THIRTIETH CONGRESS—FIRST SESSION.
Report No. 103.
(To accompany Joint R. No. 7.)
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.
GEORGE R. SMITH.
January 19, 1848.
Mr. Kaufman, from the Committee on the Post Office and Post Roads, made the following
REPORT:
The Committee on the Post Office and Post Roads, to whom was referred the petition of George R. Smith, submit the following report:

George R. Smith asks relief under the following facts: He contracted to carry the mail in Missouri on route No. 4665, for $1,400, twice a week and back in two-horse post coaches, to commence on the 1st January, 1843, and to terminate on the 30th of June, 1846.

The department was importuned to make the routes tri-weekly.

On the 26th April, 1844, Otho Hinton proposed to carry the mail on these routes tri-weekly in two-horse post coaches for $2,397 per annum. No guaranty accompanying Mr. Hinton’s proposition is found with the papers; but in such case none was required.

On the 7th day of May, 1844, the First Assistant Postmaster General, by Wm. H. Dundas, wrote to petitioner, saying:

“Otho Hinton, of St. Louis, Missouri, proposes to transport the mail on routes from Jefferson city to Springfield, Missouri, three times a week, at present pay. Notice of this proposition is hereby given in order to inform you, that unless you will give equal service without additional pay, the Postmaster General will transfer the routes to Mr. Hinton. Please advise us of your decision without delay.”

Petitioner answered this letter on the 16th day of June, 1844, the day of its reception. In his answer he says:

“I have understood before that Hinton was making some efforts

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to get my lines: sooner than I will give up the line to him, I will carry it at the same price ($2,600) three times a week.”

The letter of petitioner was construed by the department into an assent to perform the additional service without increased compensation; and his application for pro rata allowance for the additional service (the third weekly trip having been regularly made since 15th day of August, 1844) has been rejected by the department.

George R. Smith carried the mails on the said routes three times per week, from the 15th of August, 1844, until the 1st day of July, 1846, being a period of one year and ten and a half months, the increased cost of which he declared in one of his letters to the Post Office Department, was four hundred and sixteen dollars per annum, which amount the committee do not conceive unreasonable. The petitioner now claims thirteen hundred dollars per annum, being a pro rata increase, and the Post Office Committee of last Congress reported a bill for such increase; but the committee do not conceive that, under all the circumstances, he is entitled to more than the additional actual cost incurred by him, viz: $416 per annum; and they report a joint resolution accordingly.