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“In 1786, during the administration of Sebastian Bauman, the second postmaster after the close of the War of the Revolution, there was a regular schedule for the arrival and dispatch of mails between New York and Albany and New England, and also between New York and the South. Mail from New England and Albany arrived on Wednesday and Saturday in winter, and on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday in summer. The income of the office at that time was $2,789.84. Compare that sum and the income for the twelve months ended September 30, 1911, when, for the first time in the history of the New York office, the receipts for any twelve consecutive months passed the twenty million dollar mark, being exactly $20,451,172.53.”

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It is an interesting and singular coincidence, overlooked by some of our historians, that the man to whom most credit is due, probably, for the organization of our national postal service was Benjamin Franklin, who did so much to encourage and promote the use of electricity, the other great medium for transmitting intelligence. Franklin was the first Postmaster General under the Revolutionary organization, before the adoption of the Constitution in 1787. He was chosen because of his earlier experience in postal matters, as postmaster of Philadelphia in 1737, and as Deputy Postmaster General of the British Colonies in 1753. He was removed from the latter office, to punish him for his active sympathies with the colonists. When Independence was declared one of the first acts of his fellow patriots was to place him at the head of the Post Office Department. But the stern necessities of the Revolution called for Franklin’s great abilities to perform services of still greater importance, and Richard Bache, his son-in-law, was chosen to succeed him as Postmaster General, in November, 1776. Mr. Bache was succeeded by Ebenezer Hazard, the compiler of the valuable historical collection bearing that name. He held the office until the adoption of the Constitution and the inauguration of Washington.