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1 5 8 • 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 2. A folded letter carried from New York to Philadelphia by Hale & Company, June 27,1844 (Robert A. Siegel Auction 817, Lot 1108).General Amos Kendall, by supporting local postmasterswho refused to deliver or even accept abolitionist tractsand newspapers for mailing, set a precedent that limitedfreedom of the press by allowing individual postmasters toedit the content of the mails. 16Better known to philatelists because of their survivingstamps and covers are the reformers who directly challengedthe postal monopoly by establishing independentmail companies that collected letters in one city and deliveredthem in another. 17 James W. Hale established thefirst in December 1843, providing service between NewYork and Boston for 6¼¢ per letter rather than the 18¾¢post office charge. The son of a Boston sail maker, Halehad apprenticed to a printer for two years before going tosea. He settled in New York in 1836, where he was employedat Hudson’s News Room, which he subsequentlyacquired and renamed Tontine Reading Room. Receiving,holding, and forwarding mail were common functions ofcoffee shops and reading rooms at that time. Hale wasalso an agent for the steamship John W. Richmond, arrangingfor transportation of parcels to Connecticut andRhode Island. In June 1842, under the name Scarlet WagonsCity Parcel Delivery, Hale began delivering packageswithin New York City. He also delivered letters withinNew York and parcels to Philadelphia and Buffalo. 18 Latein life, Hale recalled his motivations for establishing anindependent mail company, “having fully satisfied himself(and very few others) that he would violate no law thenexisting, determined to carry his ideas of cheap postageinto practical effect, by doing it, instead of scolding in thenewspapers about the old rates.” 19 The Hale & Companynetwork of independent mail offices grew rapidly in NewEngland, New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and NewBrunswick, Canada. Through cooperative arrangementswith other firms, he was able to deliver mail as far westas Chicago. He claimed a daily mail volume of 50,000 to60,000 letters in 1845 with 1100 employees in 110 offices.(Figure 2) Some of the staff and offices may have been partof his cooperative arrangements. 20Lysander Spooner’s American Letter Mail Company,which began service between New York, Boston, Philadelphia,and Baltimore in January 1844, was the secondindependent mail company to test the government monopoly.Spooner, the son of a New England farmer, beganhis reform career by defying the law that required threeyears of study before practicing law. In 1836, after a fewmonths as a New York bank clerk, he went west to seekhis fortune in the Maumee Valley. When the Ohio land andcanal speculation bubble burst, he returned to his father’sfarm in poverty. Although again seeking an easy fortune,Spooner launched his mail company with a public attackon the post office. 21 In a letter to the postmaster general,he called attention to the American Letter Mail Companyand enclosed his pamphlet, The Unconstitutionality of theLaws of Congress Prohibiting Private Mails. 22 Spooner informedhim, “I shall be ready at any time to answer to any
n u m b e r 5 5 • 1 5 9Figure 3. Lysander Spooner inscribed this copy of The Unconstitutionalityof the Laws of Congress Prohibiting Private Mails to DavidHenshaw, the Secretary of the Navy. The pamphlet was widely distributedto Congress and other government officials. Courtesy of theUnited States Postal Service.suit.” 23 (Figure 3) Spooner viewed the Constitution as havingoriginated with the people and reserving all rights tothem. Thus, he reasoned that the postal clause in Article 1,Section 8 gave Congress permission, but not the exclusiveright, to establish post offices and post roads.Following two changes of administration, Charles A.Wickliffe had become postmaster general in October1841. While he understood the popular pressure on Congressto reduce postage rates, he could not support Plitt’sreport because he feared postal deficits. The initial reportsfrom Great Britain, showing a precipitous decline in Britishpostal revenues after adoption of the Uniform PennyPost, prevented him from supporting any reduction in U.S.postal rates. Instead, Wickliffe launched a vigorous campaignto combat the independent mail companies whichencroached on postal revenues. Hale, as well as Spooner,was frequently arrested; “By means of detectives, spies,decoy letters, and other contrivances, the Postmaster Generalmanaged to bring nearly five hundred suits againstthe writer [Hale], who at that time was certainly the mostarrested man in the world.” 24The courts were generally unfavorable to the post officedefense of its monopoly. Supreme Court Justice JosephStory, presiding over an 1844 case against Hale inBoston, turned to the U.S. attorney after all the evidencehad been presented and ordered the case dismissed saying,“You will find that the law of 1795 reads that ‘noperson shall establish a horse or foot post’ and when Mr.Hale brought his mails to Boston by steamboat and railroad,he certainly did not come on horseback or foot.” 25The following year at a trial in Philadelphia, Vice PresidentGeorge M. Dallas spent two days presenting thegovernment case against Hale, which he concluded, “Notwithstanding its illegality he [Hale] has done more for thepeople of this country than all the Postmasters General wehave had since the confederation.” 26 The most significantcourt ruling in favor of Spooner invalidated Wickliffe’sclaim that owners of railroads and steamboats could beheld liable even if they were unaware that someone hadboarded their conveyance carrying mail. 27 Spooner openlychallenged Wickliffe by offering to admit the facts necessaryto establish his guilt if all legal proceedings againsthim would be halted until the case could be heard by theSupreme Court. 28Overwhelmed by public pressure and Wickliffe’s inabilityto obtain significant convictions against the independentmail companies, especially in New York andNew England, 29 Congress passed the Post Office Act of1845 which reduced postage rates, rated letters by weight,and established two zones, under and over 300 miles, forletters. Hale ended his reform career by closing his independentmail company and encouraging his patrons totransfer their business to the post office. 30 By the summerof 1844, Spooner had already exhausted his resources andbeen forced to sell his mail business. 31 A few years later,a bitter and impoverished Spooner attacked Bates andthe New York Cheap Postage Association for failing torecognize his contributions to postal reform. In his pamphlet,Who Caused the Reduction of Postage? Ought He
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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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Picking Up the Pieces: The Aftermat
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n u m b e r 5 5 • 7 3and U.S. adm
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n u m b e r 5 5 • 7 5September, 1
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n u m b e r 5 5 • 7 7Figure 9. Th
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n u m b e r 5 5 • 7 9“B.C.O.F.
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Introduction to the Fourth Symposiu
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