Birth of the Postal System

Prior to television, radio and telephone, if you lived in the country, mail was your only communication.  In 1787 the Constitution granted Congress the power to establish Post Offices, but it wasn't until the 1860s that the modern system came into use.

In the beginning, the cost of postage was paid by the person receiving the mail  The cost depended on the distance the mail piece traveled.  There was no government salary for postal carriers; they were compensated when the mail was delivered by the person receiving the letter.  It was expensive to accept mail!

There were no mailboxes since the letter had to personally delivered to be paid for.  Most people preferred to have their mail held at the local post office and to pick up their own mail.  So, from the early 1800s until the Civil War, there was no real mail delivery.

In 1847, the Post Office Department came up with the idea of a postage stamp.  Not only did it make mailing a letter easier, it also put the cost of mailing on the sender instead of the receiver.  In big cities where hundreds of thousands of people went to the Post Office to pick up their mail, it helped to eliminate congestion and the confusion in finding their mail.

The stamp, however covered only some post offices, and did not apply to private mail addresses.  It was during this time that express delivery services (messenger/carrier service) flourished.  A letter could be delivered anywhere in the city for a penny.  Although their legality was questioned at the time, they were a half a day quicker than the government mail and made quite a dent in the post office volume.

In 1863 after the post office lost business to the private carriers, Congress gave the postal carriers a salary.  Gone were the special fees for delivering a letter by federal post office employees.  This however, only applied to city delivery - free home delivery it was called - and was a benefit only to those in urban settings.

There were population requirements attached as well - in order to qualify for free home delivery, a town had to have 10,000 residents.  In 1890, fewer that 1/4 of Americans had free home delivery.  Three quarters of Americans still went to the post office to receive their mail.  And if you lived in the country...

Next time...The Weekly Mail Run
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Today in Pioneer History:  "On July 22, 1933, Wiley Post, American Aviator, returns to Floyd Bennett Field in New York after having flown solo around the world in 7 days, 18 hours and 49 minutes.  He was the first to accomplish this feat.