One of the four pillars of freedom is the freedom of the press. The Freedom of the press protects the right to obtain and publish information or opinions without the fear of being censored or punished by the government. Our founding fathers provided the press with broad freedoms, and the press is often called the fourth branch of government. Our constitution protects these freedoms and stops our government from preventing the publication of newspaper. This is one of the freedoms we cherish, and from the founding of our country, our nation has taken steps to not only protect the freedom of the press but to encourage it. In 1825, President John Quincy Adams, recognized the value of the U.S. Postal office to spreading "the lights of a periodical press" or newspapers to the "remotest corners of the Union". With the help of the subsidized delivery of newspapers, the United States reached the dubious distinction of having more newspapers than any other country in the world by 1840.
When John Quincy Adams became President in 1825, the Post office had for the first time in many years brought in more money than it spent. The PostMaster General reported that from July 1825 to July of 1825, the Post Office Department's receipts were $45,000 more than it's expenditures. The report also included some impressive numbers in the growth of the department; 1040 new Post offices were opened, transportation of mail exceeded 1.5 million miles, and it's "pecuniary affair" or financial status had increased by $185,000. In President Adams' first state of the Union address he gave credit to the Post Office Department for "judicious management" of both the income to defray it's expenses and the willingness to discontinue the use of unproductive postal roads in order to open more useful roads.
It was actually quite amazing what the Post Office Department was accomplishing in 1825. Adams listed out a number of different types of mail handled by the Post Office Department. First there was "the comforts of friendly correspondence" such as the hand-written letters some of us remember exchanging with friends and family. Second was "the exchanges of internal traffic" or communication between businesses or government departments. Since there was no telephone or telegraph in 1825, simple correspondence like placing an order for additional seed for planting, or the movement of men all had to be done by the mail. Third, was "the lights of the periodical press" or newspapers that disseminated political discussion so important to our Democracy. So critical was the U.S. Post Office or the functioning of the the free press, that Congress authorized the Post Office to subsidize the delivery of newspapers. For the free press to be truly effective, the information had to reach the people. With the recent improvements made in Postal roads, President Adams envisioned a country where not only social correspondences and internal communications would reach "the remotest corners of the Union", but also the "lights of the periodical press". The words or Adams are a fitting reminder of the role of the Free Press to exposes the internals of our government, shining a light on their actions for good or for bad.
Often the Free Press is regarded as the fourth branch of our government, by serving as a check on the other three. The press serves as the voice of the people through editorials, letters to the editors or investigations that not only inform the electorate, but can influence policy. In 1825, the Post Office Department encouraged this by the free delivery of newspapers to "Members, Senators, Delegates, Secretary of the Senate and Clerk of the House during their actual attendance in any session of Congress and sixty days before and after" (Postmaster General 1888). In addition, going all the way back to 1794, the delivery of newspapers was subsidized by increasing the rates of letters and charging reduced rates on newspapers. Many politicians and their respective political parties exploited this subsidy, and established their own newspapers to spread their perspective on pubic affairs. The power of a free press was exploded as Americans were reading and discussing political views all around the country. By 1840, the United States had the dubious distinction of having more newspapers than any other country in the world. In fact, the United States had almost twice the number of Newspapers as Great Britain, despite having slightly less than half the population. And of course, excuse the pun, but all of this "without the cost of a dollar to the public treasury".
Here is an excerpt from President John Quincy Adam's first State of the Union Address sharing some detail of the PostMaster General's report:
"A report from the PostMaster General is also submitted, exhibiting the present flourishing condition of that Department. For the first time for many years the receipts for the year ending on the first of July last exceeded the expenditures during the same period to the amount of more than $45,000. Other facts equally creditable to the administration of this Department are that in two years from 1823-07-01, an improvement of more than $185,000 in its pecuniary affairs has been realized; that in the same interval the increase of the transportation of the mail has exceeded 1,500,000 miles annually, and that 1,040 new post offices have been established. It hence appears that under judicious management the income from this establishment may be relied on as fully adequate to defray its expenses, and that by the discontinuance of post roads altogether unproductive, others of more useful character may be opened, 'til the circulation of the mail shall keep pace with the spread of our population, and the comforts of friendly correspondence, the exchanges of internal traffic, and the lights of the periodical press shall be distributed to the remotest corners of the Union, at a charge scarcely perceptible to any individual, and without the cost of a dollar to the public Treasury."
References
Presidency.ucsb.edu. (2018). John Quincy Adams: First Annual Message. [online] Available at: http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=29467 [Accessed 3 Feb. 2018].About.usps.com. (2018). Postage Rates for Periodicals: A Narrative History - Who We Are - USPS. [online] Available at: https://about.usps.com/who-we-are/postal-history/periodicals-postage-history.htm#8 [Accessed 3 Feb. 2018].
Annual Report of the Postmaster General, by United States. (1888). United States. Post Office Department, p.737.
Sellers, C. (1994). The market revolution: Jacksonian America. 115-1846. New York: Oxford University Press.
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