That the petitioners, on the 26th November, 1844, entered into separate contracts with the Post Office Department to carry the mail in two-horse coaches, the former from Raleigh to Fayetteville, North Carolinia, the latter from Fayetteville to Columbia, South Carolina, at the rate of $60 per mile, making the aggregate sum of $12,340 per annum, with the privilege of ordering the great mail on the routes, at $41,120 per annum; that, on the 3d December, 1844, the great mail was ordered on the routes, and, on the 6th of February, 1845, the great mail service was annulled, and two months’ extra pay was allowed on the amount saved, viz: $28,280, being the difference between the great mail service and the ordinary service. It is, however, unusual to allow more than one month’s extra pay when a route is reduced. In the copy of the contract with Guion, filed with the papers, too, there is an express stipulation that “the Postmaster General may discontinue or curtail the service, he allowing one month’s extra pay on the amount dispensed with.”

In this case, however, there was two months’ extra pay allowed on account of the peculiar service and the large outlay and expense to be incurred to stock the routes. According to the universal rule of the department, the extra pay was cast on the amount saved or dispensed with, viz: $28,280. The contractors claim it on the whole amount of the cost of the great mail service, including the

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ordinary or original service, which was still continued, and for which there is no pretence that they failed to get their pay. The amount allowed was $4,713 33; the amount claimed was $6,853 33; difference $2,140. This is the issue presented. The committee are unanimously of the opinion that there is no ground for the passage of a bill to add to the compensation of the contractors, who have already received, or had awarded them by the Post Office Department, more than they were entitled to under their contract. In further proof of this position of the committee, they refer to the petition itself, which admits that the petitioners knew, when they entered into the contract, that it would eventuate finally (as it in a few weeks did) in a restoration of the original service only. They present the petition therefore as part of their report, and recommend that the claim be rejected.

That, on the 26th November, 1844, they entered into separate contracts with the Post Office Department to carry the mail in two-horse coaches, the former from Raleigh to Fayetteville, North Carolina, and the latter from Fayetteville to Columbia, South Carolina, at the rate of $60 per mile.

The Post Office Department shortly afterwards got into a controversy with the Wilmington Railroad Company, on account of the sum demanded for carrying the great southern mail on that route, and made a new contract with your petitioners to increase the service on their route to four-horse coaches, at the rate of $180 per mile. This last contract is dated the 1st January, 1845, and was annulled, and the service discontinued on the 7th of February, 1845. The Wilmington Railroad Company having been brought to terms by this contract with your petitioners, reduced their demand $25,000 per annum, which sum was thereby saved to the department.

Your petitioners were aware, at the time of entering into this last contract, that it was only intended to force the Wilmington Railroad Company into more favorable terms; and that said company were to be forced to reduce their demand; and that the contract with your petitioners would then be annulled; and that, in the meantime, they would be greatly losers by the large outlay for horses, coaches, drivers, &c., &c., and they therefore stipulated that if, at any time, the route was again reduced, that they should be allowed two months’ pay extra to indemnify them.

As they anticipated, in less than five weeks their contract was annulled, and they were left with this large and expensive stock on their hands. When they applied for the two months’ extra pay,

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the Postmaster General refused to allow them more than $120 per mile, the difference between the two-horse and the four-horse service. That the latter was the true understanding of the contract, your petitioners would call the attention of your honorable bodies to a single fact. When they were negotiating with the department on the subject, and expressing their fears of loss if the larger service be discontinued, Mr. Dundas, an officer in the department, made a calculation in figures, which is now in the department, in which he estimates the two months’ extra pay at the rate of $180 per mile, as now contended for by your petitioners, (and it was upon the faith of that calculation that they entered into the contract,) which they pray may be appropriated for their benefit.

Mr. Dundas, of the Post Office Department, will verify the above statement if applied to by the committee.