postmasters at New Orleans, San Francisco, San Diego, Monterey, and to forward letters by this route. The disappointment of the contractors by the withdrawal of the weekly line was great and embarrassing, and disordered the whole arrangements of this company; and while we respectfully defer to the abstract correctness of the position taken by the Post Office Department on account of it, we yet hope that a great enterprise, so eminently calculated to benefit our commerce, and one so earnestly demanded by our southern and western citizens, as intimately connected with their interests, might have a little further time to place itself right before Congress and the department. It is respectfully suggested, in this connexion, that the Gulf service is punctually performed twice a month, and will be three times a month as soon as the steamer “Vera Cruz,” now nearly ready, can be finished; that the land-service, _as will be hereafter shown_, (see appendix,) has been performed, carrying an independent mail in sixty hours, (instead of one hundred and twenty hours, schedule time;) that this company have not asked for any special favors from the department—no advance on the appropriations—as other ocean mail companies have done; that no pay is asked for until the service is performed, and the money honestly and equitably earned; and that the 2d section of the law of March 3, 1851, is applicable to our case, viz: that the Postmaster General by this law “_shall be bound to select the speediest, safest, and most economical route_.” We deprecate a negation of the contract by the department until further time is allowed us; and it is believed, in view of these facts and the spirit of the law last referred to, that our enterprise may receive an impartial consideration and presentation in your annual report on the Post Office Department. An official condemnation, emanating from the department under your administration, would be a serious obstacle in the development of the Mexican grants. _It is believed by many that the department had full power under the law to make the contract without the intervention of Congress for its approval_; but having been made with that contingency, it is now only asked that this enterprise may go before Congress on its own merits and integrity. A spirit of frank and honorable dealing renders it necessary for the undersigned to say, that a difference exists among the associated parties as to the real value and bearing of a government contract on this enterprise, and this difference may have reached the ears of the department.