Note 111 — Chapter II · The Power of Congress to Establish Postoffices

U. S. v. Thompson, 28 Fed. Cas. 97 (1846). But see “The Postoffice Monopoly,” 11 Law Reporter, 384 (January, 1849). In this paper the writer argues that the idea of a monopoly is not incidental to the postal grant and that the framers did not intend to make the postoffice a source of general revenue. The Constitution enumerates methods of raising funds and Expressio unius, exclusio alterius. Mr. Paterson’s plan as proposed to the Convention named the postoffice as a source of revenue, but his language was rejected. May the same, asks this writer, be said of his theory? (p. 396). And if the federal government has no such power it has no right of espionage and it may not say of what “mailable matter” consists (p. 397).