| From the Southern Watchman (Athens,
Ga.) |
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| March 18, 1863 |
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| Mr. Wallace to Postmaster General |
| Office East Tenn. & Ga. R. R. |
| Knoxville, Feb. 10, 1863 |
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| Dear Sir, |
| In view of the difficulties in
the way of Congress making appropriation out of the Confederate
Treasury for the support of the Post Office Department after March,
and aware of the great reduction of mail facilities that must take
place after that time, in order to make that department
self-sustaining, as required by the Constitution, I suggest that it
would be proper for Congress to limit the price to be paid to Railroad
Companies for carrying the mails to fifty dollars per mile,
commencing the first of April, and to continue until the end of the
war and no longer. |
| I am satisfied that the
Railroad Companies of the Confederate States would cheerfully acquiesce
in such a law rather than the people should be restricted in their
postal facilities. I would make the rate uniform -- giving to all the
roads the fifty dollars per mile, as it is not so much the weight of
the mails carried that enters into the cost of transportation as it is
the preparation for the work, and that expense is about the same per
mile to the 2d and 3d class, as is to the first. For instance, this
company, under your classification, is receiving one hundred and fifty
dollars per mile, while some other roads, carrying lighter mails, but
at an equal expense, receive only one third that sum. I do not wish to
be understood as intimating that the price now paid first class roads
for mail service is too much. On the contrary, my experience, in many
years of railroad management, has been that often I would gladly have
given up the mail contract rather than adopt schedules which were
necessary for mail facilities, when I knew that schedules would lose
the company in local travel five dollars for every one received from
the Government for carrying the mail. |
| But our Government is now in
its infancy. This is the day of our trial, and from many years
intercourse with the gentlemen who control the railways in the
Confederate States, I do not feel that I am hazarding much when I say
that you will find them, without exception, acquiescing in such a law,
not grudgingly but cheerfully. The result to the finances of the Post
Office Department, while not bearing heavily on the roads, would,
according to the figures in your report, be saving of not less than
half a million of dollars per annum on your present contracts, which
savings will be much greater when the Confederate States will have
reclaimed her railroads and extended her mail facilities in territory
now overrun by the Federals. |
| In this connection, I would
respectfully suggest that you withdraw your recommendation to increase
the rate of newspaper postage and the suggestion to tax printing
establishments with postage on their exchanges. I cannot well conceive
of any one thing more disastrous to the prosperity of our young
Republic than by any action of Congress lessening the facilities for
furnishing the people with information, or trammelling the operation
of those engaged in preparing in suitable form that information for
the people. The press has been everything to us in this crisis, and
should not in my opinion, be placed alongside with the ordinary
industrial pursuits of the country. Its mission is to elevate man --
its work is with the intellect, and in proportion as you foster a
virtuous, free people, and make them strong to defend that freedom. |
| The history of the world does
not furnish evidence that ever before has the press been more free
from personality and a tendency to licentiousness in times of either
peace or war, than it has been in the Confederate States for the last
two years and never before has government been more ably and
patriotically sustained by the press. Give the newspaper publishers
then, every needed facility for cheap transportation. They have not
advanced their prices in proportion to their increased expenditures.
Newspapers to circulate freely and widely must be cheap -- cheap in
price -- cheap in postage -- like salt, the consumption is in
proportion to the cost -- cheap salt creates a large consumption, and
hogs, horses, cattle, sheep and bacon always give unmistakable
evidence of the advantages of cheap salt. So with the mind -- the man.
Give communities the advantages of cheap books -- cheap mail facilities
and you will always reap a rich reward in good morals and highly
cultivated people -- willing to sacrifice all else than the right to
govern themselves, and herein lies the strength and power and success
of the Confederate States in this unnatural and terrible war. |
| Truly, your friend |
| C. Wallace |
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