first, that convenience and reason concur in favor of the lowest unit of coin, which with us is the cent, as in England it is the penny; and, secondly, that with us the general scale of salary and expenditure is less than in England, beginning with the President as compared with the Queen, and embracing the functionaries of Government in the two countries. The penny, which is a larger unit than the cent, typifies the larger scale of price; so that our postage will be brought to practical equality with that of England only by the adoption of the corresponding unit of our country. If this seems refined or technical, let me add that I adduce it only in answer to an objection, which forgets not only the beauty of that simplicity found in the lowest unit of coin, but also that fundamental difference between England and the United States found in their respective institutions.

POSSIBLE LOSS OF REVENUE.

Here I am reminded of the possible loss of revenue, and this is set up as an insuperable barrier; but I confess, that, when I regard the infinite good from this reform, I am little concerned by any such prospect. Better any possible loss of revenue than the postponement of such a good. Nobody can say positively what the loss will be. It is only an estimate, or, if you please, a guess. Some may make it high, others low. According to the last Reports of the Postmaster-General, the actual deficiency, with the rate of three cents, was $5,353,620, and the estimated deficiency for 1870 is $7,440,413; but in both cases the expenditures are swollen by illegitimate and extrinsic charges on the Post-Office properly belonging to the Treasury. For 1871, with the rate at three cents, the estimated expenditures, swollen by the illegitimate and extrinsic charges, are $25,581,093, with receipts, $20,178,961, leaving a deficiency of $5,402,132.[108]

Making the estimate for 1871 with the rate of one cent, and assuming an increase in correspondence at only one hundred per cent., there would be a deficiency of $12,128,452, from which should be deducted the illegitimate and extrinsic charges properly belonging to the Treasury. Considering these for one moment, you will see how small the deficiency will be; and here I follow the last Report of the Postmaster-General, who does not hesitate to estimate the proportion of free matter in the mails at twenty-five per cent. of the whole, so that, according to him, “it will appear that the Government is bound in honor and justice to appropriate $5,000,000, instead of $700,000 [the present appropriation], for this service.”[109] But with the abolition of the franking system all this postal matter will pay the ordinary rate, and thus contribute to the postal service. Deduct also another sum for the expenditures of outlying routes, justly chargeable upon the Treasury, like the existing franking system.

Such is the whole case as to any possible loss of revenue, which I state with entire frankness; but I cannot doubt that a short period would witness a change, while the people entered into the enjoyment of their great possession. Letters would daily multiply, and the revenue would bear witness to the increase.

THE POST-OFFICE NOT A TAXING MACHINE, BUT A BENEFICENT AGENCY.

Only in obedience to traditional usage have I dwelt thus long on the financial aspect of this question, which to my mind is the least important of all. Not to make money, but to promote the welfare of the people, and to increase the happiness of all,—such is the precious object I would propose; and here I ask no such question as, “Will it pay?” It may not pay in revenue at once, but it will pay in what is above price. Unhappily, the Post-Office, whether at home or abroad, has been from the beginning little more than a taxing machine, a contrivance to raise money, or a “milch cow” with fruitful dugs. In England it was at times farmed out to a speculator, and then again it was charged with the support of a royal mistress or favorite. For its profits only was it regarded, and not for its agency in the concerns of life. In this respect it was not unlike the Government, which was simply a usurpation for the benefit of the few. All this is now changed, at least among us, and Government is the creation of the people for their good. The Post-Office should share this transformation. Instead of a mere taxing machine, or contrivance to raise money, or “milch cow” with fruitful dugs, it should be an omnipresent beneficent minister, reaching its multitudinous hands with help and comfort into all the homes of our wide-spread land. Such it is already in England, to the infinite joy of all. But the omnipresent beneficent minister belongs to a republic more than to a monarchy. Cheap postage is a republican institution. If England has anticipated us, we may at least profit by her example.

It is because Senators see the Post-Office only in its least elevated, not to say its most vulgar character, that there is any hesitation. Contemplate for one moment, if you please, its great and beautiful office. It is the universal messenger of a people, bearing tidings of all kinds, whether of business, hope, affection, charity, joy, or sorrow, and articulating them throughout the land. There is nothing that man can do, desire, or feel, which is not contained in the various and abounding errand. The letters of a single day are the epitome of life, and this service is unceasing. Every day this messenger flies over the land, from city to city, from town to town, from village to village, from house to house, leaving everywhere the welcome token. Such a messenger is more than a winged Mercury, with sandalled feet and purse in hand, whose special care was commerce; it is an angel in reality, as in name. In the ancient Greek, from which the word is derived, an angel was a messenger; and is not the office of our messenger angelic? But by what rule or reason can you tax such a messenger in his great and beautiful office?

A letter is simply conversation in writing, and therefore, by strictness of logic, the tax you impose is a tax on conversation. Reflect a moment on the part performed by conversation in the education of men and in the economies of life; and here I give you testimony. Once at Mr. Webster’s table I heard the question discussed, “From what do men derive most of what they know?” The scholars about him answered,—one naming “Our Mothers,” another “Schools,” another “Books,” another “Newspapers,” when the host, who had listened to each, remarked, very gravely, “You forget Conversation, from which, in my judgment, we derive the larger part of what we know.” Who shall say that Mr. Webster was not right? It is clear that conversation is a wonderful educator and a constant servant. But conversation in writing, no matter on what subject, whether of business or of the heart, is now subject to an unrelenting tax, so that persons conversing by letter must not only pay the cost of the intermediary in their own case, but must contribute to the expense of other conversations elsewhere.

THAT THE POST-OFFICE MUST SUPPORT ITSELF A FALLACY.

Custom makes us insensible to folly, and even to injustice. Thus the tax on letters has gained an undeserved immunity, which is augmented by a prevailing notion, sometimes supposed to find authority even in the Constitution, that the Post-Office must support itself. Whether regarded as rule or maxim or provision of the Constitution, it is without foundation, and sooner or later will be classed with those “vulgar errors” which are as disturbing in government as in science. There is nothing in the Constitution or in reason to distinguish the Post-Office in this respect from the Army, the Navy, or the Judiciary. The Constitution confers upon Congress the power “to establish post-offices and post-roads,” precisely as it confers upon Congress the power “to raise and support armies,” the power “to provide and maintain a navy,” and the power “to constitute tribunals inferior to the Supreme Court”; and in each of these cases it is empowered “to make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers.” Nobody suggests that now in peace our armies shall amplify their commissariat by enforced contributions, that our navy shall redouble its economies by supplementary piracy, or that our tribunals inferior to the Supreme Court shall eke out a salary by requisitions on the suitors, to the end that each of these departments may be in some measure “self-supporting.” Why, then, should the Post-Office be subjected to a different rule? Not, surely, because it is less beneficent; not because it is the youngest child of Government, a very Benjamin, coming into being long after the others. But such is the case. The rule for the others is discarded when we come to the Post-Office, and here for the first time we hear that a Department of Government must be “self-supporting.”

As there is no ground in the Constitution for this pretension, so is there none in reason. Of all existing departments, the Post-Office is most entitled to consideration, for it is most universal in its beneficence. That public welfare which is the declared object of all the departments appears here in its most attractive form. There is nothing which is not helped by the Post-Office. Is business in question? The Post-Office is at hand with invaluable aid, quickening and multiplying all its activities. Is it charity? The Post-Office is the good Samaritan, omnipresent on all the highways of the land. Is it the precious intercourse of family or friends? The Post-Office is carrier, interpreter, and handmaid. Is it education? The Post-Office is schoolmaster, with school for all and with scholars counted by the million. Is it the service of Government? The Post-Office lends itself so completely to this essential work, that the national will is conveyed without noise or effort to the most remote corners, and the Republic becomes one and indivisible. Without the Post-Office where would be that national unity, with irresistible guaranty of Equal Rights to All, which is now the glory of the Republic? Impossible! absolutely impossible! Therefore, in the name of all these, do I insist that now, in these days of equality, the Post-Office shall be admitted to equality with all other departments of Government, so that it may discharge its own peculiar and many-sided duties, without being compelled to find in itself the means of support. It has enough to do without taking thought of the morrow. On every side and in every direction it is the beneficent helper. To the Army it is a staff; to the Navy it is a tender; to the Treasury it is a support; to the Judiciary it is a police; to President and Congress it is an adjunct; and to all else, public or private, whatever the interest, aspiration, or sentiment, it is an incomparable ally. Better than two blades of grass are two letters where was only one before; and when the precious product is measured by millions, you see the vastness of the beneficence.

OUR POST-OFFICE MUST BE THE BEST IN THE WORLD: PRESENT DUTY.

Such is the Post-Office; and nothing is clearer than that here in the United States it should be of the highest type. Ours should be the best in the world,—not second to any. So long as Slave-Masters bore sway, this could not be; for they set their faces against this minister of Civilization. One of the first legislative acts of the Rebel Government at Montgomery was to raise the rates.[110] But this hostile obstruction is now overcome, and we are at last free to act for the good of all. It is for the welfare of the people that our Republic is founded, and therefore it should omit nothing by which their condition is improved and elevated. Other Governments may seek to augment the revenue. Our aim should be to augment the sum of human happiness, making it the crown of our whole people; and just in proportion as we fail in this duty is the Republic a failure. But the best Post-Office is where letters at the smallest charge are faithfully carried to every door, thus combining cheapness and efficiency. That ours may fulfil this condition there must be a change.

Our duty is simple. It is to relieve the Post-Office of present burdens, including especially the franking system and the expense of unproductive routes, while at the same time we establish a uniform rate of one cent. To these cardinal objects may be added others named in the bill introduced by me, especially the requirement of payment always by stamps, so as to simplify the accounts and to make peculation impossible; but the fundamental change is in the rate of postage.

Could my desires prevail, the Post-Office should be like the Common School, open to all, with this only condition, that the rate should be sufficient to guard against abuse. But this is accomplished by that now proposed.

Let the uniform rate be one cent and you will witness a transformation. The power to frank, which is now confined to a few, will practically belong to all, and letters will be multiplied in proportion,—opening to the people an inexhaustible source of all good influences, whether of education, wealth, virtue, or happiness, while the Republic rises in the scale of civilization. Such a rate will be better than a mine of gold in every State,—better than a band of iron for the Union,—better than a fortress scowling on uncounted hilltops; for it will be an angelic power.

And could this rate be extended to international postage, its least service would be to our commercial relations. Beyond this would be an inconceivable influence on that immigration to our country which is a constant fountain of life, while it carried into the homes of the Old World the most seductive invitations to take part with us in our great destinies. Republican ideas would be diffused, and the Rights of Man gain new authority. Every letter from glowing firesides among us, when read at colder firesides abroad, would be a perpetual proclamation of the Republic.

More than ever this change is needed now. It is essential in the work of Reconstruction, which can be maintained only through the national unity. The very extent of our country, which is superficially urged as the apology for a high rate, is to my mind an all-sufficient reason for the proposed reform. Because our country is broad and spacious, therefore must distant parts be brought into communication and woven together by daily recurring ties. Because our people are various in origin and language, therefore must they be enabled to commingle and become homogeneous. And, lastly, because fellow-citizens have suffered and been separated by terrible war, therefore must the Post-Office become a good angel to quicken industry, to remove ignorance, to soothe prejudice, and to promote harmony. Blessed are the peace-makers; and in this company the Post-Office, properly reformed, will take an illustrious place.