The Winton M. Blount Postal History Symposia - Smithsonian ...

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1 1 0 • s m i t h s o n i a n c o n t r i b u t i o n s t o h i s t o ry a n d t e c h n o l o g yFigure 4. In 1804, Washington, Pa. was a Distributing Post Office on a stage route west from Philadelphia (DPO) throughChambersburg (DPO), Bedford, Greensburg, and Pittsburgh (DPO 1820) en route to Morgantown, Va. (DPO). Anotherstate route west from Baltimore (DPO) passed through Hagerstown, Md. (DPO) and Cumberland, Md. (DPO 1817). Mailfrom Washington, Pa. was batched to other Distributing Post Offices, particularly at Marietta on the Ohio River. Portionof Bradley map of 1796. Courtesy Smithsonian National Postal Museum (Accession 0.293996.1).Still, Congress was bombarded with memorials askingthat the new law be changed to prevent the mails fromtraveling and from being distributed on Sundays. Butthe Senate, in 1815, cited the mitigating instructions andvoted to keep things as they were. 21 Congressional argumentscentered on the need to keep major communicationlines unbroken—during war but also for the continuityand expansion of the postal system. 22For an appreciation of the expanded system, a retrospectiveof the post office establishment as of 1811displays, at six different times, the development of themeasures of the department since its beginnings in 1792(Figure 5). Not only are the numbers of post offices andthe lengths of post roads shown but also a differentiationin terms of modes according to the miles of weeklytransportation. 23In the beginning, the miles of weekly transportationof the mails carried in sulkies and on horseback were tenpercent less than that carried on stages but, by 1811, hadgrown to exceed stage mail by about thirty percent. Thissignifies the penetration of mail into the hinterland—ahead of roads and passenger traffic suitable for coaching.The total transportation of the mails divided by the lengthof the post roads at each interval indicates a systematicfrequency of about 1.4 mails a week—a constant of thesystem—an integration of modes and frequency which
n u m b e r 5 5 • 1 1 1Figure 5. Over ten years, the postal system grew 12- fold in number of offices, and 7- fold in miles of post road and mail transportation.Table from the Postal Guide of 1811. From the collection of the authors.persisted throughout Bradley’s tenure in managing themail transportation contracts.Postal Route Reorganization andSunday Mail Controversy 1828–1831In 1825, Abraham Bradley was asked to reorganizepostal transportation because of duplication of facilitiesand parallel routes. 24 The result was reallocation and anextension of stage routes, with a fresh spate of their dramaticpresence in remote places. Opposition to travel onSundays had intensified in western New York after the ErieCanal insinuated a potent arm of secular commercialism. 25An opposition Pioneer Line of stages was formed in 1828to operate between Albany and Niagara Falls throughBuffalo six days a week and to observe Sunday rest. The“Old Line”—which had the mail contract—not only operatedseven days a week, it also ran at night, employedexperienced drivers, gave their horses the best care, andmaintained a faster service. 26 Apparently to remain solventthis “Pioneer Line” of stages broke their own protocols, 27failing completely by 1831: a line of stages had to run continuallyto serve a commercial market. 28 Stopping on Sunday,for capitalist ventures like transportation lines, meant‘idle money.’Yet a second wave of anti- Sunday Mail protest floodedCongress with memorials. 29 Most argued from religiousconviction, but many men who signed even these petitionswere involved in business.An 1829 petition circulated to all members of Congressby a group of New Yorkers, which included a formermayor and John Jay’s son (Figure 6), argued from acommercial rather than a religious viewpoint—and proposedthat closing the postal system for a day would “saveno inconsiderable part of the expenses of the Post- officeDepartment”. 30On the contrary, the 1829 annual report (Bradley’slast, before Hobbie) 31 showed that running post coachessix days a week instead of seven would not save anymoney. In his experience, if a failure of a day’s mail occurred,and its bulk was added to the next day’s mail, thetotal was enough to fill a mail coach so that passengerswere excluded. Indeed, if Sunday mails were stopped,
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Smithsonian InstitutionScholarly Pr
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smithsonian contributions to histor
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ContentsLETTER FROM THE DIRECTOR OF
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AcknowledgmentsThe symposium would
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2 • s m i t h s o n i a n c o n t
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1 0 • s m i t h s o n i a n c o n
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“Little Colored Bits of Paper”C
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n u m b e r 5 5 • 1 7as something
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n u m b e r 5 5 • 1 9protest came
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n u m b e r 5 5 • 2 1nals I revie
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WWI Philatelic Censuses of East Afr
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n u m b e r 5 5 • 2 5Table 1. GEA
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n u m b e r 5 5 • 2 7Figure 5. MA
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Explorations in the Official Regist
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n u m b e r 5 5 • 3 1receipts. De
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n u m b e r 5 5 • 3 3TABLE 2. Pop
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n u m b e r 5 5 • 3 5different ge
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Introduction to the Second Symposiu
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“Food Will Win the War”: Motor
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n u m b e r 5 5 • 5 1business tha
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n u m b e r 5 5 • 5 3support for
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n u m b e r 5 5 • 5 53. “Postal
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n u m b e r 5 5 • 5 7“Farmers W
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Page 101: Introduction to the Fourth Symposiu
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Page 139 and 140: n u m b e r 5 5 • 1 2 9A Final No
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Page 145 and 146: n u m b e r 5 5 • 1 3 5The glazed
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