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

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,