esentatives_), 21st
February 1863.

[162] Questions of the establishment and maintenance of the post roads
were dealt with by Congress separately from questions of mail service.

[163] _Reports of Senate Committee_, 27th January 1835, p. 115.

[164] Letter to Hon. Mr. Kennedy, _Life of Sir Rowland Hill and History
of Penny Postage_, pp. 336-7.

[165] See D. D. T. Leech, _The Post Office Department of the United
States of America; its History, Organization, and Working_, Washington,
D.C., 1879.

[166] Message to Congress, 3rd December 1844.

[167] Some notion of the spirit in which the question was approached may
be gathered from the following extracts:--

"To content the man dwelling more remote from town with his homely lot,
by giving him regular and frequent means of intercommunication: to
assure to the emigrant, who plants his new home on the skirts of the
distant wilderness or prairie, that he is not forever severed from the
kindred and society that still share his interest and love: to prevent
those whom the swelling tide of population is constantly pressing to the
outer verge of civilization from being surrendered to surrounding
influences and sinking into the hunter or savage state: to render the
citizen, how far soever from the seat of his Government, worthy, by
proper knowledge and intelligence, of his important privileges as a
sovereign constituent of the Government: to diffuse, throughout all
parts of the land, enlightenment, social improvement, and national
affinities, elevating our people in the scale of civilization, and
binding them together in patriotic affection."--_Report of House
Committee_, 15th May 1844.

"It [the Post Office] was a most important element in the hand of
civilization, especially of a republican people. There would be room to
dilate in reference to the utility of the diffusion of sciences, the
promotion of morals, and all these great benefits resulting from the
intercourse of mind and mind.... Because it was so well understood by
those who framed the Constitution, we find in that sacred instrument
that the power of this department of the public service is exclusively
vested in Congress.... Every nook and corner of this country should be
visited by its operations, that it should shed light and information to
the remote frontier settler as well as to the inhabitant of the populous
city or densely populated districts."--Mr. Merrick in the Senate when
introducing the Bill, 27th