Mr. Sumner. My friend will pardon me,—for education. He is against making this paltry appropriation for education; and he reminds us that in his great State $3,000,000 are set apart for this purpose. Is it not shameful, that, while $3,000,000 are set apart for this purpose in his great State, so small a sum as is now proposed is to be set apart by the Nation? Am I told that the Nation has nothing to do with this question? Allow me to reply at once, it has everything to do with it; it has more to do with it than the State of Ohio, inasmuch as in the Nation are all the States. Ohio is only one State; all the States compose the Nation; and the Nation is responsible for the civilization of all the States. The Nation is the presiding genius, not only of Ohio, but of all the associate States of the Union. Therefore, Sir, should the Nation by every means in its power, by appropriation, by a department, by a bureau, by clerks, by officers, do everything possible to promote the interests of education.

But the question may be asked, What can it do? With the sum proposed, unhappily, very little,—too little. But let us not give up doing even that little. A little in such a cause is much. If nothing else, information may be accumulated, statistics may be gathered, facts may be brought together, which can be laid before those interested in education all over our own country and in foreign lands. That may be a specific object of the Bureau of Education.

Then, again, it may supply a general impulse to education in every State,—even in Ohio, with its $3,000,000 appropriated to that purpose. Permit me to say, the State of Ohio, great as it is, is not yet above the reach of educational influences; and I am sure that this Bureau, if properly organized, might be of advantage even to the great State which my friend represents with so much ability on this floor. I therefore adopt the language of my friend, when he said, “Let us take no backward step.” I would increase this appropriation, rather than diminish it. I wish it were $100,000,—ay, Sir, $500,000.

NO EXCLUSION OF RETIRED ARMY OFFICERS FROM CIVIL OFFICE.

But now, Sir, for the application. I confess I agree entirely with the argument of the Senator from Ohio [Mr. Sherman]. I consider that the demands of republican institutions are completely satisfied, if we exclude men in active service from taking part in civil life. To go further is to tie the hands of the appointing power,—to take from the country the opportunity of securing, it may be, important service,—and, I think, is to be needlessly hard on men who in their day have rendered good service to the country. It does seem to me that cases may occur where it may be important to take into the civil service a retired officer. Why may not that occur in the natural course of events? There is talent, there is experience. Are our offices so well filled, is the public service so completely performed, that we can afford to exclude talent and experience?

Mr. Sumner. There, Sir, you come in conflict with the fundamental principle of republican institutions. You cannot, as I submit, fill civil offices from the active service of the Army or Navy without conflict with that fundamental principle.

Mr. Sumner. But I find no such conflict, if you take an officer on the retired list.

Mr. Sumner. The Senator asks, “Why?” For the obvious reason, that, when the officer is on the retired list, he has, for all the ordinary purposes of the service, ceased to be an officer,—he enjoys what I think has been called a pension, which in reality is a pension under another name,—and he has ceased to be in the active, practical service either of Navy or of Army. On that account I see a clear distinction.

Therefore it seems to me, for the sake of the public service, and that we may not be guilty of hardship to any portion of the community, that the words introduced by my colleague in the pending bill ought to be preserved. I hope they will not be struck out.

ARCTIC EXPEDITIONS.

I doubt not that in former days the Senator has circulated under his frank Herndon’s “Exploration of the Valley of the Amazon.” Here was an Equatorial exploration by which our country has gained honor. There is nothing in our history by which we have acquired a better fame than what we have done for science. The scientific reports on our Western territory are much valued where science is cultivated. And the United States Exploring Expedition, organized by the care of John Quincy Adams, has given to our Republic a true renown. Who would blot from our annals this invaluable record? But we, too, may do something not unworthy of companionship with this early expedition.

Thus far our Government has attempted nothing for Polar exploration. Kane and Hayes have added to our geographical knowledge, and inscribed the names of honored countrymen on Arctic headlands; but their expeditions proceeded from private munificence. The time has come when the Government should take up this work, nor leave the monopoly to foreign powers. Perhaps I desire too much; but I would have my country explore this whole North American Continent, not only in the interest of science, but for the sake of the near future. It is easy to see that our Capitol grounds will be broader than anything included in the amendment of the Senator from Vermont, and I hope we shall not delay their exploration.

Nor should we be daunted by difficulties. I cannot doubt that the time will come when every quarter of the globe, with every corner, every recess, whether at the Equator or the Pole, whether land or sea, will be brought within the domain of knowledge, and find its place on the map, so that there shall be no Terra Incognita; but we must do our part in this triumph. Do not say that this knowledge is without value. Just in proportion as we know the earth can we use and enjoy it. Therefore, for our own advantage and for our good name——

ONE CENT POSTAGE, WITH ABOLITION OF FRANKING.

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:—

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:—

And then again:—

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:—

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:—

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:—