United States Postmaster General

“ The Fourth Assistant Postmaster-General has the appointment of many postmasters and of post-office inspectors, and has charge of the bonds and commissions for postmasters. This last place is now filled by Mr. J. L. Bristow, of Kansas. During the first year of Mr. Roosevelt’s Presidency Mr. Bristow officially decapitated as many as fifty postmasters a day, and it is claimed it was a slow year in the business. Of course, for every one who lost his place some other fellow was made happy.
No impure books, pamphlets, or papers are allowed transportation by the United States mail. ”

“ When a vacancy occurs in the office of postmaster in cities having, according to the census of 1870, a population of 20,000 or more, the Postmaster-General shall ascertain if any of the subordinates in such office are suitable persons qualified to discharge efficiently the duties of postmaster, and if such are found he shall certify to the President the name or names of those subordinates, not exceeding three in number, who in his judgment are best qualified for the position, from which list the President will make the nomination to fill the vacancy ”

“ The Postmaster-General may allow to the postmasters respectively, a commission of fifty per cent. on the monies arising from the postage of newspapers, magazines and pamphlets; and to the postmasters, two cents for every free letter delivered out of the office, excepting such as are for the postmaster himself; and each postmaster who shall be required to keep a register of the arrival and departure of the mails, shall be allowed ten cents for each monthly return which he makes thereof to the general post-office. ”

“ They are the best qualified to judge of the character and qualifications of the person who will serve them in the most acceptable manner; and the postmasters, knowing that they are dependent upon the people for their offices, will be more obliging and attentive in the discharge of their duties. This will diminish the patronage of the President and the Postmaster-general, which I have not a doubt they would gladly part with, as there is nothing more troublesome and perplexing to a conscientious man, than the exercise of this power. ”

“ Nothing that is likely to be done in the way of legislation to this end seems to us to make so possible a general change for the better along these lines as the postal measures recommended by the Postmaster-General, supported by the President and now recognized by Republicans and Democrats alike as a reform that will not be downed, no matter how powerful are the interests opposing it. ”

“ One of the oldest institutions of our Federal Government, its service should be of the best. Its employees should merit and receive the high regard and esteem of the citizens of the Nation. There are today in some areas of the postal service, both waste and incompetence to be corrected. With the cooperation of the Congress, and taking advantage of its accumulated experience in postal affairs, the Postmaster General will institute a program directed at improving service while at the same time reducing costs and decreasing deficits. ”

“ The post-office is an establishment of the greatest utility. The law throws it upon its receipts for postage as its sole support. When these fail, the mails must stop; and every dollar that is taken from them is so much drawn from the service of the public. The duty, therefore, of protecting the department from the loss of its revenue is imposed upon the postmaster-general not only by the general principle of the law, but by the necessity of saving the establishment from annihilation, total or partial. ”

“ Every postoffice, the disposal of which he loses, will be so much gain to his working power, to his freedom and moral independence, to his usefulness and dignity as a legislator. He will, therefore, not only do the utmost in his power to aid the Postmaster-General in the work of reorganizing the postal service according to the President’s order, but he will zealously promote the passage of a law bringing under effective Civil Service Rules those postoffices which the President’s order cannot reach. ”

“ The genius of the American Postal System is found in the harmonious cooperation of its several parts, in direction and in operation; wise policy and purpose as seen in the formulation of plans, with willing assistance in operation to render such plans effective. The Postmaster General directs the policy, the bureau heads execute what is determined upon and the benefit or failure is seen in practical administration. All alike share in achievement, the mind that conceives, the heads that direct, and the force upon whose faithful and intelligent effort the outcome depends. ”

“ Gouverneur asked the Postmaster General for instructions. The Postmaster General, Amos Kendall, late of the Kitchen Cabinet, answered that the law had not vested any power in his department to exclude any species of newspapers or pamphlets from the mail, for such a power would be “fearfully dangerous;” but if any postmaster took the responsibility of stopping those “inflammatory papers,” he would “stand justified in that step before the country and all mankind.” His instructions to the postmaster at Charleston were of the same tenor. ”

“ Of course, the President is committed to the Post Office — the Postal Service’s success, which is why yesterday he nominated three extremely qualified individuals to fill the empty spots on the Board of Governors: Anton Hajjar, Amber McReynolds, and Ron Stroman.
And the American people highly value the Postal Service and the men and women who deliver our mail every day. And we’re working hard to do exactly that.
But I think we can all agree, most Americans would agree, that the Postal Service needs leadership that can and will do a better job. ”

“ After his withdrawal from business he remained postmaster of Philadelphia, and in 1753, after he had held that office for sixteen years, he was appointed Postmaster-General of all the colonies, with William Hunter, of Virginia, as his colleague, and he retained this position until dismissed from it by the British government in 1774, on the eve of the Revolution. There was some salary attached to these offices, that of Postmaster-General yielding three hundred pounds. ”

“ The New York Evening Post of March 4 contains a letter which Postmaster-general Granger, in accordance with the Jeffersonian penchant for explaining the motives of the administration, wrote to a postmaster to be removed. “From repeated complaints from the country, and from opinions which are entertained by persons who have been long in office, together with the reasons upon which those opinions are founded, I was soon convinced that as a general rule the printers of newspapers ought not to be employed as postmasters, because they have a special interest.” ”

“ The system was aptly described by Postmaster-General Gary at the opening of the Washington Postal Congress, in 1897, as "one of the grandest projects of the century." No other agency is responsible to such an extent for the tremendous expansion of great ideals and the exchange of views between nations characteristic of the last quarter of this century. ”

“ Jefferson Davis solicited and received the position of Secretary of War, James C. Dobbin, of North Carolina, was made Secretary of the Navy; Robert McClelland, of Michigan, was designated by General Cass for Secretary of the Interior, and James Campbell, of Pennsylvania, was appointed Postmaster-General, with thirty thousand subordinate places to be filled, its progressive improvements to be looked after, and a general desire on the part of the public for a reduction of postage. An abler Cabinet never gathered around the council-table at the White House. ”

“ Postmasters are instructed not to receive any letter, &c. which there is good reason to believe contains any thing likely to injure the contents of the mail-bag or the person of any officer of the post-office. If such a packet be posted without the postmaster’s knowledge, or if at any time before its despatch he should discover any such packet, he is directed not to forward it, but to report the case, with the address of the packet, to the secretary. ”

“ It may be that the postman, being such a familiar, and to the majority a more or less welcome figure, filling the public eye, as he does, shares only with the Postmaster-General the distinction of representing the greatest public working institution in the world. What lies behind the outward and visible working of the vast and complicated piece of machinery, neither the man in the street nor his peers care much about, because it is hidden away from the light of day. ”

“ Indeed, there is scarcely need that there should be a new department inaugurated to bring such a currency home to the people. Perhaps there never was a system operated in which there was less proportionate loss through its executive officers than in our postal system. And this is because the responsibility comes home to the people. The postmaster is always a resident of the place in which he officiates, and, either with or without a civil service law, should be the appointee of the citizens whom he is to serve ”

“ No one who was under him ever felt his self-respect wounded by his chief. It is not yet forgotten in the Post Office how, many years ago, one of the higher officers was summoned to the room of the Postmaster-General to give an explanation on some [415] difficult matter. He found his Lordship and the Secretary sitting at the table, but he himself, though he was likely to be kept some time, was not invited to take a chair. ”

“ It must always be remembered, too, in considering what is expected of a Postmaster-General, that he usually comes to his duties without any experience of the technical work and routine of the Department, and if he takes his work very seriously he is perpetually being obliged to acquire knowledge at very short notice. ”

“ The Act sets forth that "Experience having shown that the settling a Post Office is the best means to maintain trade, convey dispatches, and discover dangerous designs, it is enacted that there shall be but one Post Office, and one Postmaster-General and Controller to settle Posts, who shall carry all [Pg 236] letters except those sent by known carriers, or merchants' letters of advice sent by ship-masters; also, except private letters sent by messengers. He is to have the horsing of all who ride by post." ”

“ It may be observed at this point that the maxim enunciated so often in 1793, when the new model was introduced, namely, that “the idea of defence was to be wholly abandoned,” appears much more rarely in official reports of the early years of this century. It was still cherished by the Department, but chiefly for public consumption. It reappeared down to the very eve of the peace whenever the merchants complained, but to their own officers, my Lords the Postmaster General used very different language. ”