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William
L. Goggin Proposes a Three Cent Postal Rate
William Leftwich Goggin served as a Whig representative from Virginia to
the United States Congress intermittently between 1839 and 1849. On
December 9, 1847 he was appointed to the House Committee on the Post
Office and Post Roads along with Abraham Lincoln, a fellow Whig party
member.
On June 23, 1848 Goggin delivered to the House of Representatives a 97
page report, cover shown here, House of Representative Report No. 731 [to accompany bill
H.R. 575], that proposed a uniform postal rate in the United States and
led to his 1849 proposal of a three cent postal rate. This report, simply titled “Postage and Post Roads,” includes
an in-depth examination of the argument for a uniform, reduced postage
system in the United States and bolsters the case by incorporating the
report of the Cheap Postage Association of Boston that had been prepared
in June, 1848. Surprisingly, I have been unable to find discussions of
Goggin’s report in previous philatelic literature. However, these
reports were generally printed only in sufficient quantity to be
distributed to House members and most are rare.
Although this report did not precipitate in any immediate postal
legislation, the arguments presented give an insight into the process that
did result in the further reduction of postal rates in 1851. In fact, many
of the other ideas presented were later incorporated into postal
legislation including the two cent drop rate that included carrier
delivery (1863), the uniform three cent domestic postal rate (1863), an
alteration in the way free mail was accounted for and limited (1851, 1863
and 1872), the two cent ocean mail rate to Britain (1908), and even the
use of postage stamps as money (1862).
Because of the length of this report, only summaries are possible here.
This is unfortunate as the original includes detailed information about
the functioning of both the British and the United States postal systems
that are only hinted at in the excerpts below . The first two paragraphs introduce the subject:
That the subject of the reduction
of postage, particularly, has been carefully considered by the
committee, with a desire to arrive at just conclusions, impressed, as it
has been, with the belief that there is no single subject of legislation
in which the people feel so great an interest.
The great advantage of the postal system, when well regulated, need not
be urged by this committee, whose attention has been also directed, to
the facilitates required for the speedy transmission of intelligence
through the mails, from one point to another, over this vastly extended
territory of ours, as well as to the internal duties that are imposed,
in the shape of postage, on all matter sent through the mails and
delivered at the many thousand offices under the control of the Post
Office Department.
The next several
paragraphs argue that the purpose of the postal rate structure was not to
raise money for the current expense of the government, but that Congress
was given the authority under the Constitution to establish post offices
and post roads. By a logical expansion of that power:
... is now, by universal
consent and general interpretation of the constitution, considered as
extending, in its operation, and for legitimate purposes, to every road
and shall be declared to be a post road, and to every navigable stream,
every bay, inlet, and harbor that may be designed as such, from the
Atlantic on the one side, on the one side, to the Pacific on the other;
from the Potomac to the Columbia; from the St. John’s to the Nueces,
and now, even beyond it.
… The great leading object
in the administration of the Post Office Department should be, to
expedite the mails with all possible dispatch on the important routes,
even if it be, sometimes, at a cost a little above what might seem to be
a fair compensation; better is it to do this than to be without service.
To speed the mail in view of the great advantage which it has given, and
will ever afford the people, when well regulated, should become a sort
of watchword with the government.
…Unless
the public mails of the country, in their speed, keep full pace with the
wants of the people, and the rapid transmission of reading matter is
constantly kept in view, they must, in time, on all the important
routes, be entirely superseded by private expresses and individual
enterprise, now often many days in advance of the regular mails. And if
the government, through the department, can not do what it undertakes to
perform for the people, at least as well as individuals could do the
same, if left unfettered by penalties of law, far better would it be
that it should not be attempted at all.
This is followed by discourses on private expresses, the telegraph lines,
newspaper subscription posts, and the excessive number of persons employed
in political patronage post office jobs.
The primary subject of the report commences on page 7:
As one of the surest methods of
expediting the mail, and as one most likely to afford the means
necessary to keep up and sustain the department, the committee are of
the opinion that a reduction in the rates of postage is essentially
necessary. The mail should always be expedited just in proportion to the
increase of mailable matter; its importance as a means of communication
to the many instead of the few, and as the masses become interested
instead of individuals. The multiplication of mail matter, newspapers
and letters, is a consequence of a reduced system of postages, and
consequently, too, will follow, in time, an increase of revenue to the
department. These conclusions of the committee are the result of
observations made upon a reduced system of postages at home and abroad,
and the operation of which has most clearly shown that a low rate of
charges on the correspondence of the people, is what they will never
complain of, but will always pay with cheerfulness; and the more
frequent this charge, the more cheerfully sometimes is the tax submitted
to by many. It can never be regarded, when reduced to a proper standard
rate, as burdensome, because in some degree it is a voluntary tax, while
at the same time it produces pleasure, often improves our stock of
knowledge, and not infrequently adds greatly to the enjoyment of many of
the comforts of life.
The committee have already
reported a bill reducing the postage on newspapers, and propose also a
reduction on the postage of letters, both of which are called for by the
general expectation of the public, the condition of the country
generally, and the financial situation of the affairs of the Post Office
Department. As, in the main, embracing the views of a majority of the
committee, they have had reference to those of the Cheap Postage
Association, of Boston, published during the present year; and they
accordingly present them in connection with this report, as a part
thereof, though the committee do not, nor does any member of it, concur
in all conclusions to which the report aims; nor do they concur in
supporting all of the propositions which are maintained in the report.
It is one, however, which presents the whole subject of cheap postage in
many forcible points of view, and is at this time, in man respects, a
valuable document – valuable for its facts, its figures, its
statistics, and many of its arguments, which are forcible and sometimes
unanswerable.
The report next incorporates the Cheap Postage Association publication. Headers and very brief summary extracts
follow:
I. Reduction of price tends to increase consumption.
These facts prove that there is a settled law in economics, that
in the case of any article of general use and necessity, a reduction in
the price may be expected to produce at least a corresponding of
consumption, and in many case a very largely increased expenditure.
II.
Nothing but Cheap Postage will suppress Private Mails
The post office must be enables to recommend itself to the public
mind.
It must secure to itself a virtual monopoly, by the greater security,
expedition, punctuality, and cheapness, with which it does its work,
than can be reached by any private enterprise.
III.
The Postage Law of 1845
The postage act, passed March 3, 1845, which went into operation on the
1st of July of that year, was called forth by a determination
to destroy the private mails; and this object gave character to the act
as a whole. …. The report of the House committee in 1844, showed
beforehand that such a reduction (in postal rate) could not have
the effect here, just as the parliamentary report had shown in 1838,
that nothing but an absolute reduction to 1d. could suppress the private
mails in England.
IV.
What is the just rule to be observed in settling the Rates
of Postage?
The posting of letters may be looked at, either as a contract between
the government and the individuals who send and receive letters, or as a
simple exercise of governmental functions in discharging a governmental
duty. The proper measure of the charge to be imposed should be
considered in each of these aspects, for the government is bound to do
that which is right in both these relations. … Another view of the
case shows the futility of the attempt to make distance the basis of
charge. The actual cost of transit, to each letter, does not vary with
the distance, but is inversely as the number of letters, irrespective of
distance. (Once the contracts are let for carrying mail on a
particular route, cost isn’t affected if additional letters are
carried. It costs the same whether one letter or 100 letters is
carried.)
V.
Franking (free franking of mail)
The moral evils of the franking system are far more serious than the
pecuniary expense, although that is by no means undeserving of regard.
It is not only an ensnaring prerogative to those who enjoy it, and an
anomaly and incongruity in out republican institutions, but it is an
oppressive burden upon the post office, which ought to be removed.
VI.
Letter Postage Stamps, for Pre-payment
In England, as part of the system devised by Mr. Rowland Hill,
the pre-payment of letter postage is greatly facilitated, and, of
course, the tendency to pre-payment is increased, while the management
of the post office itself, in all its departments, is simplified to the
highest degree, by the use of adhesive postage stamps. … (in
response to Postmaster General’s report that demand for stamps had not
been as great as anticipated.) ..
But it should be borne in mind that people are more likely to
invest a dollar in stamps, when they get fifty for their money, than
when they only get ten or twenty.
Two interesting pages, including one showing British cancels are here.
VII.
New arrangement of newspaper postage
The plan proposed, is to allow any publisher of a newspaper to have the
paper stamped before printing, for his whole issue, by paying thereof at
the rate of half a cent per sheet. (This plan proposed in
conjunction with allowing private carriers to deliver newspapers.)
VIII.
Pamphlet and Magazine postage
I do not know that any complaint is made against this rate (2 1/2
cents) of postage, as regards pamphlets in general. But the fraction
of a cent is an absurdity, on account of the great additional labor it
occasions in keeping accounts and making returns, and settling balance.
… The simplification of business would probably save to the department
all they would lose by striking out this paltry fraction, so that the
general pamphlet postage will stand at two cents for the first ounce,
and one cent for each additional ounce.
IX.
Ocean penny postage
After
making arguments for cheap ocean penny post similar to the arguments for
cheap domestic postage, the author urges the United States to be the first
to implement postage at two cents per ounce for mail to Britain.
X.
The free delivery of letters and papers in large towns.
A free delivery of letters would increase the revenue by causing the
greater portion of the drop letters to be sent through the post office,
instead of the private offices now established in different parts of the
city. The only reason why the city dispatch post failed was, that they
charged more than the private penny post offices. But if these letters
were delivered free, charging only two cents as drop letters, nearly all
city correspondence would be conveyed by this medium. The increase
income from this source alone would, in short time, be amply sufficient
to pay the salaries of all the carriers.
XI.
The
expense of cheap postage, and how it is to be paid.
Now, let the post office present itself to the people as a system of
pure and unmingled beneficence, studying not how it can get a little
more money for a little less service, but how it can render the greatest
amount of accommodation with the least expense to the public treasury,
and it will at once become the object of public gratitude and warm
affections; men will study how to facilitate all transactions; will be
conscientiously careful not to impose any needless trouble upon its
servants, and will generally watch for its interests as their own.
The final several pages
of the Post Road Committee report deals primarily with calculations
showing the amount of money lost to the department because of the free
mail franking system and estimates of revenue if postage in the United
States were to be reduced:
The Postmaster General, in his report to Congress, shows that the
average rate of postage on letters, according to the present system, is
a small fraction over six cents. An increase of two hundred per cent
here over the number for the year ending the 30th June, 1847,
would give 159,000 of letters, which, allowing the expenditure to be no
greater, (and we have shown that an increase of revenue does not
necessarily increase the expenditures,) would give, at the rate of two
cents, a revenue nearly equal to that of last year. In England the
increase was 234 per cent in six years. Now, at that rate, here the
numbers of letters in 1853 would amount to 175,000,000. There is every
reason to believe that the increase here would far exceed that number;
but that alone, at two cents each, would yield a revenue of three
millions and a half of dollars; a sum exceeding the receipts of the
department the last year for letter postage, by $311, 043. If to this
sum is added $100,000, the proceeds of five millions of letters now
franked; the postage of two millions of deal letters, amounting to about
$40,000; also, the postage of newspapers, pamphlets, etc., which would
be greatly increased, a sum would be produced which ought to put the
fears of all to rest who may have apprehensions of casting the burden of
sustaining the department for any time on the general treasury.
The conclusion reports the
bill (H.R. bill no. 575, image page 1, image
page 2):
In the views presented here, the committee acknowledges themselves
indebted to the memorial presented by the commonwealth of Massachusetts,
in connection with this subject, for the statistics, facts, and even the
language sometimes used in this report, and the committee again urge
upon the House the adoption of some system of cheaper rates of postage,
as required by the urgent petitions of the people, as well as for other
obvious reason which have urged in this report. The committed not
agreeing as to the precise amount of the reduction proper to be carried
out by a general law, have instructed the chairman, however, to report a
bill to reduce the rates of letter postage to five cents for any and all
distances on letters not exceeding half an ounce in weight, etc. A bill
is, therefore, accordingly submitted by the Chairman, under the
instructions of the committee, while his own convictions would decide
him to advocate a still lower rate of postages on letters and
newspapers, for the latter of which a bill has already passed.
W.L. Goggin,
Chairman.
Committee Room, Post Offices and Post Roads
The actual bill proposed a uniform postal rate of five cents for any
distance, per one half ounce, and made no exemption for free franked mail.
Apparently, due to the lateness of the Congressional session, the bill was
not passed.
In February 21, 1849
Goggin gave a speech in the House of Representatives in favor of
establishing a uniform postal rate of three cents. A transcript of the
speech is shown: page 1, page
2, page 3, page 4,
page 5, page 6. In addition to proposing the lower uniform postal
rate of three cents, or a 15c postal rate applicable to California and
Oregon, the speech includes:
This bill also provides for the
use of stamps, which, it is supposed, will obviate any difficulty
growing out of the scarcity of coppers, or fractional parts of coppers,
in all parts of the country. These stamps, which are provided for, of
the denominations from one-fourth of a cent to ten cents; and it is easy
to guard against their use the second time, by providing each post
office with what is called a “cancel stamp,” with which the adhesive
stamp is marked as soon as the letter is received at the office of
delivery.
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