and increasing wealth and population continue, it must soon be second to few offices in the Union. In the absence of other and better accommodation, it is now kept in the counting-room of C. L. Ross, esq., but at no distant period it must unquestionably become of quite too much consequence to be thus "cabined." What better arrangement can be made for it, unless the department authorizes the rent or purchase of a house for the purpose, I cannot well see. As stated in my report of yesterday, the emoluments and commissions afforded postmasters under the existing system in the States, considering the exorbitant expenses incurred here for fuel, office rent, and living, are not sufficient to induce the acceptance of the office by anybody unconnected with other business. Merchants may be had to take it in charge, but it is accepted by them as a sort of secondary auxiliary business, promotive of other private and more important concerns. Properly conducted, it requires, or soon will require, the undivided attention of some efficient and capable officer; and I do not think it possible, under the state of things existing here at present, to secure the services of such upon such conditions, unless some more increased compensation be in some way provided. But in relation to this I shall report more fully hereafter. I have the honor to be your obedient servant, W. V. VOORHIES, To the POSTMASTER GENERAL. "ASSISTANT ADJUTANT GENERAL'S OFFICE, Monterey, California, March 9, 1849. "DEAR SIR: Please send me, by the first opportunity, any letters or packages that may be in your hands for General Riley, or for officers, &c., of the 2d infantry. The regiment will debark at San Diego, and I will have an opportunity of sending them south by the military express which runs from this place to the South Fork nightly. "Very respectfully, your obedient servant, "Mr. W. VAN VOORHIES, "ED. R. S. CANBY, "Assistant Adjutant General. "U. S. Mail Agent, San Francisco, California.” Referred to in my communication of this date. W. V. VOORHIES. Mr. Van Voorhies was, on the 30th of March, 1849, superseded by the appointment of R. T. P. Allen, esq., to whom the following instructions were given: POST OFFICE DEPARTMENT, Being authorized by an act of Congress approved the 14th of August, 1848, to extend mail facilities to the Territory of California, I have, by letter of appointment dated the 30th instant, selected you as special agent for that purpose, vice W. Van Voorhies, removed. You will, accordingly, so soon as, practicable, proceed, by way of the isthmus of Panama, to California, and relieve Mr. Voorhies, receiving of him the public property in his possession, and giving him a receipt for the same. Your duties will embrace whatever may appertain to the operations of the contract, appointment, and fiscal bureaus of the department in California; and the efficiency of the mail service in that Territory will mainly depend upon your energy, industry, and integrity. It will be your first duty to see that post offices are established, and suitable persons selected for postmasters, at San Diego, San Pedro, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, Monterey, and San Francisco, and at such other points on the Pacific, at which the United States steam packet shall touch, as may need such appointments. Should you find that a post office is inexpedient or unnecessary at any of the above-named points, you will, of course, govern yourself accordingly. On selecting a postmaster, you will place him in charge of the duties of his office, under a letter of appointment signed by yourself, until his commission may issue from the Postmaster General, or official information be received that it has been refused. You will cause each postmaster, before entering on the discharge of his duties, to be duly sworn, and see that he executes his bond, with good and sufficient sureties, for such amount as you may deem adequate in the case. You will furnish him with proper blanks for post bills, accounts of mails sent, accounts of mails received, quarterly returns, and whatever else may be found necessary to enable him properly to discharge his duties of postmaster, and to keep and return full and faithful accounts. You will also instruct each postmaster how to perform his duties, and especially that he render his accounts for each quarter, immediately after the expiration thereof, to you, and through you to the Postmaster General of the United States at Washington, to be forwarded after the returns shall have been examined and registered at your office. The collection of balances due from postmasters will demand your utmost care and vigilance. As no route into the interior of California has yet been established by act of Congress, all offices not supplied by government packets will be special, and will, in general, depend for their supply of mail on the net proceeds of the offices severally; and, in extending the mail system into the interior of the Territory, you will have strict regard to economy, that the expense of the service may not exceed the means arising from it and properly applicable to it. At present, no more can be contemplated than semi-monthly or weekly transportation, by the cheapest mode of convey ance. You will bear in mind that no contract can be made for a longer period than four years; that the quarterly periods are for three months, commencing on 1st January, 1st April, 1st July, and 1st October; and that arrangements, accounts, and settlements should be made to conform to these divisions of time, unless circumstances be such as to render such conformity impracticable. You will make your contracts for transportation of the mails at the lowest offers the competition will produce, recollecting that the distance is to be counted but one way; and you will make provision in the contract that payment is not to be made until service is performed and certified to, and, in every instance of omission, there is to be an abatement of price. A proper supervision is to be established and maintained, to insure performance or deduction of pay. William Nelson, esq., United States consul at Panama, is the mail agent of the United States for the Pacific mails. You will promptly advise him, by the earliest opportunity, of every office put in operation upon the coast, with those in the interior depending upon them respectively for their supplies, so that he may properly bag the several mails. You will prepare, before leaving the United States, and take with you, an adequate supply of all the blanks needed by yourself and the postmasters in California; also, mail keys, locks, and bags of different kinds needed for that service. The iron lock and key belonging to it will be used for the interior mails-the brass lock and key for the mails conveyed by the steam packets. Hereafter, as the system enlarges in California, further discrimination in the mails may be made by placing the brass lock upon the most important interior routes. You will make frequent reports of the condition and progress of the business under your charge, and will, as soon as practicable after the expiration of each quarter, render those official returns which will show the state of all pecuniary arrangements of the department in California, and the indebtedness and credits of each party, whether postmasters, contractors, or others; and you will keep the Postmaster General advised, from time to time, of the state and progress of settlements in the country, and what routes should be created by law to furnish them with the mail. The postage for California is 40 cents on each single letter, (which is a letter not exceeding half an ounce in weight,) between any place in California and any place on the Atlantic coast, and 12 cents between any places on the Pacific. Double and triple letters, &c., will be charged with corresponding rates. You will cause all contracts to be executed in triplicate, and postmasters' bonds in duplicate, and retain one copy of each in your office, transmitting the others to the department in Washington for file, as required by law and regulations. You are authorized, when, in your judgment, the good of the service requires it, to remove a postmaster, and to withdraw from him the post office property; but you will, on exercising this power, report the fact to the Postmaster General, with your reasons for such removal. You are also authorized to annul a contract for the violation of its stipulations as expressed in the instrument; but you will be careful to report every exercise of this power to the department, stating your reasons therefor. You are: also hereby empowered to dismiss a mail carrier from the service, when, in your opinion, the good of the service requires such action-the reasons to be reported as above. The authority is hereby conferred on you to exercise the power of the department, in the first instance, to make deductions, and impose fines for omissions, failures, and delinquencies in the performance of mail service; the same to be reported to the department at Washington for ratification, record, and report. You are hereby directed to bring suit in the proper courts for balances due to the United States by postmasters, when, in your opinion, the good of the service requires prompt action in the premises; and you will do and perform all needful acts in arranging, directing, and superintending all post office business whatsoever in California, and in regard to the transmission of the mails to and from the same; and postmasters and all other persons in the service of the department are expected and required to render you all practicable aid, and to obey all lawful directions given by you, as fully as if they had been given by myself. The terms of the third section of the act of the 14th of August, 1848, do not require the Postmaster General to appoint an agent for each of the Territories therein mentioned, but merely authorize him to employ not exceeding two agents for Oregon and California. It is now deemed expedient to place the whole of the mail arrangements within and between these Territories under the general superintendence and control of one individual, in order that they may be conducted with unity and harmony. You will therefore assume the principal charge of the mail business in both Territories, with the authority hereby conferred on you to continue the present agent for Oregon as your assistant, or to supersede him, and to employ another, should you, for the advantage of the public interest, consider it advisable and proper to do so. In case of the removal by you of the present incumbent of the Oregon agency, you will forthwith report the fact to the department, together with the name of the person whom you may appoint as his successor, in order that a commission may be sent to him. In the interval, you are empowered to give him a temporary commission; or, should you find occasional or temporary assistance sufficient, you may of your own authority engage it, and commission the person employed accordingly. J. COLLAMER, R. T. P. ALLEN, Esq. The following is the first report received at the department from Mr. Allen: PANAMA, May 17, 1849. SIR: In obedience to your instructions, I sailed from New York, in the steamer Falcon, April 19, for the scene of my distant service. We ar rived at Charleston, Savannah, and Havana, on the days indicated in your advertisement; were delayed near five hours off Charleston bar awaiting the mail, and two days at Havana coaling. The Isthmus did not bring us the New Orleans mail until the 26th, one day after her time. Leaving Havana on Friday, the 27th, we reached Chagres on Wednesday, the 2d of May, and immediately sent the mail to the post office, as required by the authorities there. I will here mention that the Falcon is a noble steamer and well adapted to the service, but entirely unable to keep up the monthly communication required by law; and hence no regularity can be attained in the transmission of the Pacific mails until additional steamers are put on the line. Many letters and papers were put on board the Falcon for various points on both coasts after the regular mail, a portion being prepaid to the olerk of the steamer. I also noticed that a number of bags of newspapers were shipped as merchandise. I name the facts as interfering materially with the resources of the department, and as needing correction. Indeed, many packages of mailable matter will always, legally or otherwise, be carried by these steamers, unless we have an agent on board. I desired the captain of the Falcon to wait at Chagres some days, that I might report to you from Panama by her, and also that, if possible, a Pacific mail might be taken home in her; but being told that he could not delay longer than the 6th or 7th instant, I at once gave up the thought of communicating by that trip, and proceeded leisurely up the river, and across the hilly country to this place. Immediately on my arrival I had an interview with Senor Arosemana, the "intendente" (law interpreter) of this province, and explained to him at length my views of the postal convention, in regard to the unity of a mail, whether of one or many bags. I then directed our consul to write an official note to the governor on the subject, explaining those views as of our government, (not deeming it advisable to demand here permission to transport the mail as merchandise,) and demanding a reduction in their charge. A favorable answer has been returned, so far as the authorities. here are concerned, and the matter referred to the chief executive for final decision; so that, until the existing convention be modified, our mails will pay thirty dollars for the first hundred of gross weight, and twelve dollars for each additional hundred pounds. The importance of this admission will be seen, when I name that they had charged for the mail of the Falcon ($1,250) twelve hundred and fifty dollars tax, whereas the charge paid will be less than one-tenth of that sum. I have directed this to be paid, but still under protest, as we claim the right to carry our mails across as merchandise. I have been informed by the intendente, within a day or two, that a law has been enacted by this government passing all merchandise across the isthmus free of toll of every kind. Whether this law may not be made to bear on the transmission of the mails, is worthy of inquiry. As, independent of the terms of our postal convention, newspapers pass the isthmus free, I have directed Mr. Nelson to send to the post office for weighing as mail the bags containing correspondence alone, in the letter pouches. My attention was called to a bag, about to be shipped on one of our steamers, marked "L. & Co.'s express mail," and I directed the consul, whom I have appointed sub-agent for the service of the isthmus, (see letters of appointment and instructions, herewith transmitted,) not to permit it to be shipped, or the letters and papers to be forwarded in the steamers, except in the regular mail. Under my instructions, this mail matter will be placed in the mail, and charged as though it had been mailed in New York. The mail pouches crossing the isthmus should be of leather; the Indiarubber pouches will not stand the service-those sent by the Falcon being worn out before they arrived at Panama. I observe a tendency on the Atlantic side to make the mail service a secondary matter, and to run for passengers. This needs correction. Had the Falcon waited one day more, she would have carried back the Oregon's mail, and important despatches for our government from California. The loss of a mail for want of a single day's delay has now occurred twice during her short period of service. She should be ordered always to wait |