Fall/Winter 2006: On Principle

Sidebar: Postal Service

It's tempting to imagine our ancestors writing letters to loved ones in other parts of the country and distant homelands an ocean away, but until the Post Office Act of 1845, when the government lowered the cost of sending a letter, composing and then mailing correspondence was an activity performed primarily by people of means.

Prior to 1845, postage was based not only on distance, but also on the number of sheets used, and sending a single-paged letter could cost twenty-five cents or more--an exorbitant price in an era when workers were lucky to make more than a dollar a day. Politicians pushed for reform, and in 1851, domestic letters were charged a flat rate of three cents per half ounce.

The U.S. Postal System had begun in 1775 with the appointment of Benjamin Franklin as the first Postmaster General. Growth of the postal system was slow in the early years, but by 1828, there was a post office "in virtually every locality of any consequence in the U.S.," according to Richard R. John, author of Spreading the News: The American Postal System from Franklin to Morse.

As the number of post offices grew, so too did the postal system's influence on American life. No industry has benefited more from the postal service than transportation. Since its inception, the post office has used nearly every mode of transit, from post riders on horseback to hot air balloons. U.S. mail first took flight on August 17, 1859, when pilot John Wise attempted to deliver mail via his balloon Jupiter. But he blew off course, and the mail eventually reached its destination by train.

--Erika Weisensee

Published in the Fall/Winter 2006 issue of Oregon Humanities.

© 2006 Oregon Council for the Humanities