to abandon the
use of the British post and sustain that established by Mr. Godard. In
May, 1775, Mr. Godard had thirty postmasters, but Mr. John Holt of New
York City was the only one in this State. In that year partial
arrangements for mail service in Rhode Island, Connecticut, New
Hampshire and Massachusetts were made by the Provincial Congress of each
of those Colonies.

The old Continental Congress first assembled in September, 1774; and on
the 26th of July, 1775, it resolved "that a Postmaster-General should be
appointed for the United Colonies who should hold his office at
Philadelphia and be allowed a salary of $1,000 for himself and $340 for
his secretary and comptroller; and that a line of posts should be
appointed, under the direction of the Postmaster-General, from
Falmouth, in New England, to Savannah, in Georgia." Dr. Franklin was
then unanimously chosen Postmaster-General. The ledger in which he kept
the accounts of his office is now in the Post-office Department. It is a
half-bound book of rather more than foolscap size, and about
three-fourths of an inch thick, and many of the entries are in Dr.
Franklin's own handwriting. Richard Bache succeeded Dr. Franklin
November 7, 1776, and Mr. Bache was succeeded by Ebenezer Hazard.

The Articles of Confederation, adopted in 1778, gave to the United
States, in Congress assembled, "the sole and extensive right and power
of establishing and regulating post-offices from one State to another";
but the increase of mail service was comparatively trifling until after
the organization of the Post-office Department by the first Congress
which assembled under the Constitution of the United States. This gave
it efficiency and value, and provided for the early extension of its
benefits to the inhabitants of the several States.

The National Congress, organized under the Constitution, commenced its
first session on the 4th of March, 1789, but it was not until September
22, 1790, that an Act was passed for establishing, or rather continuing,
the postal service. The Act then passed provided that a
Postmaster-General should be appointed, and that the regulations of the
Post-office should be the same as they last were under the resolutions
and ordinances of the Congress of the Confederation.

In 1790 there were but seventy-five post-offices and 1,875 miles of
post-roads in the United States, and the whole amount of postages
received for that year was $37,935. The population