FOOT-PRINTS
OF A
LETTER-CARRIER;
OR
CONTAINING
BIOGRAPHIES, TALES, SKETCHES,
INCIDENTS, AND STATISTICS CONNECTED WITH
POSTAL HISTORY.
BY
JAMES REES,
CLERK IN THE PHILADELPHIA POST-OFFICE.
“The Post-Office is properly a mercantile project. The government advancesthe expense of establishing the different offices, and of buying or hiring thenecessary horses or carriages, and is repaid with a large profit by the duties uponwhat is carried.”
Smith, Wealth of Nations.
“A Messenger with Letters.”—Spenser.
PHILADELPHIA:
J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO.
1866.
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1866, by
J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO.
in the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the United States for the Eastern
District of Pennsylvania.
PREFACE.
There are few institutions in this or in any othercountry the history of which is so little known as is thatof the post-office. The very name, in the opinion of themasses, is sufficient to enlighten them; and beyond thislittle or no interest is manifested. Yet the history, iffairly written, would surprise that very portion who considerthe name alone an index to its unwritten pages.
Indeed, it seems strange that so important a branch ofour government should have been so slighted by thosewho constituted themselves historic writers. Our school-bookscontain no allusion to it, nor are its officers mentionedwith any marks of commendation in any of ournational works. And yet there are names identified withthis department, both as regards mind, intellect, and character,unequalled by those of any other in the country.
Perhaps it is looked upon as being merely an applianceto the wheels of government and not essential to itsgeneral movements. Is this so? is the department amere workshop and its officers and employees simplyworkers?
We have endeavored in this work—perhaps feebly—toplace the “post” before our readers as one of the mostimportant branches of the General Government. Wehave thrown around its social and political history aninterest by connecting with it incidents, facts, and localmatter more immediately identified with events whichhave marked our country’s history from its earliest periodto that of the present.
6Much has transpired during all these years to rendersuch a work both instructive and interesting; and althoughwe do not claim for ours any such pretension, yet we maysafely term it a pioneer in the cause of our postal history.
We have also endeavored, without any aid from thepostal department at Washington, to furnish a somewhatdesultory history of the post in this country, while at thesame time we have given some account of those of othernations. Ours is not a mere statistic history, but onethat blends with it a certain amount of information uponevery subject more or less connected with it. Aiming atno high literary attainments, or attempting to excel othersin language, beauty of sentiment, or construction of sentences,he has written a work in his own style, and in amanner which