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Hall
1
The Committee on the Post office and Post Roads to whom whas
^was^ refered Senate Bill No 154 for the relief of Wm B Stokes
Report
That they have very carefully considered the Bill which proposes to pay to William
B. Stokes surviving partner of John N C. Stockton & co the sum of $11.760, for extra
services alledged to have been performed by them as contractors for carrying the Mail ^for about Seventy days^ from Augusta in the State of Georgia to Mobile in Alabama, said services having been
rendered in during the months of May June and July in the year 1836.
The Committee felt no little surprise that a claim of [the?] magnitude of this should have been suffered so long to remain unsettled, if the same
was
^is^ well founded, and therefore they have examined it with the most care. It is unaccompanied
by any report from the Senates Committee, but on examining the papers, this Committee
find a report made [out?]
^during^ the last Congress by the Committee on the Post office and Post Roads of this House.
That report sets forth the points on which the petitioner relies and the Committee
now annex it to their report that he may have the full benefit thereof. It is as
follows ( here insert Report 315 29 Cong 1st Sept [29?] marked)
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2
The joint resolution which accompanied this report was passed [into?] and became an act of that Congress it was
^is^ as follows
Here insert Joint Res Ho Reps 21 29th Cong 1st Sep, (beginning “joint resolution” &c)
The Post Master General thereupon examined the case and the following ^is^ his statement of the same which was communicated to Congress at the opening of the
present Session and may be found in the Documents accompanying the Presidents Message
at page 1362.
Here insert it, beginning as follows, 2nd paragraph, upon an examination” &c to the end
It will be seen then that the Post Master General after a very careful and critical
examination of the case awarded to the claimants but $3.256 as the amount of compensation
to which they were rightfully entitled. ^as adequate remuneration^ The petition[...?] [however?] not satisfied with the decision of [their?]
^his^ chosen arbiter has waived the award, and at the present Session o has presented his petition to the Senate for a rehearing of his case and out of it
has grown the bill which gives him the sum of $11.760 as at first stated, but upon
what principle
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3
the calculation of the Senate is made in allowing this most extraordinary claim
^amount^, this Committee is wholy at a loss to ascertain.
^McFadden^ The Committee readily see the basis of the calculation of the Post Master General
and there is some reason to believe it is in the main correct. It is also supported
by the fact that another contractor upon a different route has already received him
pay for extra services in transporting ^a part of^ the very mail in question and which it is alleged was carried upon this route to
the exclusion of passengers. It is indeed a remarkable fact that ^contractors on^ three mail routes have been paid for carrying the same mail or a part of it, and yet not satisfied
with this, one of them is still demanding more for the service by his mode of calculation
than the whole mail pay on [...?] the three routes would amount to. These facts are disclosed in view of another also
that from the 23 May 1836 till the close of Indian hostilities, the period of the
performance of the alleged Extra services, the
all mail matter from the North for places South and West of Columbus was by an order
of the Department sent over the Western route by Wheeling and the Rivers.
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4
Strange indeed it seems to the Committee [that?] if these facts are as stated, that there should have been much difficulty about the
transportation of the mail on the Southern route as it is called. It appears that
the contractors already had the stages, trains and all necessary arrangements for
the transportation of the mail, for they, though not required by their contract to
do so, were running a four
^four^ horse post coaches on the route where the disturbances took place ^and^ which rendered it necessary to change the mail from the Northern to the Southern
route
The contractors being thus provided, and being as they were already in the actual employment of the Department, in doing for it similar transportation, ^on a contiguous route^ they agree to take the Northern mail, usually carried on the Northern route, “on the assurance given that a liberal
and just compensation would be made [them?] by the Department; and if the Department had not [the?] power to make [them?] ample remuneration that an appeal would be made in their behalf to Congress”
The only question then is what is a liberal and just compensation? This committee
not fully concurring in the views of the Post Master General, plausible as they are
in some respects, have
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5
under all the circumstances agreed to give the petitioner the ^same^ sum which was actually paid to the contractors on the upper route for the services rendered [...?] by the petitioners. ^during the same period.^ The time [thus?] employed is assumed by the Committee at Seventy three, instead of Seventy days, as
estimated for by the Post Master General. The whole amount of pay to the contractors
per annum on the upper route was (including the $8.500 added from the [lower?]) was $23.875 per annum. Seventy three days it will be seen, I are the fifth of a year precisely, and will entitle the petitioner therefore to the
fifth of the ^above^ sum of $23.875 which will be $4.775. This sum is $6.985 less than that provided
in the Bill and is $1.519 more than is allowed by the decision of the Post Master
General. ^Griff^
^
Griff
^ The Committee believe it ^has become^ too much the practice of those in the employment of the Government to seek all occasions
for a pretext for the most [exhorbitant?] charges for any little extra services they may chance to render. All such services
should be paid for but no more should be demanded than the services are reasonably
worth. In this instance the Committee repeat that the charge made [is?] and as even as allowed by the bill
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6
is beyond all measure too high and if ^the service had been^ performed the entire year at that rate, would give to a single route $58.800 per annum which on that line before the
the two lines before the disturbances the
^the^ cost to
^to^ the department for the transportation of all the mails on the two routes was
^was^ but $42.615!!! The difference
[there?] between the sum actually paid and that demanded for the entire year would be $16.185.
As it regards the claim for compensation for a supposed loss of passengers, the Committee
cannot believe that when the Indian hostilities commenced there could have been any
great number of [these?] [or?] but even if there had been, the original contract with the petitioners company here,
was, to carry the mail with which the Department, as is conceded, had a right to fill
his stage, which was a two horse one converted afterwards into ^a^ four horse ^coach^ by the contractors. The Department [there?] being in the difficulty it found itself in regard to the transportation of the mail
fills [this?]
contractors
^the^ four horse stage ^of those contractors^
with mail matter and they contractors agrees to exclude all passengers for this ^very reason^
consideration for which
^and^ they is1 to be paid therefore (for the mail) by the Department instead of receiving [...?] pay from the passengers that might chance to travel that route in a time
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7
of danger alarm and difficulty growing out of the supposed hostile feelings of the
more Southerly Indians also. On the upper route persons had been actually killed
^travelling [with?]^
and the mail stopped and the stages had been way laid and attacked by the Savages. Every day similar
difficulties and dangers were apprehended farther South and for this reason alone
the Committee cannot believe the number of passengers was or could have been great.
^
Saye
^ Be that as it may however the petitioner received will receive the most ample compensation for carrying the mail instead of the passengers
which as before said he agreed to exclude in order that the mail might be carried in his stages . It is but fair he should be paid for this and the
committee therefore recommend a modification of the Bill of the Senate in conformity
with the views herein expressed[.] This is done view is taken by the committee with the greater confidence that no injustice will
be done to the petitioners on [...?] a calculation based even upon a fair estimate of the number of passengers that might
properly have been excluded from the Stages by the additional Mail
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8
matter cast upon this route. The petitioners estimate the value of a passengers fare
through on their route as $56, now if they carried all their passengers through this may be a fair estimate of the amount of the fare of each, but [is?]
^it not^
it
^
is
^ reasonable to ^believe^
suppose that all their passengers were of the class supposed? by no means. Suppose however
that, on a triweekly line, the number of passengers averaged five, which is supposed
^taken^ to be a liberal estimate, at $56. to each ^passenger^ it would give per day only (including the additional half day to each week) $308, and this when multiplied by
70 days, the time assumed by the Post Master General, would make, (as the pay properly
due this company for the loss of passengers alone, estimating both ways, that is charging
for five passengers each ^
[...?]^ way,) the enormous sum of $43.020 [...?] Again taking nine passengers as the average both ways and Seventy three days as the
time employed it would entitle the petitioners to the still greater sum of [...?] $73.584!!!. The Committee mention these facts to show the falacy of such calculations and to demonstrate the incorrectness of the principles laid
down by the petitioner in his estimates &c
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9
It is very clear that nothing more is due than a fair compensation for the services
rendered and the best mode of ascertaining this is to show the comparison between
this service and the very same when rendered by another company, that sum the committee
are willing to allow and no more
^All^
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Report No 764
William B. Stokes (to accompany S. Bill No 154)
William B. Stokes (to accompany S. Bill No 154)
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July 19. 1848
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Mr Goggin from the Committee on the Post Office and Post Roads made the following
Report
Report
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1380
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Print this and let me see the proofsW L Goggin
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[ enclosure
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which, estimated at $57 per hundred weight, the price he now alleges he charged for
extra baggage—
29th Congress
Rep. No. 315.
Ho. OF Reps.
1st Session.
1st Session.
WILLIAM B. STOKES.
(To accompany joint resolution H. R. No. 21.)
February 21, 1846.
Mr. Hilliard, from the Committee on the Post Office and Post Roads,
made the following
REPORT:
(To accompany joint resolution H. R. No. 21.)
February 21, 1846.
Mr. Hilliard, 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 were referred the petition and papers of Wm. B. Stokes, surviving partner of Jno. N. C. Stockton & Co., have had the same under consideration, and report:
The petition states that in May, 1836, J. N. C. Stockton & Co. were the contractors
to carry the mail from Augusta, Georgia, to Blakely, in Alabama, via Pensacola, Florida,
in a two-horse coach, tri-weekly; that at this time the great northern and southern
mail from Washington to New Orleans was carried from Augusta to New Orleans, via Milledgeville
and Columbus, in Georgia, and Montgomery and Mobile, in Alabama, in four-horse post
coaches, daily; that, in the month of May, 1836, the Creeks living in Alabama, between
Columbus, in Georgia, and Montgomery, in the former State, broke out in open hostility
against the whites, and, among other atrocities, stopped the mail, robbed its contents,
and murdered some of the passengers—and that, taking possession of the intervening
portion of the country between Columbus and Montgomery, they entirely obstructed the
passage of the United States mail over this, its legitimate route; that in this emergency
the Postmaster General, through his accredited agent, and over his own signature,
forced the transportation of the mail of the upper route, carried daily in four-horse
post coaches, on the lower route, the mail of which was carried in two-horse coaches,
tri weekly; that the performance of this service brought an extraordinary weight of
mail, and which was the cause of excluding from their coaches many passengers; and
that they have never received a cent of compensation for this extraordinary and unexpected
service, and which has been refused them because the Post Office Department had not
the power, under the law, to afford them adequate compensation. They now ask that
the Postmaster General be authorized to settle their claim on the allowance of an
adequate compensation for this service.
From an examination of a series of papers furnished by the Postmaster General, your
committee find the statements of the petitioners to be true. The then Postmaster General,
the honorable Amos Kendall, moreover, at the time admitted that for this service he
would extend all the power of the department to afford adequatecompensation; and if that power was not sufficient, he would cheerfully seek its enlargement
from Congress for this special purpose. It appears, however, this was never done;
and for the
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same want of power in the department, the compensation has never been made.
It appears, also, from the views of the honorable Amos Kendall and his agent—at the
time on the spot—that the contractors on the lower route would necessarily lose passengers,
by the transportation on the lower route of the heavy mail of the upper route; and,
indeed, these contractors were directed to exclude all passengers when it would interfere
with the transportation of the mail—a circumstance which frequently took place. These
contractors, from the papers presented to the committee, it appears, were by no means
anxious to have this unexpected and burdensome duty thrown on them, and it is certain
that, according to the contract made by them with the Post Office Department, they
were not bound to carry it. It was an exigency, however, of uncommon occurrence, which
induced the Postmaster General to throw this duty on them; for it is evident, the
public would not have tolerated the interruption of the great southern and northern
mail. Under this view of the exigency of the case, and under the assurances of the
Postmaster General that they should be adequately compensated, they yielded, and,
it appears, performed the duty faithfully and to the satisfaction of the department.
When it is taken into consideration that two days' accumulation of the heavy mail
of a four-horse daily post coach was thrown on a tri-weekly two-horse coach, it is
evident the transportation of this additional mail must necessarily have impaired
their capacity to carry passengers. And it must be remembered too, that the same obstruction
which caused the interruption of the mail on the upper route, would also interrupt
the conveyance of passengers on that route, and would, of course, induce them to seek
passage on the lower route. It is obvious, therefore, that passengers in abundance,
in that year of great travel, would be seeking conveyance on the lower route, which
the heavy mail to be transported would prevent these contractors from taking. This
is in proof before the committee. A severe pecuniary loss was the necessary consequence
to these contractors—not from any fault of theirs, but from an unexpected service
growing out of an extraordinary emergency thrown on them, and which, neither by their
contract, nor by any view of moral justice, were they required to perform.
Your committee, in view of all the facts derived from the papers furnished by the
Postmaster General, from other proofs furnished to the committee, and from the attendant
circumstances of the case, think the claim of the petitioners presents a justifiable
case for the interposition of Congress.
They accordingly recommend the accompanying joint resolution.
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You are hereby authorized and instructed to select suitable and competent persons,
at proper points, for postmasters, not nearer to each other than ten miles apart,
unless special reasons exist, showing an absolute necessity for placing the offices
nearer to each other. You will report the names of those persons, with their locations
and names of offices, for appointment by the department as postmasters. But you are
authorized, in the meantime, to put the offices in operation, and cause said persons,
nominated by you as postmasters, to enter upon and perform all their duties as such.
You will see that said postmasters pay over the net proceeds of their offices to the
contractors, after the expiration of each quarter, that is, from and after the months
of March, June, September, and December, and that the service be faithfully performed
by the contractors.
Your compensation will be at the rate of $1,000 a year, with an additional allowance
of two dollars per day, when you are absent from your home on the business of this
department, which two dollars a day is to be in full for all travelling or other personal
expenses. You will report, from time to time, your doings to the department, and keep
it as well advised as the opportunities of communication will allow you, of the state
of the mail service in Oregon, and all important particulars touching the same. If
practicable, mail bags, locks, keys, and blanks will be forwarded by ship to Astoria,
for your use and distribution. The laws and regulations of the department, you will
find in possession of the bearer of this, Mr. Shively, who has been appointed postmaster
at Astoria.
C. JOHNSON.
Gen. Cornelius Gilliam,
Upper Williamette, Oregon.
P. S. It has been arranged to send per ship, six mail bags with locks attached, and
Mr. Shively takes with him six spare keys, blanks for accounts, &c., which the postmasters
can obtain of the postmaster of Astoria.H.
Stockton Case.
On the 3d of March, 1847, Congress passed the following joint resolution:
"Be it resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of
America in Congress assembled: That the Postmaster General be, and he is hereby, directed to pay to William B. Stokes,
surviving partner of John N. C. Stockton & Company, for carrying the mail in the year
eighteen hundred and thirty-six, on the lower or Florida route, in consequence of
the interruption of the mail by the Creek hostilities on the upper route, such compensation
as shall be established to be an adequate re-
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numeration for the same, taking into consideration the value of the services performed,
and the loss to the said contractors by the exclusion of passengers, as directed by
the then Postmaster General; and it shall be the duty of the Postmaster General to
pay the amount so allowed out of the current appropriation for mail transportation."
^[Mason?]^
Upon an examination of the case, it appears that John N. C. Stockton & Company, were
contractors on the Florida route, from Augusta, Georgia, by Bainbridge and Pensacola,
Florida, to Blakely, Alabama, in the spring of 1836, and were bound to take the United
States mail three times in each week over the route in two-horse coaches, and in steamboats
between Cedar Bluff and Pensacola, in 6½days, for the sum of $18,240.
They had changed the service, as it is presumed, with the consent of the department,
so as to perform that part of it between Pensacola and Blakely in steamboats, and
between Augusta and Cedar Bluff in four-horse post coaches, alleging, as a reason
for the change, bad roads and the high price of forage, and, probably, with a view
of competing with the Georgia line for the transportation of travellers.
This was the actual service in operation when the mails were stopped, in May, 1836,
by the Indian disturbances in Alabama. The great Southern mail had been taken, prior
to this time, on the upper or Georgia line daily, in four-horse post coaches, by Ward
Taylor, John H. Avery, O. Saltmarsh, and Richard C. Stockton, on the route from Columbus,
Georgia, by Montgomery, Alabama, to Mobile.
The Florida line was used alone for the transportation of the local mails. The mails
were stopped by the Indians on that part of the route between Columbus and Montgomery.
It became necessary, therefore, for the department to send the mails over some other
route. On the 18th of May, 1836, the department directed that all mail matter from
the north, for places south and west of Columbus, should be sent over the western
route, by Wheeling and the rivers. This order was rescinded on the 20th of May, and
again renewed on the 23d, and continued in force until the Indian disturbances had
ended.
That portion of the route between Mobile and Montgomery was not interrupted by the
Indians, and much of the mail matter coming north was sent to Montgomery, and then
by Tuscaloosa, and through the State of Tennessee.
The contractor, Williamson, on the route between Montgomery and Tuscaloosa, claimed
a large sum from the department for the extra mails taken over his lines, and obtained
the passage of an act of Congress directing the settlement and payment of his account,
which was done.
As soon as information was received by the postmaster at Mobile of the interruption
of the mails on the Georgia line, without any authority from the department, he made
a contract with J. N. C. Stockton & Company for taking the great southern mail over
their Florida line, advanced $5,000 in cash, which was afterwards repaid
<Page 15>
to the department, and agreed, further, to pay at the same rate that the "said Stockton
charges his passengers for extra baggage."
It was estimated in the department at the time, judging from the usual size and weight
of the great southern mail, that it would cost the department about $1,400 per trip,
or at the rate of $451,000 per annum. The contract was reported to the department
on the 27th of May; on the same day declared illegal and extravagant, disavowed, and
notice given to Stockton. He was, nevertheless, urged to continue the service, and
assurance given that a liberal and just compensation would be made him by the department;
and if the department had not the power to make him ample remuneration, that an appeal
in his behalf would be made to Congress.
The service was continued on the Florida line until the 26th of July; the exact time
of the commencement of this extra service does not appear. It was, probably, within
a few days after making the contract. I have assumed 70 days as the time of its continuance.
The department seems, at all times, to have been ready to settle with Mr. Stockton
and pay him for the extra service, upon the principles prescribed in the 23d section
of the act of 1836; which prohibits extra pay to contractors, except in exact proportion
to the increase of stock and expenses required for the additional service, when compared
with the original contract.
Mr. Stockton insisted upon payment according to the contract with the postmaster at
Mobile. He appealed to Congress, alleging that the extra mails (including the local)
which they had carried, in that time—
| Going south, weighed | 18,429 | pounds, |
| And going north, | 7,815 | po" |
| 26,244 | po" |
| Amounted to the sum of | $14,959 |
| Besides the cash paid | 5,000 |
| $19,950 |
The mails are stated, upon the oath of John W. Moray, to have been weighed by him
on the steamboats, and the above is the weight given by him and relied upon by Stockton
in his application to Congress. V. W. Ripley also weighed the mails at Augusta, and
furnished the weight to Mr. Stockton, but his certificate of the weight does not seem
to have been presented to Congress, nor has it been to the department.
In acting upon this application, Congress treated the contract with the postmaster
as a nullity, and directed that an "adequate remuneration be made for the services rendered," and in ascertaining that, the value of the services was to be considered as well as any
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loss which the contractors sustained from the exclusion of passengers, as directed by the Postmaster General.
The department was entitled, under the existing contract with Stockton, when the great
mail was transferred to the Florida line, to the exclusive use of two-horse coaches,
if the size of the mails required it, and boats between Cedar Bluff and Pensocola, without any additional pay, to be run three times each week and in six and a half
days' time. The service was, in truth, rendered in four-horse post coaches between
Augusta and Cedar Bluff, and in steamboats between Pensacola and Blakely, and the
claimant is entitled, under the resolution, to the difference in value of the two
kinds of service. The claimant has omitted to show that any additional coaches or
horses were bought, or drivers employed, or any money expended in consequence of the
transfer of the great mail to that line, or that any losses were actually sustained
from a sale of the coaches or horses upon a discontinuance of the service. He has
chosen to rely, mainly, upon estimates of the number of coaches and horses which such
increased service would require; estimates of the loss upon a sale of the property
when the service was discontinued; the cost of hiring steamboats; the board and pay
of drivers; the expense of keeping horses; repairing coaches, harness, &c., &c. Some
of them making the actual expenses greatly exceed the contract price of taking the
southern mail daily on the upper line, as well as the local mails on both of the lines.
A similar course has been adopted in the effort show the loss sustained by the exclusion
of travellers. The instructions given to Stockton to exclude passengers when the size
of the mails required it, were but a repetition of the conditions in every mail contract.
Their agents state that they frequently excluded passengers on account of the size
of the mails; but how many were excluded, or how many taken, is not shown, as might
have been done, by the production of the way-bills, which are usually kept by such
companies, or by the settlement of accounts between partners.
Certificates and affidavits are produced that there was much travel on the upper line;
that two lines of coaches had been run on it prior to the Indian disturbances, from
which it is expected an inference will be drawn that the stages would have taken nine
passengers each trip, and that the United States should pay them their usual price
of $56 for each passenger. The affidavit of Mr. Plitt, an agent of the department
at the time, and Mr. Fuller, a contractor on the upper route, express similar opinions,
and their strong convictions, that nine passengers would have passed over the route
each trip; and Mr. Plitt asserts that he offered to pay Stockton that amount for each
trip, which would have cost the United States, if it had been accepted, $504 per trip,
each way; or $1,008 for the round trip, amounting to $367, 920 for daily service each
year.
If such a proposition had been accepted, the contract must have been rejected by the
Postmaster General, as illegal and extravagant.
The entire service on both lines, as contracted for by the same parties, daily, and
in four-horse post coaches on the upper, and
<Page 17>
^
[Sintzenich?]
^ tri-weekly on the lower in two-horse coaches, cost the department the sum of $42,612
each year; and yet, according to this estimate, for service in four-horse post coaches,
three and a half times a week, the United States is to pay at the rate of $183,960,
in addition to the $18,240 already paid for the local mails.
If the travel had been such as now represented, there can scarcely be a doubt that
Stockton & Co. would have made the service, daily, for the accommodation of the public,
and particularly so if each trip would have yielded $504, the price of nine passengers.
In addition to this, Mr. Stockton relied upon the sworn statement of his own agent,
when he applied to Congress, showing the weight of the mails, when he expected his
pay to be regulated by weight, under his contract with the postmaster at Mobile. This
statement shows that the entire weight of the mails, for 70 days, averaged daily,
going south, 263 pounds, and going north, 112 pounds, or double those amounts on alternate
days. This demonstrates, if true, and there is no reason to doubt it, as it was presented
and relied upon as the basis of his claim, by Stockton himself, that the weight of
the mails could not materially have interfered with the transportation of passengers,
and particularly so as the service, on about one-half the route, was performed in
steamboats.
The accumulation of three or four mails, at one place, before the regular transportation
commenced on the lower line, may, and no doubt did, produce some inconvenience to
contractors, as well as travellers. Whatever may have been the amount of travel on
the upper line, before the Indian disturbances broke out, it is more than probable,
from an apprehension of personal danger on either line, that a great proportion of
the travel would have taken the western route going south, and by Montgomery and Tuscaloosa,
on the western route, coming north, and that the loss of passengers on this route
should be attributed to that, rather than to the size or weight of the mails.
The proposition of Mr. Plitt, the estimates or guesses, as set forth, give but little
idea of the value of the services performed;
and if there had been nothing else in the case, I doubt whether an award could have
been properly made, for the want of proof.
The records of the department, however, furnish data, upon which a fair, just, and
reasonable compensation may be made the parties for the extra services performed,
and for which pay is now claimed.
At the annual lettings in the autumn of 1834, the service was so arranged on these
two routes—the Florida and Georgia lines—that the great southern mail was sent, on
alternate days, over each line, in four-horse post coaches, connecting at Blakely,
for the following prices:
On the Florida line, $27,240 per annum.
On the Georgia line, $15,375 per annum.
This service was continued until the fall of 1835, when, at the instance of John N.
C. Stockton, with the assent of the others in-
<Page 18>
terested, that portion of the great southern mail which had been transported over
the Florida line was transferred to the Georgia line, which was made daily, and $8,500
taken from the pay of the Florida line, and added to the pay of the Georgia line,
and the Florida line reduced to two-horse post coaches, three times a week, and twenty-four
hours more time given. Thus, John N. C. Stockton & Co., and the contractors on the
Georgia line, with the assent of the department, setting the value of transporting
one-half of the great southern mail, excluding local mails, over this very route,
at $8,500 per annum. This arrangement took effect the 1st of January, 1836.
There was nothing in the nature of the service to render it more difficult to perform,
or more expensive to the contractors, or more valuable to the department in May, June,
and July, 1836, than it had been the preceding year; and no reason is seen why the
most ample justice would not have been done to the contractors, if, when the great
mail was transferred to the Florida route, the pay, as adjusted by themselves, had
been transferred with it.
There could be no hardship in this, when it is considered that John N. C. Stockton
& Co., the contractors on the lower line, and who were probably interested with R.
C. Stockton on the upper line, actually received full pay for taking the great mail
on the upper line, when it was, in truth, taken on the lower line, and pay now claimed
for it a second time.
It would seem to be but just that, as the great mail was not, in truth, taken over
the Georgia line for 70 days, the sum to be paid the lower line, for extra services,
should be deducted from the pay on the upper line; but the pay due the contractors
on the upper line has been settled and adjusted by the proper officers, at the proper
time, and perhaps correctly; and I do not think myself authorized, by the joint resolution,
to revise, or in any way interfere with the settlement for services on it.
It is, therefore, my opinion, that the value of the extra service thus rendered, is
more correctly ascertained by a reference to the contracts made, a few months before,
between the same parties, for the precise service now claimed to have been rendered
in May, June, and July, afterwards; and, in my judgment, it is a full and fair price
for the services rendered. And if there was any loss of passengers in consequence
of the mail having been so transferred from the upper to the lower line, that by paying
them a full price for four-horse post coach service, rendered daily, at the prices
fixed by themselves, it will be an adequate remuneration for all the extra services
performed by them, as well as any damages which may have been sustained from the loss
of travel.
It is therefore ordered that William B. Stokes, the surviving partner of John N. C.
Stockton & Co., be paid, out of the appropriation for mail transportation, for seventy
days service, at the rate of $17,000 per annum, for taking the great mail over the
Florida line during the Indian disturbances, which amounts to $3,256.
<Page 19>
29th CONGRESS
1st Session.
1st Session.
H. R. 21.
(Report No. 315.)
February 21, 1846.
Read, and committed to a Committee on the Whole House to-morrow.
Mr. Hilliard, from the Committee on the Post Office and Post Roads, reported the following joint resolution:
^(^JOINT RESOLUTION^)^
For the relief of William B. Stokes, surviving partner of John N. C. Stockton and Company.
(Report No. 315.)
February 21, 1846.
Read, and committed to a Committee on the Whole House to-morrow.
Mr. Hilliard, from the Committee on the Post Office and Post Roads, reported the following joint resolution:
^(^JOINT RESOLUTION^)^
For the relief of William B. Stokes, surviving partner of John N. C. Stockton and Company.
|
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Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the Postmaster General be, and he is hereby, directed to pay to William B. Stokes, surviving partner of John N. C. Stockton and Company, for carrying the mail in the year eighteen hun- dred and thirty-six, on the lower or Florida route, in conse- quence of the interruption of the mail by the Creek hostilities on the upper route, such compensation as shall be established to be an adequate remuneration for the same, taking into considera- tion the value of the services performed, and the loss to the said contractors by the exclusion of passengers, as directed by the then Postmaster General; and it shall be the duty of the Post- master General to pay the amount so allowed out of the current appropriation for mail transportation. |
<Page 20>
[ docketing
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Joint resolution for the relief of Wm B. Stokes and report
Handwritten Document, 20 page(s), tray 12, folder 1, RG 233, Entry 364: Records of the United States House of Representatives, Thirtieth Congress, 1847-1849, Records of Legislative Proceedings, Committee Reports and Papers, 1847-1849, NAB,