Such is the Post-Office; and nothing is clearer than that here in the United States it should be of the highest type. Ours should be the best in the world,--not second to any. So long as Slave-Masters bore sway, this could not be; for they set their faces against this minister of Civilization. One of the first legislative acts of the Rebel Government at Montgomery was to raise the rates.[110] But this hostile obstruction is now overcome, and we are at last free to act for the good of all. It is for the welfare of the people that our Republic is founded, and therefore it should omit nothing by which their condition is improved and elevated. Other Governments may seek to augment the revenue. Our aim should be to augment the sum of human happiness, making it the crown of our whole people; and just in proportion as we fail in this duty is the Republic a failure. But the best Post-Office is where letters at the smallest charge are faithfully carried to every door, thus combining cheapness and efficiency. That ours may fulfil this condition there must be a change. Our duty is simple. It is to relieve the Post-Office of present burdens, including especially the franking system and the expense of unproductive routes, while at the same time we establish a uniform rate of one cent. To these cardinal objects may be added others named in the bill introduced by me, especially the requirement of payment always by stamps, so as to simplify the accounts and to make peculation impossible; but the fundamental change is in the rate of postage. Could my desires prevail, the Post-Office should be like the Common School, open to all, with this only condition, that the rate should be sufficient to guard against abuse. But this is accomplished by that now proposed. Let the uniform rate be one cent and you will witness a transformation. The power to frank, which is now confined to a few, will practically belong to all, and letters will be multiplied in proportion,--opening to the people an inexhaustible source of all good influences, whether of education, wealth, virtue, or happiness, while the Republic rises in the scale of civilization. Such a rate will be better than a mine of gold in every State,--better than a band of iron for the Union,--better than a fortress scowling on uncounted hilltops; for it will be an angelic power. And could this rate be extended to international postage, its least service would be to our commercial relations. Beyond this would be an inconceivable influence on that immigration to our country which is a constant fountain of life, while it carried into the homes of the Old World the most seductive invitations to take part with us in our great destinies. Republican ideas would be diffused, and the Rights of Man gain new authority. Every letter from glowing firesides among us, when read at colder firesides abroad, would be a perpetual proclamation of the Republic.