Note 171 — I THE RATE FOR LETTERS (continued 2)

"Sir, I am acquainted with the privations and hardships incident to the settlement of a new country: and I do not intend that my friends who are now combating the trials and hardships of California and Oregon shall be visited by their Government with such injustice. The men who are settling those countries are sacrificing their lives for a coming generation. I will not add to their hardships by taxing them four times as much as a citizen of the old States of the Union for a letter which shall give them intelligence of their friends left behind them, and shall chill that gush of feeling which will swell their bosoms, as they take possession of a letter that comes from their far-distant native land."—Mr. Sweetser (Ibid., 4th January 1851).