July 18, 2004

Father of the 3-cent Stamp

It is reported that the U.S. Postal Service is considering raising the cost of a first-class stamp by a nickel to 42 cents. Lysander Spooner must be spinning in his grave.

Spooner was a maverick, Boston lawyer who challenged the postal department in 1884 by starting his competing American Letter Mail Company -- and won even though he lost.

He is not to be confused with the Rev. William Spooner of England who is more famous for amusing slips of the tongue (about which, a future column).

For background of our Spooner, we consult his obituary in the Boston Daily Globe of May, 1887:

"One of the most remarkable men who has ever walked the streets of Boston departed this life yesterday at his residence, 109 Myrtle St.

"His name, Lysander Spooner, is known to but a few; but as John Boyle O'Reilly says, it will some day be honored by millions.

"Mr. Spooner was in his eightieth year, having been born in Athol, Mass., in 1808. A farmer's boy, he left agricultural life at the age of 25 and entered the law office of John Davis in Worcester.

"At that time, there was a statute requiring three years' extra (law office) study from men not college bred as a condition of admission to the bar. Then it was that he displayed that preference for Natural Justice over artificial legislation.

"In defiance of the statute, he opened a law office and began his career as a pamphleteer by supply8ing each member of the Legislature with an address. This made the objectionable statute so ridiculous that it was straightaway repealed."

Stamp Costs High

Spiraling postal rates in 1844 irked Spooner. It cost 18 3/4 cents to send a quarter-ounce letter from Boston to New York City, and 25 cents to Washington, D.C.

A letter to Albany, N.Y., via Western Railroad, cost two-thirds as much as the freight charge for a barrel of flour.

There was no federal monopoly on mail service at that time. Spooner decided to compete with the U.S. government. He established private post offices in New York City, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Boston.

He undertook to transmit letters daily from each city to the others - twice a day between New York and Philadelphia.

American Letter Mail postage was 6 1/4 cents per half-ounce, payable in advance. A sheet of 20 stamps, each cut off by the user, cost only $1.

U.S. Mail patrons those days could send "postage due" letters to be redeemed by receivers at local offices. Home delivery of mail did not start until 1863 in the 49 largest cities and not to small towns like Punta Gorda until 1955.

Spooner ran advertisements in newspapers:

"AMERICAN POST OFFICE -- Our purpose is to carry letters by the most rapid conveyances, and at the cheapest rates. And to extend operations as fast as patronage will justify over the principal routes of the country at a uniform rate.

"The Company design also, if sustained by the public, is to thoroughly agitate the Constitutional right of competition in the business of carrying letters. The grounds on which it asserts this right are for sale in the post offices in pamphlet form."

Congress Furious

The public enthusiastically supported the venture, but Congress was furious. The government derived considerable profit from its monopoly.

The U.S. Postmaster warned railroads that their mail contracts would be canceled unless they denied passage of private mail companies.

Some of Spooner's agents were found guilty of "transporting letters in railway cars over a post road of the U.S." He was fined.

Spooner defended himself in court. He won his case by asserting that owners of public conveyances could not know when private persons, concealing letters, came on board.

An appeal of the not-guilty verdict was remanded to the U.S. District Court. It expressed doubt that the U.S. had the right to monopolize transportation of mail.

The Postmaster General acknowledged defeat by lowering the first-class half-ounce stamp to Spooner's 5-cent rate. Also, the government started sending newspapers free within a 30-mile radius of the place of publication.

Spooner reduced his rate to three cents. An exasperated Congress followed suit. The feisty lawyer was hailed as "Father Of The 3-cent Stamp."

Unable to compete against government subsidy, and harassed by numerous government prosecutions, Spooner gave up in eight months.

Congress slammed the door on future competition in 1851 by enacting a law giving the government a monopoly on distribution of correspondence mail.

Other Controversies

Spooner turned his attention to "vigorous controversy upon all questions of interest - religious, political or social."

Said the Globe:

"In 1835, he had published a pamphlet entitled, 'A Deist's Reply to the Alleged Supernatural Evidences of Christianity." Mr. Spooner was not an atheist or a materialist. He firmly believed in the existence of a deity, and had little doubt of a future life.

"When the Millerite craze was at its height, and the end of the world was expected momentarily, some believers abandoned all work and neglected their crops.

"At Athol, several of these were arrested on a charge of vagrancy. The prosecution secured lawyers from adjoining towns and prepared to crush the victims. The latter were non-resistant, would employ no counsel and had to be carried bodily into court.

"Mr. Spooner was present. At the critical moment, he pointed out a flaw in the indictments that set the prisoners free.

"The orthodox were highly indignant of this result. One of the ministers said to Mr. Spooner, 'What do you get for your conduct in this matter?'

"'The satisfaction of doing everything in my power to establish the Christian religion,' answered Mr. Spooner in a tone of sarcasm so subtle that probably the minister did not appreciate it.

"Mr. Spooner was a veteran in the anti-slavery conflict. In connection with it, he produced the work which won greater fame than any other he wrote --"The Unconstitutionality of Slavery."

"His conclusions were bitterly opposed by the Garrisonians who held that the Constitution was "an agreement with Death and a covenant with Hell."

"Mr. Spooner denied the authority of the Constitution even more fundamentally than Garrison. However, he maintained that it contained no sanction of the institution of slavery. His book became the textbook of the Liberty Party and all anti-Garrisonians.

"Another important work was his treatise on "Trial By Jury." In this, he showed that juries should be drawn by lot from the whole body of citizens - and that they should always be judges of the law as well as the facts.

"His voluminous writings included 'Poverty, Its Illegal Causes and Legal Cure'; 'A Defense of Fugitive Slaves'; 'Address To Free Constitutionalists'; 'A New System Of Paper Currency'; 'Considerations of Bankers and Bond Holders'; 'No Treason: The Constitution of No Authority'; 'Our Financiers -- Their Ignorance, Usurpations and Fraud'; and 'Universal Wealth."

Upon almost every subject, this large-hearted man was at odds with his day and generation. He was intensely in earnest -- and far in advance of the average sentiment.

"While he was possessed of many lovable qualities, his personality was so pronounced, and his convictions of duty so strong, he had few lasting affiliations with friends.

"His funeral will be held at his late residence. Among the several addresses will be one by Mr. O'Reilly who prophesizes that a monument will be erected to perpetuate his memory in 20 years -- or 50 years at the farthest."

Epilogue

No statue was ever erected to Lysander Spooner, but his eternal monument exists in all stamp albums - including mine.

The basic 3-cent stamp -- of various national heroes, events or scenes -- remained the fee for first-class letters for 107 years.

Philatelists periodically petition the government to issue a 3-cent stamp commemorating Lysander Spooner. However, the government is a sore loser.

The subsidized U.S. Postal Service in 1969 was reorganized as a self-supporting corporation wholly owned by the federal government. Each year it issues dozens of stamps commemorating every conceivable subject - gem stones to film stars.

But not one to the man who revolutionized the postal system.

Fie on Postmaster General John E. Potter, a career postal employee -- and the 72nd person to hold that job since Benjamin Franklin who invented the postage stamp.

Author: Lindsey Williams