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July 26, 1775. The Continental Congress appointed Benjamin Franklin the first postmaster general of the United States.
Sending letters and printed matter between the American colonies was no easy task in the early years. At first each colony established its own postmaster and postal routes. The first such post office was established in 1639 in Boston when the Massachusetts General Court designated Richard Fairbanks' tavern as the official repository for letters to be sent or received. Some even established routes between colonial capitals, but these were usually short-lived due to the cost. For example, in 1673 New York set up a monthly post between New York City and Boston. The route is now US 1, but that postal service did not last long. Other colonies set up similar arrangements.
In 1692, the British Crown sold the rights to provide postal service in the American colonies to Thomas Neale, who became the first postmaster general. The first postmaster general of note was Alexander Spotswood, the former governor of Virginia, who served 1730-1739. His most important achievement was appointing his friend and successful newspaper publisher, Benjamin Franklin, as postmaster of Philadelphia in 1737.
Colonial postmasters were not well paid - they received a 10% commission on all postage, but they had a valuable fringe benefit, the right of franking, or sending mail for free. Franklin used it to mail his Pennsylvania Gazette newspaper for free throughout the colonies, to solicit news and advertising from around the colonies, and even to correspond with leading intellectuals and scientists in Europe. His European correspondence, combined with his curiosity and inventiveness, made him the most admired American in Europe.
In 1753, the Crown appointed Franklin co-postmaster general of the colonies and made him responsible for the Northern District, which extended from Pennsylvania to Newfoundland. He set out on a 1600-mile tour of post offices and postal routes during which he selected the best locations for post offices, appointed postal clerks in every location, and found the fastest routes. He installed an odometer on every mail carriage so that he could map the system and find the shortest routes. He shortened the legs that riders rode so that they would have fresh horses and could travel faster, and he set up night riders between the major cities so that the mail would move around the clock. By the time he finished optimizing the system, a letter could be delivered from Philadelphia to New York and a reply received within 24 hours. Most importantly, by 1760 the colonial postal system was profitable, a first in its 70-year history.
Franklin was living in London for much of the time from 1757 to 1775, but he had appointed strong deputies to keep the postal system running smoothly. His wife Deborah was one of those who operated the system in his absence. While in London in 1772, Franklin was given a packet of letters that the Massachusetts governor Thomas Hutchinson had sent to British officials, urging them to crack down on American radicals and to take away the liberties of the colonies. Franklin sent the letters to Samuel Adams, and eventually they were published in the Boston Gazette. As a result, the Parliamentary Board of Trade stripped Franklin of his role as postmaster general in January 1774. Without its strong leader, the colonial postal system collapsed by the end of 1774.
Franklin returned to Pennsylvania in 1775 and was elected to the Continental Congress. Since the postal system was in disarray, on July 26, 1775, Congress appointed Franklin the first postmaster general of the United States. He quickly got the old system running again, and this time he appointed his son-in-law Richard Bache as his deputy. When Franklin was appointed Commissioner to France in October 1776, he resigned and Richard Bache was appointed in his stead. Bache ran the US Postal Service until 1782.
Even though Franklin only served as US Postmaster General for 15 months, his 36 years of service as the Philadelphia postmaster and the colonial postmaster general built a solid foundation for the American mail system. Two of his achievements, running a profitable system and delivering mail round-trip between Philadelphia and New York City, are beyond the ability of his modern successors. His accomplishments were honored on the first 5-cent stamp that the USPS issued in 1847.
Discussion (7)
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Thanks for another great post, Steve! In school and afterwards I learned a few things about Benjamin Franklin, but I learned them a heck of a long time ago. If I'd ever realized how significant the role of being a postmaster played in his life, it was in nowhere near your level of vivid detail.
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Franklin was amazing! His contributions earned him a reputation for brilliance, and rightly so. Thanks, Steve.
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Funny what we take for granted.
Decades ago, I worked on a case involving a possible chemical exposure in a regional postal sorting facility. The sheer volume handled was amazing. The task of looking at each envelope as a conveyor belt brought in in view for an instant decision subject to hourly quotas as to which button on a panel should be pressed to send it to the right bag seemed like a nightmare job. The surly patrolling supervisors looked like guys who had almost passed the entry exam for the Arkansas prison farm guard academy. The men who maintained the machines and drove the trucks were Teamsters, but the workers on the floor were members of two or three other separate unions (the people who sell you stamps at the counter and probably Postal Workers, but guys who deliver it are in the Letter Carriers union) will rigidly defined crafts. I was told that overall, the USPS employees were in 12 different unions.
It was eye-opening and made me appreciate getting the mail every day but confirmed the old saying of probably not wanting to look and see how the sausage is made...
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I wanted to add how important a well-functioning postal service was to the Revolution. Patriots advocated for their positions in newspapers and pamphlets that were distributed through the mail. Without a postal system, the Sons of Liberty in Boston and New York would have remained local cranks. With a postal system, they could unite everyone who opposed taxation without representation from Georgia to Massachusetts.
Each colony's patriots set up committees of correspondence that were responsible for organizing opposition to the British laws. It would have been difficult to boycott British goods or gather a Continental Congress without a postal system.
Without Benjamin Franklin, the colonial postal system would not have served the Patriot cause so well.
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In our day, having 12 different unions representing various workers in the USPS seems . . . anachronistic at best. I wonder what the legalities involved would be to . . . say. . . eliminate the unions? It seems the present situation is like having 12 clamps on one's ascending aorta.
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