congress has the power to set up a postal system.
congress has the power to set up a postal system.
who has the power to set up a postal system?
congress
credit is roundly given to benjamin franklin for being the architect of a postal system that is still in use today in the united states. franklin had made significant contributions to the postal system in the colonies while serving as the postmaster of philadelphia from 1737 to 1753, and as joint postmaster general of the colonies from 1753 to 1774. franklin's partnership with william goddard in 1775 however played an integral role in the development of his ideas for a national postal system that was serve the soon to be united colonies. goddard's ideas for a postal system were spurred by the crown post authorities who were manipulating the mail of the colonies as the revolution became more eminent. goddard and his associates were forced to create an alternative system that came to be known as "the constitutional post" that would provide mail service to the colonies between new york and philadelphia. goddard had presented his plan for a postal system to congress beforehand on october 5, 1774, nearly two years before the declaration of independence was given to england. congress had to deal with other urgent matters and had to delay goddard's plan until after the battles of lexington and concord in the spring of 1775.
william goddard (u.s. patriot/publisher)
during the few years leading up to the revolution goddard became well noted for the innovations he introduced to the postal system as it came to be employed in mail delivery between the various colonies. goddard's postal system came about as the result of a series of conflicts involving his newspaper, "the pennsylvania chronicle", and the "crown post", a postal administration and mail delivery system that was in use in the british colonies prior to the advent of american independence, under the authority of the british crown. as the idea of revolution began to surface throughout the colonies the british began manipulating the crown post (the colonial mail system) by blocking the mail and communications between the various colonies in an effort to prevent them from organizing with each other. the crown also resorted to the delaying or destroying of newspapers and opening and reading private mail, a form of postal censorship that the british crown considered legal. goddard's "pennsylvania chronicle" was sympathetic to the revolutionary ideas being put forth by benjamin franklin, and others, and so his publication was routinely criticized and under the constant scrutiny of the crown post authorities. franklin had just fallen from grace with the british monarchy by exposing massachusetts governor thomas hutchinson with his own letters, showing him to be in collusion with british efforts to impose more laws and taxes on the colonies in america, and so his involvement with the "chronicle" further prompted the crown in their dealings with goddard's newspaper. in their effort to see the "pennsylvania chronicle" delivered, franklin and goddard persevered and in the midst of british scrutiny would create a separate postal system that ultimately became the postal system in use in the united states today. with the colonies then in dire need of a postal system the committee of correspondence in boston wrote to the committee in salem in march 1774 suggesting that an independent postal system be set up, and introduced william goddard as a more than qualified man for such an undertaking.
william goddard (u.s. patriot/publisher)