Gallagher argues that now, more than ever before, the imperiled post office deserves this effort, because just as the founders anticipated, it created forward-looking, communication-oriented, idea-driven America. Winifred Gallagher presents the history of the post office as America’s own story, told from a fresh perspective over more than two centuries.
How the Post Office Created America: A History
#POST OFFICE INOTED STATES FULL#
“We pursued our way at full gallop, leaving the inhabitants of the neighboring log houses to send for their share of the treasure.”
#POST OFFICE INOTED STATES DRIVER#
The astonished political philosopher wrote of hurtling through the Michigan frontier in a crude wagon simply called “the mail” and pausing at “huts” where the driver would toss down a bundle of newspapers and letters before hastening along his route. When Alexis de Tocqueville toured the young country, in 1831, the United States boasted twice as many post offices as Britain and five times as many as France. This policy helped spark America’s lively, disputatious political culture and made it a communications superpower with remarkable speed. James Madison and others saw how the post could support this fledgling democracy by informing the electorate, and in 1792 devised a Robin Hood scheme whereby high-priced postage for letters, then sent mostly by businessmen and lawyers, subsidized the delivery of cheap, uncensored newspapers. In 1775, before the Declaration of Independence was even signed, the Continental Congress turned the Constitutional Post into the Post Office of the United States, whose operations became the first-and for many citizens, the most consequential-function of the new government itself. But not even he imagined the pivotal role that the post would play in creating the Republic.īy the early 1770s, Franklin’s fellow patriots had organized underground networks, the Committees of Correspondence and then the Constitutional Post, that enabled the founders to talk treason under the British radar. Franklin’s travels along the post roads would inspire his revolutionary vision for how a new nation could thrive independent of Britain. From 1753 to 1774, as he oversaw Britain’s colonial mail service, Benjamin Franklin improved a primitive courier system connecting the 13 fragmented colonies into a more efficient organization that sped deliveries between Philadelphia and New York City to a mere 33 hours.
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