1775
Congress Establishes U.S. Post Office
On this day in 1775, Congress establishes the
United States Post Office and names Benjamin Franklin the first United States
postmaster general.
William Goddard, a Patriot printer frustrated
that the royal postal service was unable to reliably deliver his Pennsylvania
Chronicle to its readers or deliver critical news for the paper to Goddard,
laid out a plan for a Constitutional Post before the Continental Congress on
October 5, 1774. Congress waited to act on the plan until after the Battle of
Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775. Benjamin Franklin promoted Goddard’s
plan and served as the first postmaster general under the Continental Congress
beginning on July 26, 1775, nearly one year before the Congress declared
independence from the British crown. Franklin’s son-in-law, Richard Bache, took
over the position on November 7, 1776, when Franklin became an American
emissary to France. Franklin had already made a significant contribution to the
postal service in the colonies while serving as the postmaster of Philadelphia
from 1737 and as joint postmaster general of the colonies from 1753 to 1774,
when he was fired for opening and publishing Massachusetts Royal Governor
Thomas Hutchinson’s correspondence.
While postmaster, Franklin streamlined postal
delivery with properly surveyed and marked routes from Maine to Florida (the
origins of Route 1), instituted overnight postal travel between the critical
cities of New York and Philadelphia and created a standardized rate chart based
upon weight and distance. Samuel Osgood held the postmaster general’s position
in New York City from 1789, when the U.S. Constitution came into effect, until
the government moved to Philadelphia in 1791. Timothy Pickering took over and,
about a year later, the Postal Service Act gave his post greater legislative
legitimacy and the service more effective organization. Pickering continued in
the position until 1795, when he briefly served as secretary of war, before
becoming the third U.S. secretary of state. The postmaster general’s position
was considered a plum patronage post for political allies of the president
until the Postal Service was transformed into a corporation run by a board of
governors in 1971.