Page images
PDF
EPUB

Postmaster-General's Report-Paid and Unpaid Letters.

161

The whole amount of postages, inland,

The whole number of paid and unpaid letters which have passed through sea and foreign, on letters and other the post-offices of the United States, mailable matter, received and sent by during the last fiscal year, was 95,790,- the several lines of United States mail steamers, during the last fiscal year, was as follows, viz:

524.

Of those passing through and from places in the United States, exclusive of California and Oregon, there were:

Unpaid

Paid by money..

Paid by stamps,
Free...

These were conveyed by

European steamers..

By Collins line, New-York and Liver

pool

By New-York and Bremen line, touch-
ing at Southampton, England

32,672,765 By New-York and Havre line, touching
.18,448,510 at Cowes....

31,897,750 By Charleston and Havana line........

3,146,000

$228,867 61

[blocks in formation]

The postal arrangements with Canada 4,421,547 99,372 and New-Brunswick have been in suc1,495,537 cessful operation during the year, and have been found convenient and useful. The amount of postage on letters sent from the United States to Canada was:

2,635,909
444,091

[blocks in formation]

.87,710,498

Number of exchange newspapers
Newspapers circulated free within the
counties where published, estimated... 20,000,000
Number of letters conveyed by-

7,073,548

[blocks in formation]

Cunard line of European steamers..

2,758,096

On letters received:

Collins line

do

do..

[blocks in formation]
[blocks in formation]
[blocks in formation]

345,287

-$47,521 08

$794,440 58

463,615 98

Amount of postages collected from Col-
ins and Cunard lines....

Of which was collected in the United
States..

Of which was collected in Great Britain
Number of dead letters returned to
Great Britain....

Of which 21,589 were paid, and 12,959
unpaid.

Amount due to the United States there

[blocks in formation]

325,824 60

The amount of postage collected on letters sent from the United States to New-Brunswick was:

[blocks in formation]

Great Britain..

Of which 9,800 were paid, and 28,645 unpaid.

Amount due Great Britain thereon.....
Number of dead letters returned to
Bremen

Number of dead letters received from
Bremen...

[blocks in formation]

2,587

$1,815 65
The Havre line are complaining that
3,801 their receipts are but $12,500 per trip,
whilst that of Collins receives $33,000
per trip. They show that, in addition
to their having performed their mail
service as efficiently as could be ex-
pected with the limited means allow-
$15,397 ed them, the exports from Germany to
16,498 this country have increased since they
101,320 commenced running from $3,000,000

Cost

31,508

47,236

312,700
100,674

8,612 to $10,000,000, that the number of emi262,830 grants is increasing, and the gross sum 49.122 which they at present bring to this coun71,165 try amounts to $15,000,000 annually. A postal convention has been closed 73,393 with Prussia, providing for a closed mail, 53.571 in each direction between the two coun116,989 tries, twice a week, via London and 83,958 Ostend. New-York and Boston are the offices of exchange on the part of the 8,840 United States, and Aix la Chapelle is 5.742 the corresponding office of exchange on 5,950 the part of Prussia.

52,010

22,511

9,164

26,180

150 By this convention a uniform postage $1,275,520 rate of 30 cents, prepayment of which is

optional in either country, is established rangement between the United States

for all letters not exceeding half an ounce in weight between the two countries. Six cents is the rate established for each newspaper, to be prepaid. This convention also provides for the transmission of mails, not only through Germany, but also through the United States to countries beyond, and has induced the department to discontinue the closed mail to Bremen. It is estimated that the countries, including the German Austrian Postal Union, which are thus brought into postal communication with the United States, embrace a population of seventy millions.

As a necessary consequence of our convention with Prussia, the larger part of the continental correspondence, which formerly went by the way of Bremen, is now sent via London, Ostend, and Aix la Chapelle-the latter being the more expeditious route. The mails for Bremen, however, and such as may be addressed via Bremen to other German states and countries beyond, will continue to be dispatched monthly by the New-York and Bremen line.

A project of a postal convention between the United States and Belgium has been prepared and submitted by the department for approval to the Belgian government, and it is confidently expect ed that in the course of a few months, at farthest, an arrangement, which shall be mutually advantageous, will be duly sanctioned and put in operation.

Our postal convention with Great Britain has not yet been so modified as to admit of the exchange of a closed mail with France via England; the British government, with reference to each mail, still insisting on a transit postage of twenty-four cents an ounce. France has manifested a disposition for improved mail facilities with this country, and has made proposals for a postal treaty with the United States, to operate independently of our treaty with Great Britain. It is hoped that they may be conducted to a favorable issue at an early day. Connected with this project, France proposes, in conjunction with the United States, to establish a union line of mail steam-ships direct between New-York and Havre.

and the West Indies generally, and points on the coast of Mexico and northern coast of South America, at which the British mail-packets touch. To the British West Indies, the United States single rate of letter postage, which must be prepaid on letters sent from and collected on letters received in the United States, will be ten cents where the distance from the mailing office is under two thousand five hundred miles, and twenty cents when the distance exceeds two thousand five hundred miles. To the West Indies, (not British,) Mexico, and South America, by this channel, the British postage of twenty-four cents the single rate, also required to be prepaid, must be added to the ten or twenty cents United States rate, according to distance as above. This arrange ment, it is expected, will go into effect without delay.

In accordance with the wishes of the Hawaiian government, arrangements have been made by which letters for the Sandwich Islands are dispatched in sealed packets by each mail-steamer from New-York, and conveyed through to Honolulu without being opened.

On all letters and newspapers for these islands, however, as well as to China, by this route, it is required that the United States postage to San Francisco be prepaid.

On the subject of the Navy Department we make use of the language of the President, which condenses the leading particulars of the report:

"The report from the Navy Department will inform you of the prosperous condition of the branch of public service committed to its charge. It presents to your consideration many topics and sugges tions of which I ask your approval. It exhibits an unusual degree of activity in the operations of the department during the past year. Preparations for the Japan expedition, to which I have already alluded; the arrangements made for the exploration and survey of the China seas, the northern Pacific and Behring's Straits; the incipient measures taken towards a reconnoissance on the continent of Africa, eastward of Liberia; the preparation for an early examination of the Under our postal treaty with Great tributaries of the river La Platte, which Britain additional articles have been a recent decree of the provisional Chief agreed upon, and are ready for signa- of the Argentine Confederation has ture, providing for a regular mail ar- opened to navigation,-all these enter

Organization of Seamen-Department of the Interior.

prises, and the means by which they are proposed to be accomplished, have commanded my full approbation, and I have no doubt will be productive of most useful results.

"Two officers of the navy were heretofore instructed to explore the whole extent of the Amazon River, from the confines of Peru to its mouth. The return of one of them has placed in the possession of the government an interesting and valuable account of the character and resources of a country abounding in materials of commerce, and which, if opened to the industry of the world, will prove an inexhaustible fund of wealth. The report of this exploration will be communicated to you as soon as it is completed.

[ocr errors]

'Among other subjects offered to your notice by the Secretary of the Navy, I select for special commendation, in view of its connection with the interests of the navy, the plan submitted by him for the establishment of a permanent corps of seamen, and the suggestions he has presented for the re-organization of the Naval Academy.

"In reference to the first of these, I take occasion to say, I think it will greatly improve the efficiency of the service, and that I regard it as still more entitled to favor for the salutary influence it must exert upon the naval discipline, now greatly disturbed by the increasing spirit of insubordination, resulting from our present system.

"The plan proposed for the organization of the seamen, furnishes a judicious substitute for the law of September, 1850, abolishing corporeal punishment, and satisfactorily sustains the policy of that act, under conditions well adapted to maintain the authority of command, and the order and security of our ships. It is believed that any change which proposes permanently to dispense with this mode of punishment, should be preceded by a system of enlistment which shall supply the navy with seamen of the most meritorious class, whose good deportment and pride of character may preclude all occasion to resort to penalties of a harsh or degrading nature. The safety of a ship and crew is often dependent upon immediate obedience to a command, and the authority to enforce it must be equally ready.

"The arrest of a refractory seaman in such moments not only deprives the ship of indispensable aid, but imposes the necessity for double service on others,

163

whose fidelity to their duties may be relied upon in such an emergency. The exposure to this increased and arduous labor, since the passage of the act of 1850, has already had, to a most observable and injurious extent, the effect of preventing the enlistment of the best seamen in the navy. The plan now suggested is designed to promote a condition of service in which this objection will no longer exist. The details of this plan may be established in great part, if not altogether, by the Executive, under the authority of existing laws; but I have thought it proper, in accordance with the suggestions of the Secretary of the Navy, to submit it to your approval.

"The establishment of a corps of apprentices for the navy, or boys to be enlisted until they become of age, and to be employed under such regulations as the Navy Department may devise, as proposed in the report, I cordially approve and commend to your consideration. I also concur in the suggestion that this system for the early training of seamen may be most usefully engrafted upon the service of our merchant marine.

"The other proportion of the report to which I have referred, a re-organization of the Naval Academy, I recommend to your attention as a project worthy of your encouragement and support. The valuable services already rendered by this institution entitles it to the continuance of your fostering care."

The expenditures of the Secretary of the Interior were, for 1853, $5,695,328 04, and for 1854, $4,921,025 71.

He states the quantity of land disposed of during the past year as follows: sold, 1,553,071; located under bounty warrants, 3,201,314; aggregate disposed of for all purposes, 13,115,175 acres.

The whole number of pensioners is now 18,868, exclusive of navy pensioners, 726 in number. Number on the rolls of Mexican war pensioners, 1,123.

We have extracted in another place from the census report, and shall complete the subject in consecutive numbers.

By reference to the Treasury Department, the cost of the publication of the sixth census was as follows:

To amount paid Blair & Rives for
publishing 10,000 copies of sta-
tistical returns.
To amount paid Blair & Rives and
Allen & Co. for 30,000 copies of
compendium..

Cost of binding..

$137,316 64

24.773 86

16,712 97

Aggregage cost of publication..$178,803 47

Lippincott & Co. now propose to publish 10,000 copics of the statistics of the seventh census, in two folio volumes of 1,000 pages each, on fine type and paper, well bound with Russia backs, for the aggregate sum of $49,500 dollars, being less than one-third of the amount paid for the publication of the sixth census.

ceeded in partially restoring quiet and peace. So long, however, as the species of border warfare, which has lately been carried on in that region, between the inhabitants of the two countries, continues, it will be difficult, if not impossible, with any number of troops, and with the strictest vigilance on the part of their officers, to prevent, on so extensive a frontier, a repetition of these disorders. In New Mexico the depredations of the Indians have been entirely arrested. The Navajos and the Apaches, the two most formidable tribes in all that region, have been completely overawed, and manifest every desire to be at peace with the whites. In consequence of frequent collisions between the Indians and the white inhabitants of California and Oregon, it was deemed advisable to send the 4th regiment of infantry to the Pacific, to replace the mounted riflemen that had been ordered thence to Texas. Intelligence has been recently received that the Yuma Indians, a bold and hostile tribe, occupying a portion of country on the Gila and Colorado rivers, whose inroads and depredations have been the source of frequent annoyance and alarm to the inhabitants both of our own territory and of the Mexican State of Sonora, have agreed to a peace.

The general principles of our patent system seem to have met with universal approbation, and to have been attended with beneficent results in practice. Since the organization of the office, in 1836, it has advanced with rapid strides. At that date, one "examining clerk" was enabled to make all the preliminary investigations which were required to ascertain whether the applicant was entitled to a patent; but such has been the increase of the business, that six principal examiners and as many assistants are not now able to keep pace with it. The number of models in the office on the 1st day of January, 1836, was 1,069. In the beginning of the year 1851 they had increased to 17,257, and at the close of the present year they will fall but little short of 23,000. If they should continue to increase in this proportion, making no allowance for the augmentation consequent on the increase of population, by the close of the present century they will amount to 150,000, and the whole of the present patent-office edifice will not be sufficient for their convenient display. The Secretary of War states that 8,000 out of 11,000 officers and men on the rolls of the army, are employed in the defences of Oregon, California, New Mexico and Texas, and of emigrants to What policy, however, it may be the two former. Texas, with the excep- deemed proper to adopt in reference to tion of a portion of the Rio Grande, has the Indian tribes in Texas, California been exempted from Indian depreda- and Oregon, is a question only of humantions. The outrages on the Rio Grande ity or temporary policy, as the period are attributed to the lawless expeditions of Caravajal, whose men, after his defeat, dispersed through the country, and resorted to plunder for subsistence. the other hand, many of the inhabitants of Mexico either sought to avenge themselves for the wrongs inflicted on them by that adventurer and his followers, or found in his lawless proceedings a justification for their own, and retaliated on the peaceable inhabitants. The Indians in that vicinity availed themselves of the confusion and alarm consequent upon this state of things to renew their depredations. Thefts, robberies, and even assassinations were the consequence. Our troops, however, have finally suc

The troops stationed on the frontier may justly be considered as in active service-a service, too, in which they are exposed to all the hardships and dangers of war, without its excitement to stimulate or its hopes of honorable distinction to sustain them.

cannot be very remote when they will be swept before the resistless tide of emigration which continually flows On towards those countries.

The case is different with regard to New Mexico. Her population, exclusive of wild Indians by the last census, was 61,000, and her real estate valued at $2,700,000. To protect this small population, we are compelled to maintain a large military force at an annual expense nearly equal to half the value of the whole real estate of the Territory. Would it not be better to induce the inhabitants to abandon a country which seems hardly fit for the habitation of civilized man, by remunerating them

River and Harbor Improvements-Presidential Statistics.

165

for their property in money or in lands the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico have situated in more favored regions?

Attention is next called to the state of our defences on the sea-coast, no appropriation having been made for fortifications by Congress in 1850. It is suggested that Congress adopt some mode of revising the plan for fortifications adopted by the Board of Engineers in 1816, which is now believed is on too extensive a scale.

In the mean time, however, there are a number of works which have been commenced, and are in various stages of advancement, but the prosecution of which is suspended for the want of necessary appropriations. Most of these works are highly important, being intended for the protection of our principal seaports and naval stations, viz.: Boston, New-York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Norfolk, Charleston, Savannah, Pensacola, Mobile and New-Orleans, or other points of scarcely less importance. These points, at whatever expense, should be rendered impregnable to any force brought against them. Appropriations to complete most of them, if not all, are strongly urged.

The works to protect New-Bedford and San Francisco, now both entirely defenceless, should be constructed; and the Board have suggested that a fortification at Sandy Hook, to protect the outer harbor of New-York is necessary. One of the most important and responsible duties which have devolved on the Department during the present year is the execution of the works known as the river and harbor improvements.

The number of works for which appropriations were made by the act recently passed is about one hundred, and the sum appropriated about two millions and a quarter. The appropriations, however, will only in a few instances be sufficient to complete the works for which they were made. By far the greater number will require additional, and some of them very large additional, appropriations to complete them. It is to be presumed that, even if Congress should not see fit to continue the system and to provide for other works of a similar character, not included in the present act, they will at least finish the works that have been begun. The superintendence of the work has been confided to the two corps of engineers and topographical engineers, both of which are eminently qualified for this duty. The works on

been assigned to the corps of engineers, and those on the northern and western rivers to the corps of topographical engineers. It is believed that this arrangement will eminently conduce to the speedy and economical execution of the works.

The Secretary repeats his suggestions of last year:

First. That the Department be authorized to abolish such arsenals as are no longer needed, and are a source of useless expense.

Second. That an additional number of commissaries be authorized.

Third. That a retired list of the army be established, as a measure of justice, both to the officers that are disabled and to those that are not.

Fourth. That the distribution of arms among the militia of the States and Territories under the act of 1808, be made hereafter on the basis of the free white male inhabitants of age to bear arms, as shown by the latest census, instead of the official returns of the militia, which are frequently not furnished, and when furnished, are often inaccurate.

The following statistics of the late presidential election are worthy of preservation, and should be studied as a part of the civil and statistical history the country:

For

ELECTORAL VOTE.-For Scott: Vermont, 5; Massachusetts, 13; Kentucky, 12; Tennessee, 12; total, 42. Pierce: Maine, 8; New-Hampshire, 5; Rhode Island, 4; Connecticut, 6; NewYork, 35; New-Jersey, 7; Pennsylvania, 27; Delaware, 3; Maryland, 8; Virginia, 15; Alabama, 9; Louisiana, 6; Mississippi, 7; South Carolina, (legislature elects,) 8; Wisconsin, 5; Indiana, 13; Illinois, 11; Ohio, 23; Michigan, 6; North Carolina, 10; Georgia, 10; Texas, 4; California, 4; Florida, 3; Arkansas, 4; Missouri, 9; Iowa, 4; total, 212.

Jackson's (Dem.) majority in 1828, 95; in 1832, 152; Van Buren's, 1836, 46; Harrison's (Whig) in 1840, 174; Polk's (Dem.) in 1844, 65; Taylor's (Whig) in 1848, 36; Pierce's (Dem.) in 1852, 212,

Total popular vote in 1852, 2,923,394; to which, if the votes of counties not yet received, be added, there will be an aggregate vote of 3,000,000.

The abolition vote, from 292,828, has fallen down to [about 150,000; and in 1844, was 62,692.

« PreviousContinue »