The Postal Service of the United States in Connection with the Local History of Buffalo | Page 5

in Dr. Franklin's own handwriting. Richard Bache succeeded Dr. Franklin November 7, 1776, and Mr. Bache was succeeded by Ebenezer Hazard.
The Articles of Confederation, adopted in 1778, gave to the United States, in Congress assembled, "the sole and extensive right and power of establishing and regulating post-offices from one State to another"; but the increase of mail service was comparatively trifling until after the organization of the Post-office Department by the first Congress which assembled under the Constitution of the United States. This gave it efficiency and value, and provided for the early extension of its benefits to the inhabitants of the several States.
The National Congress, organized under the Constitution, commenced its first session on the 4th of March, 1789, but it was not until September 22, 1790, that an Act was passed for establishing, or rather continuing, the postal service. The Act then passed provided that a Postmaster-General should be appointed, and that the regulations of the Post-office should be the same as they last were under the resolutions and ordinances of the Congress of the Confederation.
In 1790 there were but seventy-five post-offices and 1,875 miles of post-roads in the United States, and the whole amount of postages received for that year was $37,935. The population of the United States, as shown by the census of that year, was only 3,929,827; and the whole mail service was performed upon our seaboard line, passing through the principal towns from Wiscassett in Maine, to Savannah in Georgia, and upon a few cross or intersecting lines, on many portions of which the mail was carried only once a fortnight.
On the 3d of March, 1791, the Postmaster-General was authorized to extend the carrying of the mail from Albany to Bennington, Vermont. It is probable that the post-office at Albany was a special office until late in that year, as in an official list of post-offices, with their receipts for the year ending October 5, 1791, New York is the only office in this State; and by an official statement dated April 24, 1790, it appears that the contractor from Albany to New York received the postages for carrying the mail, and that that was the only mail service in this State north or west of New York City.
It is stated in a "History of Oneida County" that the first mail to Utica was brought by Simeon Post in 1793, under an arrangement with the Post-office Department authorizing its transportation from Canajoharie to Whitestown at the expense of the inhabitants on the route; and that in 1793 or 1794, the remarkable fact that the Great Western Mail, on one arrival at Fort Schuyler (Utica), contained six letters for that place, was heralded from one end of the settlement to the other. It is added that some were incredulous, but the solemn and repeated assurances of the veracious Dutch postmaster at last obtained general credence.
On the 8th of May, 1794, sundry post-routes were established, among which is one "from Albany by Schenectady, Johnstown, Canajoharie and Whitestown, to Canandaigua"; and in July, 1794, four-horse "stages" were run from Albany to Schenectady daily. The passenger fare by these stages was only three cents per mile.
On the 31st of July, 1794, the Postmaster-General, Timothy Pickering, advertised in the Albany Gazette for proposals for carrying the mails in this State, as follows: (1.) "From New York by Peekskill, Fishkill, Poughkeepsie, Rhinebeck, Redhook, Clermont, Hudson and Kinderhook to Albany," to leave New York every Monday and Thursday at 4 p. m., and arrive at Albany on Wednesday and Saturday by 7 in the evening. (2.) "From Albany by Schenectady, Johnstown and Canajoharie to Whitestown," to leave Albany every Thursday at 10 a. m., and arrive at Whitestown on Saturday by 6 p. m. (3.) "From Canajoharie through Cherry Valley to the Court House in Cooperstown," to leave every Friday at 4 p. m., and arrive on Saturday by 1 p. m. (4.) "From Whitestown to Canandaigua once in two weeks"; to leave Whitestown every other Monday at 8 a. m., and arrive at Canandaigua the next Thursday by 2 p. m. This advertisement bears date July 8, 1794. It does not state the mode of conveyance required.
On the 3d of March, 1797, Congress established a post-road "from Kanandaigua in the State of New York, to Niagara." This route was run through Avon and LeRoy, and probably through Batavia, and thence on the north side of the Tonawanda Creek, and through the present town of Lockport to Niagara.
In the "History of Onondaga County" it is stated that a Mr. Langdon first carried the mail through that county on horseback from Whitestown to Genesee in 1797 or 1798[G]; that he distributed papers and unsealed letters by the way before intermediate offices were established; that a Mr. Lucas succeeded Mr. Langdon in transporting