SPEECH OF JMR. HILL, OF JTEW IlJlJflP S HIRE, IN SENATE, MAY 10, 1832, ON MR. BIBB’S AMENDMENT TO THE BILL FOR ESTABLISHING POST ROADS, PROPOSING THE ABOLITION OF POSTAGE ON NEWSMP-T5R'S’.: \ : • • • •• % • • • Mr. HILL: After the assiduous labor at]their |ep$tj posfmjtetfcss by) J specific sala morning and night for several weeks in sui cession, which the Committee on the Post Office and Post Roads had bestowed on the bill from the House of Representatives for creating new post roads—after travelling through every section, near and remote, of every State and Territory, as well on maps as in books, carefully marking where by law routes already existed, and where they were most wanted, to fix and ascertain the best avenues by which information and intelli gence could be carried to all the people of the United States;—as a humble member of that Committee, I am free to declare, the amend¬ ment to the bill ottered by the Senator from Kentucky, to abolish newspaper postage, to be not less unexpected than it seems to me to be unreasonable and unkind. What does the bill itself propose? It is confined to a single object, that of establish¬ ing new post roads, and discontinuing old ones that were deemed useless. It had as little to do with newspaper postage as had the bill to vaccinate the Indians: it might, with a much better face, have been tacked to that omnium gatherum, the appropriation bill, be¬ cause to carry the provision into effect, a large appropriation of money, directly from the Treasury, must be necessary. 1 trust, Sir, that whatever may be the opinion of hon¬ orable Senators as to the reduction of news¬ paper postage, they will vote against this pro¬ position to burden a bill intended exclusively for one object, with another and an entirely different object; a bill, too, which did not ori¬ ginate in this body, and on which, if amend¬ ed by proposing a new principle, anotherdis- cu9sion must take p ace in the other branch, which may carry the time for its passage be¬ yond the present session. "'At a proper time I shall be ready to vote for a reduction of the postage on newspapers to as great an extent as the interest of their proprietors, or of the great mass of newspa¬ per reauers shall require; but until the Ame¬ rican people are prepared to defray directly from the Treasury the whole expense of the Post Office—until they are prepared to pay ry—I Ca.n’hoVcotiSent’ td aboKSh’eYltirely post¬ age on newsp&pbri^>»• !•„ l .v Newspappes. ^lj*e]a,J^, advantage over every thing else carried in the public mail. The printers of newspapers already have their exchange papers free of postage.— Does any one believe that such a sheet as the New York Enquirer, or the National Intelli¬ gencer, can be transmitted eighteen hundred, one thousand, or even one hundred miles, and carefully preserved and delivered for less than one cent and a half? Letters of the same weight, requiring little more attention, would be charged from one dollar to two or three dollars, according to‘distance. I cannot agree with the Senators from Ken¬ tucky and Delaware who represent the post¬ age on newspapers to be a burdensome and unjust tax upon the people. It is not more burdensome and unjust than is the price of the white paper on which newspapers are printed, or the price of the types, the ink, and the labor of printing—it is a necessary portion of the expense incurred in furnishing the article. Let us suppose that the public mail was car¬ ried exclusively for the delivery of newspa¬ pers. Will any body pretend that the pres¬ ent price of newspaper postage would defray even a fifth part of the expense of transmit¬ ting and delivering them? Yet of the weight carried by the mails, the letters which pay about nine-tenths of all the revenue are scarcely in bulk or in weight as one to twen¬ ty of the newspapers and pamphlets. The newspapers are already literally carried at the expense of the tax on letters. How, then, can it be said that the people are unjustly tax¬ ed who pay postage on newspapers? I have made it an object to enquire at the Post Office, in this city, what is the relative weight and’bulk of newspapers and letters passing through the mail? The Chief Clerk in that Office did not hesitate to say that they were as twenty to one. The mail passing from North to South through this place daily, contains generally from twenty to thirty— never less than ten bags, weighing some 150 2 to 200 pounds each. One of these bags will contain all the letters. On Monday morning I saw the Southern mail as it was despatched: there were twenty-one bags of newspapers, and all the letters did not fill as much as one bag. Sir, it would be rank injustice to abolish the entire postage on .newspapers.^ In that respect, you wf]J*m#ke*vM.timsfc who live near a post office a privileged el asV.* »T4ieir news¬ papers will be carried .gratis, .while those who live at a distance ifromc Jh© pggft • gffipcp, -must pay for the 'c.lrriage and tfelivery of their pa- pers. /. - .*• ;• ‘11 1 In New Engl'anxl;* al must every family takes one or more newspapers. Not one in ten of these newspapapers ever go into the mail at all. There, very frequently, companies are formed in the districts and townships, to take the newspaper; each one takes his turn in ro¬ tation to travel ten, fifteen, twenty or thirty miles, on the day of publication, and deliver the newspaper either at some place of deposit or at the door of each subscriber. In other cases, a post-rider makes it a business to tra¬ vel an extensive district of country to deliver the newspapers which he purchases of the printer, and adds the expense of carrying. In other instances the mail-carrier takes the newspaper from the printing office, or post- office, and delivers it while on his way, charg¬ ing and receiving extra pay for the service. If the postage be entirely abolished, scarcely one in ten of all the readers of country news¬ papers will be benefitted at all. They will still be obliged to pay for the transmission and delivery of their newspapers; and to be consistent. Government should make provis¬ ion that their papers should go free, not less than the newspapers of those who happen to live at the door of some post office. The number of post offices at the present time is about ten times as great as it was in 1800 Then there were only about 1000 in the United States—now there are about 10,- 000. Of this number of post-masters* the an¬ nual compensation of a majority will no f average fifty dollars. In the small offices, much of this compensation is derived from the newspaper postage, the post-master receiving one half for his labor; he receives one half cent for keeping the account and delivering the paper, if printed within his State, or with¬ in one hundred miles, and three fourths of a cent, if printed beyond the distance of one hundred miles. What compensation do you propose to him for that service, in this amend¬ ment ? None at all. Does he receive too much already? If not, can you do less than authorize the Department to pay him? If he receives nothing, what obligation is he under to take care of, and deliver the papei s ? Will he do it for nothing? That cannot be expect¬ ed : the Department must remunerate him by increasing his commission on letters, or in some other way. It is well known, Mr. President, that most of our country newspapers at e not a source of profit to their proprietors. With the most severe physical and mental labor, the print¬ ers of country newspapers are scarcely able to obtain a livelihood. I cannot doubt, that it was the intention of the Senator who intro¬ duced this proposition, to assist them : he is mistaken, Sir. Pass this proposition into a law, and it will annihilate at least one half of our village newspapers ; they cannot survive the advantage which will he given to the news¬ papers printed in the large cities, which, by means of improved printing machinery, ran be delivered, if they go lree of postage by mail, at any distance as cheap, if not cheap¬ er. than the local papers. There is a newspaper under the patronage of the Society of Methodists in New-York— a useful anu well conducted journal—which issues, at each impression, 25,0 10 copies; and these are circulated in every State of the Union. This proposition, if adopted, would enable the worthy men who conduct that jour¬ nal, to increase the number to 100,00 » ; and this immense number would be subtracts I in the main from the useful local papers through¬ out the United States, whose proprietors are unable to procure a patronage seldom exceed¬ ing five hundred or a thousand names. A team of four horses would not be able to draw a single impression of this paper. How easy would it be for a combination of men, for mer¬ cenary as well as for laudable pi rposes, to stop any press which had barely sufficient support to exist, by deluging its vicinity with other newspapers, which could be done at a thousand miles distance, free fron all ex¬ pense of postage ? This proposition, I am free to acknow’- ledge, will be of great advantage to the news¬ papers published in this District, and in some of the larger cities; but that advantage will be entirely at the expense of the smaller newspapers printed in the villages : it will go to feed those which are already 1 well patroniz¬ ed, and starve those which can now scarcely subsist. And this is not the worst feature of the case : instead of taking such lessons from our local newspapers, as the home-bred ideas, the honest, frugal, and industrious habits of ocr yeomanry shall prompt, the people must be lectured by th« se who do every thing on a great scale; they must be instructed in the 3 fashions and the notions of the great and the gav ; they must take as their teachers, pei- haps the vain and the vicious—perhaps the pensioned and the proud; or may be, the pat¬ riotic and the wise. I repeat. Sir, that the tendency of the amendment will be, to enable the few to monopolize the newspaper press of the whole country, and the consequent de¬ struction of those local presses of the interi¬ or, which now sustain the most healthy pa t of the public sentiment. Another consequence of this proposition will be the overburdening the mails on all the principal roads, so as to increase the expense of transport and retard them in their pro¬ gress. Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington will pour out newspapers in such quantities, that without some newly invented carriages, some greato than mere brute, animal power, the Depart m>-nt will never be able to expedite the mails at all. On all the great mail roads—and these are now far the most expensive—double conveyances for the mail will be required and this will nearly double the expense. The net proceeds to the Department, from newspapers and pamphlet postage, tor the vear ending June 30, 1830, amounted to §98,313 44—for the year ending June 30, 1831, they were §112.111 22—showing an increase in one year of §13,597 78. Ihea- mount paid was of course double, as the post masters receive one half. The revenue es¬ timated for the year ending June 30, 1832, is §125,000. Besides the compensation to postmasters, the proposition will take from only as one to nine or ten when compared to letter postage, is greater than the whole a- mount of postage on both letters and news¬ papers was in the year 1800. For many years no regular accounts of the newspapers were kept in the post offices, although subscri¬ bers always paid as high postage as they now pay. But a new system of checks on the newspaper postage accounts in the several post-offices, made but a few years ago,brought order out of chaos in that branch of the de¬ partment, until it contributes something to¬ wards supporting itself. The Senator from Kentucky, (Mr. Bibb,) has calculated that there will be half a mil¬ lion of dollars at the disposal of the Depart¬ ment on the first of July next. This was the first time I had heard such a suggestion. I had understood that for the last ten or fifteen years the Department has expanded itself, as far and as fast as its means would allow, to the aci ommodation of the whole country, by increasing the mail facilities. Within my knowledge, we have tri-weekly and daily mails passing over roads where but a few years since there were none, and only single horse mails once a week or fortnight. Mail stages now pass through the most of our towns, and the benefits of this useful establishment diffuse themselves into ever neighborhood. This morning I find on my table letters and newspapers brought from New York, a dis¬ tance of 250 miles, in thirty-six hours, and from Boston, 500 miles, in three days. We have the mail expedited from New Orleans to Washington in one half its former time: from §140,000, being the amount which may be anticipated for 1832-3—it will add to the ex¬ pense of transportation certainly an equal if not a greater amount; foi it cannot be consi¬ dered that the contractors will be holden to encounter the additional burden without a consideration; and it will lay the Department under obligation in any court of chancery to pay the post-masters at least an amount equal to whatthey would receive for the news papers which are carried in the mail under the present arrangement. These three items, at the lowest calculation will amount to 420,- 000 dollars. Indeed, when it is considered that the number of newspapers transported by the mail will be swelled possibly to even ten-fold their present amount, the calculation is not extravagant when we anticipate that the Department may be crippled with the additional burden of half a million of dollars, the first year, by this proposition. The newspaper postage alone, which is now cvritt days, there is a new arrangement by which one or more days are gained. There is scarce¬ ly a week or even a day in which some new improvement is not made, facilitating the transport of the mails. The Department has kept even pace with the country in its march of improvement. These great improvements involve great expenses: and although the De¬ partment, in some cases has gained more by ?he improvement than it has expended in, making it, it could not be expected such would be the general result. The Senator has noticed a surplus fund of some two hundred thousand dollars, which may be brought in aid of any deficiency that may be caused by abolishing newspaper post¬ age. This surplus fund was formerly much larger than it now is. It is highly creditable to the administration of the present Head of the Department and to his predecessor, that while the number of post offices and the re¬ ceipts of the establishment have been increas* ed nearly ten-fold, the actual losses from the 4 defalcations of postmasters are. much less in the last ten years than they were from 1800 to 1810. The surplus fund to which the Sen¬ ator alludes is not available—a large portion of it never can be realized: it consists, if I understand the matter right, of outstanding debts, many of which are doubtful, and some of which areabsolutely hopeless. Every man of extensive business generally has such a sur¬ plus fund as this, which he accounts as worth little or nothing for present purposes. It is not good management alone, Mr. President, which can keep the receipts of the Department above its expenditu res. Any change in the ordinary business of the coun¬ try will change the business of the Depart¬ ment: the revenue may decrease, but the ex penditures must continue. It is not safe, .. we do not put this Department on the Treas¬ ury, at this session of Congress, to add to the past roads an extent of travel equal to the whole extent of post road in the United States in the year 1800, and at the same time abol¬ ish entirely the postage on newspapers. When the present incumbent entered on the duties of his ofhce it is well known that the expenses of the Department had exceeded its income in consequence of the facilities which had been granted to routes which were unprofitable. It had not been in his power, until the last year, to keep the expenditures within the receipts. If Congress should, at this time, embarrass further the Department, have produced the sum of 825,414 20. The number of free letters despatched from the city during the same quarter, the clerks are of opinion, was four times the amount of those here delivered. Were the Department to change the government for the free letters transmitted for the benefit of Congress, and the several Executive Departments, the latt-r would fall in debt to the former, after deduct¬ ing the salaries and expenses paid to the Gen¬ eral Post Office in this city, several hundred thousand dollars per an mm. How, then, can if be said that the Department does not support itself? The Senator has quoted the Edinburgh Re¬ view and the words of British Lords and Com¬ mons, to prove that the British tax on news- if papers is preferable to the postage on news papers in the United States. There is ahout the same analogy between the two cases as the Committee will have discharged their duty it they say that their bill, without the amendment, is as much as the Department for the next year can bear without the most se¬ rious inconvenience. But the Senator from Delaware [Mr. Clay- ton] says, the Department has not sustained itself since Major Barry came into office, the salaries of the officers and clerks and contin¬ gent expenses of the Department in this city oeing paid directly from the Treasury. And s this a new arrangement made by the pre¬ sent administration? The salaries of these >fficers have always been paid from the pub¬ ic treasury. Yet let me tell the Senator hat the Department has more than supported tself. The amount of postages on free letters or public officers and for both Houses of Con¬ gress would much exceed all the money taken rom the Treasury in aid of the Post Office )epartment. On enquiry at the Department, I find the lumber of free letters delivered at the Post )ffice in this city alone, during the quarter r ear ending April 1, 1832, was 169,428. These etters, if charged with postage, might be sup losed to - there is between a despotic and a free go¬ vernment. The British newspaper stamp is a tax outright, exceeding, in amount, as two to one the whole expense of editors, printers, and paper-makers; and the simple duty paid on a British newspaper advertisement to the government, is probably three times as much as the whole expense of advertising in this country. The postage on newspapers in the United States, strictly speaking, is not a tax; it is a value received, ai d that only in part, lor a value bestowed. Under the British system of newspaper taxation but few of the common people are able to read a newspaper—fewer still to take and pay for them. A newspaper in Great Britain is let out to readers, when first published, at a higher price, diminishing as it becomes more stale; so that the poor man, if he be able to read at all, must get his news several days after the more wealthy obtain theirs. I have somewhere seen it stated recentlv, that two daily newspapers, in the city of New York, had a greater number of advertisements than the whole newspaper press of Great Britain; and probably more newspapers are annuallv published in the State of New York, than in the whole of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. W e are told that there are shackles on the press, and that this amendment is necessary to relieve it. How the abolishing of newspaper postage will relieve us from this difficulty I am at a loss to conceive. It is true that the newspaper press in this country has been shackled as long as I can remember. In Mr, Jefferson’s time, the opposition, the aristocra¬ cy, had at least two to one the advantage of . o' o- r the newspaper press; and they have kept that average 15 cents each, and wouldladvantage up to the present time: they have 5 as much as that advantage at this time in this city, and in all the cities of the United States. It was the merest chance in the world that the people’s Chief Magistrate, elected to office by an electoral vote of two to one, has a solitary press (the Globe) at the seat of Government, so unshackled as to dare publish the truth when it shall make in his favor. The patronage bestowed by Congress* om either of the two presses in this District, which djnot support the administration, (Te¬ legraph and Intelligencer,) is greater '.iiy, mount than the expenses of the entire* H’4if list of the State of New Hampshire, apd, much greater than all the patronage bestowed by the a (ministration on all the newspapers (including the editors whp have been appoint¬ ed to office,) which now support the re-elec¬ tion of the President. I thank the Senator for mentioning the printer in Kentucky, who is charged with having sent out before the State election some bushels of electioneering communications, be¬ sides receiving from Major Barry some 12,- 000 a year. The Senator’s informant was probably under some slight delusion—his dis- vistorted ion had very likely mistaken the in- mocent bundles of post office blanks sent in the mail, for a counterpart to the horrid mur¬ der of the six militia men. The Kentucky printer is more fortunate than any printer who has stood fast to his in¬ tegrity within my know ledge : he receives $12,000 a year, according to the statement of the Senator: for what? For furnishing the post offices of all the Western States with wrapping paper, twine, and printed blanks, at a given price not beyond their worth. Why not procure some man w ho is not a printer to furnish these? At least, why not give the business in the first instance to some worthy opposition man, so if he was obliged to em¬ ploy a printer to do it, he might farm it out and compel the poor man to do.it for less than it was worth? Had this Mr. Shadrach Penn printed a newspaper on the other side, and received twice the amount he now re¬ ceives, rely on it, his case would not have been brought into this Senate in any discus¬ sion on a bill for establishing new post roads in the United States. In the six eastern States, at least four out of five of the contractors under the Post Office Department are not the friends of the present administration: some of these receive annu¬ ally from the Department, from five to ten and fifteen thousand dollars each. The con¬ tracts of these gentlemen will expire with the present year : having faithfully performed their obligations, not one of them will fare at all the worse in making new contracts, because he happens to belong to the party which does not support the administration. The Senator says, in the Southern contracts lately taken out, there were many instances in which the lowest bids were not accepted. The practice of the Department has invariably been, to protect those who already had pro- \ pctdy-onvhpMitail route; if other persons step¬ ped m, ,fdr the purpose of reducing the bid much below the actual cost, they were requir- ‘ed*to*pfii$ftas£5the5 property at a fair price, or lVjse theii* bid.. ' -The public advertisements have generally stated this as a condition. Such ^asT^o-iny^pia^le practice, for years anterior to-the present’administration; and it is to be presumed that cases of this kind were those of which the Senator complains. Precedent and law authorize the Postmaster General to exercise a sound discretion in making the Post* Office contracts. That the contracts made by the present incumbent have been ju¬ diciously made, is proved by the eminent suc¬ cess which has attended all the operations of the Department. If, as the Senator says, there has been “ looseness in the management of the whole machinery of the Department,” Major Barry has been more fortunate than has been any other man of my acquaintance: for what machine, as extended and as complex as this, ever continued to operate with unabated and even with renewed vigor, where there was looseness or laxity of management? It is scarcely one year since this Depart¬ ment was pronounced to be bankrupt—it was not only charged with improvidence, and profli¬ gacy, and waste, but its enemies averred that it could not longer proceed without throwing itself on the public treasury. Will gentle¬ men admit that this charge was not true?— And must they not admit it, if they now vote for a proposition which will the very next year impose on it an extra expense of at least two hundred thousand dollars, and a virtual additional burden of half a million? Haifa million of dollars taken from the means of the Department may, in one year, accomplish the predictions of its enemies—it may so em¬ barrass its operations as to stop one half of the mails in the country. But it cannot be the design of the mover of the amendment to produce such a disastrous result. It has been said that the Post Office De¬ partment exercises an undue influence over the newspaper press, and that it is wrong to appoint printers and editors to be Postmas¬ ters. I cannot agree with the gentleman. I believe there nevei has been an administra¬ tion under which printers and editors have not been Postmasters. During the late a 6 ’ministration, the President interfered direct¬ ly to give the most lucrative Post Office in the State of Maine to an editor of one of the warmest partisan presses of the country. I believe the rule of the present administration to be, that when a printer or editor is ap¬ pointed to a Post Office where the duties are sufficient to require his whole attention and the compensation exceeds one thousand del lars—such an office as requires the President to act in the appointment—it is made a condi¬ tion that he shall not continue to 'purSne hi> profession of printer or editor. There is no more reason why a printer should not be a post master, than there iithat any lawyer or physician should be excluded from the same office. Benjamin Franklin while he printed a newspaper, was fora long time post-master at Philadelphia,* and this, while the possession of the office gave him an advantage over other printers of newspaper* in that city. The office of post-master will give any professional man privileges and fa¬ cilities for acquaintance and business beyond those of his neighbors. The number of post- offices in the United States is comparatively few in which the labor of 'he post-master is not greater than the compensation, without some other advantage. The printer of a vil¬ lage newspaper is often in the best situation to be the post-master; and with a compensation of one, two or three hundred dollars a year for labors in the office day and night, we must suppose the man to be very prone to wick¬ edness to be corrupted or improperly influen¬ ced by the possession of such an office. It has been a standing subject of complaint that printers and editors have been appointed tu office under the present ad ministation. The opposition have really given to that class of men a consideration to which they were not entitled. They are no worse, and proba¬ bly no better than any other class of men: some there are, certainly, who take upon themselves the duties of temporary editors of newspapers who work for pay, and who are ready to take up on any side for a quia pro quo. These are generally from another pro- jession , which ought to be the last to com¬ plain that too many offices are filled by prin¬ ters and editors. The talents of a good law yer are conceded to be necessary to fill a ju¬ dicial office acceptably: a moderate propor¬ tion of lawyers will do very well in our legis¬ lative bodies, although it must be confessed that a preponderating majority often tax the patience and the purse of the people, bv discussions which seem to them interminable. But it is not easy for common people to dis¬ cern why an educated lawyer should make a better post-master, a better weigher and gua- ger, or a better officer or contractor of any sort, than any other well educated and intei- ligent man. The proportion of applicants tor office, both for executive and popular ap¬ pointment, are as four lawyers to one of any other profession. This is ail natural and pro¬ per—they are probably better qualified and better adapted to fill public iffices ; but if any profession is to be singled out as an <>b- jedt for public comment, let those have the credit or blame where credit or blame is best deserved. The Senator from Connecticut is either Wrong, or I am, when he says the war-rates of fetter postage have been continu id. The war- rates were fifty per cent, -advance of the pre¬ sent rates. The letter postage < ught to be reduced before the newspaper postage shall Ite touched. The moment the receipt -, of the Department will authorize it, I would renuce the letter postage at le. st twenty-five per cent. The experiment, I think, would not, in the end. much induce the revenue, because the increase of business, after the first year, consequent on the lower rate, would, very likely, be equal to the amount of reduction. For the first year, the falling off would be - nearly equal to the rate of the reduction ; and " therefore, the Department cannot now bear it in addition to the increased expense of the new routes proposed in the bill. The newspaper postage is said to be a se¬ vere and unjust tax on literature. Pamphlet postage is higher pro rata than newspaper postage. Why not repeal that also ? Nay, Sir, to carry the principle out, why not enact that printed books of every description shall p: ss free in the mail ? Such a rule would not give the book-dealers in the large cities a greater advantage over tl e small dealers in the country, than will the abolition of postage on newspapers give U the mammnt» newspa¬ pers of the Large towns over the village news¬ papers. ° At a proper lime, both newspaper and let¬ ter postage tnav be reduced : never ought ei¬ ther to be abolished entirely. Relying en¬ tirely on the receipts of the Department to support itself, no reduction ought to be made the present year. But if the prosperous bu¬ siness of the country shall continue, and the receipt' of the )epartmei t shall continue to ixceed its expenses, let the postage on letters be reduced twenty-five per centum. This may be done, and the amount of letters will increase, without embarrassing the burdens of mail transportation. Afterwards, if the redundant receipts shall continue, let news¬ paper postage be reduced to one half cent each, within one hundred miles, or within the limits of a State, and to one cent each, be¬ yond that distance; and let, likewise, the postage on pamphlets and printed sheets be reduced in the same ratio with newspapers. For the Senator from Maine, [Mr. Holmes,] Mi. President, 1 entertain all that respect and sympathy which are due to men in his condition. Every thing is wrong with him under this administration. Jostled out of his position as he was some seven years ago, by that blazing meteor which has sometimes ap¬ peared in our political hemisphere, to warn us of our dangers, and with unerring aim to point.out the true from the counterfeit— [Mr. Hill was here interrupted by the Chairman, [Mr. Foote,] who said he could not be permitted to proceed, his remarks be¬ ing personal. After a short pause, Mr. II. did proceed as follows:] The suppositions of the Senator from Mfiine about the abuse of the franking privilege, and the nine thousand Postmasters—about this franking privilege prostrating the liberties of lie people in the dust—about the enormous patronage of the custom house in New York, extended to a newspaper of that city—about Shadrach Penn, the New Hatnpshiie Patriot, Plnd the Boston Morning Post—about the bat¬ tering down of every thing valuable bv this Post Office Department—about die dangers of the Senate, because some newspaper has had t^ie daring presumption to propose that the Senators’ terms of service shall be shortened, and because others have suggested that Sena¬ tors who do not represent the opinions and wishes of their constituents ought to reign— about the assaults of the press on the Judici¬ al y, calling the Judges dotards, and charging them with combining with a cabal of the Sen¬ ate—about Mr. Webb of New York—about the favorite, the beloved minister of the Pre¬ sident rejected by this body, and the denun¬ ciations of the Globe for that rejection—about the presumption of the Senate in refusing to listen to the testimony of a dismissed officer in the Post Office Department—in short, about almost every thing that relates to the people, the administration, or the opposition;—these suppositions having little or nothing to do with the question, I shall leave to be adjusted by the Senator himself when he shall have more leisure to attend to them calmly and dispassionately, as I cannot doubt he will do, after he shall have settled down in the enjoy¬ ment of domestic quiet. As to the merits of f he amendment itself, I will acknowledge the Senator has discovered all his usual ingenuity in demonstrating them; but if I had not at the moment written it down, the whole force of his reasoning would have escaped in the mist which he afterwards raised. That part of his speech which was a writ¬ ten calculation of what, by possibility, might be at the disposal of the Department on the 1st of July next—if it were true—might fur¬ nish a good reason to reduce the postage on either letters, newspapers, or pamphlets, or all of them. I think he made his calculation to exceed half a million of dollars. This cal¬ culation was predicated on the fact, that in the first six months of the year 1831, the rev¬ enue exceeded the expense of the Department in the sum of $75 ,■475 91. But it should be recollected that in the six previous months the revenue had fallen short £>13.223 73; and that for the three previous years it was minus from 25,000 up to §82,000 in a year. I have before said that the principle of the Department always has been—not to obtain a surplus revenue-T—but to increase the facilities of the public mail—to increase the trips and the speed on the more important routes—to extend new routes, which the head of the De¬ partment was authorized by law to do be¬ tween the seats of justice of the several coun¬ ties in the new States—to procure the mail carried in steam boats between considerable places. 1 well know that these improvements and facilities have been extended, up to the present moment, so far as the Department deemed it prudent to goi There has been no time in which the Department has not been pressed to go beyond its ability. The late Post Master General acknowledged, be¬ fore he left his office, that he had made extensions whose expenses would overreach the receipts. In 1827-8, and for the three subsequent years the expenditures were be¬ yond the receipts: this may be accounted for from the fact that in the year 1827, the last bill for establishing new post roads was pass¬ ed. The bill of 1827 did not cover halt the extent of the bill now proposed; yet that bill the first year, having been in operation only six months of the term, reduced the revenue within the expenditures §25.000—the next year to §74,000—the year after to §82,000, its maximum, in consequece of the increased facilities given in the contracts of 1828; and was not restored until the year ending July 1, 1831, to an amount exceeding the expendi¬ tures. For four years subsequent to, and in¬ cluding 1820, there had been a deficiency each vear of from §26,000 to §125,000—from 1824 to 1828 there was a surplus, the lowest year §9,000 and the highest year §80,000. In 1827, this surplus was §55,000. So it will be seen there was as much if not more reason in 1828, when the then new post road law went into effect, to anticipate * surplus iumi as there now is. Indeed this surplus fund, which has always consisted of uncollected balances due to the Department from postmasters who have failed to pay over, was formerly much larger than it now is. Postmasters were not formerly required to pay over as promptly as they now are, and a much larger proportionate amount was lost to the public. It is now deemed a good, yea an imperious cause for removal, if a postmaster fails to pay over his dues quar¬ terly. The deliciencies which have occurred in seven years since 1820, have been made up from this surplus fund. At no time during that period has the Post Office Department been in possession of funds beyond what was neces¬ sary for carrying on its extended business: it does not possess them at this time; and will you now force it, in addition to a burden of new post roads to double the amount of what was ever at any one time imposed, to encoun¬ ter the transport of paper equal to one half of the whole manufacture of the United States, to be delivered out in single printed sheets in the most distant parts of the country? Without a heavy appropriation directly from the Treasury, the Department must break down—it cannot sustain itself six months un¬ der the proposed arrangement. The mistake of gentlemen on this subject is, that they consider the postage of newspa¬ pers in the light of a tax. If it be a tax, it is a tax on the public for the benefit of the person who receives it. It can be demonstrated that Ahe cost for carrying and delivering newspa¬ pers, is greater to the Department than the pay it receives. It will be in time to answer the argument of taxation, oppression, injus¬ tice, when this newspaper postage is proved to be taxation and injustice, as the people so consider them. The Senator has mentioned the great privileges which the newspapers have in New York, and in the other cities and considerable towns, beyond the newspa¬ pers of the villages. I question very much whether a cost, equal to the amount of post¬ age by mail, is not paid in the city of New York for the carriage and delivery ofnewspa- papers, printed within that city, to the people of the same city. Thirty thousand dollars, the sum estimated by the Senator, does not pay the numerous paper carriers of that city, a number of whom must be employed by each daily newspaper press. The Post Office De¬ partment, on the principle of this amendment, should pay these newspaper carriers. The Senator says, that to promote a saluta¬ ry and healthy public sentiment, the newspa¬ pers of one State should be introduced into another State on equal terms with its own pa¬ pers—that there cannot be equal ity if the post- tage on newspapers shall not be abolished.— There surely cannot be equality in such an ar¬ rangement: in the one case, the printer may have his materials at hand, and will pay no transport to the point of destination—in the other, should not the printer have his ink and his paper carried over the same ground, at the expense of the Post Office Department? If the Postmaster at some country village is obliged to preserve and deliver out to subscribers the newspapers printed in other States without fee,ought he not to be required to superintend, without fee, the newspapers printed in his own village? But, says the Senator, the franking privilege is exclusively in the hands of the party in power, and an important election is at hand. I am sorry to see party feelings appealed to on such a question as this. 1 cannot believe that any party will derive a permanent benefit from the adoption of this amendment. The Senator admits that while congress is in ses¬ sion the parties at this point are equal as to the advantages of the franking privilege.— During the present session, I am free to ac¬ knowledge that the party to which the gen -1 tleman belongs have been much more indus¬ trious than the ? other side. Our folding rooms have presented abundant proof of this fact. Members of Congress do far more at this bu¬ siness of franking than any of the officers of the Departments. I have myself franked mere papers and documents in one week since the commencement of the present session, than I did during fifteen months in which I did the duties of Second Comptroller in the Treasury Department. There can be no object in franking the papers from the district by the public officers: to obtain the frank, these papers must go at least one day later than they would go from their offices of pub¬ lication. Few indeed are the newspapers franked either by the officers of the govern¬ ment in the Departments or by post-masters: they cannot afford to pay for more papers than they read; and seldom is a newspaper seen in the mail bearing their frank. It is much more natural for members of Congress to supply their friends during the session— they know their constituents will be gratified as well for the attention that is paid them, as for the information they will obtain relative to what concerns their interests. In this re¬ spect, I am glad that the Senator acknow¬ ledges the parties, the administration and the minority, to stand on equal ground. If it shall be the intention to throw this 9 Department on the public treasury to the amount of half a million or a million of dollars per annum, for the sake of protecting the large newspaper establishments and injur¬ ing the small ones—for the sake of flooding the country with newspapers printed in this district to affect the Presidential election;— I trust that honorable Senators will weigh well the consequences of such a step before they proceed. It will be fatal to the wholesome in¬ crease and growth of the Department. It will be an unjust tax upon the whole community for the benefit of the political trader and spec¬ ulator; for by what right can you tax the peo¬ ple for the carriage of newspapers any more than you can tax them for the carriage of any other commodity used and consumed by any particlar class? Once permit the Post Office Department* to place its reliance on the com¬ mon Treasury, arid well may we become alarmed at the dangers of Post Office influ¬ ence. There will no longer be an induce¬ ment to husband the resources of that estab¬ lishment: there will be no necessity for re¬ stricting the expenses to the amount of the ac¬ tual income—the scramble will be, not who can best serve the public, but who can get the most money ? The means of corruption will be unbounded : the Department itself will falter, like the bloated epicure, from the free use of the food that is placed before it. The temptation will be too great to be resisted. If the principle of supporting this Depart¬ ment from the public treasury he adopted, there will he no bound to the expense; and its inefficiency will increase as the expense shall be increased. I have, Sir, detained the Senate longer than I could have wished. I would not have spo¬ ken at ail, had I not felt it to be a duty, as one of a Committee which has bestowed much la¬ bor on this bill, to resktan amendment which will compel me to vote against the whole, if; this shall be adopted as a part of the bill. I; am myself convinced, That the present newspaper postage is not a full remuneration for the expenses of carry¬ ing and delivering them. That, to abolish this postage entirely will impose a burden on the Post Office Department which cannot be borne without an equivalent from the Treasury. That payment from the Treasury will be an unjust and unequal tax upon all persons who do not receive their newspapers through the mail. That the effect of abolishing newspaper postage will be the destruction and injury of the small newspaper establishments through¬ out the interior of the country. That it will enable wealthy and designing men, and associations of men, to monopolize the newspaper press of the United States. That the expense of transporting the mails will be greatly increased; and if letter mails shall not be entirely separated from newspa¬ per mails,confusion and delay will take place in the transmission of. letters. That postmasters will demand and be en¬ titled to an equivalent amounting to at least one half the present postage, for which no provision is made by law. That the proposition is an interference with the private business and industry of indivi¬ duals, calculated to promote the benefit of the few at the expense of the many. That it will make the routes in the newly settled parts of the country, and indeed in the long settled parts where the population is scattered, so unproductive as to compel the Post Master General to discontinue many n or the laws that privileged classes designated. The Senator from Maine avowed his object to be that I should be silenced, and that I must expect to be lacerated and whipped into silence. Does he know the kind of man he is dealing with ? Does he know that what man dare do for the public welfare, the man n »y him assailed dare? Does he Unowtha.Senat^Sh.^Ibep^. as other Sena- torsare STf™ mfown method of deliver- in- my sentiments to this Senate, I shall not desist from attempting to present my view on every occasion when it may be ne cessary to explain my motives of action to the people I represent. I will not, howe\- man h'as^iever quailed under the assaults of uemeu inm -- er doas Oiners uu, saj p Senate, if they hear me at all; to1 ' , y a ,ul be compelled to lay afterwards per- I might repeat stale jokes and jibes, U_l_hadpeog Mr. President, was not to retort on the Senators from Delaware a..d 1 might repeat stale jokes and jibes ever learnt them, and edify a crowd of young men or ladies, who relished and admired such and iibes. I might exhaust toe vocabu- lary of billingsgate, and display all the talent of the vulgar, drunken blackguard, if I had ever studied his language, and made it a mo¬ del for my imitation. The Senate had muc.1 better bear with me in a concise argumen , such as 1 can most conveniently Fesent to them, than take me as a pugilist 01 gladia¬ tor in a different field. Maine, language in,kind, Humble as I am, L would not do it if I could; and my associa t ions in life have not been of that pokshed cast as to enable me to doitif I would. Thebandy- of epithets, the reproaches for being what God and nature have made us, never was and never shall be, in any legislative body, any nart of my business. Both of the Senators have done me in- iustice when they impute to me an unprovok J \ . a _ + vaivaffacainn of the laW, t< r in a umeieut utm,. . f ^ - + . ; llC hpp when they impute w me «« I do not, Mr. President deviate from tojustaewl „ t { ie profession of the law, to .iiomonfarv nractice. There is a rule 01 ed ftpnatnr irom Maine tfffitC^b.; shall speak more than twice, in any one debate, on the »ame day, without leave of the Senate. How of wh"ofession the Senator Irom Maine claims to be an ornament-“a burning and a shining light.” I spoke of that profession nay, wiuium ‘“w — --. . . ,, Yet hn terms of'respect; Ware many gentle rr u ;;S th^s “ £$? -srsiS objection,it»«»« “„*i;"® ont that‘ ‘no in this body; that they commenced the onset in this debate. I repelled that onset by say- ruie era - 1 to-mg that there were men of another profession the Senate is: “No member shall speak to ing g t0 censuie (if censure was due another, or otherwise interrupt thebusinessolla b^. ^ ^ pr - mters and editors of the Senate, or read any printed P a P „r newspapers. For stating what was tact, the journals or public papers are reading, orlne ^p p f or ty-eight gentlemen are ap wheii any member is speaking in any L^'aleifto, 6 that Jey maylrise in judgi aTile'ofthe"British Parliament that.“no one is to speak impertinently or beside the^ ques¬ tion, superfluously or tediously. Is that rule ever transgressed here? Another rule of the Senate is: “No member shaiy speak to Is that" rule ever violate3? I knovv of no rule which precludes a member from writing down what he is going to say; but 1 do know, if some speakers had written down all they did sav, and that writing were pub¬ lished, the world might he astonished. In some of the first parliamentary bodies of the world, speeches are written out and read as they are written. 1 have seen myself one of the most eminent lawyers read Ins argu¬ ment in a case requiring precision. In the French Chamber of Deputies, I am told bv those who have attended there, a lai ger p. of the speeches are read from the rostrum - The speeches of that great and exalted man Lafayette—speeches which are translated m_ to our language, and admired on this side of the Atlantic—are thus delivered. Shall it be said, under despotic France, there was a r t ___iin Kor lpcnftlatlVC USSCITI pealed to, that they may arise in judgment a« from Delaware, that if he charges me as being said, under despotic F ^ an ^®’ • t ’?a[w™assem- one of a firm in the State of New Hampshire. printing for tiie Post Office Department, $3000 per annum, the charge is not true. J do not now, I never did belong to any firm, that ever had a contract of the kind. Not is there, to my knowledge, any firm in that State that ever has received to the amount of one thousand dollars on any such contract. Further I will say, that if he charges on me the removal of fifty Postmasters in New Hampshire, that is also equally untrue. The changes that have been made in New Hamp¬ shire, were made in consequence of petitions that were presented by the citizens interest¬ ed—the 1 ‘ ’ ** and sufficient cause; and a vast majority of the people of that State sustain the adminis¬ tration which made those changes. Further—if the Senator intended to sav that I am a contractor under the Post Office De¬ partment for any amount, this is not true. I have been concerned in no mail contract since the commencement of the present administra¬ tion. Further still—if the Senator intended to say that any connexion of mine, by birth or marriage, has been placed in any office by the present ac ministration, on my petition or re¬ quest, made either to the President or any head of a Department, this also is not true. If I am correctly informed, one of the gen¬ tlemen named as a connexion of mine, and the fearful responsibility of whose appoint¬ ment is thrown upon me, received that ap¬ pointment through the especial interference of the Senator from Maine, during the ad¬ ministration of Mr. Monroe; and of this I be¬ lieve the papers at the Treasury would fur¬ nish evidence. The Senator from Maine, as if the word of one were not sufficient, has also reiterated these and other allegations. He described a person as having had for years mail contracts If the Senator from Maine intended .the Senate to understand that I ever callee on the President of the United States, to ask limn either for the office which he tendered me, or any other office, or to remove any officeil that I might fill his place, that also is untrue. the concerns ol an individual, I am well aware, ought not here to be introduced. Bu since, without provocation, my motives ii [supporting this bill as it Is, have been im- peached, my integrity questioned, my goo( name blackened and defamed, I feel bound t( ffiicienT 6 , made ’ a ! 1 beli « ve ’ good made’, accusation's wffich Imve^eitheT trail, fficient cause; and a vast majority of nor the semblance of truth for their founda- tion. The Senator from Maine, since the com¬ mencement of the present session, has read to the Senate many extracts from newspa¬ pers. He will permit me to read a few lines: they are from a newspaper printed in his own county. The article I would read was point¬ ed out to him the other day. as he passed mv 'seat, and he said it was “right; meaning I presume, that the Editor of the paper [the Sa- co Democrat] had truly represented the case. Here it is: “ VVe have frequently had occasion to speak of the extreme modesty of our Senator in Congress, the hon¬ orable John Holmes. This is a quality possessed by lum in an eminent degree, and can be equalled only ( by his admirable consistency. The latest display of: our Senator’s modesty is to be found in a letter of his, written under a Washi igton date of Feb. 4. In alluding to his reply to a speech of Mr. Hill, our modest Senator says: ‘‘After Mr. Hill had finished reading his piece y “which cost the Senate near three hours of their “time, Mr. Holmes rose and in less than 10 minutes “gave the fellow such a scourging as he never had j “before. Upham’s chastisement was a flea bite ‘to it. ‘As Mr. Holmes was very deliberately administer- ‘insr the chastisement, a Senator turned to Mr. fn fK V P, J ear5 , maU contracts “ing the chastisement, a Senator turned to Mr to the amount of thirty thousand dollars annu- “Dickerson—-‘Governor,’ said he, ‘is this shaving or ally, as being a contractor for a large section “skinning?' Dickerson replied, ‘by the Lord, it is of country, and as having farmed out the con- tracts to the disadvantage and injury of those who performed the labor. If lie intended me by Ins description, I must say that the state¬ ment is as void of truth as was the statement and charges against the Post Office Depart¬ ment, read from the newspaper printed in the State of Maine, since the commencement of this debate. For the eighteen years that I was a contractor under the administrations of Mr. Madison, Mr. Monroe, and Mr. Ad¬ ams, those contracts, according to the best of my recollection, never exceeded in amount in any one year the sum of three thousand dol¬ lars; and on these contracts I never received as my commission for risque and responsibil¬ ity exceeding five per cent. Since January 1, 1829,1 have bee* interested in no contract. ‘ skinning . What a great pity it is that Mr. Holmes cannot procure some competent person to blow the tfumpet for him. How awfully Mr. Hill must have felt when Mr. Holmes was ‘putting it on.’ How very strange that ‘not a creature present entertained the least sympathy for him.’ ” If the Senator calls his former attempt skinning , what will lie denominate his last attack? Is it any thing less than assault and battery, with intent to murder? I will assure the gentleman, that in that section of the coun¬ ty where both of us are best known, his war¬ like instruments, his tomahawk and scalping knife, are both pointless and edgeless. His weapons, in that region, like the muskets of Hudibras, “When aimed at duck or plover, Bear wide and kick their owner over.” 3 0112 061619869