Number of Post-Offices, Extent of Post-Routes, and Revenue and Expenditures of the Post-Office Department; with the Amount paid to Postmasters and for Transportation of the Mail, since 1790.

Comparative Statement of the Value of Stamps and Stamped Envelopes issued during the Three Years 1860-61-62.

Statement showing Postal Revenue and Expenditures of the United States, in toto and per capita, according to Population, at Eight Successive Decades, from 1790 to 1863, inclusive.

Note.—The population from 1851 to 1863, excepting the year 1860, is estimated by the standard ratio of increase.

CHANGES AND REDUCTIONS IN THE RATES OF DOMESTIC POSTAGE IN FORMER YEARS.

The following will exhibit the principal changes and reductions in the rates of postage on domestic letters at various dates from 1792 to 1863. The single rate for land transit is referred to in every case.

Act of February 20, 1792. Rates for a single-sheet letter,—30 miles or under, 6 cents; 30 to 60 miles, 8 cents; 60 to 100 miles, 10 cents; 100 to 150 miles, 12 cents; 150 to 200 miles, 15 cents; 200 to 250 miles,

17 cents; 250 to 350 miles, 20 cents; 350 to 450 miles, 22 cents; over 450 miles, 25 cents.

Act of 2d March, 1799. Rates for a single-sheet letter,—40 miles or under, 8 cents; 40 to 90 miles, 10 cents; 90 to 150 miles, 12-1/2 cents; 150 to 300 miles, 17 cents; 300 to 500 miles, 20 cents; over 500 miles, 25 cents.

The revenue act of 23d December, 1814, added 50 per cent. to the rates last above; but the addition was repealed February 1, 1816, which restored the rates of 1799.

Act of April 9, 1816. Rates for a single-sheet letter,—30 miles or under, 6 cents; 30 to 80 miles, 10 cents; 80 to 150 miles, 12-1/2 cents; 150 to 400 miles, 18-1/2 cents; over 400 miles, 25 cents.

Act of 3d March, 1845. Rates for a single-sheet letter,—300 miles or under, 5 cents; over 300 miles, 10 cents.

Act of 3d March, 1851. Rates for a half-ounce letter,—3000 miles or under, if prepaid, 3 cents, if unpaid, 5 cents; over 3000 miles, double.

Act of 3d March, 1855. Rates for a half-ounce letter,—3000 miles or under, 3 cents; over 3000 miles, 10 cents.

Under this act prepayment was not compulsory, and after January, 1856, prepayment by stamps was required.

[The issue of postage-stamps was first authorized by an act of 3d March, 1847, and subsequently by the act of 3d March, 1851.]

Act of 3d March, 1863. Rate for half-ounce letter, 3 cents everywhere throughout the United States.

DOMESTIC POSTAGE.

The law requires postage on all letters (including those to foreign countries when prepaid), excepting those written by officers of the government, addressed to the department with which they are connected, and on official business, to be prepaid by stamps or stamped envelopes, prepayment in money being prohibited.

All drop-letters must be prepaid, at the rate of two cents per half-ounce or fraction of a half-ounce, by postage stamps. If not prepaid, the double rate to be charged.

The single rate of postage on all domestic mail-letters throughout the United States is three cents per half-ounce, with an additional rate of three cents for each additional half-ounce or fraction of a half-ounce. The former ten-cent (Pacific) rate is abolished.

NEWSPAPER POSTAGE.

Weekly Newspapers (one copy only) sent by the publisher to actual subscribers within the county where printed and published, free.

Postage per Quarter (to be paid quarterly or yearly in advance) on Newspapers and Periodicals issued less frequently than once a week, sent to actual subscribers in any part of the United States:

Publishers of Newspapers and Periodicals may send to each other from their respective offices of publication, free of postage, one copy of each publication, and may also send to each actual subscriber, enclosed in their publications, bills and receipts for the same, free of postage. They may also state on their respective publications the date when the subscription expires, to be written or printed.

Religious, educational, and agricultural newspapers of small size, issued less frequently than once a week, may be sent in packages to one address at the rate of one cent for each package not exceeding four ounces in weight, and an additional charge of one cent is made for each additional four ounces or fraction thereof, the postage to be paid quarterly or yearly in advance.

Newsdealers may send newspapers and periodicals to regular subscribers at the quarterly rates, in the same manner as publishers, and may also receive them from publishers at subscribers’ rates. In both cases the postage to be prepaid, either at the mailing- or delivery-office.

Publications issued without disclosing the office of publication, or containing a fictitious statement thereof, must not be forwarded by postmasters unless prepaid at the mailing-office at the rates of transient printed matter.

A letter over 500 miles cost thirty-seven and one-half cents in 1815; now it is carried to the extreme portion of our country, traversing mountains, passing deep ravines and rivers, for the small sum of three cents!

Harpers’ Magazine, had it been in existence in 1815, would have cost for each one twenty-seven cents, whereas now they only cost three cents to all parts of the country. What an age for literature! what an era in learning!

In 1779, in consequence of the increased nature of the postal business and the necessity for a more extended ramification of the system, the postmaster-general was to receive $5000 per annum, and the comptroller $4000,—meaning, of course, Continental money. Besides these two offices in the postal department, there was a secretary who acted as clerk to the postmaster-general. The comptroller settled the accounts, and was the book-keeper. There were three surveyors, who were to travel and inspect the conduct of the riders, agents, &c. There was also an inspector of dead letters, at a salary of $100 a year.

What is now called the post-office department was established in 1789 as the “post-office,” and subsequently as the “general post-office,” under the power given to Congress by the Constitution “to establish post-offices and post-roads,” and the exclusive privilege and control of all postal affairs, &c.

ORGANIZATION OF THE POSTAL DEPARTMENT.

Congress shall have power “to establish post-offices and post-roads.” This short, concise, yet embracing sentence sums up the constitutional basis of this department. It is comprehensive enough to all who fully understand the economical and practical workings of our government. Its conciseness is its very history; and that history becomes a mighty tome in the library of nations.

The direction and management of the post-office department are assigned by the Constitution to the postmaster-general. That its business may be the more conveniently arranged and prepared for its final action, it is distributed among several bureaus, as follows:—the Appointment-Office, in charge of the First Assistant Postmaster-General; the Contract-Office, in charge of the Second Assistant Postmaster-General; the Finance-Office, in charge of the Third Assistant Postmaster-General; and the Inspection-Office, in charge of the Chief Clerk.

The duties of the several departments named above are thus defined:—

The postmaster-general “is further directed to superintend the business of the department in all the duties that are or may be assigned to it, and he is required once in three months to render to the Secretary of the Treasury an account of all the receipts and expenditures in the department, to be adjusted and settled as other accounts.” The postmaster-general may establish post-offices and appoint postmasters on the post-roads which are or may be authorized by law, at all such places as to him may appear expedient. He regulates the number of times the mail shall go from place to place, and he is authorized to contract for carrying the mail, and to establish post-roads.

APPOINTMENT-OFFICE.

The Appointment-Office not only has supervision of the appointment and regulation of all postmasters, and the establishment and discontinuance of post-offices, but also the distribution of blanks, wrapping-paper, and twine to all post-offices; the supervision of pay of clerks in post-offices; of allowance for furniture of post-offices; of extra allowances to postmasters under the acts of Congress; of the appointment and pay of special agents, route-agents, local agents, and blank-agents, and of baggage-masters in charge of mails; of the foreign mail transportation and foreign correspondence; together with some other miscellaneous duties.

CONTRACT-OFFICE.

The Contract-Office is charged with the conduct of mail-lettings, and all contracts and allowances for inland mail transportation, with the mail messenger service; the supervision and regulation of mail-contractors, and the routes of mail-transit, including distributing-offices; and with the increase and diminution of service on mail-routes.

FINANCE-OFFICE.

To this office are assigned the issuing of postage-stamps and stamped envelopes for the prepayment of postage and the accounts thereof; the preparation of warrants and drafts in payment of balances reported by the Auditor to be due to mail-contractors and other persons; and the superintendence of the rendition by postmasters of their quarterly returns of postages. It embraces, also, all the operations of the dead-letter office, and the accounts connected therewith.

INSPECTION-OFFICE.

The Inspection-Office is charged with the observation of failures and delinquencies in the service of contractors and route-agents; with fines and remissions thereof; with the subject of mail-depredations, and prosecution of violators of postal laws; with the duty of procuring and distributing mail-bags, locks and keys, and some other duties of detail.

Perhaps no institution in this or any other country requires more enterprise, general knowledge of business, and geography, than does that of the post-office. We have already alluded to the fact of its being considered by many as a “mere workshop” of the general department, and whose operations are simply mechanical; but our readers ere this have been undeceived as regards such a construction, and it must loom up before them a prominent intellectual branch of our government.

That England has a high estimate of her post-office department is evident from the encouragement given to every one connected with it, and sustaining alike its literary character in historic publications. We make the following extract from a recent work entitled “Her Majesty’s Mails”:—

“There is no postal service in the world so well managed as that of Great Britain. It is now not merely a self-supporting but a productive institution; whereas there was a deficiency of half a million in the post-office of America before the rupture between North and South. Though America for ninety years has been, next to England, the most commercial country in the world, yet, compared with the population, five times as many letters pass through the English post as through the American. London and its suburbs alone, with its less than three millions of inhabitants, sends forth a greater number of letters than the whole of America.

“The next best-managed post-office to our own is that of France; but in France, by the law of 1856, there are five different tariffs of postages. Judged by the revenue produced, the English post-office, notwithstanding its low rate of charges, stands first.

“The Austrian post-office produces a revenue of 3,714,200 florins, or £378,000; the Belgian, 2,960,000 francs; the French, 66,452,000 francs; and the English, £3,800,000; being more than a quarter of a million beyond the proceeds of 1862.

“A comparison of the year 1839—the year immediately preceding the penny postage—with the year 1861 gives these results: An increase nearly eightfold in the chargeable letters; a threefold increase in the receptacles for letters; a fortyfold increase in the number of money-orders; a fiftyfold increase in the amount of money-orders; and an increase of the gross revenue in round numbers from £2,390,000 to £3,402,000. The amount of the correspondence of a country will measure, with some approach towards accuracy, as Mr. Matthew Hill says, the height which a people has reached in true civilization. The town of Manchester equals in its number of letters the Empire of all the Russias both in Europe and Asia; and this fact we owe, as many of the marvels we have stated, to Sir Rowland Hill. The poor and the lowly, the domestic servant and the humble artisan, can now correspond with each other from one end of the kingdom to the other at the trifling expense of 1d.; and for this civilizing, Christianizing, and eminently social good we are indebted to a late post-office secretary, whose merits have been recognized, but who cannot be overpaid in money or money’s worth. As Lord Palmerston said on the 10th of June, Sir R. Hill showed, in relation to the post-office, great genius, sagacity, perseverance, and industry, and he was the first to prove that the department was a public institution for the performance of services, rather than for the collection of revenue. If, as the first minister of the crown stated, and as we believe, the cultivation of the affections raises men in their own estimation, improves their morals, and develops their social qualities, Sir R. Hill has been amongst the greatest benefactors of the human race, and he well deserves the vote that was agreed to on the 10th of June without a dissenting voice.”

POST-COACHES, POST-HORSES, AND RAILROADS.

Postmaster-generals up to the period when railroads superseded that of post-coaches and post-horses had a much harder time in their “vocation” than have their successors since. The difficulties then were to overcome the opposition of parties interested in contracts. Coaches and post-horses, routes and agents, became important items in such contracts; and the least favoritism on the part of the postmaster-general called forth not only censure from those immediately interested, but not unfrequently from those high in authority. During the postal administration of W. T. Barry, Esq., considerable political feeling was mixed up with these complaints. Mails at that period (1835) were carried on horseback from central points, and by four-horse post-coaches from city to city. Lines of stages were established in several sections of our country. The number of post-offices was 10,693. The line of stages extended to the western boundary of Missouri; to St. Augustine, in Florida; through Indiana, by the seat of government in that State; through the whole Territory of Michigan and State of Illinois; from Detroit to Chicago; and from Chicago to St. Louis, in Missouri; thence to New Orleans, in half the time which it formerly occupied. This facility, however, was afforded by connecting the coaches with steamboats in the mail-transportation. Lines of post-coaches were also established in this year from Nashville to Memphis, on the Mississippi River, in Tennessee; from Tuscumbia in Alabama to Natchez in Mississippi; and to Tuscaloosa, the seat of government in Alabama; and from Tuscaloosa to Montgomery; completing a direct line from Nashville in Tennessee, and all the other Western States, to the city of New Orleans.

A semi-weekly line of two-horse stages was added to a tri-weekly line of four-horse post-coaches from Washington City, through Lynchburg in Virginia, Salisbury, N.C., Yorkville, S.C., and Augusta, to Savannah in Georgia; from thence to the northern part of Georgia, through that State to Tallahassee, and to Pensacola in Florida.

We have given this statement for the purpose of showing the amount of labor essential to the transportation of the mails at that period, compared to what it is now. It is, however, somewhat strange that railroads were not established in many places, which would have obviated the necessity of coaches.

SOMETHING ABOUT RAILROADS.

Railroads, although evidently of ancient origin, were first used near Newcastle-upon-Tyne, in 1650. Wooden rails four to eight inches square, resting upon transverse sleepers two feet apart, were in use for many years, when railroads of the same description covered with thin plates of iron were substituted.

In another part of this work we speak of the lost arts. Proofs of their existence are found in the excavated cities, and even in those vestiges which establish the belief of an antediluvian state of society equal to any that has existed since. Egypt abounds with antiquities. Where are the ramparts of Nineveh, the walls of Babylon, the palaces of Persepolis, the temples of Baalbec and Jerusalem? Where are the fleets of Tyre, the docks of Arad, the looms of Sidon, and the multitude of sailors, pilots, merchants, and soldiers? Where are those laborers, those harvests, those flocks, and that crowd of living beings which then covered the face of the earth?48

The temples are crumbled down, the palaces are overthrown, the ports are filled up, the cities are destroyed,—all,—all. Earth itself is only a desolate place of tombs. Yet specimens of high art remain, and also indications of a classic taste far superior to that which boasts of refinement since. We have every reason to believe that railroads were known to the Asiatics long, long before these cities fell in their ruins, carrying along with them the charts by which we could have traced their cause of greatness. The cities of the desert—that of Palmyra, for instance—could never have been built so far away from “marble-quarries” if railroad facilities had not been known and afforded the means of conveying those vast blocks of marble which formed its pillars.

The cities of Palmyra and the spot which marks the site of Tadmor present an imposing spectacle in rising from the sands of the desert. It looks like a forest of columns. The great avenue of pillars leading to the Temple of the Sun, and terminated by a grand arch, is 1200 feet in length. The temple itself is a magnificent object. The city is a vast collection of ruins, all of white marble. How were these huge columns of marble conveyed to this city of the desert?

The sculptures of the Memphite Necropolis say that Memphis once held a palace called the “Abode of Shoopho.” Shoopho was the owner of vast copper-mines: he was termed “pure king and sacred priest.” Historians doubted the power he exercised over Egypt, and also the amount of labor performed in erecting pyramids and monuments,—as, for instance, it is maintained that he employed 100,000 men for twenty years in erecting a monument for which ten preceding years were requisite in preparing the materials and the causeway whereon the stone was to be carried. The monument, as described by historians, was of immense proportions, the base of which was 764 feet each face, the original height 480 feet, containing 89,028,000 cubic feet of solid masonry and 6,848,000 tons of stone. The distance these materials were carried was twenty miles from the quarries on the eastern side of the Nile. What sort of a causeway was that which could transport these huge masses of stone a distance of twenty miles? Again, this great pyramid is lined with the most beautiful and massive blocks of sienite, of red granite, not one particle of which exists twenty-five miles below the first cataract of the Nile, at Aswan, distant six hundred and forty miles up the river from the pyramid. Blocks of this sienite are found in this pyramid’s chambers and passages of such dimensions, and built in such portions of the masonry that they must evidently have been placed there before the upper limestone masonry was laid above the granite. There not being in its native state a speck of granite within six hundred and forty miles from the pyramid, is a proof that Shoopho did rule from Memphis to Aswan, and from Migdol to the tower of Syene. How he conveyed the material that distance involves the question of the origin of railroads.

Let us pass on to Alexandria. Pompey’s Pillar stands upon a pedestal twelve feet high. The shaft is round, and, with the Corinthian capital, one hundred feet in height; the diameter is nine feet. Cleopatra’s Needle is of one shaft of granite, covered with hieroglyphics: it is sixty-four feet high, and eight feet square at the base. There are a great number of pyramids scattered over Egypt, but the most remarkable are those of Djizeh, Sakhara, and Dashour. When seven leagues distant from the spectator they seem near at hand, and it is not till after having travelled several miles that he is fully sensible of the size. The largest is ascribed to Cheops. They are on a platform of rock situated one hundred and fifty feet above the level of the desert. Ten years were consumed in preparing a road whereon to draw the immense blocks of stone, and the labors of 100,000 men were employed, who were relieved once in three months.—Herodotus.

What sort of a road and the manner these blocks were carried are matters of conjecture. We incline to the opinion of railroads.

HOW THE PYRAMIDS WERE BUILT.

The stones used in building the pyramids of Egypt, it is supposed, were raised to their places by piling up immense inclined planes of sand, up which the blocks were pushed with rollers. If inclined planes were used to raise large blocks to a great height, is it to be supposed that a similar mode, or railroads, were not used to convey them on a level plane?

The statement, often repeated on high authority, that the pyramids were built before the Egyptians acquired the art of writing hieroglyphics, however, which they do contain, do not convey that full knowledge of the state of the arts among them, at the time the pyramids were constructed, which is to be learned from the writings and pictures in their tombs and temples, in regard to the state of their arts at a subsequent period. But we have the less valuable authority of Herodotus that the blocks of stones were lifted from one course to the other up the steps of the pyramid. Remains of Cheops’ grand causeway, for transporting the blocks quarried from the rocks on the east bank, are still seen leading up the great pyramid from the plain, a shapeless ridge of ruinous masonry and sand. According to Herodotus, it was one thousand yards long, sixty feet wide, and forty-eight feet high, was adorned with figures of animals, and was a work of ten years. Some of the stone used for the coping over the passages are seven feet thick and more than seventeen feet long. Lifting these stones up the side of a pyramid four hundred and fifty feet high was certainly a work of great labor; but as a feat of engineering it was mere child’s play compared with some of the triumphs of modern science and skill,—for instance, lifting the Menai bridge on to its piers, or raising on end and placing on its pedestal the monstrous monolith which adorns the city of St. Petersburg.

RAILROADS FROM 1760—ENGLAND.

In 1760, wooden railroads were in pretty general use to facilitate mining operations. Tram-roads, with rails of cast iron, first introduced at the Colebrookdale Works, at the instance of Mr. Reynolds in 1767; at the Sheffield colliery in 1776. Stone props for the support of the rails substituted for timber in 1797, at Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Edge rails were brought into use by Mr. Jessop in 1789, at Loughborough. Malleable iron edge rails adopted at Newcastle in 1805, and at Tinsdale Fell in 1808. The improved malleable edge rail now in use was invented by Mr. Birkinsaw in 1820. A locomotive engine propelled by steam was employed for the first time on the Merthyr-Tydvil Railroad in Wales in 1804. Blenkinsop’s locomotive engine, which operated by means of cog-wheels and rack rails, was invented and applied on the Leeds Railroad in 1811. But the locomotive engine that has obtained the greatest reputation and been most generally adopted was that invented by Mr. George Stevenson in 1814. This engine has undergone a variety of improvements up to 1829, and was deemed at that period more efficient than any of its predecessors.

RAILROADS IN THE UNITED STATES.

(Abstract of the Seventh Census.)

In no other particular can the prosperity of a country be more strikingly manifested than by the perfection of its roads and other means of internal communication. The system of railroads, canals, turnpikes, post-routes, river navigation, and telegraphs possessed by the United States presents an indication of its advancement in power and civilization more wonderful than any other feature of its progress. In truth, our country in this respect occupies the first place among the nations of the world.

From returns received at this office in reply to special circulars, and other sources of information, it is ascertained that there were, at the commencement of the year 1852, 10,814 miles of railroads completed and in use, and that 10,898 miles were then in course of construction, with a prospect of being speedily brought into use. While the whole of these 10,898 miles will, beyond reasonable doubt, have been finished within five years, such is the activity with which projects for works of this character are brought forward and carried into effect, that it is not extravagant to assume that there will be completed within the limits of the United States before the year 1860 at least 35,000 miles of railroads.

The Quincy Railroad, for the transportation of granite from the quarries at Quincy to Neponset River, and the Mauch Chunk Railroad, from the coal-mines to the Lehigh River, in Pennsylvania, were the first attempts to introduce that mode of transportation in this country; and their construction and opening, in the years 1826 and 1827, are properly considered the commencement of the American railroad system. From this period until about the year 1848, the progress of the improvements thus begun was interrupted only by the financial revulsion which followed the events of 1836 and 1837. Up to 1848, it is stated that about 6000 miles had been finished. Since that date an addition of 5000 miles has been made to the completed roads, and, including the present year, new lines, comprising about 14,000 miles, have been undertaken, surveyed, and mostly placed under contract.

The usefulness and comparative economy of railroads as channels of commerce and travel have become so evident that they have in some measure superseded canals, and are likely to detract seriously from the importance of navigable rivers for like purposes. In a new country like ours many items of expense which go to swell the cost of railroads in England and on the continent are avoided. Material is cheap, the right of way usually freely granted, and heavy land damages seldom interpose to retard the progress of an important work. It is difficult to arrive at a clear approximation to the average cost of railroad construction in the United States. Probably the first important work of this class undertaken and carried through in the Union was the cheapest, as it has proved one of the most profitable, ever built. This was the road from Charleston, in South Carolina, to Augusta, on the Savannah River. It was finished and opened for traffic in 1833. The entire expense of building the road and equipping it with engines and cars for passengers and freight was, at the date of its completion, only $6700 per mile; and all expenditures for repairs and improvements, during the eighteen years that the road has been in operation, have raised the aggregate cost of the whole work to only $1,336,615, or less than $10,000 per mile.

It is estimated that the 2870 miles of railroads finished in New England have cost $132,000,000,—which gives an average of nearly $46,000 per mile. In the Middle States, where the natural obstacles are somewhat less, the average expense per mile of the railroads already built is not far from $40,000. Those now in course of completion—as the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, Pennsylvania Central, and other lines, the routes of which cross the Alleghany range of mountains—will probably require a larger proportionate outlay, owing to the heavy expense of grading, bridging, and tunnelling. In those States where land has become exceedingly valuable, the cost of extinguishing private titles to the real estate requires, and the damages to property along the routes form, a heavy item in the account of general expenses of building railroads. In the South and West the case is reversed: there the proprietors along the proposed line of a road are often willing and anxious to give as much land as may be needed for its purposes, and accord many other advantages in order to secure its location through or in the vicinity of their possessions. In the States lying in the valleys of the Ohio and Mississippi the cost of grading, also, is much less than at the eastward. Where the country is wooded, the timber can be obtained at the mere cost of removing it from the track; and through prairie districts Nature seems to have prepared the way for these structures by removing every obstacle from the surface; while fine quarries of stone are to be found in almost every region. These favorable circumstances render the estimate of $20,000 per mile in all the new States safe and reliable.

The primary design of nearly all the great lines of railway in the United States has been to connect the sea-coast with the distant interior, to effect which object it was necessary to cross the Alleghanies, which intersect every line of travel diverging to the West from the great commercial cities of the seaboard.

The Eighth Census (1860), continuing the line, makes this addition to that of the Seventh:—

Previous to the commencement of the last decade, only one line of railroad has been completed between tide-water and the great interior basins of the country, the products of which now perform so important a part in our internal and foreign commerce. Even this line, formed by the several links that now compose the New York Central Road, was restricted in the carriage of freight except on the payment of canal tolls in addition to other charges for transportation, which restriction amounted to a virtual prohibition. The commerce resulting from our railroads consequently has been, with comparatively slight exceptions, a creation of the last decade.

The line next opened, and connecting the Western system of lakes and rivers with tide-water, was that extending from Boston to Ogdensburg, composed of distinct links, the last of which was completed during 1850. The third was the New York & Erie, which was opened on the 22d of April, 1851. The fourth in geographical order was the Pennsylvania, which was completed in 1852, although its mountain division was not opened till 1854. Previous to this time its summit was overcome by a series of inclined planes, with stationary engines, constructed by the State. The fifth great line, the Baltimore & Ohio, was opened in 1853 still farther south. The Tennessee River, a tributary of the Mississippi, was reached in 1850 by the Western & Atlantic Railroad of Georgia, and the Mississippi itself by the Memphis & Charleston Railroad in 1859. In the extreme north the Atlantic & St. Lawrence, now known as the Grand Trunk, was completed early in 1853. In 1858 the Virginia system was extended to a connection with the Memphis & Charleston and with the Nashville & Chattanooga Railroad.

The eight great works named, connecting the interior with the seaboard, are the trunks or base-lines upon which is erected the vast system that now overspreads the whole country. They serve as outlets to the interior for its products, which would have little or no commercial value without improved highways, the cost of transportation over which does not equal one-tenth that over ordinary roads. The works named, assisted by the Erie Canal, now afford ample means for the expeditious and cheap transportation of produce-seeking Eastern markets, and could without being overtaxed transport the entire surplus products of the interior.

Previous to 1850 by far the greater portion of railroads constructed were in the States bordering the Atlantic, and, as before remarked, were for the most part isolated lines, whose limited traffics were altogether local. Up to the date named, the internal commerce of the country was conducted almost entirely through water lines, natural and artificial, and over ordinary highways. The period of the settlement of California marks really the commencement of the new era in the physical progress of the United States. The vast quantities of gold it produced imparted new life and activity to every portion of the Union, particularly the Western States, the people of which, at the commencement of 1850, were thoroughly aroused as to the value and importance of railroads. Each presented great facilities for the construction of such works which promised to be almost equally productive. Enterprises were undertaken and speedily executed which have literally converted them into a network of lines, and secured their advantages to almost every farmer and producer.

The progress of these works in the aggregate, year by year, will be seen by the tabular statements at the close of the report. The only important line opened in the West, previous to 1850, was the one from Sandusky to Cincinnati, formed by the Mad River and Little Miami Roads. But these pioneer works were rude, unsubstantial structures compared with the finished works of the present day, and were employed almost wholly in the transportation of passengers.

With the advantages arising from the railroad routes, it is not at all surprising that our postal facilities have increased to such an extent that, next to the telegraphic wires, it may rank as one of the most extraordinary operative institutions in this or any other country in the world.

It will be perceived that in speaking of the department the author has paid little or no attention to the rebellion in connection with its operations. Situated as he is in the department, his opportunities are such that if the business of the office has lessened, as is supposed, in consequence, there is not a man engaged but must truly say that, instead of such being the case, their labors, as well as the business of the office, never presented a more stirring and flourishing appearance. In some respects it may have affected the general income, but upon the whole the vast increase of army letters and newspaper circulation, added to sundry articles of wearing-apparel coming under postal regulations, we question if this deficiency has not been partially, if not entirely, overcome. To a certain extent it affected foreign postage. The following statement, however, will convey a better idea of the postal finances than that of any theory established upon “why and whereof.” Figures, they say, never lie; but may not the master-hand forming them occasionally err in their formation?

The postal revenues for the year ending the 30th of June last were $12,438,233.78, and the expenditures of this department during the same period were $12,644,786.20, showing an excess of the latter of $206,532.42. The average annual receipts of this department from 1859 to 1861, inclusive, were $8,745,282.62, and the average annual expenditures for the same period were $14,482,008.44, showing an average annual excess of expenditures over receipts of $5,736,725.82; and the average annual receipts from 1862 to 1864, inclusive, were $10,871,530.97, and the expenditures, $11,694,785.72, showing an average annual excess of expenditures over receipts of $823,254.75.

The excess of receipts in 1864 over 1861, the first year of the rebellion, was $4,088,957.38.

Although the proportion of receipts as against the expenditures has doubtless been increased on account of the suspension of the postal service in the insurrectionary States, the above furnishes the evidence of an improving financial condition of the department highly creditable to the administration of my immediate predecessor.

The estimate of expenditure for 1864 was fixed at $13,000,000, in which was included the sum of $1,000,000 specially appropriated for the overland mail-service, being $355,213.80 more than the amount actually expended.

On the other hand, the revenues of 1864 were estimated at an increase of five per cent. on those of 1862, making $8,714,000, while they actually reached $12,438,253.78, or $3,724,253.73 more than the estimate. This increase equals 42-5/8 per cent.

The increase of expenditures in 1864, compared with those of 1863, is 11-5/8 per cent., and the increase in the revenues for the same year 11-3/8 per cent.

This exhibit promises an increase of the revenues for 1865 over the estimate submitted in the report of last year.

The revenues of this department for the year ending June 30, 1865, were $14,556,158.70, and the expenditures $13,694,728.28, leaving a surplus of $861,430.42.

The ratio of increase of revenue was 17 per cent., and of expenditure 8 per cent., compared with the previous year.

ESTIMATES FOR 1866.

The grants for the transportation of free mail-matter for the last two fiscal years have not been expended. Assuming that the amount of $700,000 for the last year is still available, no appropriation for any deficiency in the revenues will be required.

In making the estimate of probable expenditures for 1866, the amounts actually expended under the several heads during the past fiscal year have been taken as a basis; but an increase in several of the items named has become necessary, particularly in the appropriation for postage-stamps and stamped envelopes, the estimated cost of the latter being increased $140,000 per annum, according to the terms of a new contract elsewhere referred to in this report.

IMPORTANT FACTS.

The maximum annual receipts of the postal department, previous to the rebellion, from all the States was $8,518,067.40, which was exceeded in the sum of $6,038,091.30 by the receipts of the last year from the loyal States alone. The revenues during the past four years amounted to $46,458,022.97, an average of $11,614,505.74 per annum. Compared with the receipts of the four years immediately preceding, which amounted to $32,322,640.73, the annual average increase of revenue was $3,533,845.56, which has not resulted from any considerable additions to the service, the ratio of receipts to expenditures having been larger than, with few exceptions, at any previous period. A proper regard to economy in administration, aided by larger contributions from all the States of the Union, will enable the department to increase its usefulness from year to year in all its legitimate functions. But it must not be overlooked that the ability to fully perform its mission as the postal agent of the Government is greatly impaired by the burdens imposed by the franking privilege and expensive service upon routes established for other than postal purposes, the receipts from which are largely unremunerative. However much the establishment of these routes is to be commended for national objects, in which regard they command the approval of the country, it is not possible to see upon what principle they are wholly chargeable to the postal fund, which belongs to those by whom it has been contributed, and is pledged to meet the wants of the postal service.

The subjoined table illustrates the misapplication of the postal funds:—

THE RAILWAY POSTAL SYSTEM.

This system, which was suggested by the celebrated Rowland Hill, originated at a period in English postal history when the requirements of trade and commerce demanded a revisal of the code. Perhaps no man was better qualified for the purpose than was Mr. Hill. In 1839 railroad post-offices were in use for mail-bags. Each railway company provided a car, when desired to do so by the postmaster-general, for the exclusive use of the mails. These cars were fitted up with boxes to facilitate the distribution and reception of the mails. On the London and Liverpool Road (1839) it required the constant and active employment of two clerks to assort, receive, and hand out the mails: such is the rapidity of travel, and so numerous are the post-offices upon this route. Subsequently these cars were used for the distribution of letters in large cities, by assorting them on the routes. Not only were such distributions made on the cars for all the principal stations on the line of the railroads before the arrival of the cars, but distributions for the offices connected with the stations, and therefore incidentally for the entire district of country through which the lines are in operation. It was some time before our postal department could be made sensible of the necessity of the system in our country. Perhaps no other country in the world possessed a larger amount of railroad travel and postal extent than ours, and yet the spirit of old fogyism was hard to be subdued in the encounter Young America had with it on this subject, nor was it until the cars were almost forced upon the department (experimentally) that they were first introduced. These experiments were made on the routes from Chicago, Illinois, to Clinton, Davenport, and Dubuque, Iowa, with the most satisfactory results, as were those between Washington and New York. The attention of the public was called to this new postal system by the postmaster-general (William Dennison) in his report for the fiscal year 1864, who stated “that cars requisite for the purpose are prepared for one daily line between New York and Washington, and, by means of clerks taken temporarily from the post-offices at Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York, letters intended for distribution at either of these points are distributed in the cars, and so arranged that they can be despatched without delay on connecting routes.”

Among the railroads upon which these cars are placed are the Pennsylvania Central, between Philadelphia and Pittsburg: in fact, the system is now so fully established that it has become an essential element in the whole organization of the postal department. Those employed in the several post-offices from which the light of order radiates, under this new system, can fully appreciate the advantages resulting from it, as merchants and others already acknowledge

“This radiated head of the Phœnix,”

as it rises above the ashes of the old fogy system.

Mail-matter from every direction will reach our citizens much earlier,—in most cases several hours sooner. This will show at once how essential to our merchants is this new improvement: nor can we at this early period of its introduction calculate all the advantages likely to result from it. The idea of a post-office performing its distributing duties on a railway, going at the rate of thirty miles an hour, is one of those scintillations of genius which only emits light once in a century,—that century the present.49