History Book: The postmaster pioneer

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JENNY ROUGH, HOST: Today is Monday, July 21st. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Jenny Rough.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher. Up next, the WORLD History Book. The United States postal service processes millions of pieces of mail a day, and it promises to deliver to even the most remote addresses.

ROUGH: But it was not always that way. 250 years ago, a Founding Father traveled on horseback to help create the post office system we still have today. WORLD’s Emma Eicher reports.

EMMA EICHER: On January 29th, 1774, Postmaster General Benjamin Franklin appeared in front of the British Privy Council in London. And he was brought there under false pretences.

He stood in the middle of the room while angry councillors and nosy citizens surrounded him.

Franklin thought the subject at hand was to replace two colonial officials. But the British solicitor general, Alexander Wedderburn, had other plans.

Colonial frustration at the British Empire had been brewing. Wedderburn suspected Franklin was spreading sedition among the colonies, and that he was using his position as Postmaster General for the Crown to do it.

So Wedderburn decided to make an example of him.

He insulted Franklin and accused him of treason. The diatribe lasted for an hour. Audio from an interview with John C. Van Horne, Director at the Library Company of Philadelphia, and courtesy of a Biography documentary:

BIOGRAPHY: The solicitor general took the occasion to excoriate and vilify and humiliate Franklin. And the berating of Franklin went on for an hour, and Franklin stood there silently and took it all.

Then, Wedderburn dismissed Franklin as Postmaster General.

But that turned out to be a big mistake.

Before this, Franklin had been moderate in his attitude toward the British Empire. He urged compromise with his frustrated colonial friends.

BIOGRAPHY: He considered himself a British Empire man. He was a true Briton. He loved the empire, thought well of it, and believed that America had a very firm and solid place in the imperial scheme.

But now he was furious at losing his title.

Audio from a PBS interview with biographer H. W. Brands.

PBS: Franklin walked in an Englishman. And walked out an American. At that point, Franklin realized, ‘there is no future for me or for people like me within the British Empire.’

It was a great loss for England. For years, Franklin had worked hard to completely transform the post office network in the colonies.

Before Franklin, people dropped off letters at inns and taverns. They hoped sailors would deliver them when they could. That meant it could take months for people to receive any mail at all. For local mail, faithful travelers delivered it on their routes. But that was also unreliable.

So Franklin crafted a network in the colonies that worked efficiently, and quickly. He surveyed roads around the country to establish the best postal routes. And he had workers ride horseback through the night to deliver bags of mail in the morning.

Under Franklin, delivery time went from months, to weeks, to one day. In just 24 hours, Philadelphians could send a letter to New York and get a reply.

Now, Franklin turned to other means to aid the revolution against Britain, but he didn’t have to wait long for another job.

In 1775, the colonies schemed to set up their own postal service to compete with the Empire. And they knew just the man to run it.

On July 26th, 250 years ago, the Continental Congress appointed Franklin as postmaster general of the United Colonies. He immediately set to work again to improve the mail system. And when he left office in 1776, there were 75 post offices in the country.

Nowadays, there are more than 31,000.

Audio from a 1948 postal service documentary, courtesy of PeriscopeFilm.

PERISCOPEFILM: [The] biggest retail business in the world today is the United States Post Office. Devoted exclusively to the service of its owners: the American public…

America still uses the same routes Franklin carved out in more ways than one. Today, the I-95 highway from Florida to Maine is the same road postal workers first traveled on horseback in the 18th century.

PERISCOPEFILM: When you drop a letter in the mailbox, you probably don’t give a thought as to how it reaches its destination …

And the post office still has to get creative with how they transport mail to remote locations.

In the Grand Canyon, mules carry mail down steep pathways. And in Alabama, small postal boats chug along the Magnolia River delivering to homes on the water year-round.

In the near future, you might even see a robot delivering your mail, because the postal service is looking into using mechanical “helpers.”

PERISCOPEFILM: The United States post office—as it has since it was founded—still provides the one means of communication which reaches into every corner of the land, facilitating the exchange of news and ideas, which has helped to make America great.

Benjamin Franklin’s likeness has appeared on more than 130 postage stamps. And this month, the USPS will release exclusive Franklin stamps in honor of America’s 250th birthday.

A small token of his enduring legacy.

That’s this week’s WORLD History Book. I’m Emma Eicher.

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