The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 19, July 1915 - April, 1916 Page: 244
452 p. : maps ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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The Southwestern Historical Quarterly
The Confederate Congress, in the first set of laws prescribed
for the new post office department, endeavored to safeguard it by
a clause prohibiting "express and other chartered companies" from
carrying any letters unless they were prepaid by being enclosed
in a stamped envelope of the Confederacy. A violation of the act
was punishable with a five hundred dollar fine.26 Being reminded
that neither stamps nor stamped envelopes of the Confederacy
were yet obtainable, Congress renewed and enlarged the act of
February 23, giving the express companies greater privileges and
at the same time imposing greater restrictions and penalties to
prevent violation. It was made "lawful for the Postmaster-Gen-
eral to allow express and other chartered companies to carry let-
ters, and all mail matter of every description, whether the same
be enclosed in stamped envelopes or prepaid in stamps, or money."
But the mail matter, with the money collected for postage, was to
be turned in to some postmaster to be stamped paid. Cancellation
of stamps on letters and packages prepaid was enjoined on the
company, "under the penalty of five hundred dollars for each fail-
ure." Matter given the company to mail and not to deliver had to
be prepaid at the regular postal rates from the place where the com-
pany received it to its destination, the stamps being cancelled at
the point of mailing. The same act required each agent of ex-
press companies to take oath to comply faithfully with the laws
relating to carrying of mail and obliterating postage stamps.27
In case the postmaster-general should refuse to allow an express
company to carry letters, it was probably intended that he should
fall back on the old United States laws, which made it an offense,
finable at $150 for a private express company to carry mailable
material, "except newspapers, pamphlets, magazines and period-
icals."21
Mr. Reagan quoted these laws fully in his first official complaint
against the course being pursued by the Southern Express Com-
Southern routes by agreement with the Adams-Southern Express Com-
pany, whose name had meanwhile been changed to the Southern Express
Company. The two companies still work in common and use the same
wagons and offices in many places."--Albert W. Atwood in the American
Magazine, Feb., 1911, LXXI, 432.
20Report, Feb. 28, 1862, p. 15; Act of Feb. 23, 1861.
"Ibid., Act of March 3, 1861.
28Ibid., U. S. Act of March 3, 1845.244
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 19, July 1915 - April, 1916, periodical, 1916; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101067/m1/265/: accessed April 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.