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

n u m b e r 5 5 • 1 4 3the position that the most important benefit of the newadhesives could only be determined after the fact. It wasthought they might be a good way to pre- pay postage, butonce they were put into service, the stamps demonstratedthey were a great way to pre- pay postage. In fact, theyshowed there were no cultural, logistical, or operationalobstacles to their use and acceptance. And that being thecase, there really wasn’t any reason why stampless mailcould not be eliminated entirely and replaced by a prepaymentsystem using adhesive stamps—just as the senator,the special agent, and the postmaster general wanted.This is exactly what did happen. In 1856 Congressmade it mandatory to pre- pay postage on domestic lettermail and only by using stamps or stamped envelopes.What gave Congress the confidence to change the system?How did they know it would work?The answer to this was simply a function of actualexperience.The use of adhesive postage stamps was totally inclusivegeographically. The use of stamps was not confinedto only one area, or to a particular group of states, orto a limited region of the country. They were used everywhereand on every type of correspondence. Even thoughdistribution was limited to only about four percent of allpost offices, stamps were seen on letters from big cities andsmall towns, and they came from every state in the Union,as well the District of Columbia, Indian Territory, Wisconsin(when it was still a territory, as well as when it becamea state), Minnesota Territory, and even tiny New MexicoTerritory. Covers are even known from towns that don’texist anymore. In short, just a small number of adhesivestamp users (approx. two percent of all letters), demonstratedthat adhesive stamps could be used by everyone—regardless of where one lived, or what purpose the lettersserved (Figure 1).These letters were carried to the post office by individuals,by office workers, by foreign mail forwarders,hotels, government carriers, and even privately- ownedlocal mail services. For every way mail could get to thepost office, there are examples of stamped letters carriedthat way. And once in the system, adhesive- stamped letterswere transported to their destination post office by everyavailable means then in use: they were carried by coach,by horseback, over inland waterways, by coastal vessels,and certainly on the railroads—the latest emerging formof transportation at that time.Adhesive stamps could be placed anywhere on thecover, even the lower right corner, and they were still acceptedas evidence of pre- payment of postage. They wererecognized by every postmaster through whose hands theypassed; there is not a single example of a bona fide use ofthe 1847 issue that was rejected by any postmaster in thecountry.Stamps were used to pre- pay postage on folded letters,on lettersheets, and even on envelopes, whose usewas also just beginning to grow because of postal reform.Any way you could “package” a letter, you could pay itspostage with a stamp, and people did. Letters were sentto every domestic destination our postal system served, aswell as to Canada, South America, Great Britain, WesternEurope, and even the Far East—in short, to everypart of the world where mid- nineteenth century mail wascarried.Sunday mail, holiday mail, mail that was mis- sent andre- directed, forwarded mail, mail sent in care of someoneelse, registered mail, even mail with a bi- sected ten- centstamp to pay the five- cent rate—all these services and accommodationswere provided to adhesive- stamped letters.In other words, during the four years of its currency,the actual usage pattern of the 1847 issue demonstratedadhesive- stamped mail could do everything, go everywhere,be accepted by citizens and postal clerks alike,and receive every service that stampless mail received. Ifthat was so, couldn’t stampless mail be eliminated? Andwouldn’t that do away with unpaid mail?Conclusion—Did StampsChange the System?The IntentionThe above experience notwithstanding, there are thosewho argue that stamps cannot be credited with changingthe system—that they were not the agent responsible foreliminating stampless mail, because that was not theirintended purpose. Their point is that stamps were issuedonly as another way to facilitate pre- payment of postagefor those who wanted it—not to cause the actual demiseof stampless letters.But the issue here is not what stamps were or werenot meant to do; the issue here is what stamps actuallydid! Denying that they caused the end of stampless mailbecause that wasn’t their intended purpose—and I’m notsure whether it was or not, but even if it wasn’t their intendedpurpose—saying that and, therefore, denying adhesivesthe credit for eliminating stampless mail, is akinto saying that Christopher Columbus cannot be creditedwith discovering America, because that is not what he setout to do—he set out to find a new route to India, so findingAmerica doesn’t count.