The facts, as he always understood them, were, that Mr. Bache bought property at a high price when speculations ran high; property fell, and left him minus, and his sureties also. The public moneys in his hands were applied to his relief by himself; new payments were obtained from him, by means of his friends, on promise of keeping him in office; new sureties were required: a check was endeavored to be placed on his cash, so that his salary might be appropriated towards the extinguishment of the debt. Great pains were taken by Mr. Meigs and Judge McLean, not to say by witness also, to recover the debt; but all were unavailing. He was kept in office in the hope that, by these means, the deficit would be efficiently paid off; that is, from proper motives; and, as soon as all hope of the accomplishment ceased, he was removed. It was one of those unavoidable occurrences, in his opinion, against which human prudence could not guard or remedy; and that both of those Postmasters General were entitled to much credit for their great exertions on the occasion. Mr. Bradley wishes to stop evidence and make a statement. He says, by permission of chairman, he has looked into document marked A, referred to committee, and finds cases where he is stated to have made extra allowances when he did not make them at all. Ordered to send for document. Question by Mr. Grundy. Were any of Mr. Bache's sureties released? Answer. Not to my recollection. Question by same. By what means did Bache's defalcation of $22,000 happen in the Department, without being noticed at an earlier period? Answer. It did not happen, but it was always noticed; and, when first noticed, as it was every quarter when it happened, (for he frequently paid up,) he was called on to make it up; and he did make it up, or nearly so, on being pressed, and then would fall in arrear again in a few quarters, and was then pressed again; and thus the affair progressed, till finally his endorsers, as we understood, refused to renew his notes, and the public became the loser. Question by same. Was not William A. Bradley, a son of Doctor Bradley, a partner in the Mobile contract? Answer. He was interested, in some way, in that and other contracts, (three, I believe,) by being a member of the companies who took the contracts; but he was not named in the contracts. Question by same. At the time the Mobile and New Orleans contract was made, was not Doctor Bradley, the father, at the head of the bureau or office for making mail contracts? Answer. He was. Question by same. Did he not advise that contract to be made? Answer. I was not present, and cannot say, except that he told me he informed the Postmaster General that the price was too much. Previous to making that contract, several gentlemen proposed for $30,000 a year, and the Postmaster General had partly agreed to it; and I, with great difficulty, persuaded him to annul the engagement, and advertise for other bidders, which he did. In doing this, I had occasion to show that the mail was then carried for $6,000 per year, and that the receipts of the office at New Orleans did not pay for the transportation to that city. The new contract was to be carried in steamboats; it was previously carried in other boats: and the new contract was nearly a day improved in speed. Question by same. How much money was left by you in the iron chest? Answer. I do not know. Question by same. Did you leave any account of the sums in the said chest when you quit the office? and, if so, in what books? Answer. I suppose an estimate might be made of the moneys there, by taking up several books, viz: the check book, the receiver's receiving book and cash book, and the various bank books. Question by same. Is there not now retained in the General Post Office a brother-in-law of Mr. Agg, the editor of the National Journal? Answer. He was there the last time I heard from thence, and I suppose he is still there. He is one of the five gentlemen whom I supposed was of no party, or did not meddle with politics. Received a letter from Mr. Test, of the House of Representatives, of this date, on the subject of contracts in Indiana, to which the attention of the committee has been invited. Put on file. Voted, Messrs. Holmes and Grundy be a sub-committee to examine Post Office books about contracts. The committee met. FEBRUARY 28. Mr. Bradley continued: There are in the Postmaster General's return to Mr. Burnet's resolution, as I find, forty-nine cases of extra allowances to contractors marked down as made by me, as Assistant or acting Postmaster General. In thirty-six of these cases there has been an erasure, and my name has been inserted. I cannot recollect that I made the allowance in one of those thirty-six cases. In the cases of Harrell, of Reeside, and of Mallett, with others, I know I did not make the allowance. The case of Harrell is mentioned in my letter to the President. I went with the sub-committee to the Post Office, and found there, by the books and papers, that the time in the case of Harrell, which is stated on the return to be 2 hours, was but 1 hour. He was to carry the mail in that case 1 hour sooner, and the return says it was to be done 2 hours sooner. The extra and additional allowance was $1,992 50 per annum, mail to go from Georgetown to Charleston, South Carolina. The original contract was for $6,000; the extra allowance increased it to $7,992 50. From the return to Mr. Burnet's resolution you cannot form any opinion, in three-fourths of the cases I have looked at, of the propriety of the charges, because the return does not contain the facts inquired of as to the additional services. I have not examined more than half the cases, and those hastily. The book will show for itself. Question by Mr. Woodbury. Is the computation of allowance right or wrong in the Charleston case? Answer. It is wrong, certainly. It should be and half of of $6,000. The allowance was $1,992 50; and, according to law, it should have been only $375. That difference in the sum is not produced by the mistake named above, of 14 hour for 2 hours, but by some other cause. In the case of the Baltimore and Washington contract, the original contract was to carry the mail through in 5 hours, for $1,800. The extra compensation was $3,200; the allowance should be only one-tenth. NOTE. Here, for want of time, the committee could not proceed further with Mr. Bradley's evidence. MARCH 1. Committee met: Mr. Hendricks absent on Committee on Roads and Canals. The chairman laid before the committee the communication of the Hon. John McLean, received since the last adjournment; which was read and examined. No information having been yet furnished by the Postmaster General, in reply to the interrogatories in the letters of the 24th of December and the 18th January last, and the session being about to terminate on the day after to-morrow, the impossibility of reporting on the information when it shall be furnished was considered; and it seemed to be by all believed that a report, investigating the affairs of the Department, would be at this session impracticable. The following resolutions, offered by Mr. Clayton, were considered and adopted: Resolved, That the Postmaster General be requested to furnish the committee with full copies of the letter of John McLean, of March 31, 1829, and of Abraham Bradley, relative to the Poughkeepsie office, from which extracts, furnished from the Department, have been made and laid before the committee. Resolved, That the Hon. John McLean be requested to state whether Abrahain Bradley, while Assistant Postmaster General, made any (and what) allowances to contractors; and whether, in his estimate in his last report, the balance due from Bache, the postmaster at Philadelphia, and the counterfeit and uncurrent money in the Department, were considered as available funds, or as lost. After debate, adjourned. MARCH 2. The committee met. Mr. Bradley, the witness, attended. Question by Mr. Woodbury. Were not the extra clerks employed by Mr. Barry, while you were in the office under him, employed in necessary writing in the office? Answer. Generally so: there might have been exceptions. Question by Mr. Woodbury. Did not the business of the office increase so as to require additional clerks, either permanent or extra, as often as every six months? Answer. Every year, or oftener. Here, for want of time, it became impossible to proceed with Mr. Bradley's evidence; so his deposition was left unfinished. The chairman offered a report to the committee, which was rejected: Yeas, Messrs. Clayton and Holmes; nays, Messrs. Grundy, Woodbury, and Hendricks. After debate, adjourned. 21st CONGRESS.] No. 110. [2d SESSION. REMONSTRANCE AGAINST CERTAIN MISSTATEMENTS CONTAINED IN THE REPORT WHICH THE POSTMASTER GENERAL MADE TO THE SENATE, ON THE 7TH FEBRUARY, 1831, IN RELATION TO EXTRA ALLOWANCES MADE TO CONTRACTORS. COMMUNICATED to the SENATE, MARCH 3, 1831. To the honorable the Senate of the United States: The memorial of Abraham Bradley, late Assistant Postmaster General, most respectfully represents: That, after his removal from office, he, as is well known to the Senate, presented to the President of the United States a letter, in which, among other things, he stated that Mr. Barry, the present Postmaster General, had made an extra allowance to a Mr. Harrell, a mail contractor, and to others, as this memorialist conceived, without warrant of law. A copy of this letter having been called for, it was presented by this memorialist to the present select committee of the Senate on the Post Office Department. During the last session of Congress a call was made on that Department, at the instance of one of the Senators from Ohio, for information relative to the extra allowances which had been made to mail contractors. The response of the Department to that call was submitted to the view of this memorialist, as containing matters in which he was deeply concerned. Upon examining it, to ascertain if his recollection of Harrell's case was correct, he was immeasurably astonished to find that the extra allowance was there charged to have been made by him, acting as Postmaster General. It was evident that the document had been originally different; that an erasure had been made, and the name of this memorialist inserted. Induced by this to examine further, he found that forty-nine cases of extra allowance were in that document charged to have been made by him; thirty-six of these were similar to the case of Harrell. The original document had been mutilated, and the name of A. Bradley, acting as Postmaster General, carefully inserted. Your memorialist called the attention of the committee to these circumstances as evidence of an attempt to impeach his testimony, and to load his official conduct with opprobrium, being public documentary proof from the books of the Department that he had squandered the public funds during the few days he had acted as Postmaster General, between the 10th of March, when Mr. McLean left the office, and the 5th of April, when Mr. Barry came into it; and that, in order to screen himself, he had charged these things upon the latter gentleman. The committee kindly authorized a sub-committee to accompany this memorialist to the Department yesterday, the 28th instant, to ascertain whether his statements were correct. Your memorialist confidently appeals to those gentlemen in support of the fact, that it satisfactorily appeared to them that in this case of Harrell, as well as in every other case but one, in which an erasure had been made, Mr. Barry was originally and properly charged; and that it was then asserted that these erasures had been made by mistake, and his name inserted by mistake. The gentlemen had not time to pursue this inquiry, and no examination was made into those cases originally charged to your memorialist. In whatever manner these mutilations of the original document may have occurred, and these false amendments to it made, by mistake or not, the effect must be, if it go to the world, to injure, if not to destroy, a reputation upon which your memorialist, after nearly forty years of public service, must mainly rely for support. The Senate has, as he has been informed, directed this report to be printed. If this should be done, and it should, with all its falsehood and injurious tendency be spread before the people, under the sanction of the Senate of the United States, your memorialist submits that great injustice must necessarily follow to him. He therefore prays that such order may be taken by the Senate as will secure his rights, and especially preserve the reputation which documents published by the authority of the Senate should always possess. And your memorialist, as in duty bound, &c. MARCH 1, 1831. ABRAHAM BRADLEY. 22d CONGRESS.] No. 111. [1st SESSION. SIR: CONDITION OF THE POST OFFICE DEPARTMENT. Post Office Department, November 28, 1831. For transportation of the mail, For incidental expenses, $1.997,811 54 1,935,559 36 $635,028 48 1,252,226 44 48,304 44 Leaving an excess of revenue beyond the expenses of the Department, amounting to Showing a balance in favor of the Department of The surplus of revenue on the 1st of July, 1830, as stated in the report of last year, amounted to Thus the surplus revenue at the disposal of the Department on the 1st of July, 1831, was 62,252 18 563 51 61,688 67 148,724 22 $210,412 89 This surplus, reported as available, and at the disposal of the Department, is founded on a statement in the report of the late Postmaster General, of 1828, and on the assumption that all the postages which have accrued since my first report in 1829 will have been collected. Of the postages returned within that time, it is confidently believed the losses in collection will not amount to one-fourth of one per centum. The whole amount of postages from July 1, 1828, to July 1, 1829, was From July 1, 1829, to July 1, 1830, From July 1, 1830, to July 1, 1831, $1,707,418 42 1,850,583 10 1,997,811 54 The increase of postages within the year ending July 1, 1829, above the amount of the year preceding, was 108,540 47 The increase of the year ending July 1, 1830, above the amount of the year preceding, was For the year preceding July 1, 1830, The expenses of the Department for the year preceding July 1, 1828, exceeded its revenues in the sum of 25,015 80 For the year preceding July 1, 1829, 143,164 68 147,228 44 74,714 15 But for the year preceding July 1, 1831, the revenues of the Department have exceeded its expenditures in the sum of 82,124 85 The favorable terms upon which the contracts were last year made for the transportation of the mail in 62,252 18 75,475 91 13,223 73 The difference in which results constitutes the excess of revenue over disbursement for the year now reported, of 62,252 18 From the 1st July, 1830, to the 1st July, 1831, the transportation of the mail was increased, in stages, Miles a year, 834,450 do. 134,252 Making an annual increase of transportation equal to Miles, 968,702 beyond the amount of any former period. Many routes have also been improved, by substituting stages for horse mails, to the annual amount of do. On the 1st of July, 1831, the annual transportation of the mail was-In stages and steamboats. do. 10,728,348 do. 4,740,344 do. 15,468,692 Making the whole annual transportation equal to Other improvements are also determined on, in which remote parts of the country are immediately interested; among them, are the establishment of a regular steamboat mail on the river Ohio, between Guyandotte, in Virginia, Cincinnati, in Ohio, and Louisville, in Kentucky, to form a daily connexion with the line of post coaches from this place, and from Richmond, in Virginia, to Guyandotte; and the improvement of the route to a daily line between Macon, in Georgia, Mobile, in Alabama, and New Orleans, so as to constitute a daily intercourse between New Orleans and the Atlantic cities; and with a despatch of twelve days between New Orleans and this city. These two improvements are already in a state of progress, and it is expected will soon be in complete operation. The contracts for transporting the mails in the middle division of the Union, comprising the States of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, and Ohio, and the Territory of Michigan, will end with the present year. In renewing the contracts for this division, provision has been made for stage accommodation over 560 miles of post roads, on which the mail had before been carried on horseback, and on which the annual transportation in stages will, from the 1st of January next, amount to 62,365 miles. On 1,803 miles of post roads, where the mail is already carried in stages, the frequency of trips will also be increased to the annual amount of 407,524 miles. By these arrangements an annual increase of stage transportation is secured, from the 1st of January next, of 469,889 miles on that section. The value of these improvements, at the lowest estimate, is as follows: 469,889 miles of stage transportation, at 9 cents per mile, Deduct 62,365 miles of horse transportation superseded by stages, at 4 cents per mile, $42,290 01 2,494 60 Nett value of the improvements, The acceptances for the new contracts, besides the securing of these improvements, are not so great as the amount now paid for the transportation on that division by $51,787 18. The renewal of the contracts, therefore, saves in money to the Department the sum of Which, added to the value of the improvements, effects a saving of 39,795 41 51,787 18 $91,582 59 Other improvements, highly important in their character, are proposed; the decisions on which have been deferred for further consideration. It is, however, anticipated, from the saving which has been effected in renewing the contracts, that the Department will possess the ability to make some further improvements in this division of mail routes. There were, on the 1st of July last, 8,686 post offices. To the plan adopted for their supervision, and the vigilance with which it is observed, together with the system of finance which is strictly adhered to, may be attributed, in no small degree, the increasing prosperity of the Department. I have the honor to be, with high regard, your obedient servant, To the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. W. T. BARRY. 22d CONGRESS.] No. 112. [1st SESSION. INCREASE OF THE PENSION OF A MAIL CARRIER WHO WAS SHOT IN THE CREEK NATION IN 1805. COMMUNICATED TO THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, DECEMBER 28, 1831. Mr. PEARCE, from the Committee on the Post Offices and Post Roads, to whom was referred the petition of Jonah H. Webb for an increase of his pension, reported: That, from the evidence which has been submitted, the committee are satisfied the petitioner is aged and poor; that the wounds he received while employed to carry the mail of the United States from Athens, in Georgia, to New Orleans, rendered him unable to labor, and made him a cripple for life; that he is now in a suffering condition, the present allowance of fifty dollars per annum being insufficient to procure him the necessaries of life. The committee, therefore, ask leave to report a bill to give to said Webb eight dollars per month, the pension of a common soldier when totally disabled by wounds received in the service of his country. 22d CONGRESS.] No. 113. [1st SESSION. SIR: POSTAGE ON NEWSPAPERS AND PERIODICALS. POST OFFICE DEPARTMENT, January 10, 1832. I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter, enclosing the resolution of the House of Representatives relative to "the expediency of abolishing the postage on newspapers and periodicals;" in which you inquire the amount of "nett revenue arising from this source, and the amount of each, separately:" also, my opinion upon the "propriety of adopting this measure, having a due regard to the prosperity of the Department; with any other information which may be useful to the committee in forming a correct opinion on the subject." To the first inquiry, I will observe, that the accounts of postages on newspapers and pamphlets are kept together, without distinguishing one from the other. The commission to postmasters is the same on both; and no occasion has ever arisen for separating them on the books of the Department. The postage on pamphlets which are not periodical is very inconsiderable. The intention of the law appears to have been to discourage their transmission by mail, except in cases where it might be regarded as a matter of considerable interest; and the object is accomplished. The postages on newspapers and pamphlets arise principally on the former, probably more than four-fifths of the whole: the remainder is almost entirely on periodical pamphlets. The gross amount of postage on newspapers and pamphlets for the year ending June 30, 1830, was $196,606 34 223,485 01 $26,878 67 The commission allowed to postmasters on newspapers and pamphlets is 50 per cent. on the gross amount; but, by reserving to the Department the fractions of cents, the nett proceeds are a little more than one-half of the gross amount. The nett proceeds of postage on newspapers and pamphlets for the year ending June 30, 1830, amounted to For the year ending June 30, 1831, to Increase of nett proceeds in one year, $98,513 44 112,111 22 $13,597 78 To the second inquiry, I have the honor to submit the following remarks: The increase of postages on newspapers is in a greater ratio than that on letters; and the increase of postages of every description is in a ratio considerably beyond that of the population and business of the country. This greater ratio of increase has resulted from the greatly increased facilities which have been given to communications by mail. Having perceived, at an early day, the propriety and necessity of making such improvements in some of the leading mail routes as would be calculated to draw every kind of communication, as much as possible, into the mails, and would thus increase the revenue to a greater amount than the increased expenditure required for such improvements, my attention has been constantly directed to this object. The propriety of the course adopted has been justified by the results; the improvements having called for a considerable expense, while they have increased the revenue beyond their cost. But if improvements shall now cease to be made, the ratio of increase of revenue will be necessarily diminished. If the progress of improvement shall continue, the gross amount of postage on newspapers and pamphlets for the year ending the 30th June, 1832, may be fairly estimated at $249,000; and the nett revenue at $125,000. If the postage shall be abolished on newspapers and pamphlets, it will not materially diminish the labor of postmasters; and as their compensation, generally, does not now exceed a fair equivalent for their labor, they would probably solicit an increase of commission on letter postage. Should this be granted, the diminution of the means for carrying on the operations of the Department, and for that progress of improvements which the country demands, would consequently be $249,000, for the first year, with the loss of its progressive increase from year to year. But if the postmasters should be denied an increase of commission to countervail the loss which they will sustain in being deprived of this part of their compensation, then the immediate diminution of nett revenue to the Department would amount to about $125,000 a year. There must also be estimated the increased expense of transporting the mail, incurred by the additional weight which would be given to it in many sections of the country, in becoming the medium for conveying the newspapers which are now transported by other means, and by the greater number of papers which would be distributed, the expense of which could neither be anticipated nor computed. Should the measure be adopted, it would, of necessity, give an immediate check to all further improvement in mail facilities, and require a curtailment of some that are already afforded. And in order to preserve the rapidity and certainty of communication now secured between the large commercial towns, so important to the great interests of the country, it will probably become necessary to provide for separating the newspaper from the letter mail. The Post Office Department has always sustained itself without any expense to the treasury. Besides the conveniences which it extends to every section of the Union, it furnishes the means to all the departments of the Government for transmitting its communications to all parts of the country free from expense. On its present basis, it can be conducted securely. Its operations, its revenues, and its expenses, are held up to public view; and the head of the Department has, at all times, the strongest inducement, which a proper estimate of public sentiment can present, to manage its concerns with the strictest regard to economy, combined with the greatest degree of public convenience allowed by the means at his command. But should it ever be thrown on the treasury for support, it is evident that the same corrective restraint would not exist, either upon the representatives of the people, through whom the calls are generally made, or upon the head of the Department. I have no hesitation in giving the opinion that the establishment ought, at all times, and under all circumstances, to rest on its own resources, independent of the national treasury. Newspapers and periodicals are held to be of inestimable value to the community, though it has not yet been considered the duty of the Government to distribute them through the nation entirely at the public expense. The freedom of the press, guarantied by the constitution, and the small share of postage with which these publications are charged, compared with the whole expense of their transportation, demonstrate the estimation in which they are held. If they shall be transmitted entirely free of postage, and an equivalent amount appropriated from the treasury, their transmission will be at the expense of the Government; or, if the Department shall still depend upon its own resources alone, then their transmission will be at the expense of those who pay the revenue in postages on letters. From the preceding view of facts, the committee will judge of the policy or justice of adopting either of the alternatives stated, and how far the energies of the Department would be impaired by abstracting from it the revenue derived from newspapers and pamphlets, and, at the same time, adding to its charges the increased number which it would be required to transport. I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant, Hon. WILLIAM RUSSEL, of the Committee on the Post Office and Post Roads, H. R. W. T. BARRY. 22d CONGRESS.] No. 114. DEFAULTING DEPUTY POSTMASTER. [1st SESSION. COMMUNICATED TO THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, JANUARY 24, 1832. Mr. JEWETT, from the Committee on the Post Offices and Post Roads, to whom was referred the petition of William McBride, made the following report: That the petitioner sets forth in his petition, among other things, that on the 17th January, 1806, he was appointed postmaster at Harrodsburgh, in the State of Kentucky, and continued in that office until the 1st of January, 1813: that he endeavored, during that time, to discharge the trust reposed in him with fidelity, and duly transmitted his accounts to the General Post Office, and avers them to have been correct: that he had considered himself by no means in arrears to the Government; and was greatly disappointed in receiving from the Postmaster General a statement which varied from his account so rendered to an amount of about $108 45. That, long before he declined his office, the Post Office Department drew in favor of one James Westerfield two bills on the petitioner, amounting to $145, which the petitioner avers that he accepted; and, in consequence of such acceptance, the petitioner (who was a retailer of merchandise, &c.) permitted Westerfield to take up goods, and suffered other demands which the petitioner had against him to lie, and also paid some money to Westerfield to a larger amount than those bills, and postponed a settlement with him, he having confidence in Westerfield, and being conscious that the Government was under no responsibility to Westerfield upon said drafts, by reason of their having been retained by Westerfield many years: that a difficulty occurred between the petitioner and Westerfield in regard to their dealings, insomuch that they could not come to any settlement: that they made an ineffectual attempt to adjust their differences by a reference: that, before any difficulty occurred, the statute of limitations operated on the petitioner's accounts, and he was satisfied that Westerfield's disposition was such that he would avail himself of the benefit of the statute: that his advances to Westerfield are lost to him, unless allowed to him: that the Government finally sued him to recover the amount claimed to be due from him to the Post Office Depart |