THIRTIETH CONGRESS—FIRST SESSION.
Report No. 315.
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.
POSTAGE ON STEAMBOAT LETTERS.
February 29, 1848.
Laid upon the table.
Mr. George W. Jones, 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 St. John, Powers & Co., and others, merchants and citizens of Mobile, Alabama, upon the subject of postages charged upon letters transported on steamboats, under the instructions from the Post Office Department, report:

The committee have had the petition under consideration, and find that the grievance complained of is, that the Postmaster at Mobile, under the instructions of the department, charges ten cents postage on each single letter transported over three hundred miles upon any steamboat not under contract to carry the mail, and delivered to the postmaster. The postages are charged and collected in pursuance of law and the instructions of the Post Office Department, which instructions are adopted as, and made part of, this report.

From representations made to this office by Messrs. Alfred Thatcher and others, a committee on behalf of the board of trade of Columbus, Mississippi, in a communication asking the decision of the Postmaster General in reference to the amount of postage chargeable on letters carried by steamboats from Mobile to Columbus, it appears that at your office the charge of five cents is made, for the reason that the land mail carriage is less than three hundred miles. In this you are in error. The act of the 3d March,

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1823, constitutes and establishes all navigable waters within the United States, post routes. The 5th section of the act of 3d March, 1825, authorizes the Postmaster General to contract for carrying the mail in steamboats. The 6th and 19th sections of the last named act prohibits steamboats from carrying letters, except such as relate to the cargo, under certain penalties, unless the same be delivered to the postmaster of the place where the person or persons may reside to whom they are addressed; the postmaster paying two cents for each and every letter so delivered. The 13th section of the act of 3d March, 1845, repeals so much of the 6th section of the act of 1825 as relates to the penalty for any violation of the provisions of the said 6th section, and substitutes therefor the penalties as provided in the 10th section of the said act of 1845, which is, $100 against the owner or owners, and $50 as to persons in charge of, or employed on, said boats, for each and every violation. It being the intent of the act of 1825 to prevent the transmission of letters by steamboats, other than the exceptions heretofore referred to, unless the provisions of the 6th section of said act were complied with; all steamboats, therefore, that convey letters from one port or place to another port or place, are properly mail carriers, and under contract with the Post Office Department, subject to penalties for any violation of law regulating the same. Postmasters should, therefore, charge on all letters conveyed by steamboats, postage for the distance over which they are actually carried. As attempts at evasions of this law are frequent, postmasters are expected and required vigorously to enforce its provisions, in reference to the transmission of such letters. Postmasters should, therefore, require from persons in charge of steamboats, all letters except those which relate to the cargo, which are held to be, 1st, bills of lading; 2d, letters of invoice; 3d, letters of instructions to consignees as to the disposition of the cargo. These letters may relate to a part or the whole of the cargo, but must be confined to the matter as above specified and transmitted unsealed; any variation from which will subject them to letter postage.

Your committee are of opinion that these instructions were given in accordance with the law and are right and proper, and therefore the prayer of the petitioners is unreasonable and ought not to be granted, and the committee recommend its rejection.