Memorial of the Legislature of the State of Mississippi, to the Congress of the United States, praying a change in the system of transporting the mail.

The memorial of the Legislature of the State of Mississippi to Congress would respectfully represent that the mail arrangements in this State are in such condition of disorder and confusion as in a great degree to deprive the people of the benefits and advantages of the mail system. The chief value of this great channel of inter-communication between the people of the Union, consists in its regularity. As the mail service is now performed, there is no pretence of regularity, but on the contrary, the failures so numerous as to have almost destroyed public confidence in the mails. This your memorialists attribute to the unwise change of the law of Congress by the Act of 1845 by which the Post Master General was requested to let Contracts to the lowest bidder, requiring the Contractor only to transport the mail leaving it to himself to choose the mode and manner of its transportation. This change has thrown some of the most important routes in the state into the hands of irresponsible and incompetent men, whose means of carrying the mail are utterly inadequate to the service. Your memorialists therefore pray your honorable body to retrace your steps with regard to the mode of transporting the mail and of letting contracts, so that a discretionary power may be given the Post Master General in the choice of competent and responsible contractors, and authorizing that officer to prescribe the mode of transportation, having in view the public convenience and accommodation and the bulk of the mails in such discrimination

Resolved that our Senators in Congress be instructed and our Representatives requested, to use their best exertions to carry out the objects of the foregoing memorial

Approved March 4^th 1848