I have before me your letter of 18^th instant and in relation to your enquiry as to “the terms on which the Richmond Fredericksburg and Potomac Rail Road and Steam Boat Company will engage to carry the said mail” have the following answer to make.

On the 8^th March last a proposal was made by this company for the transportation of the Great Northern and Southern, as well as the Local Mails between Washington and Richmond in conformity with a new schedule then proposed two hours shorter than the old, for the sum of $36.500 p annum. A copy of this proposal is herewith enclosed, together with a comparative statement to which the attention of the committee is particularly asked.

For the compensation above named, the proper obligations would have been entered into, and all the penalties connected with the service encountered.

It pleased the Department however to decline a contract on the terms proposed, tho’ no offer came from any other quarter for the same service. The Companies then proposed a continuance of their service without any contract, as had been the case with the Rail Road Company for several years previously, at the mutual pleasure of both parties, provided the rate of compensation paid from the 1^st of July 1843, say $32.242 p annum, should be continued. This offer was declined by the Department and the result is known to you.

As the two propositions above referred to were made after a careful

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consideration of every point which affected the question, and as nothing has occurred since to produce any change in the opinion of the Board of Directors and the Stockholders generally, I can only repeat the offers so made.

I will add in conclusion that the travel on our route has not hitherto justified more than one daily train between Richmond and Washington, but if a contract should be made until the first of July 1851 at the yearly rate of $36.500 above mentioned and during that time the travel shall be found to justify a second daily line, the Company will be willing to take additional ^mail^ matter on such second line without additional charge.