Presidents -- United States -- Messages; United States -- Politics and government -- Sources
It will be observed that the revenues of the Post Office Department,
though they have increased, and their amount is above that of any
former year, have yet fallen short of the estimates more than $100,000.
This is attributed in a great degree to the increase of free letters
growing out of the extension and abuse of the franking privilege. There
has been a gradual increase in the number of executive offices to which
it has been granted, and by an act passed in March, 1833, it was
extended to members of Congress throughout the whole year. It is
believed that a revision of the laws relative to the franking
privilege, with some enactments to enforce more rigidly the
restrictions under which it is granted, would operate beneficially to
the country, by enabling the Department at an earlier period to restore
the mail facilities that have been withdrawn, and to extend them more
widely, as the growing settlements of the country may require.
To a measure so important to the Government and so just to our
constituents, who ask no exclusive privileges for themselves and are
not willing to concede them to others, I earnestly recommend the
serious attention of Congress.
The importance of the Post Office Department and the magnitude to which
it has grown, both in its revenues and in its operations, seem to
demand its reorganization by law. The whole of its receipts and
disbursements have hitherto been left entirely to Executive control and
individual discretion. The principle is as sound in relation to this as
to any other Department of the Government, that as little discretion
should be confided to the executive officer who controls it as is
compatible with its efficiency. It is therefore earnestly recommended
that it be organized with an auditor and treasurer of its own,
appointed by the President and Senate, who shall be branches of the
Treasury Department.
Your attention is again respectfully invited to the defect which exists
in the judicial system of the United States. Nothing can be more
desirable than the uniform operation of the Federal judiciary
throughout the several States, all of which, standing on the same
footing as members of the Union, have equal rights to the advantages
and benefits resulting from its laws. This object is not attained by
the judicial acts now in force, because they leave one quarter of the
States without circuit courts.
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