The undersigned merchants and others of the City of Baltimore, respectfully represent,

That they have refrained from troubling your honorable body on the subject of the grievances under which they at present labour in regard to the delays and irregularities in the Great Southern mail route, from the beleif that they were so serious and palpable that they could not escape attention and correction by Congress. As the period—however of the adjourment of Congress approaches without any definite action being had on this important Subject, they feel increased uneasiness lest the present mail arrangement so injurious to the interests of all the Atlantic Cities, and indirectly to the whole Country Should be continued. They need not invite your attention to the fact that under the present legislation of Congress, the Post Office Department enjoys the exclusive transportation of letters, and all other mailable matter with the exception of pamphlets, and Newspapers. As good Citizens they would wish to see the laws preserving this monopoly to the Department (whilst, they exist) properly observed and enforced, but the members of your honorable body will concur with them in opinion that whilst this monopoly is perhaps wisely bestowed on the Post office Department, it is a great abuse of it for the Department to adopt arrangements by which it is outstripped regularly and as a matter of course, by private Expresses

Of this character is the present arrangement of the Post office Department under which the Great Northern and Southern mail is Conveyed between this City and Petersburg by the Chesapeake Bay and James River route. By it, the communication between the Northern and Southern Atlantic cities is at all seasons of the year and under the most favourable circumstances a buisness day later than it previously was, and they need not apprize the members of your honorable body, that during the winter Season, and often at other Seasons, the delays on the route now in use by the Department is often two or more days more than it would be, on the direct route via Fredericksburg and Richmond.

If the Department had been obliged to place the mail on this indirect and uncertain route in order to avoid increased and extravagant demands on the part of the Old Contractors, the undersigned would have deemed it their place as good Citizens to have Submitted to the inconveniences under which they are at present, labouring, without complaint, but it appears from the report of the Committee of Post-office and Post Roads in the Senate, that this was not the case; that the old Contractors were willing to continue to tra[nsit?] mail though increased in Size, between Washington and Richmond at the Same price, at which it had been carried for the last four years, that the price paid them was only what had been determined on as just and fair by a Joint resolution of Congress, and the award of President Tyler, that it was within the requirements of the law, and that the cost of transporting the mail under the Old arrangements, was some thousand dollars less than at present.

It would farther appear from the Same report that the Bay Company between this and Norfolk are willing to give up the transportation of the Great mail if it be the pleasure of Congress to restore it to the Railroad route without making any claim for damages. Your memorialists trust under these circumstances that it may be the pleasure of your honorable body to act on the Subject and direct the restoration of the mail to the Old and direct route, and your memorialists will ever pray,