[69] _Public Archives of Can._, C. 11, X. 338.
[70] Order of lieutenant governor Burton, to the _maitres de poste_ (_Memoires de la Societe Historique de Montreal_, 1870, pt. 5. I. 268).
[71] G.P.O., _Treasury_, 1760-1771, p. 99.
[72] _Imperial Statutes_, 5, Geo. III. c. 25.
[73] Journal kept by Hugh Finlay, surveyor of the post roads on the continent of North America, 1773-1774 (published by Frank H. Norton, Brooklyn, 1867).
[74] G.P.O., _General Account Book_, Account April 5, 1765.
[75] _Ibid._, Account April 5, 1769. The net revenue for the four years ending 1768 was 1684.
[76] _Quebec Gazette_, February 16, 1767.
[77] Finlay's _Journal_.
[78] _Lettres, Instructions et Memoires de Colbert_, tome iii. pp. 514 and 520.
[79] _Census of Canada_, 1870-1871, p. xvi.
[80] _C. O._ 5, XIV. 300 (_Can. Arch._).
[81] _Can. Arch._, B. 26, p. 54.
[82] _Can. Arch._, B. 26, p. 75.
[83] Finlay's _Journal_, Brooklyn, 1867.
[84] _Life of Sir Rowland Hill and Hist. of Penny Postage_, by G.
Birkbeck Hill, 1880, I. 301.
[85] Cf. Porritt, _The Unreformed House of Commons_, I. 16-17.
CHAPTER IV
The post office during the Revolution--Its suppression.
But the time was well past when the question as to what was or what was not an allowable tax possessed any but an academic interest. Though the stamp act was repealed a few months after it went into operation, the trouble it aroused was not allayed. The gratitude of the colonists which followed upon the repeal gave way to renewed irritation when it was found that the ministry in London had only postponed, not definitely abandoned, its schemes of taxation, and the late triumph gave vigour to the determination of the colonists to continue their resistance.
Step followed step. All went to widen the breach, and diminish the chances of a peaceful settlement. The post office soon became involved.
As we have seen, the ministry endeavoured to convict the colonists of, at least, inconsistency when they objected to the stamp act, while tolerating the post office. Franklin explained what seemed to him the points of difference between the two things, without convincing the ministry.
The colonists had fully shared Franklin's opinions, but the attitude of the ministry caused them to look more thoughtfully into the matter. They finally agreed that the ministry might be right in insisting that the post office charges were a tax, and refused to use the institution any longer. Finlay found that everywhere the view prevailed that the post office was unconstitutional, and it was becoming hazardous to patronize it.
While Finlay was in the southern states the Boston tea riots took place, and before he reached New York on his return home, Franklin had been dismissed, and he had been appointed to replace Franklin.
The reasons which led to Franklin's removal have been frequently stated.
They must be related again in order to complete the narrative. Franklin had become possessed, by means still unrevealed, of a number of private letters written by Hutchinson, governor of Massachusetts, and Oliver, the lieutenant governor, to a friend in England. The letters dealt with the condition of affairs in the colony, and discussed the situation with the full freedom which a confidential correspondence is apt to encourage.
Hutchinson and Oliver dwelt upon the turbulent disposition of Boston, expressed grave doubts as to the possibility of allowing the full measure of English liberty in the colonies, and asserted the necessity of a military force to support the government. When these letters were brought to Franklin, he saw the advantage that a knowledge of them would give the colonists in the struggle then going on, and as the agent for Massachusetts, he asked for permission to send the letters to the colony for perusal by a few of the leading men. Permission was granted on Franklin's express undertaking, that the letters should not be printed or copied.
In Boston, the letters were passed from hand to hand among the popular leaders, and were finally discussed at a secret sitting of the assembly.
The assembly adopted resolutions strongly condemnatory of Hutchinson and Oliver, as sowers of discord between the mother country and the colonies, declared the letters to be incitements to oppression on the part of the ministry, and petitioned the king to remove Hutchinson and Oliver from their government.
The publication of the letters gave rise to great astonishment in England, and one of the consequences, before Franklin confessed his part in the transaction, was a duel between a brother of the person to whom the letters were written, and a gentleman whom he accused of disclosing them to the public. In England Franklin met with universal condemnation, and he was at once dismissed from his position as deputy postmaster general in America.
It is noteworthy as illustrating, partly Franklin's good nature, and partly the apparent inability of the officials of the post office to understand the state of mind of the ministry, that in spite of his dismissal or of the reasons for it, Franklin remained on good terms with the heads of the post office.
There was some delay in settling the accounts of Franklin with the post office, but that was due to a lack of promptness on the part of Foxcroft, Franklin's official associate, in rendering the accounts. When the balance due by Franklin was paid, his relations with the post office did not entirely cease; for he offered himself, and was accepted, as one of the sureties for Foxcroft on the re-appointment of the latter as joint deputy postmaster general with Hugh Finlay.
For some time previous to the events which led to Franklin's removal from the service, plans were being considered for putting the administration of the post office on a better footing. Although New York was, by the terms of the act of 1710, made the official headquarters of the service, it had not been so up till this time. There seems to have been no fixed official residence. In 1749, the deputy postmaster general resided in Virginia, and his predecessor in North Carolina. Franklin and Foxcroft both happened to live in Philadelphia, and that city accordingly became the headquarters of the postal system.
It was determined in England that, after the 10th of October, 1773, New York should be the permanent administrative centre. A central office was to be established, a general secretary appointed, and suitable clerical assistance provided for the carrying on of the work of administration.
When Finlay was made joint deputy postmaster general in Franklin's place, he continued to act as travelling surveyor.
But the plans under contemplation did not come to maturity. Already measures were on foot which in a short time deprived the post office of its business in America. In March 1774, the colonists began a movement to establish a postal system, which would be independent of the regular post office.
The committee of correspondence in Boston, which was the organ through which the opponents of government carried on their work, wrote to the committee in Salem introducing William Goddard, and suggesting the advisability of establishing a post office in America.[86]
The present post office, it was stated, was founded on an act of the British parliament for raising a revenue from the colonies without their consent, and for that reason was as obnoxious as any other revenue act.
The post office was being used as a precedent against the colonies when they contested the right of parliament to tax them, and furthermore, was now being employed to prevent the dissemination of popular intelligence.
Goddard, for whom the Boston committee bespoke good will, would explain to their associates in Salem by what means certain newspapers identified with the people's cause were prevented from circulating.
Goddard was not ill-fitted to take the lead in the agitation against the post office. He was the son of the postmaster of New London, and had been himself for two years postmaster of Providence, and in this way was quite familiar with the details of work in a post office. Moreover, during his residence in Providence, and afterwards in Philadelphia and Baltimore, he was constantly engaged in newspaper enterprises.
As Goddard's schemes were, for the most part, unsuccessful, his wits never lost the edge that adversity usually gives. His grievance was that the post office charged rates so excessive on the newspapers he wished to circulate that he was unable to send them to his readers throughout the colonies.
What measure of truth there was in Goddard's statements we have no means of ascertaining. But there was no doubt that the charge might be true, without the post office exceeding its legal rights. The fact was that newspapers had no special legal standing under the post office act.
That act was passed in 1710, when newsletters in manuscript were in service and newspapers were too few and unimportant to engage the attention of the post office or of parliament at the time the law was being framed. Consequently no express provision was made for them in the act. If newspapers were to be carried by the post office under the authority of the act, it could only be by treating them as letters, and a glance at the scale of charges will show the impossibility of newspapers bearing so burdensome a tax.
The newspapers of that day were inconsiderable in size compared with those that are now published, but few even at that time would weigh less than an ounce, and an ounce letter passing between New York and Philadelphia called for a postal charge of three shillings or seventy-two cents. This sum was the lowest charge in the scale for ounce letters passing between any two places of importance in America.
Clearly newspapers could not circulate by means of the post office if they were to be regarded as letters. But as they were not mentioned in the act, newspapers had at least the advantage of not being subject to the postmaster general's monopoly. Publishers were free to turn to account any means of conveyance that happened to be available, for the distribution of their newspapers. Unfortunately, however, this freedom was of little benefit at that period, as there were no courier services regularly operating between the towns in America.
There was nothing for it but for publishers to take advantage of the postal system if this were at all possible, and the possibility appeared through one of those curious devices, which are the derision of logical foreigners, but which afford a means of escape from the inconveniences of a law, which it is not desired to alter at the time.
In England, where the situation of newspaper publishers was the same as it was in America, the privilege of franking newspapers for transmission through the mails was conferred upon certain officials of the post office, called clerks of the road. Clothed with this privilege the clerks of the road bargained with publishers for the conveyance of their newspapers in the ordinary mails, and put the proceeds into their own pockets.
It was a practice that was not regarded as in any way irregular. The post office was quite aware that its vehicles were being used for the conveyance of newspapers, from which it received no revenue, and it congratulated itself that it had hit upon a contrivance for serving the public without having to tamper with the act under which it operated.
The privilege of franking newspapers, which was enjoyed by the clerks of the road in England, was also conferred upon the deputy postmasters general in America, and colonial newspapers were distributed by the post office under arrangements similar to those described. While the act itself made no provision for the conveyance and delivery of newspapers, this peculiar plan offered great advantages to the publisher.
There was, however, one serious objection to it. Not resting on the law, but on the good will of those in authority, it could be terminated at any time, and the post office might legally charge sums as high as the postage on letters for the conveyance of newspapers. With this power in its hands the post office had complete control over the fortunes of newspaper publishers. If for any reason it desired to suppress a newspaper, all that was necessary was to cancel the special arrangement between the deputy postmaster general and the publisher, and leave to the latter the option of paying letter rates or of finding some other means of conveyance.