Читать книгу History of the Postage Stamps of the United States of America - John K. Tiffany - Страница 5

Table of Contents

In 1676 John Heyward, by the authority of General Court of the Colony of Massachusetts, established his postal system with its office in Boston. In 1683 the government of Penn established a postal system for the Colony of Pennsylvania. In 1700 Col. J. Hamilton organized "his postal establishment for British America" including all the English colonies, but soon after disposed of his right to the English crown. In 1710 the English Parliament established by law the first governmental postal system with the general office at New York, which continued until in 1776 the Continental Congress adopted and set in action the postal system proposed by Franklin, who was appointed the first Postmaster General. The first law of the Federal Congress continued this system in operation as sufficient for the public wants, but the postal service was not finally settled until the act of 1792.

This law (1792) liked a tariff which with unimportant changes remained in force until the adoption of the system of Uniform Postage in the United States. Single, double and triple letters were charged 8, 16 and 24 cents respectively when sent to other countries, and four cents plus the internal postage when arriving from foreign countries. The internal postage between offices in the United States was 6, 8, 10, 15, 17, 20, 22 and 25 cents for distances of 30, 60, 100, 150, 200, 250, 350, or 400 miles respectively for single letters, and double, triple, etc., this for double, triple, etc., letters. A single letter was defined by the law to be a single sheet or piece of paper, a double letter, two sheets or pieces of paper, etc., etc.

The following acts of Congress may be consulted with advantage by those curious with regard to the Post Office before the introduction of stamps.
I	Congress.	I	Session.	Chap.	16,		Sept.,	1789
I	"	II	"	"	36,		Aug.,	1790
I	"	III	"	"	23,		March,	1791
II	"	I	"	"	27,		Feb.,	1792
III	"	I	"	"	23,	8	May,	1794
V	"	III	"	"	41,	2	March,	1799
XI	"	II	"	"	37,	30	April,	1810
XIII	"	III	"	"	16,	23	Dec.,	1814
XIV	"	I	"	"	7,	1	Feb.,	1815
XIV	"	I	"	"	43,	9	April,	1816
XIX	"	II	"	"	61,	3	March,	1825
XX	"	I	"	"	61,	3	March,	1827
XXVII	"	II	"	"	43,	2	March,	1845

The earliest letters which we have seen, consist of single sheets of paper folded and addressed upon the sheet. An envelope would have subjected them to double postage. They are penmarked with the name of the mailing office, the date occasionally, the amount of the postage paid or due, generally in simple figures, sometimes with the word "cents" in full or abbreviated, added. Gradually, hand stamps were introduced. At first the name of the mailing office in a simple frame, generally circular, the month and day being still written in with a pen, and the amount of postage written as before. A further improvement appears later on in the introduction of the month and day as part of the hand stamp. The word "paid" or "due," the amount of postage in figures or with "cents," either written or hand stamped, always added. And finally all the marks are included in one hand stamp.

There was evidently no uniformity of practice, except the general requirement that the name of the mailing office, the month and day, and the amount of postage should in some form be marked on the letter. Improvements seem generally to have originated in the larger offices, but smaller offices sometimes took the lead in enterprise. An improvement once adopted does not seem always to have been adhered to; letters mailed at the same office on the same day and differently marked may be frequently found in old files. The hand stamps seem to have been obtained by the several offices for themselves, as there is no uniformity of style.

Some of these hand stamps are curious enough to warrant a brief description, and it would be difficult to lay down a rule which would distinguish some of them from the stamps we admit to our albums.

A letter mailed at Philadelphia in 1825, bears an octagonal hand stamp with a double lined frame and the words "Phila. 20 Jan." in three lines, a second similar but smaller hand stamp with the word "Paid," and the figures "26" written with a pen, all in red ink. These seem to have been regularly employed for several years. Other letters from the same city mailed in 1845–6-7 and 8, bear a circular hand stamp, the name of the City and State surrounding the edge, the month and day in the center, a single line surrounding all, the amount of postage in large numerals and the words "DUE" or "PAID" in a small oval are separately hand stamped. Letters from Baltimore of the same dates bear a similar circular hand stamp with name and date, the amount of postage in large numerals in an oval, and sometimes the word "PAID" in large letters without frame. Jacksonville, Ill., Pittsburgh, Pa., and Little Rock, Ark., employed similar hand stamps at the same time.

Louisville, St. Louis, Cincinnati, Boston and New York letters of the same years have the same hand stamp with a numeral or numerals indicative of the amount of postage added at the bottom within the frame. When prepaid the word "PAID" was hand stamped below the other.

Some New York, Boston and Philadelphia letters of the same dates bear the same hand stamp with "5 cts," "10 cts," etc., in the lower margin within the frame, the word "PAID" being separately hand stamped when the letter was prepaid. Many western letters bear also the word "Steam 5" hand stamped upon them. These hand stamps remained in use up to 1851 when the rates were changed and appear even upon letters bearing the adhesive stamps of the first issue.

In 1851 when the rates were changed to 3 cents ordinary postage, and 1 cent for drop letters, many of the same stamps appear with the figures changed to 1 or 3, or to 1 ct., 3 cts., and 6 cts., Boston and Petersburgh, Va., for example. A New York hand stamp of this period has New York above, month and day in the middle and "PAID" and "3 cts" in two more lines.

A Philadelphia hand stamp has name above, month and day in one line, and "3 cts" in another, in the center, and "PAID" in lower margin.

Another, the ordinary dated postmark and a second circular stamp, nearly as large, with the word "PAID" in large letters crossed by the numeral "3" nearly an inch long.

A Springfield letter has the ordinary dated postmark and a second hand stamp nearly as large with a large numeral "3" above and "PAID" below.

Cincinnati, Buffalo, Quincy, Ill., and others have the ordinary hand stamp with the name above, month and day in the center and "3 PAID" below.

Another letter has a round hand stamp fully an inch in diameter with the word "PAID" across the center crossed by a large outline "3."

Another letter was hand stamped with a large "6" in an octagon double frame and "PAID" separately hand stamped across it.

The Cincinnati hand stamp also appears with "1 PAID" in the margin.

New Orleans has the ordinary hand stamp and "PAID," "1" in two lines of very large letters beneath.

St. Louis, has the ordinary hand stamp, and another with "1 ct" in large octagonal frame added.

Many letters where the word "paid" appears in the dated stamp are also separately hand stamped "PAID." Some of these letters bear also the 3 and 1 ct. adhesives of the period. Those that indicate postage to be paid differ from postage due stamps in no respect except that they are not adhesive. Those that indicate postage prepaid correspond to many other hand stamps in every thing except that they were applied after, instead of before payment; but in some countries we have examples of adhesive stamps applied in the same way. They are not beautiful but are interesting relics of the old system. A number of similar stamps with the words "Post Office" following the name of the town and "5 paid" have passed through the hands of the compiler, but having been cut from the letters the date could not be authenticated. These would appear to be very similar in character to the adhesives issued by the postmasters of some offices about the same time, and to many similar stamps used in the early days of the Southern Confederacy.