Post Office

An office established by congress for the conveyance of letters, newspapers, pamphlets, and the like, from one part of the United States to another. The constitution of the United States, art.

1, s.

8, gives the power to congress, "to establish post offices and post roads." By virtue of this authority various laws have been enacted by congress on this subject; but by the § 46 of the act of March 3, 1825, "all acts and parts of acts which have been passed for the establishment and regulations of the general post office shall be and the same are hereby repealed," with a proviso that they shall continue in force for a certain purpose. This act, which will be found in 3 Story's L. U. S. 1985, establishes at the seat of government of the United States, a general post office, under the direction of a post-master general. He is authorised to appoint clerks, and procure a seal for the use of the office, to authenticate its acts, and to be affixed to the commissions of the post-masters. He is authorised to establish post offices and appoint post masters, at such places as may be established by law. He is to give instructions to his assistants, and the post masters. He is required to provide for the carriage of the mail, and to select post roads, where there are more than one; he shall settle with the post masters quarterly, pay expenses of carrying the mail, prosecute all offences against the post office departments, render, quarterly, to the treasurer of the treasury, an account of all the receipts and expenditures in the said department, and generally superintend the duties of the department. The act of March 2, 1827, 3 Story's L. U. S. 2066, details the duties of postmasters, and the act entitled "An act to change the organization of the post office department and to provide more effectually for the settlement of the accounts thereof," approved July 2, 1836, 4 Sharsw. cont. of Story's L. U. S. 2464, provides, in forty-three sections, a variety of details, principally in relation to the settlement of the accounts of the various officers connected with this department. Vide Letter; Mail; Newspapers; Postage.