PUBLIC MEETING ON ’CHANGE,

IN REFERENCE TO THE POST-OFFICE DEPARTMENT.

The meeting at the Exchange, called for by a numerously signed advertisement in the papers for some days past, to consider the following facts, assembled at 2 o’clock, yesterday:

“The Great Southern Mail, from New Orleans to this city, and from this city back to New Orleans, is regularly about three business days behind the Private Expresses,—mainly because the Postmaster General, either from indisposition or inability, (as he alleges, under the law,) refuses to keep up with the competition.

“The Southern Mail, also, which leaves here at 4 ½ o’clock P. M., and which therefore carries out all business operations of the day, lies overall night in Philadelphia.”

Jas G King & Sons,	Thos P Gustin, Jr,	N L & G Griswold,
Nevins & Townsend,	Joseph E Trippe,	Gilmore & Logan,
Goodhue & Co,	Robert Bage,	Tucker, Cooper & Co,
Bogert & Kneeland,	A & R Waller,	John Murray,
Suydam, Sage & Co,	A B Mason,	Jas M Hicks,
Fox & Livingston,	J H Rickett;	C A Ten Eyck,
Aymar & Co,	Dwight & Jones,	Olney & Correll,
Camman & Co	Wilmot Williams,	Hussey & Murray,
Allen & Paxson,	John Oakes,	Russell & Cepland,
Nesmith & Co,	Wm R Dwight,	Frost & Hicks,
W W DeForest & Co,	Joseph A Dunn,	Charles Felch,
Townsend & Brooks,	Wm Kerr,	Badger, Peck & Co
Seger & West,	Ludlam & Langely,	Boonen & Graves,
Wm G West,	C F Parooh & Co,	G & S Wheelwright,
Gault, Ballard & Co,	Baker & Cooke,	Thomas S Simms,
Joseph Goddard,	John Power,	James Smith,
J Van Namee & Co,	W B & T M Dougherty,	Sturges & Clearman,
A & A G Trask,		A Hemp,
Geo Bell,	E Corning & Son,	Buckley & Lockwood
A Foster & Sons,	J How[a?]rd & Son,	Keimeth & Laverty
Olyphant & Son,	Jno C Green,	John P Elwell,
M Ford,	Wm C Esart,	F Pentz,
Wa[l?]ter E Harding,	P Wells & Co,	O Cammann,
Hinsdale & Case,	Phelps, Crittenden & Bliss,	John J Palmer,
Stephen S Clark,		A P Halsey,
Cogswell & Crane,	Atwater, Gould & Co,	D Leavitt,
Clark, Fisk & Co,	Hunt, Kendall & Atwater,	F J Hosford,
C R Degen,		F H & D Lathrop,
Jas R Hitchcock,	Hiram Dixon,	Theo B Lawshuate,
R Ransom,	Adams & Co,	John J Fisk,
W Seaman,	S J Edwards,	N G Rutgers,
James H Dill,	John S Stinson,	D B Turner,
Jas Cronkright,	Jas M Hill,	M Tucker,
A G Benson & Co,	Chas W Weed,	J S Clark,
Jackson & Robins,	J Conner,	Jas Richmond,
Gilbert A Grant,	M Weed,	Gilbert, Cobb & Johnson,
Wm Lawson,	F Dobbs,
J Anderson & Co,	R Withers,	Jos Drake,
John Spader,	Van Renssalaer Van Courtland,	W S Nichols,
J McGregor,		G A Worth,
Blake & Coolidge,	George Curtis,	H Leonard,
Harnden & Co,	H D Townsend,	P R Kearney,
Isaac Kip, Jr,	Jno S Tappan,	D Sayre,
Derw, Robinson & Co,	James Wright,	D White,
John G Winter,	W W Dibblee,	J Shaw,
J T Vanderhoof,	J Lahens & Co,	A S Foster,
N D Morgan,	Wm M Parks,	E T Richardson,
Avery & Lyman,	Girarous Clark,	D R Peck,
J J Dickinson,	Draper & Glover,	Jas Williamson,
A R Wyckoff,	Rion W Boane,	G W Randolph & Co,
Clark, Dodge & Co	T W Thomas,	F T James,
Fred A Delano,	J B Collins,	Edw Corning,
Chas A Heckscher,	M Robinson,	L Phillips,
H B Robinson,	W B Kellogg,	S W Thompson,
Zebedee Cook,	Abm G Thompson,	E D James,
Chas Towns,	Morris Frank[l?]in,	Benj S Whitney,
Joseph Strong,	Cor[e?] & Smith,	E H Mansfield,
T Sweeny,	H T Kimball,	J W McLean,
M B Edgar,	R Havens,

The meeting was numerously attended, and

James G. King, Esq., called the meeting to order, and nominated

Stewart Brown, Esq., for Chairman.

Wm. B. Townsend and F. M. Babcock, Esqs., were nominated as Secretaries.

The following memorial being offered, it was then read by Mr. Townsend:

Memorial [t?]o the Senate an[d] House of Representatives, of the United States:

The Merchants of New York and others respectfully represent to the Congress of the United States, that, in all our business transactions, with New Orleans and other Southern cities, we labor under great and serious embarrassment in consequence of the extraordinary delays and derangements of the mails.

The great mail from this city should leave New York every evening at an hour sufficiently late to take from this commercial capital all the business transactions of the day, and then be hurried on South and West with all the rapidity of steam power, and on account of its vast importance to all classes of our fellow citizens, without an over-nice regard to expense; whereas now this great mail is delayed a whole night in Philadelphia.

This mail, too, when it leaves this city, should seek the shortest and most certain routes Southward; whereas nowd o1 the cost and delay of a whole business day, it seeks the circuitous route of Chesapeake Bay and James river, in Virginia.

Again, the Post Office Department, without regard to expense, should never suffer private competition to beat, day after day, and regularly, its own Government mails. For the consequence of such a state of things is to make the whole commercial and agricultural community the prey of speculation. Occasional triumphs of private competition over the Government mails are perhaps unavoidable; but when they become systematic and regular the Post Office Department not only loses its utility to the Public, but becomes a positive injury: First, from the dangerous reliance that may be put upon its anticipated markets and prices, and Second, from I[t]s being a monopoly against whi[c]h we are not allowed, by law, to organize a systematic competition.

It is not for us, business men as we are, to enter upon, or enquire into, the causes of these delays and injuries to us, for that we cheerfully refer to the consideration of your honorable bodies; but we respectfully urge the application of an immediate remedy, or an entire repeal, on this great Southern route, of all laws forbidding the establishment of Private mails, so that we can protect ourselves from the evils under which we now suffer. We are satisfied that we ourselves can organize, on this great route, a mail which shall gain THREE DAYS upon the existing mail transportation, and also reduce the p[o]stages. But we have no desire to engage in any such undertaking, if Congress or the Postmaster General will exercise the Constitutional powers of the Government, and save us from speculation, or misinformation, to which we are now daily subject; when, on the most important mail route of the Union. every Atlantic city is at the mercy of a few, who alone have the sources of iuformation.

Entertaining such views as these, which might be greatly enlarged upon, we submit the following resolutions:

First That the proceedings of this meeting be presented to each House of Congress, to the President of the Unit[e]d States and the Postmaster General.

Second That their early and immediate attention be invited to this important subject.

Hon John Barney, of Baltimore, asked leave, through a stranger, to offer the following resolution:—

“Resolved, That the Congress of the United States be respectfully reminded of the fact that the public faith was pledged, by repeated declarations, that while doubting the Constitutional power to aid in contracting Railroads by direct subscription to the capital stock, ample remuneration would be made to the patriotic stockholders by liberal contracts and allowances for carrying the mails, transporting troops, munitions of war,” &c., &c.

The Chair manifesting some signs of dissatisfaction with the introduction of a resolution not relating to the purposes for whieh the meeting was called,

Mr. Barney, in a few words, urged the adoption of this resolution, on the ground that Congress, in 1827, implied a pledge to the projectors of railroads, that the country would use them for such purposes. He was a member of that Congress, and it was sustained by, among others, that great stickler for State rights, John Randolph. He dwelt at some length upon some points, to show that the Post-Office Department ought to deal liberally with railroads.

James G. King, Esq., thought that, however good the argument might be, it was not necessary to adopt the resolution, or to discuss it, at this time. It might be urged on Congress with effect, but the present object was expedition to the mails,—and it was only for this purpose that the meeting was called. It mattered not to the merchants how the mail came, if it came as quick as possible, and was not anticipated by other people.

Mr. Barney then withdrew his resolution.

The memorial was adopted without a dissenting voice, and the meeting, on motion, adjourned.