The Online Library of Liberty

A project of Liberty Fund, Inc.

• Volume III: Oath - Zollverein
• O
• Oath
• Oath of Allegiance
• Occupation
• Oceanica
• Ochlocracy.
• O'conor, Charles
• Office-holders, Danger of an Aristocracy of
• Ohio
• Oligarchy
• Olmstead Case. (see Pennsylvania.)
• Omnibus Bill. (see Parliamentary Law.)
• Opinion. (see Public Opinion.)
• Opposition
• Order of the Day. (see Parliamentary Law.)
• Orders In Council. (see Embargo, In U. S. History.)
• Orders, Religious . (see Congregations.)
• Ordinance of 1787
• Oregon
• Oriental Question
• Ostend Manifesto
• Outlawry
• Outlet
• Over-production
• P
• Pacific Railroad. (see Internal Improvements, Railroads.)
• Paper Money.
• Paraguay (republic Of).
• Parasites, Social
• Pardon.
• Paris Monetary Conference
• Parley.
• Parliament, the British
• Parliamentary Law.
• Participation In Profits.
• Parties, Political
• Party Government In the United States.
• Party Names In U. S. History. (see American Party, Anti-federal Party, Anti-masonic Party)
• Patent Office
• Patents, and the Patent System.
• Patronage
• Patrons of Husbandry. (see Grangers.)
• Pauperism
• Peace.
• Peace Congress. (see Conference, Peace.)
• Pendleton, George H.
• Penitentiary Systems. (see Prisons and Prison Discipline.)
• Pennsylvania
• Penny Banks. (see Banks, History and Management of Savings.)
• Pensions. (see United States Pension Laws, and the Pension Laws of Other Countries.)
• Persia.
• Personal Liberty Laws
• Personal Union
• Peru
• Petition
• Petition, Right of
• Philosophy of Law
• Physiocrates.
• Pickering, Timothy
• Pierce, Franklin
• Pinckney, Charles Cotesworth
• Pinckney, Thomas
• Piracy
• Plenty and Dearth.
• Poland
• Police
• Police Power of a State
• Political Arithmetic. (see Arithmetic, Political.)
• Political Assessments. (see Assessments, Political.)
• Political Economy.
• Political Economy, History of
• Political Science
• Politics, Nature and Character of
• Polk, James Knox
• Poll Tax
• Popular Sovereignty
• Population.
• Portugal.
• Postoffice
• Postoffice Department
• Postoffice Savings Banks. (see Banks, History and Management of Savings.)
• Powers of Congress. (see Congress, Powers Of.)
• President. (see Executive.)
• President Pro Tem. (see Parliamentary Law.)
• Press, the Newspaper and Periodical
• Previous Question. (see Parliamentary Law.)
• Prices
• Primary Elections.
• Priority of Debts Due to the United States and to the States
• Prisoners of War
• Prisons and Prison Discipline
• Private Bills. (see Parliamentary Law.)
• Private Calendar. (see Parliamentary Law.)
• Privateering
• Privilege. (see Parliamentary Law.)
• Prizes, Maritime
• Production of Wealth
• Products On Paper
• Profits
• Prohibition
• Promotion
• Property
• Property, Landed . (see Rent.)
• Property, Literary
• Proportional Representation
• Protection. Restrictions Upon Freedom of Exchange
• Protection In the United States.
• Protestantism. (see Churches, Protestant.)
• Prussia
• Public Debts. (see Debts, National, State and Local.)
• Public Lands of the United States
• Public Lands, Office of
• Public Opinion
• Public Policy
• Public Revenues. (see Revenues, Public.)
• Q
• Quarantine
• Quids
• R
• Races of Mankind
• Radicalism
• Railways, History and Political Economy of
• Railways, Legislation Concerning, and Management Of, In the United States
• Railway Clearing House. (see Clearing, and Clearing Houses.)
• Randolph, John
• Rebellion
• Rebellion, the (in U. S. History)
• Reciprocity
• Recognition
• Reconstruction
• Refuge, Right of . (see Asylum.)
• Refunding of the Public Debt of the United States
• Reichsrath
• Reichstag
• Removal of Deposits. (see Deposits, Removal Of.)
• Removals From Office
• Rent
• Representation
• Representative Democracy. (see Democracy, Representative.)
• Republic.
• Republican Party
• Repudiation.
• Resignation.
• Restrictive System. (see Embargo, In U. S. History.)
• Returning Boards
• Revenue
• Revolution.
• Revolution, the
• Rhode Island
• Ricardo, David
• Riders
• Right of Inheritance. (see Inheritance.)
• Right of Petition. (see Petition, Right Of.)
• Riu Kiu.
• River and Harbor Bills. (see Internal Improvements.)
• Roads. (see Transportation, Means Of.)
• Roads and Canals. (see Internal Improvements.)
• Rohmer's Doctrine of Parties. (see Parties, Political.)
• Roman Catholic Church.
• Rotation In Office. (see Civil Service Reform.)
• Rules. (see Parliamentary Law.)
• Rush, Richard
• Russia
• S
• Saint-simonism. (see Socialism.)
• Salary Grab
• San Domingo
• Sandwich Islands
• Sanitary System
• Savings
• Savings Banks. (see Banks, History and Management of Savings.)
• Saxony
• Schools. (see Education and the State)
• Schurz, Carl
• Science. (see Social Science.)
• Scotland
• Scott, Winfield
• Scratching
• Search, Right of
• Secession
• Sedition Laws. (see Alien and Sedition Laws.)
• Seminole War. (see Slavery, II.)
• Senate
• Sergeant-at-arms. (see Parliamentary Law.)
• Sergeant, John
• Servia, Principality of
• Sessions of Congress. (see Congress, Sessions Of.)
• Seward, William H.
• Seymour, Horatio
• Shay's Rebellion. (see Confederation, Articles Of.)
• Sherman, John
• ShimonosÉki Indemnity
• Shinto
• Siam
• Silver
• Silver Bill. (see Hayes, R. B.)
• Sinking Fund
• Sintooism. (see Shinto)
• Slavery
• Smith, Adam
• Smuggling
• Socialism and Socialists
• Social Contract
• Social Science
• Society
• South Carolina
• Southern Confederacy. (see Confederate States.)
• Sovereignty
• Sovereignty (in U. S. History). (see Popular Sovereignty.)
• Spain
• Speaker. (see Parliamentary Law.)
• Speakers. (see Congress, Sessions Of.)
• Speculation
• Spoils System
• Squatter Sovereignty. (see Popular Sovereignty)
• Stamp Act Congress
• Standing Armies. (see Armies.)
• Standing Orders. (see Parliamentary Law.)
• Stanton, Edwin M .
• State, Department of
• State Rights. (see State Sovereignty, II.)
• State Sovereignty
• State, the
• States, Constitutional and Legal Diversities In
• Statistics
• Stephens, Alexander H.
• Stevens,thaddeus
• Stock Exchange Clearing House. (see Clearing, and Clearing Houses.)
• Stock Jobbing. (see Agiotage.)
• Story, Joseph
• Strict Construction. (see Construction.)
• Strikes and Lockouts
• Subsidies.
• Sub-treasury. (see Independent Treasury.)
• Suffrage
• Sumner, Charles
• Sumptuary Laws. (see Laws, Sumptuary.)
• Supply. (see Parliamentary Law.)
• Supreme Court. (see Judiciary.)
• Sweden.
• Switzerland
• T
• Table. (see Parliamentary Law.)
• Tammany Hall
• Taney, Roger Brooke
• Tariffs of the United States.
• Tartar, Tartary
• Ta-tsing (great Pure)
• Tauism (tao-ism, To;, Or Doctrine of Lao-tse).
• Taxation, Principles of
• Taxation, National and Local. (see Revenue, Public; Taxation.)
• Taylor, Zachary
• Telegraph
• Tellers. (see Parliamentary Law.)
• Temperance Movement In the United States. (see Prohibition, Police.)
• Ten-hour Law
• Tennessee
• Term and Tenure of Office
• Territorial Waters
• Territories
• Texas
• Third Estate
• Tie. (see Parliamentary Law.)
• Tilden, Samuel Jones
• Times-spirit, the . (see Zeitgeist.)
• Tompkins, Daniel D.
• Ton-kin. (see Tonquin.)
• Tonquin (tong-king Or Tun-kin).
• Transportation, Means of
• Treason
• Treasury Department.
• Treaties.
• Treaties, Fishery.
• Treaties of the United States
• Trent Affair
• Tungusic Races. (see Tartar.)
• Turkey.
• Tyler, John
• U
• Union, the (in U. S. History),
• Union Party. (see Republican Party.)
• United States Notes.
• United States Notes. Legal-tender Cases—decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States.
• United States of America
• United States of Colombia. (see New Grenada.)
• United States Pension Laws and the Pension Laws of Other Countries
• United States Surplus Money
• Universal Suffrage. (see Suffrage.)
• Universities
• Usury
• Utah
• Utility
• Utopia
• V
• Value
• Van Buren, Martin
• Vermont
• Veto
• Vice-president. (see Executive, V.; Electors, Senate; Administrations.)
• Virginia
• Virginia Resolutions. (see Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions.)
• W
• Wage Fund, the
• Wages
• "waltham System,"
• Wants.
• War. (see Declaration of War, Belligerents, Exchange of Prisoners.)
• War, the Civil. (see Rebellion, The, In U. S. History.)
• War Department.
• Wars (in U. S. History).
• Washington City. (see Capital, National.)
• Washington, George
• Washington Territory
• Ways and Means. (see Parliamentary Law.)
• Wealth.
• Webster, Daniel
• Weights and Measures.
• West Virginia
• Wheeler, William A.
• Whig Party
• Whisky Insurrection
• Whisky Ring
• White, Hugh Lawson
• White League. (see Ku-klux Klan.)
• Wilmot Proviso
• Wilson, Henry
• Wirt, William
• Wisconsin
• Woman Suffrage. (see Suffrage.)
• Wright, Silas
• Wyoming
• Wyoming Territory
• X
• X Y Z Mission
• Y
• Yazoo Frauds
• Yeas and Nays. (see Parliamentary Law.)
• Z
• Zeitgeist.
• Zollverein.
• Lists of Writers
• The Following Is a List of the Subjects Treated By American Writers:

POSTOFFICE DEPARTMENT

POSTOFFICE DEPARTMENT. This is one of the executive departments of the United States government, established by act of May 8, 1794. (1 Stat. at Large, p. 357.) The head of the department is the postmaster general (salary $8,000), who is appointed by the president and senate, and is a member of the cabinet, by a custom dating back to the administration of President Jackson. Prior to this the postmaster general, although his office existed since 1789, had not been regarded as one of the president's constitutional advisers. His duties embrace the direction of the postoffice department, and the management of the domestic and foreign mail service; the award and execution of contracts; the negotiation of postal treaties with foreign governments (under direction of the president); the appointment of all clerks in his department; and the commissioning and appointment of all postmasters receiving salaries of $1,000 or. under per annum (all above that standard being presidential appointments). This vast patronage involves the appointment of more than 40,000 officers of the United States, while the patronage in the form of mail contracts by railway, steamboat and horse or stage conveyance (the latter known as "star routes"), extends to millions of dollars annually. He has, besides, the power to establish and discontinue postoffices (that of establishing new post routes being reserved by congress); to control the styles, etc., of all postage stamps, envelopes, postal cards, etc.; to prescribe the manner of keeping and rendering accounts; to instruct all persons in the postal service as to their duties; and to control the expenditure of all moneys appropriated for the postoffice service, amounting to over $40,000,000 annually. The postmaster general is required to make an annual report to congress upon the mail contracts, land and water mails, receipts and expenditures, postal business, domestic and foreign, fines imposed upon contractors, etc. He has power to fix and adjust the salaries of postmasters under the general regulations of congress, to make special orders providing extra service or compensation at postoffices, to employ special agents, to establish money order offices, etc.

—The subordinate officers employed in the postoffice department comprise three assistant postmasters general ($4,000 each), an assistant attorney general for the postoffice department ($4,000), a superintendent of money order system ($3,500), a superintendent of foreign mails ($3,000), a chief clerk ($2,200), a law clerk ($2,500), a topographer ($2,500) and 556 clerks, laborers, etc., at a total expenditure for salaries of the department, of $681,980 (fiscal year 1884); besides contingent expenses, amounting to $129,000. The salaries of postmasters for the same year amounted to $9,250,000; cost of mail transportation $21,000,000; foreign mail transportation, $350,000.

—The three grand divisions of the postoffice department business place in charge of the first assistant postmaster general: 1, appointment of postmasters; 2, establishment or removal of postoffices; 3, adjustment of salaries; 4, the free delivery or letter-carrier system in cities; 5, commissions, bonds, etc., of postmasters; and 6, distribution of official blanks, letter balances, etc., to postoffices. The second assistant postmaster general is charged with 1, the supervision of all contracts for carrying the mails; 2, fixing frequency, conveyance and times on all mail routes; 3, advertisements; 4, the inspection of the carrying and delivery service, mail failures, etc., and 5, the issuing of mail locks and keys, mail bags, etc. The office of the third assistant postmaster general has charge of financial business, involving: 1, receiving and issuing drafts; 2, issuing of postage stamps, envelopes and postal cards; 3, the correspondence of the registered letter system; and 4, the examination and return to the writers of dead letters.

—The money order system is in charge of a superintendent, who keeps the accounts, etc., of the issue of domestic and international money orders, and of the new postal notes.

—The superintendent of foreign mails supervises the ocean mail steamship service, and all foreign postal arrangements.

—The business of the general postoffice is conducted in a massive and ornate marble building, covering a square of ground in the heart of Washington. Its architecture is Corinthian, its dimensions 300 feet by 204 feet, and its cost $1,700,000.

—The following is a list of postmasters general, with their terms of office, from the beginning of the government: