Читать книгу History of the Postage Stamps of the United States of America - John K. Tiffany - Страница 12

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Notwithstanding the failure of Congress to adopt postage stamps, and to authorize the Postmaster General to issue them, and to provide an appropriation for their manufacture, public attention had been drawn to the advantages of the system, and the convenience, to the business community particularly, of mailing and receiving letters at hours when the post office or business houses were closed. The question as to whether the Postmaster General might not issue postage stamps on his own authority was raised and officially decided in the negative, although the Postmaster General himself favored their use. The postmasters in several places however undertook to meet the public demand by having stamps prepared on their own responsibility, paying the expense of manufacture themselves and selling them to the public at a sufficient advance on the postal rates, to cover the cost of engraving and printing. In some cases the matter was brought to the attention of the Postmaster General and he saw no objection to the arrangement; in others the whole affair seems to have passed without any attention being paid to it by the Department. In fact it was a mere contract between the postmaster and the purchaser of his stamps, that when a letter bearing one of his stamps was mailed at his office, it should be treated as if the money were handed in with it. No postmaster recognized the stamp of any post office but his own. A letter adorned with a New York stamp mailed at the St. Louis office would have been treated as unpaid. A New York stamp was recognized only at the New York office, and a St. Louis stamp only at the St. Louis office. When a letter bearing a stamp was mailed at the office that issued the stamp, and accepted as prepaid, the contract between the postmaster and the purchaser of the stamp was fulfilled, the postmaster had to account to the government for the amount of the postage as if he had received it with the letter. The Department had nothing to do with the fact that the stamp had been actually paid for at another time or with its existence at all. Examination at several of these offices show that there was no stamp account kept in the records of the office. Such letters were treated exactly as letters were, on which the postage was either paid in money or charged in the open accounts which the postmaster chose to keep with the commercial houses. It was marked "Paid." The stamp had no significance at any other office, except as the mark or stamp indicating the amount charged, always put on letters at that date, but the word "paid" was recognized by every office. The letter was entered as a paid letter on the way bill, and was treated as prepaid, not because of the stamp, but because the forwarding office treated it as prepaid.

It has been thought necessary to define the exact character of these stamps with some exactness, and at the risk of some re-iteration, because their true character seems to be little understood. They had no official sanction whatever, because no official had any authority to sanction them. It was a mere arrangement between the individual postmaster and the public for their mutual accommodation.

Such stamps were issued at New York, St. Louis, Brattleboro, New Haven, Providence, Alexandria, Baltimore, Millbury and probably other places. Although not governmental or official stamps, they are none the less interesting or valuable mementoes. They show how determined the public were to have the postage stamp, and their history shows how the Public Will compelled the government to adopt the postage stamp in spite of the supposed difficulties in the way.