Whether this power was exercised in Goddard's case, is not known; that it would be, if considered necessary, is beyond doubt. In 1737, the clerks of the road in England were directed to take particular care that no newspapers were sent by the post office which contained reflections on the government,[87] and to assure themselves on the point, they were to send no newspapers into the country at all, except such as were purchased from a single dealer named in the order, whose loyalty and judgment were not open to question. The possession of this power by the government was quite sufficient to arouse reasonable apprehensions.
Goddard appears to have succeeded in his mission to Salem, as a few days later the committee of that town, responding to the letter from Boston, declared that the act of the British parliament establishing the post office in America, was dangerous in principle and demanded peremptory opposition.[88] A considerable sum was raised for the fund to set up a colonial post office, although Salem was in financial straits at the time.
Having succeeded in the first part of his campaign, Goddard went a step forward, and drew up a plan for an independent American post office, and laid it before the committees of correspondence in all the colonies.[89]
His proposition was that the colonial post office should be established and maintained by subscription, and that its control should be vested in a committee to be appointed annually by the subscribers. This committee would appoint postmasters and post riders, and fix the rates of postage.
The immediate management of the service was to be under the direction of a postmaster general to be selected by ballot, and who should hold his office by a yearly tenure.
Goddard set about procuring subscribers for his scheme, and, it would seem, with much success. In the meantime, however, events were taking place which brought into being a body of more authority than the committees of correspondence, and this body took over the establishment of an American post office.
The punitive measures of the ministry which followed upon the Boston riots had the unexpected result of uniting all the colonies into common cause with Boston. In September 1774, the delegates of the colonies assembled in congress at Philadelphia, and by degrees took upon themselves all the functions of government. On the 29th of May, 1775, the question of providing for the speedy and secure conveyance of intelligence was submitted to the congress, and a committee, of which Benjamin Franklin was the leading member, was directed to make a report.[90]
With the report before it, on July 26, the congress resolved[91] to appoint a postmaster general for the United Colonies, whose office would be at Philadelphia, and who was empowered to appoint a secretary and as many postmasters as seemed to him proper and necessary. A line of posts should be established from Falmouth to Savannah, with as many cross posts as the postmaster general saw fit.
Goddard was a candidate for the position of postmaster general, but Benjamin Franklin was chosen. Goddard's friends then made an effort to secure to him the secretaryship. In this, also, he was disappointed, as Franklin selected his son-in-law, Bache, for the place, an appointment which brought down upon Franklin a charge of nepotism.
It seems certain, however, that in no case would he have entrusted the secretaryship to Goddard. Goddard had been postmaster of Providence, and when he relinquished the office, he was a defaulter for a considerable amount.[92] As the loss from Goddard's defalcation fell partly upon Franklin, as joint deputy postmaster general, the latter would be reluctant to place him a second time in a position of responsibility.
Notwithstanding the claims he would seem to have created for himself by his work in organizing the colonial post office, Goddard had to be contented with the surveyorship of the posts.[93]
Shortly after the service had been put in operation, the continental congress discussed whether it would not be advisable to suppress the king's post office.[94] Those in favour of the measure argued that the ministerial posts were no longer necessary to the people; that they merely subserved the interests of the enemy, and that the postmasters held their offices by an illegal tenure. On the other hand, it was urged that, closely watched as they were, the ministerial posts could not lend themselves to harm, and that they furnished the people with so many more means of communication.
The argument which finally prevailed, however, was presented by the opponents of the proposition. They pointed out that this would be an extreme and irretrievable measure, an act of hostility, which would not be warranted by the position in which they stood. All that the colonies desired, they declared, was a return to the conditions which prevailed in 1763, when the conquest of Canada removed the last of the obstacles which impeded their progress, and the relations of the colonies with the mother country seemed permanently and satisfactorily established. Late advices from England indicated that parliament was showing a renewed spirit of conciliation, and any course was to be deprecated which would prevent an easy return to the old conditions.
The matter was laid over, but it was settling itself in another way.
Great Britain was recognizing the futility of persisting in its efforts to maintain the post office in the colonies. As early as March 1775, the home office advised its deputies in America that all that was to be expected from the postmasters in the colonies was that they should act with discretion to the best of their abilities and judgment.[95] It ceased for the time to give positive directions.
Finlay, who, at some personal risk, had gone to New York to make up his accounts, reported that the post office was doing but little business, as the rebels were opening and rifling the mails, and were notifying the loyally disposed that it was unconstitutional to use the king's post office.
There was swift punishment visited upon erroneous constitutional views at that time. Finlay foresaw that the post office could not long continue, and he proposed that the work of distributing the mails should be done on one of the war vessels in New York harbour.[96] At last, on Christmas day 1775, the secretary of the post office at New York gave public notice that on account of the interruptions to the couriers in several parts of the country the inland service would cease from that date, and thus was closed an important chapter in the history of the British post office in North America.[97]
With the outbreak of the war, the postal connection between New York and Montreal instantly ceased. When this event took place the service to and from Canada was in a very efficient state. Two couriers travelled each week between Montreal and New York, one passing by way of lake George, and the other pursuing the route through Skenesborough (now Whitehall); and post offices were opened at Crown Point and Fort Edward.
It was far, however, from the wishes of the provincial congress of New York to allow the communication with Canada to be broken. This body, after a conference with Price, a gentleman from Montreal, despatched a letter to the merchants of that place, expressing their strong desire that the intercourse existing between New York and Canada should be maintained.[98] They disclaimed any intention of aiming at independence, protested their loyalty to the king, and their attachment to the house of Hanover, which they ranked "among our most singular blessings."
All congress desired was the rights belonging to them as British subjects. They proposed to establish a postal courier between New York and either Ticonderoga or Crown Point, leaving it to Canadians to open a communication between Montreal and such of these two places as might be decided upon.
When the American troops, continuing their advance northward, captured Montreal, Franklin established a post office there, appointing as postmaster George Measam, who afterwards entered the American service.[99] In the ledger kept by Franklin, as postmaster general of the United Colonies, the account of the postmaster of Montreal appears in its place among the colonial post offices. The postage on letters from New York to Montreal was fixed at four pennyweight, and to Quebec at five pennyweight.[100]
Until relief arrived, Finlay was confined within the walls of Quebec, and Foxcroft's usefulness was equally curtailed by the fact that he and Dashwood, the departmental secretary, were held prisoners at New York.[101] While the British were being thus deprived of all the usual means of communication, the American service was being put in a high state of efficiency.
In this, as in other respects, the colonists were fortunate in having the services of Franklin. In August, following upon the proclamation of independence, Franklin was directed to arrange a system of communications whereby post riders were placed at intervals of twenty-five or thirty miles over the whole stretch from Falmouth (now Portland) to Georgia, the mails being carried from post to post from one end of the country to the other, three times a week.[102]
The riders were to travel night as well as day, and there was to be no more delay at the changing posts than was necessary to pass the mails from one rider to the other. Three advice boats, also, were employed to run from North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia to the place of assembly of the continental congress.
After the royal post office was driven off the mainland, it took refuge on one of the war vessels, which lay in New York harbour. The postmaster of New York received and opened the mails on board the ship, and all letters were advertised, so that they might be obtained either directly or through friends. The Americans, however, had a keen sense of the importance of communications, and from the beginning of the struggle, made every effort to intercept the packets.
Early in May 1775, while the more cautious Americans were opposing any step that would lead to extremities, Finlay reported that he was on board the ship "King Fisher," and that a vessel manned by sixty resolute fellows was cruising about Sandy Hook, in the hope of intercepting the packet "Mercury," which was due to arrive.[103]
In consequence of the burning of Falmouth by a British naval expedition, letters of marque and reprisal were issued in November by the province of Massachusetts Bay; and in the following March, the continental congress sanctioned the fitting out of private armed vessels to prey upon British commerce.[104] Seaport towns were enjoined that on no account should they furnish provisions to war vessels coming to them.
The ministry were under no delusions as to the situation. At the end of September, the packets were withdrawn from general post office duty, armed as for war, and placed at the orders of the war office. The movements of the packets were clothed with secrecy, and it was only when the vessels were bound for Halifax that the public were notified that a mail was being despatched. From Halifax, the mails were taken by the first opportunity to Boston or New York.
The attitude of the post office to all these preparations for war was very curious. It seemed incapable of understanding why exceptional measures were necessary at that time. A steady murmur of discontent was kept up against the war office. Remonstrance after remonstrance was directed against the commander-in-chief for the detention of the packets beyond what seemed a reasonable delay, and there was continual complaint against the restrictions placed upon the post office.
Until the middle of the year 1776, although the service had been on a complete war footing for some months past, there had been no actual clash between the British and American vessels. The correspondence, however, reveals a state of great anxiety for the safety of the despatches, and as the vessels put out, the masters were placed under strict injunctions to sink the mails if there was any likelihood of capture.
The first recorded engagement in which the packets on any of the North American stations were concerned, took place on the 17th of July. The master of the "Lord Hyde" reported[105] that on his passage from Falmouth to New York, he saw at four o'clock in the morning of that day a ship and a brig three or four leagues distant. They spoke to one another, and then gave chase to the packet. The ship fell out of sight, but the brig followed hard, and at four in the afternoon came up with the packet and began to fire, at the same time running a red English ensign to the topmast head.
The master of the packet, seeing no chance for escape, shortened sail and prepared for action. The brig came up alongside, replacing the English ensign by a flag of thirteen stripes with a small union in it, and without more ado poured into the packet a broadside from eight carriage guns, and a number of swivels and small arms. The packet returning the fire, a warm engagement followed for an hour and a half at a distance of fifty or sixty yards. The brig then bore away. The packet was much shattered in her sails and rigging, but wonderful to relate, the only casualties were the slight wounding of five persons.
The "Sandwich" packet, which left New York on the 20th of August, reported[106] an encounter with a fast schooner bearing the New England colours, a white field with a pine tree in the middle. After some manoeuvring, in which it appeared that the plan of the schooner was to keep in the wake of the packet outside the range of the latter's guns, but near enough to take advantage of the superior weight of her own guns, the packet managed to bring the schooner into an action which lasted for nearly two hours. The rigging, sails and masts of both vessels were much damaged, but the packet came out of the encounter without any person being even wounded.
The third engagement was a more serious affair. The packet "Harriott,"
on the New York station, was attacked on the 17th of September by a privateer of twelve guns and over one hundred men. The packet, which was armed and equipped in the same manner as the other packets on this station, had twelve guns, but only forty-five men. Of these five were killed, including the captain, and nine were wounded. Through the gallantry of the mate, Spargo, the packet managed to avoid capture. For his good conduct on this occasion, Spargo was made master of the "Harriott."
On the 1st of March, 1778, the "Harriott," in violation, it would seem, of the instructions given to all the masters of packets to avoid a fight, if possible, captured the American vessel "Sea Nymph," of one hundred and twenty tons burden, laden with gunpowder, saltpetre, gun flints and other wares, and brought it into New York.[107]
While the packet boats were thus occupied in foiling the enemy's attempts upon them, the course of events had restored to the post office a footing on land in America. The arrival of assistance from England in May enabled Carleton to attack the American force which had held Quebec in siege since the November previous, and the retreat of the Americans which ensued was not stayed until they had been driven entirely out of Canada.
Finlay, who had spent the winter in Quebec, and who has been credited with one of the best anonymous accounts which have come down to us of the conditions of the city during the siege, at once prepared to resume his duties as deputy postmaster general. New York, also, fell again into the hands of the British, owing to the withdrawal of Washington's army in September, before the superior forces of Howe.
Here Foxcroft, the deputy postmaster general, and Dashwood, the departmental secretary, were prisoners of war; and Antill, the postmaster of New York, had taken up quarters in one of the war vessels in the harbour. Antill lost no time in returning to the city; and Foxcroft and Dashwood were set free by an exchange for two American officers which took place shortly after.[108]
Like Finlay, Foxcroft made preparations for the resumption of business; but for both Finlay and Foxcroft an unexpected thing happened. Vessels with mails began to arrive at Quebec and New York, but the mails were not taken to the post office, although the statute laid it upon shipmasters as their duty to deliver the mails at the post office before they broke bulk.[109] On the arrival of the vessels, the commanders-in-chief directed the masters to send the letters up to their headquarters, where they were gone over by confidential officers, on whom were imposed the duties of handling the incoming mails.
The reason of this step will be sufficiently obvious, although the post office professed that they had never seen any good purpose served by it.
Even where there was no suggestion of disloyalty among the citizens, there were infinite possibilities of harm in the unguarded utterances, which are constantly occurring in familiar letters. Matters, which it is of the highest importance to keep concealed from the enemy, may be within the knowledge of every citizen, and it becomes necessary either to induce or to compel citizens not to write of such matters.
But it was not only against the undesigned harm which loyal people might do, that it was necessary to guard. There was good reason to suspect that in Quebec, as well as in New York, there was a considerable proportion of English speaking people who were by no means well affected towards the government, and who would not hesitate to impart to the enemy any information which they thought might be of assistance.
The king, in his instructions to Carleton[110] as governor, enjoined him to signify to the loyal merchants and planters the necessity for caution against allowing their letters to become the means of conveying information to the enemy, and directed him to use every possible effort to frustrate the schemes of the disloyal carried on through the medium of correspondence.
The method employed by the governor to forestall danger from this source was the simple one of standing guard over the channel through which correspondence must ordinarily pass. In this way, he would discover many of the disaffected, and at the same time show such people the danger to them of being implicated in matters of that kind.
To merchants, however, the governor's course was a great inconvenience.
All their letters were delayed, and many not delivered at all, for the governor's staff had neither the training in post office work, nor the sense of the importance of mercantile correspondence necessary to assure the merchants of the safety of their letters, when these passed out of the accustomed courses. The merchants remonstrated against the governor's action, and called upon Finlay to assert the determination of the post office to secure respect for the act, which was being violated by the governor.
Finlay was a man of tact, and a member of the governor's executive council as well, and he counselled patience to the merchants. They acquiesced for a time, hoping that the governor's surveillance over their correspondence would be relaxed, but the governor continued firm.
Each season as the vessels began to come up the river, orders were issued for the renewal of the unpopular practice.
What took place at Quebec was repeated at New York; and during the short period of the British occupation of Philadelphia, in that city, also.
The postmaster of Philadelphia, who had retired to England when the British office was closed in 1775, returned on hearing that the city was again in the king's hands, but only to find that the letters were delivered to the commander-in-chief, who distributed them not only to the army and navy, but also to the merchants, and no steps were taken to collect the postage.[111]
At that time, and indeed until a quite recent date, the postage on letters was not paid until the delivery of them was effected, and when, as during the war of the Revolution, the mails were diverted from their usual channel, the post office was unable to collect anything to meet the expenses it was incurring.
To-day, owing to the greater cohesiveness among the departments of government, the post office would rest content in the fact that the loss of revenue was due to the action of the government as a whole, and could not be imputed to any failure on its own part, but, at that time, it viewed the situation as a private institution would. The loss of revenue seemed to affect it alone, and again and again the post office declared to the war office that, unless the revenue was maintained, it would be obliged to cut off the internal services between Montreal and Quebec.
There was another matter arising out of the governor's lack of confidence in the English-speaking people in Canada which was a source of much inconvenience to the deputy postmaster general. It has been the practice in Canada to grant exemption to postmasters from the billeting of the troops upon them. The barracks which had been erected in Montreal were destroyed by fire, and it was necessary that the soldiers should be provided for by the citizens. But the duty was grudgingly undertaken, and indeed the disfavour with which the soldiers were regarded in Montreal was one of the chief grounds of complaint on the part of the governors.