Signed, Sealed, Delivered

by chuckofish

On this day in 1792 The Postal Service Act was signed into law by President George Washington. This piece of legislation established the United States Post Office Department. The 1792 law provided for a greatly expanded postal network, and served editors by charging newspapers an extremely low rate. The law guaranteed the sanctity of personal correspondence, and provided the entire country with low-cost access to information on public affairs, while establishing a right to personal privacy. To cover long distances, the Post Office used a hub-and-spoke system, with Washington as the hub and chief sorting center. By 1869, with 27,000 local post offices to deal with, it had changed to sorting mail en route in specialized railroad mail cars, called railway post offices, or RPOs. The system of postal money orders began in 1864. Free mail delivery began in the larger cities in 1863.

The postal system played a crucial role in national expansion. It facilitated expansion of the western American frontier by creating an inexpensive, fast, convenient communication system. Furthermore, The advent of Rural Free Delivery (RFD) in the U.S. in 1896, and the inauguration of a domestic parcel post in 1913, greatly increased the volume of mail shipped nationwide, and motivated the development of more efficient postal transportation systems. (After four-year-old Charlotte May Pierstorff was mailed from her parents to her grandparents in Idaho in 1914, mailing of people was prohibited.)

Well, all I can say is nowadays we are lucky to get our mail at all, especially if it has snowed or it is cold. Back in January we didn’t get mail for a week!

“Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds”, a phrase long associated with the American postal worker, no longer seems very relevant. Sigh. Come to think of it, we haven’t gotten any mail this week either!

Well, while we’re reminiscing about the good ol’ days of the P.O., let us remember this classic paean to letter writing…

Woah…that brought me back!

So keep warm, dress in layers…

My sister sent pictures of the snowfall up in their neck of the woods (upstate New York)–yikes!

….the deepest she’s ever seen!

Have a great day! It’s almost Friday!