| From the Athens (Tenn.) Post |
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| February 27, 1863 |
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| Letter of Maj. Campbell Wallace |
| President E. T. & Ga. R. R. |
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| Office East Tenn. & Ga. R. R. Co. |
| Knoxville, Feb. 10, 1863 |
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| Hon. John H. Reagan |
| Postmaster General, C. S. A. |
| Richmond, Va. |
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| Dear Sir, |
| In view of the difficulties in
the way of Congress making appropriations out of the Confederate
Treasury for the support of the Post Office Department after March, and
aware of the great reduction of mail facilities that must take place
after that time, in order to make the department self-sustaining, as
required by the Constitution, I suggest that it would be proper for
Congress to limit the price to be paid to railroad companies for
carrying the mails to fifty dollars per mile, commencing the first of
April, and to continue until the end of the year and no longer. |
| I am satisfied that the
railroad companies of the Confederate States would cheerfully acquiesce
in such a law rather than the people should be restricted in their
postal facilities. I would make the rate uniform -- giving to all
the roads the fifty dollars per mile, as it is not so much the weight
of the mails carried that enters into the cost of the transportation as
it is the preparation for the work, and that expense is about the same
per mile, to the 2d and 3d class roads, as it is to the first. For
instance, this company, under your classification is receiving one
hundred and fifty dollars per mile, while some other roads, carrying
lighter mails, but at an equal expense, receive only one-third of that
sum. I do not wish to be understood as intimating that the price now
paid first-class roads for mail service is too much. On the contrary, my
experience in many years of railroad management, has been that often I
would gladly have given up the mail contract, rather than adopt
schedules which were necessary for mail facilities, when I knew that
such schedules would lose the company in local travel five dollar for
every one received from the Government for carrying the mail. |
| But our Government is now in
its infancy. This is the day of our trial, and from many years'
intercourse with the gentlemen who control the railways in the
Confederate States, I do not feel that I am hazarding much when I say
that you will find them, without exception, acquiescing in such a law,
not grudgingly, but cheerfully. The result to the finances of the Post
Office Department, while not bearing heavily on the roads, would,
according to the figures in your report, be a saving of not less than a
half million of dollars per annum on your present contracts, which
saving will be much greater when the Confederate States will have
reclaimed her railroads and extended her mail facilities in territory
now overrun by the Federals. |
| In this connection, I would
respectfully suggest that you withdraw your recommendation to increase
the rate of newspaper postage, and the suggestion to tax printing
establishments with postage on their exchanges. I cannot well conceive
of any one thing that would be more disastrous to the prosperity of our
young Republic than any action of Congress lessening the facilities for
furnishing the people with information, or trammeling the operations of
those engaged in preparing, in suitable form, that information for the
people. The press has been everything to us in this crisis, and should
not, in my opinion, be placed alongside with the ordinary industrial
pursuits of the country. Its mission is to elevate man -- its work is
with the intellect, and in proportion as you foster a virtuous, free
press, you build up a virtuous free people, and make them strong to
defend that freedom. The history of the world does not furnish evidence
that ever before has the press been more free from personality and a
tendency to licentiousness, in times of either peace or war, than it has
been in the Confederate States for the last two years, and never before
has a government been more ably and patriotically sustained by the
press. |
| Give newspaper publishers
then, every needed facility for cheap transportation. They have not
advanced their prices in proportion to their increased expenditures.
Newspapers to circulate freely and widely must be cheap -- cheap in
price -- cheap in postage -- like salt, the consumption is in proportion
to the cost -- cheap salt creates a large consumption, and hogs,
horses, cattle, sheep and bacon always give unmistakable evidence of the
advantages of cheap salt. So with the mind -- the man. Give communities
the advantages of cheap books -- cheap newspapers -- cheap mail
facilities and you will always reap a rich reward in good morals and a
highly cultivated people -- willing to sacrifice all else than the right
to govern themselves, and herein lies the strength and power and success
of the Confederate States in this unnatural and terrible war. |
| Truly your friend, |
| C. Wallace |
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