American Letter Mail Company

American Letter Mail Company
Industry Courier
Fate Outlawed by
Private Express Statutes
Founded 1844
Defunct 1851
Headquarters USA New York
Key people
 Lysander Spooner

The American Letter Mail Company was started by Lysander Spooner in 1844, competing with the legal monopoly of the United States Post Office (USPO, now the USPS) in violation of the Private Express Statutes. It succeeded in delivering mail for lower prices, but the U.S. Government challenged Spooner with legal measures, eventually forcing him to cease operations in 1851.[1]

Overview

According to McMaster,[2] the company had offices in various cities, including Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York. In February 1844, Spooner advertised rates of "Postage 6 1/4 cents for each half oz. ... Stamps, twenty for a dollar." He further stated, "The Company design also (if sustained by the public) thoroughly to agitate the question, and test the constitutional right of free competition in the business of carrying letters."[3] Stamps could be purchased and then attached to letters which could be sent to any of its offices. From there agents were dispatched who travelled on railroads and steamboats, and carried the letters in handbags. Letters were transferred to messengers in the cities along the routes who then delivered the letters to the addressees.

Competition with the U.S. Post Office Department

Spooner's intentions were founded on both an ethical perspective, as he considered government monopoly to be an immoral restriction, and an economic analysis, as he believed that five cents were sufficient to send mail throughout the country. From its inception, the Company was a vehicle for legal challenge. "Mr. Spooner, the head of the American Letter Mail Company, has transmitted to the Department at Washington, a written admission of his conveyance of letters, &c., with all the necessary facts in the case, to make it a purely legal question, so that the Postmaster General has nothing to do but take the whole subject to the Supreme Court of the United States, as soon as it can be got there."[4] The American Letter Mail Company was able to reduce the price of its stamps significantly and even offered free local delivery, significantly undercutting the 12-cent stamp being sold by the Post Office Department. The federal government treated this as a criminal act:

United States v. John C. Gilmore—This was action instituted by the Government of the United States, to recover the sum of $50 for an alleged violation of the laws regulating the Post Office Department, embodied in the act of Congress of 1825...[5]
Calvin Case, another of the persons alleged to be in the office, or connected with "Postmaster General Lysander Spooner's American Letter Mail Company," was arrested and held to bail in the sum of $100, by the United States Marshal, in [Philadelphia], on Friday, on the ground of conveying letters contrary to the laws of Congress.[6]

Although the business was forced by the U.S. Government to close shop after only a few years, it succeeded in temporarily driving down the cost of government-delivered mail.[7]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Goodyear, Lucille J. Spooner vs. U.S. Postal System. American Legion Magazine, January 1981
  2. ↑ McMaster, John Bach. 1910. A History of the People of the United States. D. Appleton and Company. p. 116
  3. ↑ Spooner, Lysander (February 28, 1844). "American Post Office". American & Commercial Daily Advertiser. Retrieved 2013-04-02.
  4. ↑ "The Tariff in Danger". The Adams Centinel. January 1, 1844. Retrieved 2013-04-02.
  5. ↑ "U.S. District Court". The Sun. March 12, 1844. Retrieved 2013-04-02.
  6. ↑ "Intelligence From Philadelphia". The Sun. March 25, 1844. Retrieved 2013-04-02.
  7. ↑ Sherman Lee Pompey 'Father of 3-cent Stamp' Spooner fought Post Office

External links

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