The Postal Service: Older Than the Nation

Fun Fact Friday!  Happy Fourth of July! Fun Fact: The United States Postal Service is 338 days older than the United States.

July 4th, 1776, is the birth date of the United States, the date upon which representatives of the 13 British colonies adopted a Declaration of Independence from the British Monarchy.

On July 26th, 1775, however, the Second Continental Congress established “a line of posts” stretching from Maine to Georgia. The truth is that the colonists were already bypassing British postal routes years before and refusing to use postal services as were formally provided (and to the benefit of) the British Government.[2] From the “Journal Kept by Hugh Finlay”, we have this original source statement from 1773 by Mr. Hugh Finlay (1731-1801) — an Englishman hired for the position of Surveyor of the Post Offices and Post Roads on the Continent of North America, about the colonist feelings towards the Crown’s mailing services:

“It is next to impossible to put a stop to this practice, in the present universal opposition to everything connected with Great Britain.
Were any Deputy Post Master to do his duty, and make a stir in such matter, he would draw on himself the odium of his neighbours and be marked
as the friend of Slavery and oppression and a declared enemy to America.”[3]

At least 100 years prior to 1773, the British Government had established postal networks via degrees and proclamation. And, for almost 100 years, there was no pushback. However, the colonists needed their communications to be secured and not intercepted by sympathizers to the Monarchy, so having alternative routes in place was not only more reliable, but it also meant avoiding trouble.

Benjamin Franklin was technically an employee of the British postal network for over four decades, rising to the position of deputy postmaster general, but he was dismissed in January 1774 for his non-alignment with the Monarchy. It was therefore of no surprise that the Second Continental Congress in July 1775 would make him the first Postmaster General of this emerging postal bypass network. Given his experience and ongoing involvement in secession, he was the obvious choice, for he understood well the American geography, delivery logistics, and had firsthand, practical knowledge of mail handling.

Freed from the King’s service, Franklin was able to make novel changes to the new postal service by introducing a simpler accounting system for regional postmasters and ensuring that traditionally non-mailed items such as newspapers were allowed to be added to postal distribution “for a small fee”.[4]

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[1] ref: https://news.usps.com/2024/07/03/independence-day-4/
[2] ref: https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Franklin/01-22-02-0074
[3] ref: [Frank H. Norton, ed.,] Journal Kept by Hugh Finlay . . . Begun the 13th Septr. 1773 and Ended 26th June 1774 (Brooklyn, N.Y., 1867), XXI, p. 116
[4] ref: https://about.usps.com/who-we-are/postal-history/pmg-franklin.pdf

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Image Credits:
(a) https://www.loc.gov/resource/lhbtn.07908/?sp=3
(b) https://about.usps.com/publications/pub100.pdf (additional ref: portrait of Benjamin Franklin by Benedict Anton Osnis, 1919)

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