Page:American Historical Review, Volume 12.djvu/83

Organization of Post- Office Department of Confederacy 73 accounts and vouchers for postal receipts and expenditures up to the 31st of this month, taking care to forward with such accounts all postage stamps and stamped envelopes remaining on hand, belonging to the Postoffice Department of the United States, in order that they may receive the proper credits therefor, in the adjustment of their accounts, and they are further required to keep in their possession to meet the orders of the Postmaster-General of the United States, for the payment of mail service within the Confederate States, all revenue which shall have accrued from the postal service to the said first day of June, next. All contractors, mail messengers and special contractors for carrying the mails within the Confederate States, under the existing contracts with the Government of the United States, are hereby authorized to continue to perform such service under my direction, from and after the day last named, subject to such changes and modifications as may be found necessary, under the powers vested in the Postmaster-General by the terms of said contracts and the provisions of the second section of an act approved May 9, 1861, conformable thereto. And said contractors and special contractors and mail messengers are required to forward without delay the number of their route or routes and the nature of the service thereon, the schedules of arrivals and departures, the names of the offices supplied and the amount of the annual compensation for present services, together with their address, directed to the chief of the contract bureau. Until a postal treaty shall be made with the Government of the United States for the exchange of mails between that Government and the Government of the Confederacy, postmasters will not be authorized to collect United States postage on mail matter sent to or received from those States, and until postage stamps and stamped envelopes are pro- cured for the payment of postage within the Confederate States, all postage must be paid in money, under the provisions of the first section of the Act of March i, 1861. The course of Judge Reagan apparently met with the approval of the Washington authorities, for. as if acting in co-operation, the Honorable Montgomery Blair. Postmaster-general of the United States, soon promulgated a proclamation suspending on June i all mail-routes in the states embraced by the Confederacy. The provisional Constitution of the Confederacy required the Post-Office Department to be self-sustaining after March i, 1863.' The expenditures in connection with the mail service by the govern- ment of the United States, for the years ending June 30, i860, in the states then under control of the Confederacy, amounted to $2,879,530.79; and the receipts into the Treasury from the same states for that year amounted to but $938,105.34, showing a def- icit of $1,941,425.45. With these figures before him, the task of overcoming such a deficit must have seemed hopeless. However, without entering into details, steps were taken to curtail expenses. ' Constitution, § 8. clause 7. See message of Davis, September 30, 1862, Richardson. I. 252.