Department
Treasury 6,800 2,405 478,660 100,949
Department
War Department 2,592 2,626 271,336 61,475
Navy Department 1,709 2,082 197,132 39,809
Attorney-General 52 816 45,136 10,678
---- ---- ---- ----
Total 2,290,184 $476,577

Whole number of letters franked at Washington: 2,290,184
Add, franked by members at home: 111,348
Franked by postmasters: 1,568,928
Total of free letters: 3,970,450
Add, franked documents: 4,314,948
General total number: 8,285,398
The postage on all which, at the old rates, would be at least: $1,000,000

The annual report of the Postmaster-General, December, 1847, estimates the
number of free letters at five millions, the postage on which, at present
rates, would be at least $375,000, to which the postage on the documents
should be added.

The conclusion of the whole matter is, that the postage due on the free
letters and documents, if reckoned according to the old rates, would be at
least one million, and under the present rates above half a million of
dollars annually; equal to 12 per cent of the whole gross income of the
department.

When our present postage law was under consideration, the committees of
both Houses recommended the abolition of the franking privilege, for
reasons of justice, as well as to satisfy the public mind. The report of
the House Committee has this passage:

"As the post-office is made to sustain itself solely by a tax on
correspondence, it should derive aid and support from everything
it conveys. No man's private correspondence should go free, since
the expense of so conveying it becomes a charge upon others; and
the special favor thus given, and which is much abused by being
extended to others not contemplated by law, is unjust and odious.
Neither should the _public_ correspondence be carried free of
charge, where such immunity operates as a burden upon the
correspondence of the citizen. There is no just reason why the
public should not pay its postages as well as citizens--no
sufficient reason why this item of public expenses should not be
borne, like all others, by the general tax paid into the public
treasury."

The report of the Senate Committee goes still more fully into the
argument, leading to the same conclusion. In explaining the reasons