ster-General, and arrears of
[L]17,666 1s. 3d. to the post riders. For the discharge of these
liabilities and for the continuance of the functions of the office a
draft on the Treasurer was authorized. In December 1779 a further grant
was found to be absolutely necessary in order to maintain the service,
and the sum of $30,000 was voted.[152] The establishment of express
riders which had been maintained in conjunction with the postal service
was at the same time abolished, and the rates of postage raised 20 per
cent. on those paid in 1775. But the cost still outran the revenue, and
in May 1780 sums amounting to $100,000 were voted in aid of the service.
The finances of the posts became involved in further difficulties
through the general depreciation of money, and Congress found it
necessary in December 1780 to make good the depreciation on the pay of
post riders, and to raise their nominal pay to double the sum received
before the war.[153]

Several minor changes of the rates of postage were made in this period.
In December 1780 the Congress fixed the rates on letters at half the
rates paid at the commencement of the war: and in October 1781 at the
actual rates charged at the commencement of the war. But, whatever the
rates, during the war they never produced sufficient revenue to meet
expenses, and the controlling factor in the administration of the
service was the necessity for a means of circulating the earliest
intelligence of the movements of the enemy, and of their ally, in order
to make the best disposition of their own forces.

By the Articles of Confederation Congress was vested with the sole and
exclusive rights and power of establishing a Post Office for the United
States; and, deeming "the communication of intelligence with regularity
and despatch from one part to another of the United States essentially
requisite to the safety as well as the commercial interest thereof," in
1782 revised all the regulations made theretofore in respect of the Post
Office, and reduced them to one Act. The Postmaster-General was required
to cause the mail to be carried with all care and despatch at least once
in every week to and from each of the stated post offices, and was given
a monopoly of "letters, packets, or other despatches." Postmasters were
to be paid such commission as the Postmaster-General might think their
services merited, not exceeding 20 per cent. of the postage collected by
them. Rates of postage on single