"Neither Snow nor Rain..." With origins dating back to the seventeenth century, today's United States Postal Service has a long history of meeting the varied needs of an expanding and changing nation. by Cathleen Schurr for American History Magazine The first real postal system in the English colonies was begun under a royal patent in 1692. The system worked reasonably well, with weekly mail service among several cities from New Castle, Delaware, to Portsmouth, New Hampshire but it was not a profitable venture. Letters carried "outside the mails" provided competition that reduced the system's revenues. In 1707, the Crown bought back the patent and took control of the colonial postal system, appointing a succession of postmasters general during the next 68 years. Among those appointees was Benjamin Franklin--printer, newspaper publisher, and beginning in 1737, Philadelphia's postmaster. Aware that travel at government expense and mailing privileges--perquisites that would allow him to promote his ideas throughout the colonies--came with the office of postmaster general of the colonies, Franklin vigorously pursued the appointment. His efforts were rewarded in 1753 when he and William Hunter of Virginia were named co-deputy postmasters general for the Crown. While in office, Franklin developed new post roads, setting out milestones to show how far a postman, who was paid by the mile, had traveled; established faster service to Europe; expanded routes between Canada and New York; and instituted overnight post riders between New York and Philadelphia that allowed for an exchange of letters between those cities in just two days. He also invented the pigeonhole system for mail distribution and developed an early postal inspection service, "bringing postmasters to account." In 1761, under Franklin's watch, the colonial post office showed a profit for the first time. And for the next several years, it returned a surplus to the British treasury, a feat in which Franklin took great pride. But the colonists were becoming increasingly dissatisfied with Britain's postal policies. They began to view the high British postal rates as a grievous" form of taxation without representation and took steps to undermine the Crown's postal monopoly. Although he had argued that postal rates differed from the hated Stamp Tax of 1765 because they were payment for a service rendered, Franklin's open support of the colonists on related issues won him disfavor with the Crown, and he was dismissed from office in 1774. Soon after, William Goddard established an alternative post office, controlled by committees in the various colonies. Goddard's "Constitutional Post" served the colonists' needs until July 1775, when the Second Continental Congress took control of the postal system and named the experienced Franklin postmaster general. During the Revolutionary War, the postal service helped to unite the country in a common cause. Post riders carried the mail at great hazard to themselves between armies in the field and a government that shifted locales in order to avoid capture, as well as between soldiers and their families. The government created by the Articles of Confederation, which took effect in March 1781, recognized the importance of a good communication system among the states. But rivalries among the now-sovereign states and between the states and the weak central government--coupled with the severe economic problems facing the new confederation--adversely affected its post office department. Thanks to a series of reforms by Ebenezer Hazard, who was appointed postmaster general in 1782, the ailing system managed to remain afloat. When the Founding Fathers drafted a new constitution in 1787, they included a provision authorizing Congress to "establish post offices and post roads." Accordingly, Congress passed legislation creating the United States Post Office in 1789. The organization and the scope of its authority, however, were not determined for three more years, and the old Confederation Post Office remained in place in the interim. The job of directing this nebulous body fell to Samuel Osgood of Massachusetts, named postmaster general by President George Washington in 1789. Osgood inherited a disorganized and impoverished postal system that consisted of 75 post offices and more than 2,000 miles of post roads. Local post offices often were no more than a portion of a shop or tavern counter, while post roads included vast stretches of swampland or mud-locked and tree-stump-infested barriers. Finally, in 1792, Congress established a central postal policy, setting postage rates according to the distance that the mail would travel. Part of the Treasury Department, the Post Office was ordered to be self-supporting and to use any profits to extend service. By stipulating that Congress, not the postmaster general, would be responsible for establishing post roads, the law gave the American people a voice in postal affairs through their representatives and senators, one that they would repeatedly use to have the postal service extended to new areas. In those days before the advent of envelopes, letters consisted of sheets of paper that were folded, tucked in at the ends, and secured with sealing wax. Until the mid-nineteenth century, distance and the number of sheets being sent gauged rates. Although most people continued to collect their mail at the nearest post office, a 1794 act did permit home delivery at the cost of two cents extra in postage for each letter. Payment of postage fell to the one receiving the mail on a cash-on-delivery (COD) basis, rather than to the sender. http://americanhistory.about.com/library/prm/blpostoffice1.htm Sally Rolls Pavia Sun City, AZ [email protected] All incoming and outgoing email checked by Norton Anti-Virus 2002 .. .