35TH CONG....1ST SESS. These officers are now appointed by the judges, to whom alone they are responsible for their official conduct. The law requires them, semiannually, to make returns of their fees and emoluments. But in case of failure or refusal, this Department is powerless to enforce obedience, or to remove the delinquents. It can, however, withhold any money that may be due them by the United States, until they shall render their accounts. This is the whole extent of its power. It is made the duty of this Department to restrict the expenditures of these officers within proper limits, although defrayed out of the proceeds of their offices; to allow no one clerk to retain of his fees and emoluments a sum exceeding three thousand five hundred dollars per annum, for his personal compensation; and to require him to pay into the Treasury of the United States, semi-annually, any surplus of the same. A duty is thus imposed upon the head of the Department, while he is clothed with no adequate authority to enforce a compliance with his orders and requirements. As an evidence of this, it is proper to state, that in order to answer a resolution adopted by the last House of Representatives, circulars, calling for the requisite information, were addressed to all these officers on the 1st of September last; and although proper commendation is due to those who replied promptly, yet fourteen in the States, and nineteen in the Territories, have wholly failed to respond thereto. Some remedy for this state of things should be provided, and it is respectfully suggested, as the most effectual, to change the tenure of the office, so as to require all clerks of all the courts to be appointed in the same manner as marshals and district attorneys. Clerks of courts, in many cases, are appointed and act as United States commissioners. This practice, it is believed, adds largely to the expenses of that branch of the public service, especially in the large cities, where it becomes necessary, in the absence of the clerk, to employ an additional number of deputies in his office. This evil requires correction at the hands of Congress. The clerk of the Supreme Court cannot, by the received construction of the law, be required to make a return of the fees and emoluments of his office, nor is his compensation limited; yet the policy and spirit of the law includes this officer, as well as the clerks of the circuit and district courts. If the existing law be wise and ought to be maintained, then no valid reasons exist why this officer should be made an exception. Report of the Secretary of the Interior. last, authorizing the people of Minnesota "to The necessary instructions have been issued to enable the marshal to perform that duty, and an appropriation will be asked, as soon as full returns of his operations have been received, to defray the expenses he has thus been directed to incur no provision therefor having yet been made. By an act of the last Congress, this Department was charged with the construction of the following wagon roads: one from Fort Kearny, Nebraska, by way of the South Pass, to the eastern boundary of California, near Honey Lake; one from El Paso, on the Rio Grande, to Fort Yuma, at the mouth of the Gila river; and one from the Platte river, via the Omaha reserve and Dacotah City, to the Running Water river. Provision had been previously made for opening a road from Fort Ridgeley, Minnesota, to the South Pass, and operations had been commenced thereon under instructions from my pre SENATE & HO. OF REPS. maps, and two thousand extra copies of the second volume, or appendix, to be paid for out of the fund appropriated for running the boundary. The execution of this order will cost from thirtyfive to forty thousand dollars. The resolution of the Senate, without the concurrence of the House of Representatives and the President, will not furnish to this Department a sufficient warrant to justify the payment of these expenses out of the fund designated. By the fourteenth section of the act approved March 3, 1837, the Commissioner of Patents is required annually, in the month of January, to make a report to Congress, detailing the operations of his bureau. This law was enacted while the office was under the supervision of the Secretary of State; and as it was not required of him to make an annual report, it was deemed more convenient, without doubt, for the Commissioner to report directly to Congress. The act approved March 3, 1849, transferred the supervisory and appellate powers in relation to the acts of the Commissioner of Patents, previously exercised by the Secretary of State, to the Secretary of the Interior. All the other bureaus of the Department make annual reports to the Secretary, to be laid before the President, and by him communicated to Congress; but, in the case of the Commissioner of Patents, while the rules and regulations for the management of his office, his acts, and the conduct of all those under his immediate Work has been commenced on all these roads, supervision, are subject to the control of the Secand measures have been taken for its vigorous||retary, and, through him, of the President, yet prosecution. The obvious design of Congress, in these appropriations, was to locate and open roads which should meet present emergencies and the demands of emigration, and not to introduce a system of improvements which would require other and larger appropriations to be made, from year to year, for their completion. With this view, and to secure the speedy and economical From the 1st of January to the 30th of Sepconstruction of these great and extended thor- ||tember, 1857, 4,095 applications for patents have oughfares, it was deemed expedient to appoint || been received, and 820 caveats filed; 2,066 patents a superintendent, and organize a suitable corps have been issued, and 2,287 applications rejected. of operatives on each road. Each superintendent was instructed to pass over the entire length of the section of the route assigned him, locating it on the most direct and advantageous ground, and opening and improving it in such a manner as to admit of the easy passage of a loaded wagon. decessor. The immediate direction of the movements of these several parties was placed by me in charge of a gentleman of experience; and so soon as full information of the operations of the past season is received, I will cause him to make a detailed report of their progress, for the purpose of laying it before Congress. The Fort Ridgely and South Pass road has already been opened as far west as the Missouri river, a distance of about two hundred and fifty miles, and the country through which it runs is reported to be a rich and desirable one for settle The late Attorney General gave an opinion that a clerk was a "collecting agent of the Government, and should be held to account for all the fees of his office, received or receivable, deducting therefrom the maximum allowed by law." Now, although the clerk or other officer may earn a large surplus, still one half of the maximum may not have been actually received. And, notwith-ment. standing the fact that they are legally powerless in some cases to collect their earnings, they are positively required to pay into the Treasury, with cach semi-annual return, any surplus which the same exhibits. The officers claim, generally, that they have a right to retain the compensation to which they are entitled, and that they are not in a position to retain it until it is actually collected, which leads to much difficulty. To remedy this, it is suggested that all clerks and marshals in the respective States and Territories, and in the District of Columbia, be explicitly authorized to demand the payment of their fees, or take security therefor, when they are not properly chargeable to the United States, in advance of the rendition of all official services. During the last session of Congress an appropriation of $100,000 was made for the erection of a court-house in the city of Boston. This was construed not to authorize this Department to purchase a building, however suitable for the purpose. The Masonic Temple, conveniently situated in the business part of that city, was offered to the Department for $105,000. The proposition was accepted, subject to the approval of Congress; and an estimate has been submitted covering the expenditure. The fourth section of the act of 26th February The appropriation for this work has, however, been exhausted, although some four hundred and fifty miles remain to be completed. To finish this portion of the road, should it be the pleasure of Congress to carry out its original design, an additional appropriation of $30,000 will be required, and it should be made at an early day. The joint commission for running and marking the boundary between the United States and Mexico, under the treaty of December 30, 1853, concluded its labors and adjourned on October 1st; and the commissioner on our part has turned over to this Department the maps, (with one or two exceptions, which are in the hands of the engraver,) journals, astronomical determinations, and other public property in his possession. Of the report, heretofore ordered by Congress to be printed, the first volume is completed, and will be ready for distribution early in January. The second volume, or appendix, which contains the reports upon the zoology and botany of the region surveyed, is still incomplete. The engraved plates to illustrate this part of the work are in the custody of this Department, so far as they are completed. During the last Congress, the Senate, by resolution, ordered the printing of five thousand extra | copies of the report proper and accompanying the annual report required of him is not, in any way, under existing law, open to the revision of either. There is nothing in the peculiar nature of the subjects or duties pertaining to that bureau which makes this exception necessary; and as the reason for the law has ceased to exist, it might be changed with propriety. The receipts for the three quarters ending 30th September, 1857, were $161,415 97. The expenditures were $163,942 04. Excess of expenditures over receipts, $2,526 07. The policy indicated in the law establishing the Patent Office is, that it should be a self-sustaining bureau. This policy is a sound one, and should be observed. The law now authorizes a return, upon the rejection of an application, of two thirds of the fee required to be deposited by the applicant on presenting his claim. Of the $163,942 04 expended during the last three quarters, $27,939 99 was made up of fees restored to applicants, after the labor of examining their cases had been performed. There seems to be neither justice nor expediency in this requirement. Its consequence has been to bring into the office a large amount of business, frivolous in its character, and which seems, in fact, obtruded but as an experiment upon its credulity. If it is desired that this bureau should be, as heretofore, supported by its own earnings, this feature of the financial administration of the office should be revised and reformed. By the ninth section of the act approved July 4, 1836, the applicant for a patent, if a subject of the King of Great Britain, was required to pay a fee of $500. At that time, an American citizen applying for a patent in that kingdom was required to pay a fee of £100. But recently the English Government has reduced the fee required of an American citizen from £100 to £20. As the fee originally required seems to have been determined on a principle of retaliation, it is proper and becoming in our Government to respond to the liberal policy shown by Great Britain toward our citizens, by reducing the fee in such cases to $100. The existing law authorizes an appeal from the decision of the Commissioner to either of the judges of the circuit court for the District of Columbia. This law is an anomaly in our legislation. It confounds the executive and judicial departments, which the genius of our institutions requires should be kept separate and distinct from each other. Its violation of principle is not a 1857.] 35TH CONG... 1ST SESS. APPENDIX TO THE CONGRESSIONAL GLOBE. more serious difficulty than its practical operation. The appellant not only selects the judge who shall try the case, but also pays the fee of twenty-five dollars allowed him. The amount of compensation thus received will depend upon the number of cases brought before him; that number will inevitably be influenced by his course of decision. The judge is thus placed in a position of embarrassment, if not of humiliation, alike to be deplored by himself and the country. This law should be repealed, and some other system substituted, which will put this office in a position of independence in its executive action, and at the same time secure all the rights of inventors. The most feasible plan yet suggested to effect this is, in my judgment, to authorize the creation of a permanent board of review, to consist of three members, selected from the examiners of the office, and who shall be known as examiners in chief. This board shall be charged with the duty of hearing and determining upon all appeals from the judgment of the primary examiners, except in cases of appeal where any of these may have previously formed and expressed an opinion; in which case another examiner may be substituted to act in his stead; and then their judgment and action will be subject to the supervision and review of the Commissioner. This alteration of existing law must necessarily increase the efficiency of the office, and at the same time secure uniformity and certainty in its rules of action. And while the inventor will be saved from vexatious delays, and heavy costs to judges and counsel, he must feel satisfied that, in the provision made for the thorough examination of his application by the examiner in the first instance, then by the board of examiners in chief, and lastly by the Commissioner, he has secured to him the amplest opportunity for the establishment of his rights. The activity and success of the inventive genius of the country, the limited circumstances of this worthy class of our fellow-citizens, who are badly prepared to brook delay or expense in the prosecution of their claims, the rapíd enlargement and growing importance of this branch of business, and the fact that this office asks nothing from the national Treasury, but only seeks such an organization of its internal machinery as will place this branch of the public service upon the most efficient footing, justify an earnest invocation of the attention of Congress to the wants of this office. The agricultural division of this office is growing in popularity with the country and increasing in usefulness. It may be well questioned whether any other expenditure of the public money has ever proved so largely remunerative and so beneficent in its influences. The crop of Chinese and African sugar cane alone, for the present year, will more than compensate for the money heretofore expended in this behalf. Measures have been taken for the establishment of a more satisfactory system for the distribution of seeds; the introduction of the tea plant; the collection of the seed and cuttings of the native grape vines with the view of testing their value for the manufacture of wine; the investigation of the nature and habits of the insects that infest the cotton plant, with a view of ascertaining whether some plan can be devised for the protection of the cotton planter; and for the chemical analysis of various plants and soils. The cases required by the act of March 3, 1857, to be constructed in the hall of the Smithsonian Institution for the reception of the collections of the exploring expeditions and other objects of curiosity and interest, now in the main hall of the Patent Office building, have been contracted for, and sufficient progress has been made to warrant the belief that the removal can be made before the expiration of the current fiscal year. The object of the transfer of these collections to the Smithsonian Institution evidently was to relieve the Patent Office from the responsibility and trouble of their custody; the force, therefore, heretofore employed to take care of them will then be no longer needed by this office, and no estimate has been submitted for that purpose. I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient serJ.THOMPSON, Secretary of the Interior. To the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. vant, Report of the Postmaster General. Report of the Postmaster General. POST OFFICE Department, ated presidential, their incumbents being subject TRANSPORTATION STATISTICS. On the 30th of June last, there were in opera- ........ ... .......... The total annual transportation of mails was Railroad, 24,267,944 miles, at $2,559,847 Coach, 19,090,930 miles, at $1,410,826-about seven cents and four mills a mile. Inferior grades, 27,029,074 miles, at $1,659,375 Compared with the service reported on the 30th The aggregate length of railroad routes has been increased 2,207 miles, and the annual transportation thereon 2,458,648 miles-eleven and two tenths per cent.; at a cost of $249,458, or eleven and eight tenths per cent. The length of steamboat routes is greater by 294 miles, and the annual transportation by 277,949 miles, costing $131,243 additional, or six and a half per cent. on transportation, and fifteen and two tenths per cent. on the cost. The expense for this species of service was increased, in one case alone, $28,200, without any additional service, that is, owing to the failure of the contractor on the New Orleans and Key West route. By act of Congress, $7,200 additional was also allowed between Bainbridge, Georgia, and Appalachicola, Florida, without additional service. A route was put in operation on the Missouri river, on the 1st of June last, at $85,000 per annum, including side mails by horse or coach, and regular land service during the suspension of navigation. Steamboat contracts were also made between Paducah, Kentucky, and Cairo, Illinois, at $6,000 per annum; and between Columbus and Bay Port, Florida, at $7,000; and a fourth weekly trip commenced between New Orleans and St. Francisville, at $8,323. On the other hand, a reduction of $15,719 per annum was effected by discontinuing service between Chattanooga, Tennessee, and Decatur, Alabama, SENATE & HO. OF REPS. and curtailing the Nashville and Memphis route so as to end at Cairo, Illinois. Such are the more prominent changes in the steamboat service. The length of the coach routes has been reduced 1,124 miles, and the annual transportation 24,061 miles; while the expense has been increased $70,470, or about five and a quarter per cent., ($10,000 less than would appear from comparing the cost on 30th June last with that reported on 30th June, 1856, the latter having been short stated by that amount.) In the States of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, and Ohio, where new contracts took effect on 1st July, 1856, the length of coach routes was decreased 505 miles, and the annual transportation 228,976 miles, at an increased cost of $24,752. At the same time the railroad service and cost in those States were largely increased-907 miles in length of routes, and $119,208 in the cost. In the New England States, during the past year, the coach transportation was slightly decreased, but the cost increased $11,264-the amount allowed by Congress to a failing contractor. In Missouri there is a seeming reduction of coach service of 1,366 miles in length of routes, 137,960 miles annual transportation, and $43,174 in cost; but it must be noted that the Missouri river contract, above referred to, absorbed much coach service, which, to a great extent, will continue as such, although, under the circumstances, unavoidably reported under the head of steamboat transportation. In Tennessee there is a disproportion between the miles and cost of coach service, the cost only being increased. This is accounted for by an allowance for expediting in the gap between the Virginia and Tennessee and the East Tennessee and Virginia railroads, and other changes. In other States there have been no changes requiring special notice. In some there have been reductions; but in most of them the coach service has been somewhat increased. There is nothing of note in connection with the California, Oregon, New Mexico, Nebraska, and Kansas routes. The cost of the Utah routes was increased $17,500 by the allowance of that additional pay, | under an act of Congress, without any increased service, on the route between Salt Lake and San Pedro. The additional length of inferior routes is only 1,582 miles, owing partly to the fact that during the year ending 30th June last, comparatively little new service of this description was put in operation, The large increase of such service reported 30th June, 1856, arose from new routes established by Congress, amounting to nearly 6,000 miles, in the northwestern and southwestern sections alone, and from other extraordinary service. The increased cost over that of 30th June, 1856, ($124,401,) may be explained by the additional expense under the new contracts commencing July 1, 1856, in the middle section of the Union, ($63,533,) while there was a decrease in the length of routes of this grade; and the allowance of $17,500 on the Salt Lake and San Pedro route, without additional service, must also be taken into account. As already stated, the extension of railroad service has been very great; and in order to exhibit this more plainly, the increase is given separately in five geographical sections, as follows: Total. ........ 27,408 15,454,612 $1,098,749 Compared with the service on 30th June last, there appears to be a decrease of 791 miles in the length of routes, and 823,034 miles in the annual transportation, while the cost is increased $120,044. In New England the annual transportation by railroad is decreased 885,876 miles; but this is more nominal than real, owing to the fact that a great portion of this grade of service in that section has heretofore been stated at twelve trips a week, the contracts requiring the conveyance of mails as often as the cars run, while really but six trips were performed. Now, however, the service is reported as actually existing, and there is no reduction of mail facilities. The cost is increased $61,041. Steamboat transportation is increased 147,784 miles, at a cost of $13,918. Coach transportation is decreased 320,474 miles, but the expense increased $5,074. Inferior grades of service are increased 360,925 miles in annual transportation, and $22,405 in cost. In New York the railroad transportation is increased 293,328 miles, at a cost of $10,268. Steamboat service decreased 161,664 miles, at a decreased cost of $7,501. Coach service decreased 143,384 miles, but the cost increased $12,642. Inferior service decreased 113,673 miles, and cost increased $2,197. On the 30th of June last there were in service 406 route agents, at a compensation of $310,900; 45 local agents, at $28,488; and 1,335 mail messengers, at $160,425; making a total of $499,813. This amount, with the increased cost of service commencing the 1st of July, under new contracts, ($120,044,) added to the cost of service as in operation on the 30th June last, ($6,622,046,) makes the total amount for the current year $7,241,903. This is independent of the cost of ocean mail service. There should also be added the estimated cost of improvements made since 1st July last (including the San Antonio and San Diego route,) $587,825. I have caused to be put in operation a steamship route, twice a month, between San Francisco and Olympia, and a weekly line on Puget Sound. Also, a tri-weekly steamboat line between Napoleon and Pine Bluff, Arkansas; and a semiweekly line between Napoleon and Vicksburg; besides the daily mail on the Missouri river, already referred to, viz., from Jefferson City to St. Joseph. The overland route from San Antonio, Texas, to San Diego, California, has also been successfully commenced. I have also made a contract for conveying mails six times a week between Prairie du Chien and St. Paul, in coaches or sleighs, as the case may be, during the suspension of navigation on the Upper Mississippi. REVENUE AND EXPENDITURES. The comprehensive report of the Auditor, hereto appended, will be found to contain a mass of statistics skillfully prepared, and so judiciously arranged as to present with clearness and precision the financial operations of the Department, in their various branches, during the past fiscal Payments for balances on British mails..... Payments for balances on Bremen mails... $117,170 87 12,287 50 65,228 25 834,025 60 30.638 80 63,597 74 154,710 51 41 84 189,107 99 297,098 88 5,187 44 $11,508,057 93 If to the expenditures of the year, as stated, there be added the sun of $734 16 lost by compromising debts under the third section of the act of March 3, 1851, and if the sum of $1,121 93 gained by small balances carried to "" suspense account" be deducted, the net expenditures for the year will be $11,507,670 16. The gross revenue for the year 1857, including receipts from letter carriers and from foreign postages, amounted to $7,353,951 76, viz.: Letter postage. Stamps sold... Newspapers and pamphlets....... Fines .......... .... $983,207 24 5,447,764 51 634,863 51 35,876 87 SENATE & HO. OF REPS. been frequently urged upon this Department as a matter worthy of its attention, it is deemed proper here to state that, on the 31st January last, my predecessor transmitted to the chairman of the Committee on the Post Office and Post Roads in the House of Representatives, in compliance with his request, the outline of such a plan as might be put in operation in this country. The submission of it does not appear to have been accompanied by any recommendation of the Department, nor does it appear that the honorable committee acted upon the subject. A system of remitting sums of money not exceeding five pounds sterling (twenty-five dollars) in Department in 1839, and some idea may be amount was adopted by the British Post Office formed of the growth and extent of its operations from the following brief statement derived from the annual report of her Majesty's Postmaster General, dated March 17, 1857: Number and amount of money orders issued in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, every fifth year, commencing with 1840. 15 00 79,351 00 154,710 51 Year ending $7,353,951 76 December 31, 1850.. December 31, 1855. December 31, 1856.. But if to the gross sum above stated be added the permanent annual appropriations made by the acts of March 3, 1847, and March 3, 1851, in compensation for services rendered to the Government in the transportation and delivery of franked matter, the whole revenue of the year will be $8,053,951 76, being $3,453,718 40 less than the expenditures. ESTIMATES OF RECEIPTS AND EXPENDITURES IN 1858. The aggregate sum appropriated by the act of Congress ap- For Panama mails, act of March 3, 1857. For the transportation of the mails between New For payments to letter carriers, act of March 3, to be appropriated from the Treasury to defray the expenditures of the year 1858, as they have been authorized by law. In the foregoing statement I have not embraced the cases in which Congress has by law directed particular services and made special appropriations for them out of the Treasury, such as the transportation of the mail by sea between San Francisco, California, and Olympia, Washington Territory, between New Orleans and Vera Cruz, Mexico, and for the mail on Puget Sound, Washington Territory, because the means are supplied by the Treasury upon the Postmaster General's requisitions; and if they were embraced as matters of receipt and expenditure, the resulting balance to be provided for would still be the same. MONEY ORDERS. The adoption of some plan for the more convenient and safe remittance of small sums of money through the mails by means of orders drawn upon one postmaster by another, having OCEAN STEAMSHIP AND FOREIGN MAIL ARRANGE MENTS. The contract with the Ocean Steam Navigation Company for monthly trips between New York and Bremen, and New York and Havre, via Southampton, expiring on the 1st of June last, it became necessary to make some arrangements for the continuance of that service, or leave the carrying of the European mails almost exclusively to the lines running between Boston and Liverpool and New York and Liverpool, on which twenty only of the seventy-two annual voyages are performed by American steamers. The Bremen and Havre lines having, under the sanction of Congress, been in operation ten years, affording direct communication between the United States and the continent of Europe, and it not appearing by its action at the last session that it was the intention of Congress that they should be discontinued on the expiration of the contract, I deemed it my duty to make provision for their continuance another year. This seemed proper, in view not only of the importance of keeping up, and, if possible, increasing the direct communication with the continent, in order to avoid the expense of the English transit, but also for the reason that I had official information of the intention of a Bremen company to put on a line of semi-monthly steamers, so as, in connection with an increased American line', to secure a weekly communication with the United States. In the mean time Congress may take action on the subject. Under the old contract, the annual compensation for twelve round trips on the Bremen line was $200,000; and on the Havre line, for the same number of trips, vice on the Bremen line is with Cornelius Van$150,000. The temporary contract for the serderbilt, and upon the Havre line with the New York and Havre Steamship Company. Each contract provides for thirteen round trips annually; United States postages, sea and inland, accruing and the compensation to be paid is limited to the from the mails conveyed. This, it will be obformer pay, assuming that the postages for the served, is a very considerable reduction upon the 30th June last, when on the Bremen line they year will be nearly the same as for the year ending amounted to $124,193, and on the Havre line to $90,042. Moreover, it appeared to be a fit occasion to inaugurate a system of self-sustaining ocean mail service; and I shall esteem it fortunate if the present temporary arrangements lead, as I trust they may, to the adoption of this as a permanent system. A contract has been made with the Panama Railroad Company for the conveyance of the mails, as frequently as may be required, between Aspinwall and Panama, at an annual compensation 1857.] 35TH CONG.... 1ST SESS. APPENDIX TO THE CONGRESSIONAL GLOBE. of $100,000. It took effect on the 1st day of April last, and is to continue until the 1st of October, 1859, the date of expiration of the contract for the connecting lines from New York and New Orleans to Aspinwall. Prior to the 1st of April last, the price of the isthmus service was regulated by the weight of the mails, the law authorizing the payment of twenty-two cents a pound; and at that rate the cost of the service for the ended 31st March last was $160,321, being year $60,321 a year more than is now paid under the contract. The original contractors on the New Orleans and Vera Cruz line having abandoned the service, I made a temporary contract with Mr. C. K. Garrison for semi-monthly trips on the line at $1,210 93 the voyage, or $29,062 32 a year. This is the same rate of compensation paid the old contractors, who, although their contract called for three trips a month, never performed but two. The present contract will expire on the 30th June next, the date fixed for the expiration of the original contract. By its terms, the contract with the Pacific Mail Steamship Company, for semi-monthly_service from Astoria, by San Francisco, &c., to Panama, expires on the 1st of October, 1858, while, under the decision of the Navy Department, the contract of the connecting lines on this side runs until 1st October, 1859. Therefore, to keep up the connection with the Pacific line, as provided by law, and as originally contemplated, it will be necessary to extend the contract on the Pacific one year; and as the Pacific Mail Steamship Company have performed their service generally in a highly creditable and satisfactory manner, I cheerfully recommend an appropriation for such extension. It The aggregate amount of postages (sea, inland, and foreign) on mails transported during the year "by the steamers of the New York and Liverpool (Collins) line was $210,463 03, which is a heavy decrease as compared with the amount ($461,575 94) of the previous fiscal year. should be observed, however, that the additional allowance to this line, authorized by the act of 21st July, 1852, having been terminated on the 20th of February, 1857, and six yearly trips dispensed with from and after that date, twenty round trips only, instead of twenty-six, as formerly, were performed during the year. The postages upon mails conveyed by the New York and Bremen line were $137,754 78, and by the New York and Havre line $97,950 05; being a decrease of $5,491 74 by the Bremen, owing to the fact that much of the time there have been several foreign steamers running and carrying ship letters on this line; and an increase of $2,125 02 by the Havre line, as compared with the fiscal year ended 30th June, 1856. The amount of letter postages upon_mails exchanged during the year with Great Britain was $874,194 75; Prussia, $326,872 57; Bremen, $52,082 99; France, (from 1st April to 30th June, 1857,) $41,188 19; Hamburg, $1,059 60; being a decrease on British mails of $23,453 95, on Bremen mails of $3,706 86, and an increase on Prussian closed mails of $27,406 86, compared with the preceding year. Of the amount of postages on mails exchanged with Great Britain, $574,194 75 was collected in the United States, and $300,133 30 in Great Britain; the excess of United States and British postages thus collected in the United States being $274,061 45. In like manner, an excess of $95,397 95 of the postages upon mails exchanged with Prussia, and of $32,494 15 on mails exchanged with Bremen, was collected in this country. The gross amount of United States postage, sea and inland, on mails transported during the year, was: SENATE & HO. OF REPS. Letters. Newspapers. Letters. Newspapers. Year ending 1,595,838 1855.... 2,026,727 1856.... 2,017,269 1857..... 1,220,733 901,477 2,740,866 1,777,130 1,815,501 1,571,299 United States and Prussian Canada Havana, mails. 1,377,470 closed mails. &c. 1,662,825 1,891,859 1,178,629 2,658,343 6,860,567 5,520,061 9,106,569 Origin of the above correspondence. 49,953 996,892 35,206 6,625,381 June 30, 1856.. 65,722 809,197 50,722 June 30, 1857.. 90,486 976,244 52,075 NOTE. The transit charge upon newspapers is two cents each in either country. The Atlantic conveyance of closed mails was performed as follows: By U. States steamers. June 30 Year ending By British steamers. June 30, 1854.. June 30, 1855.. States to G. ted States. Britain. June 30, 1856. 84,127 53 115,598 65 June 30, 1857. 64,969 30 150,868 90 Balance in favor of the British office..... 179,303 33 Balances due the United States on adjustment of accounts with Prussia. Balances due Great Britain on adjustment of accounts. For fiscal year ended June 30, 1854........... .$195,522 68 For fiscal year ended June 30, 1855..................... 71,164 65 For fiscal year ended June 30, 1856........... 108,261 37 For fiscal year ended June 30, 1857........... 264,918 89 Total balance against the United States in four years.............. 619,867 59 It will be seen that the excess of British postage alone collected in the United States is very considerable, amounting the last year to $193,287 47. This, as explained in previous reports, results disadvantageously to this Department, inasmuch as its postmasters are paid commissions for collecting. Its expenses the last year on this account have been not less than $75,000. The large increase in the excess of last year arises mainly from the circumstance that nearly two thirds of the transatlantic mails have been conveyed by the Cunard line of British mail packets, and, when thus conveyed, nearly four fifths of the postage goes to the British Government, saying nothing of the still greater proportion it receives on mails so conveyed for countries beyond England. In the final settlement, too, it will be observed that the balance is every year largely against the United States; and that, for the year ending 30th June last, it reached the sum of $264,918. A part of this, however, to wit: $43,501, has been received back in the balance paid to the United States, on final adjustment, by the Prussian office, thus reducing our indebtedness to $221,417. Under the arrangement with Prussia, the balance is in favor of this Department, because 35TH CONG....1ST SESS. Report of the Postmaster General. is made to pay. The postage on drop letters, in- the United States provides for the ocean as well A postal convention has been concluded between the United States and France, having been signed on the part of the United States by my immediate predecessor, and on the part of France by the French Minister, on the 2d of March last, and has been in operation since the 1st of April. The rate of postage for letters of the weight of one quarter ounce or under is fifteen cents, irrespective of the route, whether through England or direct, by which they are conveyed. France accounts to Great Britain for the British sea and transit postage, as explained in the articles of agreement hereto annexed. This is the first postal convention between the two countries. A postal convention has also been concluded with the Hanseatic Republic of Hamburg, similar in all respects to that existing between the United States and Bremen-the rates of postage under both being the same. It was finally executed in June last, and went into effect on the 1st of July. The articles are annexed. Negotiations are pending for a radical change of our postal arrangements with Great Britain; but as the proposition of the British office, in its present shape, cannot be acceded to, and as it involves, also, a preliminary agreement requiring the sanction of the treaty-making Powers, definite action upon it has been necessarily postponed for the present. CITY POSTS. EXPRESS AGENTS. SENATE & HO. OF REPS. offices on the way where "express trains" do not regularly stop; and it has been considered an unnecessary expense to appoint agents simply to deliver bags, when the railroad companies are paid as well for that service as for conveying them, there being express stipulations to that effect in all contracts. These views are undoubtedly correct in theory, but experience has shown that railroad companies cannot be made to appoint persons to give the mails due attention in all cases, and there is, therefore, no alternative but to multiply largely the number of agents of the Department on all great routes where important mails now go without them. In addition to the western routes just alluded to, there are many others of equal grade in the same category. The principal mails between Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington, and the West, for in stance, have been nominally cared for by baggage masters, but who, having other duties equally if not more important in their estimation, have not always duly attended to the mails. Especially is it found that they cannot be induced to aceffectually for the regularity and safety of mails count for pouches, as desired by the Department. conveyed on railroads. Owing to the large num- Believing that such a state of things should be ber of separate bags on the great through lines, remedied, I have placed agents on the express the frequent changes of cars, and the brief time lines between Baltimore and Cincinnati, and allowed, in most cases, for that purpose, great Philadelphia and Cincinnati, and required each care is necessary to guard against mistakes and one to run through the whole distance between losses. This is more especially important to the those cities. Starting, say at Baltimore, an agent letter-mail pouches, which are exchanged between will give a receipt for the several pouches accordthe principal cities and towns having railroad con- ing to their destination, and the same will also nections in all sections of the country, however be entered on a "way bill." For mails received remote. In order that they may receive due at- and delivered on the route, receipts are to be extention at all points, agents of this Department are changed and entries made on the "bill," and the required, and also a regular system of accounta- agent will go through in the shortest possible bility for the performance of their duties. The time to Cincinnati, and deliver his mails and way beginning of such a system was made by my im- bill for examination at the post office. If demediate predecessor, and my aim has been to tained from any cause, he is to go forward by extend and improve it as much as possible. Its the first opportunity, and in no case to allow pasmain features are, briefly, as follows: In the post sengers to outstrip him; and he must report to . office at the end of each separate route, as appor- the postmasters the particulars of all delays, tioned to mail agents, (say Washington and Phil- with their causes, for publication, immediately adelphia,) and at the prominent intermediate on reaching his final destination, so that the pubpoints, lists are kept, showing the pouches for- lic shall be fully informed on the subject, and warded; which lists are receipted by the route or know where blame rests. In this way one indimail agent, who thus becomes directly responsi-vidual is held responsible, without chance of ble for a certain number of pouches for certain evasion, for the whole distance; whereas, under specified points. Upon delivering the same into the ordinary division of duties, the mails would post offices, to mail messengers, or to an agent pass through the hands of perhaps five or six on a connecting route, he takes receipts to show persons, rendering it always difficult and somethe fulfillment of his duties. In addition, it is times impracticable to know with certainty, in required, on some routes, that full and careful case of irregularities, who is really blamable. accounts be kept, in book form, of all pouches, so as to show where they are received, how labeled, and how disposed of. By such means it becomes practicable to trace missing pouches, and there is also kept alive a sense of responsibility on the part of agents, impelling them to greater watchfulness in performing duties which, from their laborious and monotonous nature, might otherwise insensibly become, in a measure, mechanical, and not occupy so much of the mind as their importance demands. Moreover, all irregularities in any way chargeable to agents can be traced to their true source, so that suspicion in no case attaches to innocent parties. For such reasons, apart from an interest in the service generally, which is presumed to be felt by all agents of the Department, the system in question has commended itself favorably to all who have been called on to give it attention. Its details are not yet perfected; but it is regarded as the beginning of a work which must be gradually advanced and improved, under the teaching of experience, until it shall fully accomplish that for which it was designed. Experiments have been made on the great railroad lines between New York and Montgomery, Alabama, and Nashville, Tennessee, which have shown the advantages of the system as now ex With the view to facilitate the receipt and delivery of letters in New York, Boston, and Philadelphia, the postmasters in those cities have been instructed to make improvements in their letter-carrier system to the full extent authorized by law. In New York, I found that nearly everything had been done that could be accomplished under existing laws, except the transmission of drop letters direct to their address without going into the main office, which is now done. Six stations, or sub-offices, had been established, at which, as well as at the principal office, the letters were sorted and passed into the hands of the carriers, and a large number of boxes for the collec-isting, and given ample encouragement that it tion of letters had been placed at convenient distances throughout the city. On all letters through the mail the carriers receive two cents each for delivery, and on drop letters one cent. I had hoped to be able to reduce the delivery fee to the uniform price of one cent; but this was found impracticable in New York and Philadelphia, inasmuch as the law requires that the entire cost of delivery shall be defrayed out of the earriers' receipts. In Boston, where the districts are all comparatively densely populated, one cent a letter will be made more useful in the future. On some of the principal western lines-as from Buffalo, New York, to Chicago, Illinois, and St. Louis-accounts of mail pouches are kept, but not quite so satisfactorily as on the other lines referred to, owing chiefly to the fact that the larger proportion of what are called through mails go by "express trains," in charge of baggage masters, and not the agents of this Department. The latter travel on other trains, for the purpose of delivering mails to nunrerous post Similar agencies will be established between New York and Cincinnati, and Cincinnati and St. Louis, and on other great routes, and all possible precautions adopted to insure the regularity and safety of the mails. It is frequently charged that the mails have not uniformly equal expedition with travelers on railroads; and, in so far as this may be the fact, it is considered attributable to the want of attention to the mails on the express lines which are without agents of this Department. The evil, therefore, can only be remedied by employing additional agents to accompany mails long distances without changing, and guard against all delays that can possibly be avoided, and especially to see that passengers enjoy no advantages over the mails, but that both are equally expedited under all circumstances. It may be proper to add in this connection that the preparation of all necessary forms and instructions for maintaining accountability on routes where this work is already commenced, and for extending it generally as proposed, will involve an amount of additional labor which cannot be performed with the present clerical force. NEW ORLEANS AND NEW YORK ROUTE. For a number of years the attention of Congress and of the commercial public has been directed to the necessity of adopting measures to insure greater speed and regularity in the transmission of the mails between New York and New Orleans, the recognized centers, as these cities are, of two great commercial circles, conducting by far the larger portion of the importing and exporting trade of the whole country. The interest felt in the subject has been manifested, from time to time, in the presentation to Congress of memorials from citizens, chambers of com |