Ramsey & Carmick, contract.: Letter from the Postmaster General transmitting copy of a conditional mail contract; also copies of correspondence relative to the sameVarious
History
Ramsey & Carmick, contract.: Letter from the Postmaster General transmitting copy of a conditional mail contract; also copies of correspondence relative to the same
Various
Postal service -- United States -- History -- Sources
The difficulties, dangers, and expense of mail transportation over this
route are not comparable with the Panama route, as it formerly was, or
even as it now is, as to the 17 miles yet uncovered by railroad; and this
company confidently believe that they will be able to carry the mails
over this route for a sum 50 per cent. per mile less than by the Panama
route, and in a time under three days.
The company have placed a portion of their rolling stock upon the road,
at present equal to the transportation of fifty passengers per week
from ocean to ocean. This rolling stock consists of the very best built
Albany and Troy post-coaches, Concord (New Hampshire) passenger, baggage,
express and specie wagons, and about 500 horses and mules, (at the last
report 493.)
It is hoped the next advices from Colonel Ramsey will give information
that this rolling stock is in operation. It is intended to increase the
rolling stock with the increase of travel. The local travel and business
in Mexico will alone pay a large interest on the investment; and were
there no connexion with steamers on either side, and as a mere stage
route, the profits will be large, especially when that portion of the
route through the State of Guerrero is properly worked and widened, and
over a portion of the route the company hold the exclusive right of
passage, ferries, tolls, &c., for fifty years.
This company apprehend no difficulty in transporting any mails on account
of the weight, inasmuch as the company will be prepared to transport the
English mails, between England and Australia, in under 47 days; and those
mails, it is said, weigh 11 and 12 tons.
The remarkable feature in this route is, that it passes through a
constant succession of cities, villages, ranches, &c., (few scarce ten
miles apart,) and through a population as dense as might have been found
on the old turnpike mail road from Albany to Buffalo before the age of
railroads, or on any of the great leading mail routes of New York and
Pennsylvania of a ratable distance; and the annexed itinerary, taken from
official Mexican documents, verifies the position.
Fears have been expressed that robberies might endanger the mail,
passengers, or property. This difficulty has been wondrously magnified,
and is provided against, as the vehicles of this company are all armed
with blunderbusses and revolvers; and small, but strong, light, iron
boxes for specie, jewelry, and valuables, are securely attached as
fixtures in each coach. The material fact, however, on this point is,
that this line of route is seldom visited by robbers, owing to the more
peaceful, permanent, and dense character of the population, and the
consequent exposure to detection. General Santa Ana has, moreover, made a
decree that the inhabitants of each district shall be responsible for the
damages by such depredations.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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